JAKARTA, March 11, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A bus carrying dozens of pilgrims
plunged down a steep ravine on Indonesia’s Java island, killing at least 27
people including junior high school students, authorities said Thursday.
Rescuers worked through the night using cranes to pluck injured survivors
from the wreckage after the fatal crash late Wednesday in West Java’s
Sumedang district.
The bus carrying 66 passengers was travelling on a winding, poorly lit
road when it plunged down the 20-metre (65 foot) ravine, authorities said.
The driver and teenage passengers were among the dead, while 39 survived
the accident.
“The fatalities are a mix of children and adults,” Bandung rescue agency
official Mamang Fatmono told AFP.
Authorities said they were probing the accident’s cause.
The bus was returning to the town of Subang from a religious pilgrimage
site in West Java.
Traffic accidents are common in the Southeast Asian archipelago, where
vehicles are often old and poorly maintained and road rules regularly
flouted.
In late 2019, at least 35 people were killed when a bus plunged into a
ravine on the island of Sumatra.