Indonesia saw yet another tragic incident involving a railway crossing less than a week after a train crashed into a van on a railway crossing in Jakarta, killing two.
On Friday, five men in the Pegandon district of Kendal, Central Java were killed after they flagrantly disregarded the traffic rules regarding railway crossings.
At around 1:40am, the victims were driving on two motorcycles and came upon a closed railway crossing. After one train had passed, the victims reportedly forcefully lifted the railway crossing gate to let themselves through, without knowing that another train was coming from the other direction.
“They were warned by witnesses. The first motorcycle was instantly hit by the train while the motorcycle behind it didn’t brake in time,” said Pegandon Police Chief Asri, as quoted by Detik.
Four of them died on the spot while one other suffered from grave injuries and eventually passed away at a local hospital.
Trains crashing into vehicles on railway crossings is sadly not so uncommon in Indonesia, with the latest major incident, which took place in West Jakarta in 2015, causing 18 people to be killed when a KRL Commuterline train crashed into a minibus.
In Jakarta, flyovers have been built over some major railway intersections in recent years, like in Permata Hijau, to prevent railroad crossing casualties and to ease the flow of traffic.
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