At Least 30 Killed After One Train Hits Another in Indonesia

A train packed with holiday travelers slammed into another passenger train at a station in Indonesia early Tuesday, killing at least 30 people and trapping others in the wreckage, authorities said.

The moving train ran through a red signal and hit a train standing in the railway station in Brebes in central Java, about 160 miles east of Jakarta, the capital, officials said.

By this morning, rescue workers had collected 30 corpses from the scene, police said. At least 47 people were being treated in local hospitals. The Jakarta Post newspaper and other media put the death toll at 54.

The accident has led to calls for the transport minister and senior officials at the state-run railway to step down.

Two cars derailed and plunged into rice fields, and some survivors smashed windows to escape the wreckage. Officials estimated that there were more than 1,200 passengers on each train.

“We are bringing steel-cutting equipment, as many people are trapped inside the carriages,” said Setiyo Raharjo, director of the national search and rescue service.

The moving train was headed east from Jakarta to the city of Yogyakarta at 4:30 a.m. when it hit the stationary train, which was on its way to the capital.

Transport Minister Agum Gumelar said that the engineer on the moving train drove past a red signal and that officials suspected he may have fallen asleep. The engineer died in a hospital after the crash.

With the country’s economic crisis forcing the government to slash its transportation budget, the railways are often poorly maintained.