Seven people died instantly and dozens of others were injured in a traffic accident at the 101-kilometer point on the Cipularang toll road between Purwakarta and Bandung in West Java on Saturday.

The accident involved a tour bus and a truck carrying sand. Two driver’s assistants and five passengers were killed, while the bus driver sustained minor injuries, said Andrie Kustiawan, traffic subdivision head at the Purbaleunyi branch of state-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga.

According to on-duty police officers, the accident occurred when the bus, which was carrying 36 tourists from Bandung to Depok, swerved into the slow lane and crashed into the truck. The accident occurred at around 3:30 a.m., said West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul.

Cimahi Police traffic unit head Adj. Comr. Irwansyah said that the bus driver, Sarjimin, was possibly drowsy.

“The bus driver admitted that he dozed off, lost control over the steering wheel and rammed it into a truck,” Irwansyah said. Sarjimin is currently being questioned at Cimahi Police headquarters.

Police rushed the injured victims to a nearby hospital where they remain in critical condition.

The injured were immediately taken to Efarina Etaham Hospital and MH Thamrin Hospital in Purwakarta.

The victims, who were on the way to a mosque in Depok, were residents of Purbalingga in Central Java.

Only a few hours after the crash, another accident occurred on the Cipularang highway at around 12:30 p.m., killing one person.

The second accident, Andrie Kustiawan said, involved a bus, a van, a patrol car and an Avanza car. The accident occurred when a bus hit the van from behind, knocking the van forward. The bus driver, Andrie, said that he lost control of the bus as it veered left and hit a toll road worker, who reportedly died instantly.

“Not all of the drivers and passengers were injured. The victims were taken to Efarina Etaham Hospital,” Andrie added.

The Cipularang toll road is notorious for accidents.

On Sept. 3, 2011, the wife of celebrity Saepul Jamil, Virginia Anggraeni, was killed in an accident in after the Idul Fitri holiday. The accident took place at the 96-kilometer point on the Cipularang toll road as Saepul was driving to Jakarta.

Four days later, six people were killed when the car they were traveling in clipped a truck on the highway’s 93-kilometer mark, not far from Saepul’s crash site.

Some people say that the accidents have something to do with the road construction, while some others point out supernatural activity.

The toll road was inaugurated in July 2005, before the golden jubilee of the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in an aim to cut travel time between Jakarta and Bandung. The road shortened the average trip from Jakarta to Bandung from five hours to around two-and-a-half hours.

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