A pickup truck carrying wedding guests was crushed between two trucks on a busy highway on Indonesia's main island of Java, killing 13 people and injuring five others, police said Monday. The crash occurred Sunday afternoon on the northern coastal highway near Kiajaran Kulon village of Indramayu regency, as the group was returning home after attending a wedding in neighboring Parean village, local traffic police chief Undang Syarif Hidayat said. The Associated Press quoted him as saying that the victims were traveling in an open-bed pickup truck when the vehicle slowed and stopped near a median opening to make a U-turn on the highway when it was struck from behind by a wing-box truck traveling in the same direction. “The impact pushed the pickup into the opposite lane where it was hit again by another truck,” Hidayat said, “The powerful collision hurled more than a dozen people from the pickup truck onto the highway.” Five survivors remained hospitalized with injuries ranging from minor to serious, police said. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash. Deadly traffic accidents are common in Indonesia, where overloaded vehicles, inadequate road safety measures and poor compliance with traffic regulations frequently contribute to fatal crashes.
