BEKASI, INDONESIA – Rescue operations stretched into a second day Tuesday as first responders fought to free three people still trapped inside a crumpled women-only commuter rail car following a high-impact rear-end collision that claimed at least seven lives on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.
The crash unfolded Monday at Bekasi Timur Station, when a long-distance intercity train, identified as the Argo Bromo Anggrek, collided with the back of a stationary commuter train. The targeted rear car was a designated women-only carriage, a widely implemented policy across Indonesia’s public transit system designed to reduce sexual harassment of female passengers.
Officials from state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia confirmed that 81 people injured in the collision have been transported to area hospitals for urgent medical care. All 240 passengers aboard the long-distance train escaped without life-threatening harm, according to agency updates.
PT Kereta Api Indonesia CEO Bobby Rasyidin told reporters Tuesday that the complex extrication process has moved deliberately, prioritizing the safety of trapped victims and responding first responders. “The evacuations are taking a long time … and we’re doing it very carefully,” Rasyidin said from the crash site.
Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri confirmed that law enforcement and national transport investigators have launched a full probe into what led to the fatal incident. Rasyidin noted preliminary observations suggest a signal disruption may have been a contributing factor, tied to an earlier separate incident where another commuter train hit a broken-down taxi on a nearby level crossing.
“For the full, accurate chronology of events, we are leaving it to the National Transportation Safety Committee to investigate the cause of this accident in greater detail,” Rasyidin added.
This deadly collision adds to a growing pattern of preventable disasters on Indonesia’s aging, underfunded national railroad network. Just 10 months prior to this incident, in January 2024, another head-on collision between two trains in West Java province left four people dead and dozens more injured.