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Driver involved in fatal e-scooter accident not detained
DH is suspected of having hit the six GrabWheels users early on Sunday morning, two of whom died.
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Visitors ride electric scooters operated by GrabWheels in BSD City, South Tangerang, Banten. The Jakarta Police have decided not to detain a driver suspected of killing two scooter riders on Monday. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he Jakarta Police have decided not to detain the Toyota Camry driver suspected of hitting six GrabWheels electronic scooter users, killing two of them, on Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta. The decision raised public suspicion that the driver, identified only as DH, was a son of a high-ranking official.
The incident that took place in the early hours of Monday morning killed two riders, 18-year-olds Ammar and Wisnu, and injured four others.
Rudy Yohanes, the father of Ammar, said the mother of the suspect visited the Mintoharjo Navy Hospital where Ammar was treated before he died and also attended the funeral service.
Rudy said that the mother was accompanied by a personal assistant
“During the yasinan [Quran recital to pray for the dead] she came as well. She said that she would come again on the seventh day of the death. She apologized for the incident. She came with an assistant,” Rudy said on Wednesday, kompas.com reported.
Rudy said his family did not ask for any compensation for the incident, but the suspect’s family insisted on paying for the hospital care.
“We didn’t ask for it. But when the hospital bill came, she [the suspect’s mother] and her assistant paid for it and asked us to call her to pay. That’s it,” Rudy said.
Police would not reveal DH’s family background arguing that it did not influence their decision to not detain him even though he had been named a suspect.
Jakarta Traffic Police law enforcement division head Comr. Fahri Siregar said the investigators had the right to detain or not detain DH.
Fahri said that the police did not know about DH’s family background.
“We did not investigate that and investigators focused only on the chronology of the incident,” Fahri said on Thursday, kompas.com reported.
He said the suspect was not detained because the investigators found he did not destroy evidence or run away.
DH is required to report to the police twice a week until the investigation is finished.
He was charged with Article 310 of Law No. 22/2009 on traffic with a maximum sentence of six years of prison sentence or a Rp 12 million (US$ 855) fine.
A urine test showed that DH had consumed alcohol and the preliminary investigation suggested he might have lost concentration leading up to the accident. (ami)
