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traffic accident that killed four people on Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta on Monday morning, allegedly caused by a drunk driver, has added to a long list of similar cases in the country, raising questions about Indonesians'€™ awareness that they should not drive under the influence of alcohol.

The incident occurred when a Toyota Fortuner, heading at high speed from Grogol toward Tangerang, Banten, suddenly bumped into a motorcycle in front of it. The car veered leftward after hitting the motorcycle and struck a tree and an electric pole before it overturned in the middle of the road.

The crash killed two of the car'€™s passengers, identified as Evi Riani and Tatang Sutrisna, and two people on the motorcycle, Zulkahfi Rahman and Nuraini. Three other car passengers were injured and were rushed to the nearby Mitra Keluarga Hospital.

The police named the car'€™s driver, Riki Agung Prasetyo, a suspect for violating Article 310 of the road and traffic law for reckless driving, which carries a maximum sentence of six years behind bars.

Riki admitted in front of police and reporters that he drank 10 glasses of alcohol during a visit to the Kalijodo red-light district in West Jakarta prior to the crash.

'€œI did not even remember anything. I did not know how I could get out of the car,'€ said Riki.

The crash was just one of many similar recent incidents. On Jan. 20, a Mitsubishi Outlander, driven by 23-year-old Christopher Daniel Sjarief, lost control on Jl. Sultan Iskandar Muda in South Jakarta, killing four people. Christopher admitted that he was driving under the influence of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), but he was cleared of drug charges.

The South Jakarta District Court handed the son of a wealthy businessman a one-and-a-half year suspended prison sentence and imposed Rp 10 million in fines (US$714).

In January 2012, Afriyani, who was driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, killed nine pedestrians and injured four others. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison and an additional four years for using drugs.

Edo Rusyanto, coordinator for Road Safety Movement Network (Jarak Aman), said data his organization received from the police showed that there was at least one crash caused by drunk driving every eight hours in Indonesia in 2015.

Edo said increasing people'€™s awareness should also be followed with proper and rigorous assessment in issuing a driver'€™s license by the police in order to curb the possibility of road users having low driving skills.

He also criticizes poor law enforcement for road users not possessing driver'€™s licenses.

'€œThe fact is that 50 percent of all road users do not possess driver'€™s licenses,'€ he said.

He also emphasized the importance of law enforcers focussing on road behavior since 30 percent of traffic accidents in 2015 were caused by disobedience to traffic signs and regulations.

Driving without following regulations and without safety equipment is common on many roads of the capital. On many wide and busy roads, going against the traffic flow to get to the nearest turn is common when police are not in sight.
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