LAST month, 14 people were killed and 57 injured when the driver of a bus travelling from the hill resort town of Garut to Jakarta lost control of his vehicle during a rainstorm in the Cisarua area and collided head on with another bus travelling in the opposite direction.
The bus then hit three flatbed pickup trucks, two angkots (small vans used as buses for short distances), four passenger cars and three motorcycles. It also collided with a hawker stand, killing the vendor, before plunging into a 5m ravine.
Horrific accidents such as these are not uncommon in Indonesia. Less than two days after the pile-up, another bus travelling from Bandung to Cirebon rammed into several vehicles, including a horse-driven cart in Majalengka, West Java, killing one person and leaving at least 16 injured.
But while such incidents regularly make the headlines in the Indonesian press, the most important contributors to the carnage on the nation’s roads are often ignored. Until these factors are widely recognised, official action seems unlikely.
According to the police, there were 31,250 fatal accidents on Indonesia’s roads last year, 70 per cent of them involving motorcycles. Statistically, the predominance of motorcycles in the figures is not particularly surprising. According to Organda, a non-governmental organisation focusing on land transport matters, there are 71 million motorcycles in Indonesia, but only 3.8 million buses.
The sale of motorcycles has boomed in recent years, at least partly because of the inadequacy of public transport. Motorcycles are also easy to buy. Some vendors of locally manufactured Honda or Yamaha motorcycles do not even require a down payment. Interest rates are also low.
When I met her in Jakarta last month, Organda chairman Eka Sari Lorena Soerbakti cited these figures as evidence of the need for a more considered approach to the issue.
Rather than blame buses or bus drivers, she told me, officials should develop a greater appreciation of the role of public transport. The Jakarta municipal administration is reluctant to add more buses to Jakarta’s busway system, for example, because this would mean paying out more money in transport subsidies. “But they don’t think of the positive multiplier effect” that would result from a reduction in the number of vehicles on the city’s roads.
Apart from increasing the number of buses, Organda’s recommendations include improved driver education and an incentive system that rewards good drivers and penalises bad ones. Ms Lorena wants the government to introduce a system of demerit points for road rule infringements that could ultimately lead to the suspension or cancellation of the licence of an errant driver. Motor vehicle insurance companies should also introduce no-claim bonuses.
As in most other countries, reckless driving by the young has been cited as contributing to the death toll. Following numerous accidents among high school students, Jakarta police have suggested that schools prohibit students from riding motorcycles or driving cars to school.
Yet another problem arises from the fact that both the press and the public tend to focus on the behaviour of the drivers, ignoring the condition of the vehicles they drive.
In the case of the Cisarua accident, police later confirmed that malfunctioning brakes were the cause. “At the accident location there were no brake marks even after the bus had hit several cars,” West Java Police spokesman Martinus Sitompul told the local media.
Poor maintenance is often an important contributing factor. This is not surprising, says Ms Lorena, when you consider that 64 per cent of the vehicles operated by local transportation companies are between 10 and 28 years old.
Some educational institutions run courses in mechanics, but the Ministry of Transport has no budget for training. Organda wants the government to introduce such education programmes, using the licence fee collected from bus drivers. Bus company operator licences could be another source of funds.
Other suggestions include tougher enforcement of existing regulations. Corrupt traffic police are not the only problem. Current roadworthy tests involving public buses, Ms Lorena told me, are often treated more like income-generating exercises for provincial-level officials than a genuine attempt at improving road safety.
In countries such as Australia, France and Britain, road traffic fatalities have declined by more than 50 per cent in the past four decades. The experience of these countries, however, shows that such success can be achieved only when there is a high level of awareness in society about the problem, its causes, and what can be done to improve matters.
Until Indonesia reaches that point, little real progress can be expected.
(C) Singapore Press Holdings Limited