JAKARTA, April 28 - Emergency crews continued delicate extrication efforts on Tuesday after a collision late Monday in Bekasi, just outside Indonesia's capital, that left 14 people dead and 84 injured, the state rail operator said.
The crash involved a commuter train and a long-distance train. Bobby Rasyidi, chief executive of state railway firm PT KAI, confirmed the casualty figures and said evacuation work was ongoing as rescuers attempted to remove passengers who remained trapped inside severely damaged carriages.
Mohammad Syafii, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, described the rescue as a sensitive operation at a press conference early on Tuesday. "We needed to involve personnel with certain skills to perform a measured extrication," he said. "There are some victims who are alive to this minute and we're hoping to extricate them, but they're still pinned by the train material."
A Reuters witness at the scene said rescuers had disengaged the trains and were using angle grinders to cut through metal compartments to reach survivors. Observers saw teams working to separate and open the crushed carriages so medical personnel could access those still alive.
PT KAI said the commuter train first collided with a taxi on the tracks and was then struck by the long-distance train. A women-only carriage suffered the most damage in the impact. Green SM Indonesia, the taxi operator whose vehicle was reported involved, said on Instagram the taxi was part of its fleet and that it had provided information to authorities to support the investigation. The company is the Indonesian arm of Vietnamese electric-vehicle taxi operator Green and Smart Mobility JSC, an affiliate of Vingroup.
President Prabowo Subianto visited a hospital in Bekasi and, in response to the crash and local traffic issues, said he had agreed to construct a flyover near the tracks to help ease congestion. He added that authorities would investigate the collision and said that large parts of the train network are not well-maintained.
Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has opened an investigation into the incident.
At the station on Tuesday, relatives and rescuers gathered as authorities continued operations. Some people were searching for loved ones; one man was observed holding his brother's bloody bag and crying. Passenger Heriyati, who had intended to board the women-only carriage but chose the adjacent car instead, said she had been on a call with her husband asking him to pick her up when the collision happened. "I haven't even finished with the call and the trains collided," she said.
Commuter lines around Jakarta carry heavy passenger volumes. PT KAI said on Tuesday that several commuter train services were curtailed as a result of the crash.
Land transport accidents are frequently reported in Indonesia. The article noted a separate train collision in West Java earlier in 2024 that killed four people and injured dozens, and underscored that investigations and rescue operations are active in Bekasi as authorities work to clarify causes and assist victims.