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Motorcyclists face high risks
Weaving in and out of dense traffic, motorcyclists earn the envy and wrath of other road users
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Weaving in and out of dense traffic, motorcyclists earn the envy and wrath of other road users. Unfortunately, they are also the largest number of road accident victims, the WHO says.
The World Health Organization revealed on Tuesday that almost half of the 1.27 million people who die in road traffic accidents every year around the world were pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists.
The study titled "Global Status Report on Road Safety", revealed that most of the people who were killed in road accidents in Indonesia were riders of motorized two-or three-wheel vehicles (61 percent).
Next were pedestrians (15 percent), cyclists (13 percent), passengers of 4-wheel vehicles (4 percent) and drivers of 4-wheel vehicles (3 percent), as recorded by the National Police in 2008, in three provinces.
Margaret Chan, the WHO director general, said, "We are not giving sufficient attention to the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, many of whom end up in clinics and hospitals."
Most victims were aged between 5 and 44, the WHO said. Indonesia has a population of 231.62 million, with 63,318 registered vehicles.
Campaigns encouraging people to use bicycles instead of cars have been jeopardized by the poor state of Indonesia's roads.
Jakarta Police data showed there were 280 traffic accidents in the city this month, claiming 35 lives and injuring 265 people.
Gen. Yudi Sushariyanto, chief of the traffic division for the National Police, said that between 2003 and 2007, motorcyclists were the main victims of traffic accidents, as quoted by Kompas.com.
Data from the traffic directorate of the Jakarta Police showed that between January and July 2008, traffic accidents in the city claimed 692 lives and left 1,499 people heavily injured.
According to the WHO report, Indonesia does not carry out road safety audits for major new road construction projects, or regular audits of existing road infrastructure,
The report showed that 91 percent of the world's fatalities on roads occurred in low-and middle-income countries, which only have 48 percent of the world's registered vehicles.
