The crash occurred on Sunday afternoon along the northern coastal highway near Kiajaran Kulon village in Indramayu regency. According to local traffic police, the passengers were returning home after attending a wedding in the neighboring village of Parean.

Undang Syarif Hidayat, the local traffic police chief, said the victims were traveling in the open cargo bed of a pickup truck when the vehicle slowed and stopped near a median opening in preparation for a U-turn.

A wing-box truck traveling in the same direction struck the pickup from behind, Hidayat said. The impact pushed the pickup into the opposite lane, where it was hit by another truck traveling from the opposite direction.

“The impact pushed the pickup into the opposite lane where it was hit again by another truck,” Hidayat said, adding that the force of the collision threw more than a dozen passengers from the pickup truck onto the roadway.

Police said 13 people died in the crash, while five survivors were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from minor to serious.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the collision, including the sequence of events that led to the fatal crash. No further details about the drivers involved or potential charges were immediately released.

Road accidents remain a major public safety challenge in Indonesia, where traffic fatalities are frequently linked to overloaded vehicles, inadequate road safety infrastructure and poor compliance with traffic regulations.

The latest incident is one of several deadly crashes reported in Indonesia in recent years, underscoring continuing concerns over highway safety on the country’s heavily traveled roads.