SAR face difficulties in evacuating minivan accident victims
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan | Archipelago | Thu, June 28 2012, 4:28 PM
It took five hours for a search and rescue team to recover the victims from a minivan that crashed into a deep ravine near Lake Toba in Simalungun Regency, North Sumatra on Thursday.
An official with the local search and rescue agency, James Sinaga, said that while the bodies of the eight passengers had been removed from the vehicle, the team had yet to evacuate them due to the steepness of the ravine.
“We tried to evacuate the bodies from the ravine but the rocks and bush blocked our path. Therefore, we’ve had to carry the bodies to the lake so we can evacuate them from there. It’ll take a couple of hours to do this,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The minivan, which had nine passengers onboard, veered off the road and plunged into the deep ravine at 5 a.m. at Batu Gantung near Lake Toba.
Eight passengers died at the scene however one, a child, survived.
He is currently being treated at the nearby Parapat Hospital.
Separately, Simalungun Traffic Police Chief Adj. Comr. Baginda said that officials would wait until the whole evacuation process was complete before they named the victims. (asa)
