O

n June 8, at around 1 a.m. near the bridge at Semanggi in South Jakarta, cars were running at a high speed.

From among the cars, a taxi moved into the busway lane. Suddenly, the left wheels of the taxi got caught against the ridge of the busway lane, causing it to overturn.

Fortunately, from inside the taxi, the elderly driver was pulled to safety by some rescuers. He was relieved to be alive, having experienced a traumatic accident.

The driver, however, feared being fired by his employer. Even after the accident, he searched for the money from his passengers to compensate his employer.

The busway lanes are bordered by a ridge and without good lighting on the street it can be difficult to see the ridge after dark, particularly for an elderly driver.

Admittedly, the taxi was traveling at high speed; however, if there had not been a ridge bordering the busway lane, there would not have been an accident.

Without blaming the government, drivers are entitled to safety with regard to the busway lanes, and such safety should be guaranteed by the city government.

The ridge of the busway lanes are unique and not many countries use them. Nevertheless, while the busway is considered to be a good system, people are questioning the standards of safety.

This can be seen in some articles refering to accidents related to the busway that have been published by news media. As a matter of fact, one way to respond to the people's questions is for local government to provide perceptible busway lanes to reduce the number of accidents.

Therefore, in my opinion, the city government should improve safety standards to avoid further accidents, or as a request to the local government, please comprehensively create new standards.

Rizky Raditya Lumempouw
Citizen journalist
Jakarta