JACARTA, Indonesia – Students at an Islamic school were returning home from a trip to a pilgrimage site in an Indonesian province on the island of Java.
The rain was heavy on Wednesday night. The surrounding area had no street lamps. As the bus curved down a narrow sloping stretch of the Wado-Malangbong highway in Sumedang, West Java province, it appears that the brakes have failed, police said.
The vehicle, which carried a total of 66 people – including students from a school in Subang, their teachers and family members – plunged into the ravine, killing 29, including the bus driver. Eleven others were seriously injured.
Police are still investigating the cause of the accident, said police spokesman Dedi Juhana, but the lack of skid marks on the road suggests the brakes are defective.
He said the bus fell about 20 meters in a valley surrounded by farms in Sumedang. The crash site was a public road frequently used by passengers traveling between provinces.
Rescuers worked overnight to evacuate the victims. On Thursday morning, they recovered the body of a boy who was trapped under the overturned bus. He died during the rescue attempt. Some survivors were sent to a nearby clinic and hospital, and two died during treatment.
Television footage showed relatives lined up in the corridors of a hospital and morgue in Sumedang.
Budi Setiyadi, director general of land transport at the Indonesian transport ministry, said in a statement on Wednesday: “We express deep concern and condolences for this incident.”
Budi said authorities are considering placing guardrails on the road or paving it while investigating the accident.
Steep valleys and ravines are common along Indonesian highways because there is a lot of mountainous terrain. The lack of adequate public lighting and poor infrastructure lead to regular traffic accidents.
On average, three people died in Indonesia every hour in road accidents in the first quarter of 2020, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Authorities said the group of students traveled about six hours from their homes to pay their respects to the tomb of Syekh Abdul Muhyi, a missionary who brought Islam to the Tasikmalaya region after the mid-17th century, when Hinduism was still the primary religion in surrounding territory.
Students, teachers and parents were visiting the site on the eve of a national holiday that marked the rise of Prophet Muhammad.
Some Muslim families visit the graves of relatives on Islamic holidays, taking advantage of the occasion for outdoor picnics. While some Islamic leaders are opposed to the practice of pilgrimage in the burial places of missionaries, others allow it.