We can take comfort in the fact that Wednesday’s KRL Commuterline train collision at Juanda station wasn’t caused by faulty trains or equipment. But we still have reason to worry because it now looks like the collision was caused by a machinist who wasn’t paying attention while driving the train.
PT KAI Safety Director Candra Purnama blamed the accident on the assistant machinist, Krisbanu Dwi Anggoro, who was driving train 1156 at the time.
“It was purely human error, there were no faults in the system whatsoever,” Candra said, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
Candra explained that Krisbanu didn’t pay attention to the red light as he was driving the train into Juanda. He was late to realize that train 1154 was already parked at the station and was on the same rail as 1156.
Kribanu managed to apply the brakes to slow 1156 down, but the collision between the two trains was unavoidable.
Kribanu could face administrative sanctions or even be fired from his job. The case is being investigated internally.
Reports say that 42 people were injured in the accident.
