# Train collision near Jakarta kills 15 and injures dozens in Bekasi
*Authorities say a commuter train and a long-distance train collided overnight near Bekasi Timur station east of Jakarta, leaving 15 dead, 88 injured and rescue crews working for nearly 12 hours.*
Indonesia’s president has ordered an investigation after a deadly train collision near Bekasi Timur station, east of Jakarta, killed 15 people and injured dozens. The crash happened late on Monday night and involved a commuter train and a long-distance train, according to AFP’s reporting carried by CNA.
Officials said the rescue effort lasted nearly 12 hours before search teams declared it complete on Tuesday. Mohammad Syafii, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said there were no more victims to be found after crews pried open mangled carriages and cleared the wreckage.
The casualty count rose through the morning. By Tuesday afternoon, senior cabinet minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono said the death toll had reached 15 and that another 88 people were injured. The crash site was described as chaotic, with ambulances queued nearby and rescue workers calling for oxygen tanks as they worked through the damaged train cars.
One survivor described being trapped in a crushed carriage and fearing for her life. Sausan Sarifah, 29, told AFP she had been returning from work when the commuter train stopped near Bekasi Timur station about 25 kilometres from Jakarta. She said she heard announcements, then a loud locomotive sound, before passengers were thrown together inside the carriage. She was hospitalized with a broken arm and a deep cut to her thigh.
The evidence packet also includes an initial explanation from a spokesman for state-owned rail operator KAI that a taxi may have clipped the commuter train at a level crossing, causing it to stop on the tracks before the collision. That account was still being examined as the investigation began.
President Prabowo Subianto visited hospital patients in Bekasi, offered condolences to relatives of the dead and ordered an immediate investigation. He also called for new overpasses and better protection at crossings, arguing that many railway crossings were not guarded.
The crash has already become a public safety story as well as a transport disaster. The immediate question is what happened at the level crossing and whether the stationary commuter train was left exposed on the track long enough for the long-distance service to hit it. The broader issue is the long list of guarded and unguarded crossings that the president said must now be repaired.
The evidence packet also mentions that police and rescue teams were still checking the site after the rescue operation, but by Tuesday morning the main search was over. That leaves an investigation into the mechanical and traffic sequence of the accident, and a national debate about whether the country’s rail crossings have been left too vulnerable for too long.
Aftermath
The immediate response was a rescue operation. The lasting issue is railway safety: how a train carrying passengers on the outskirts of the capital ended up stationary on the tracks and why the crossing was not secured against impact.
