Security guard killed after college student crashed car into drug store on Senopati Road, police rule out DUI

Police say that a security guard was killed early Sunday morning on Senopati Road in South Jakarta when a car driven by a college student crashed into a drug store.

At 3:30 am on Sunday, a college student identified by her initials PKH (21) drove a Nissan Livina, with two of her friends as passengers, into Apotik Senopati. Photos shared by the police showed the car went as far as the back of the drug store.

One security guard, named Asep Kamil (50), was killed in the incident while another was reportedly injured.

Police said that PKH tested negative for alcohol or narcotics after the crash.

“According to her friend, who is a witness, they were going home from a bar in Gunawarman,” Police Commissioner Fahri Siregar, who heads the Jakarta Metro Police’s Traffic Law Enforcement Directorate, told reporters Sunday as quoted by Kumparan.

“She wasn’t concentrating and she wasn’t able to handle the vehicle, so when she hit the curb the vehicle kept moving forward and crashed into Apotik Senopati in front of it.”

When interviewed by local media, witnesses at the scene said that when they helped evacuate PKH and her two friends from the car right after the crash, they appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

Today, police said they have charged PKH with vehicular manslaughter caused by negligent driving, which is a crime punishable by up to six years in prison.

In the past few years, there have been a few incidents of drivers walking away relatively scot-free after being involved in deadly car crashes. In 2015, the heir to a wealthy real estate family was sentenced to just a two-year probation for killing four people in a car rampage. Similarly, son of jailed politician/musician Ahmad Dhani, and the son of former candidate for vice president Hatta Rajasa, both inexplicably escaped any punishment even after being clearly at fault for deadly car crashes.

However, in arguably one of the biggest DUI cases in Jakarta in the past decade, a woman named Afriyani was sentenced to 15 years in prison after she crashed her car into a bus stop in Tugi Tani, Central Jakarta, killing nine pedestrians and injuring several more. Police found that she had just consumed ecstasy and alcohol prior to the crash.