AMN/ WBE DESK
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 media.
Mr. 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 that it had sent 13 rescuers. Thirteen of the passengers had died instantly, Mr. Parasian said, while five others succumbed to the injuries 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.