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ROAD  Accidents

Claim 14 Lives

At least 14 people died in road accidents on Friday as most Indonesian Muslims were preparing to observe Idul Fitri holiday next week.

Ten people were killed in a road accident in the East Java district of Paiton, the other four died in another accident in South Lampung regency, Lampung Province.

Brig. Wayan, a police officer at the Paiton police sub precinct, said the tragic accident in Paiton began as a tanker truck was heading south west toward Surabaya, from Probolinggo regency in Friday morning.

Suddenly a minibus was seen overtaking two horse drawn carts from the opposite direction. The minibus was apparently going too fast to stop, according to the police officer.

 As a result, 10 people were killed and 17 others were badly injured in the accident, said Agus, a paramedic at the Kraksaan Hospital emergency Unit.

Four people died instantly in the accident while, while six others died on the way to Kraksaan hospital. It was not clear whether all the victims were the passengers of the minibus, which was overloaded with 24 fishermen.

The injured people were injured to Kraksaan hospital in Probolinggo for further medical treatment, the accident which occurred in jabung Sisir sub district, then caused a severe traffic jam in the area.

The accident happened just a month after another tragic accident took place in the nearby area of Banyu Glugur located in neighboring Situbondo regency.

The accident killed 55 people, mostly school girls from Yapemda senior high school in Sleman regency Yogyakarta.

Separately, four people died instantly and another 19 people were injured after a loaded bus crashed into a container truck in Candimas sub district in south Lampung.

All the victims were bus passengers who were employees at a private company based in Lippo Cikarang, Bekasi returning to East Lampung for the annual Idul Fitri holidays.

The four people that died in accidents were Wahyudi 32, Sutiono 28, Siti Astiah 24, and Ningsih 23 all residents of East Lampung.

Meanwhile, the 19 injured were being treated at Ummul Thoif Islamic hospital in South Lampung and Abdul Moeloek in Bandar Lampung.

Chief of South Lampung police sub precinct adj, Sr. Comr. Budi Santoso said that the accident began when the bus tried to pass another vehicle in Candimas sub district.

The bus was trying to overtake a truck, but another truck was coming in the opposite direction, and the result was head-on collision.

Budi said that the police were still looking for the bus driver who fled scene after the accident.