“Smaash!” A 30-year-old man was startled as a motorcycle crashed into the door of his sedan on Jl. Gereja Theresia in Menteng, Central Jakarta. The biker sped off as the driver stepped out of his car to check the damage. He grumbled to find the left door was severely dented.
“Damn! This is the third time this year,” he said, scratching his head.
Accidents are a common sight on Jakarta's roads — almost as common as traffic jams.
Data from Jakarta Police traffic division shows that from January to July 2009, the number of traffic accidents reached 3,907, or 558 accidents per month on average. The monthly average rose from 532 in 2008, despite police having intensified their traffic operations.
There were 642 deaths on roads in Jakarta in the first half of 2009, while in 2008 the number of fatalities was 1,169. Based on this information, an average of three people were killed on Jakarta’s streets every day during that period.
But this data may have been under reported because many motorists involved in minor accidents prefer not to report them to police.
North Jakarta is the municipality that saw most accidents, with 910 reports, making up around
14 percent of the 6,393 accident reports in the whole of Greater Jakarta last year.
Street daredevils, the motorcyclists, have often been labelled as a primary factor in the traffic mess that has led to many mishaps.
Jakarta Police traffic division chief Sr. Comr. Condro Kirono said Thursday that most of the traffic
accidents reported in Jakarta last year involved motorcycles, with around 57 percent or 3,619 incidents involving motorbikes.
“There are already more than 5 million motorcycles registered in Jakarta. Adding to those from areas outside Jakarta, there may be 6 million motorcycles flooding Jakarta’s streets every day. It’s not easy to control all of them,” Condro said.
JP/Irma
It seems impossible to curb the growth of motorcycle ownership. According to 2008 data, more than 1,000 new motorcycle registrations were filed with the traffic division every day.
“It’s a great number but the bikers show poor discipline. They don’t obey the rules and risk their own safety,” he said.
North Jakarta is dominated by industrial areas, which means lots of large trucks and trailers use its roads.
“The country’s biggest port, Tanjung Priok, is also there. North Jakarta is also full of lower-middle-income housing and slums, where most of the residents use motorcycles,” Condro said, adding that the combination of big vehicles and motorcycles made North Jakarta prone
to accidents.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates some 1.2 million people are killed worldwide in road accidents each year, and up to 50 million are injured. More than 40 percent of the deaths occur among young road users under 25. The number of fatalities is expected to increase by about 65 percent over the next 20 years unless there is new commitment to prevention. (bbs)
