At least 14 people were killed and a dozen others injured when a bus carrying Indonesian tourists crashed into a billboard in East Java province on Monday morning (May 16th), police said.
The bus, with 31 passengers on board as well as the driver and an employee of the transport company, crashed into a pillar and overturned on a toll road linking the town of Mojokerto to Surabaya, the second largest city in 'Indonesia.
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The victims were from Benowo, a locality near Surabaya, and were returning from a tourist weekend on the Dieng plateau, some 400 km away in the center of the island of Java, explained the local official of the disaster management agency Ridwan Mubarun, quoted by Metro TV.
"
Fourteen people died and 19 others suffered major or minor injuries
," said Mojokerto Police Chief Rofiq Ripto Himawan, adding that an investigation was underway into the causes of the accident.
A Java police spokesman had earlier mentioned driver error.
"
This accident was caused by human error, the driver was exhausted
," said Metro TV Dirmanto, who has only one name like many Indonesians.
Weather and traffic were not a problem at the time of the crash, authorities said.
The driver survived and was taken to a hospital for treatment for injuries, police said.
Fatal accidents are frequent in the Southeast Asian archipelago where vehicles are often poorly maintained and the Highway Code neglected.
Last month, 16 people died when a truck carrying miners crashed into a cliff in Papua.
