JAKARTA (Reuters) – An overloaded truck carrying 29 people on Wednesday flipped over in Indonesia’s West Papua province, killing 18 passengers including a toddler, local authorities said.
The truck was going downhill in the remote Arfak mountains at dawn when the driver lost control and hit a cliff while attempting to brake, the local police chief in Manokwari district, Parasian Herman Gultom, told news channel Metro TV.
Parasian said the passengers were mainly miners, and the truck, which was also carrying logs of wood and auto parts, was overloaded.
Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said in a statement it learned of the accident soon after it happened and sent 13 rescuers. Photos seen by Reuters showed rescuers in orange jackets carrying black body bags from the scene.
Thirteen of the passengers had died instantly, Parasian said, while five others died while receiving treatment.
Indonesia, a resource-rich country with an active illegal mining industry, sees occasional industrial accidents. In 2019, dozens of people died after a makeshift illegal mine collapsed in North Sulawesi province, while another accident in the same region killed at least five the previous year.
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)