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Safe journey
Over the weekend, as thousands of homebound travelers left Jakarta toward cities throughout Java and elsewhere, motorists were stuck for hours in a 25-kilometer long traffic jam in Betung, South Sumatra, trying to reach the provincial capital of Palembang, which also serves as a way station to other major cities on the island.
Motorcyclists wait to board a ferry to cross the Sunda Strait to return home ahead of Idul Fitri, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, at Ciwandan Port in Cilegon, Banten, on April 7, 2024. (AFP/Dziki Oktomauliyadi)
It has certainly been one of the most arduous if not treacherous Idul Fitri holiday travel seasons in recent years.
Over the weekend, as thousands of homebound travelers left Jakarta toward cities throughout Java and elsewhere, motorists were stuck for hours in a 25-kilometer long traffic jam in Betung, South Sumatra, trying to reach the provincial capital of Palembang, which also serves as a way station to other major cities on the island. For more than 12 hours traffic came to a standstill, forcing holiday travelers to set up camp along the road.
For other Sumatra-bound travelers, their problems began early in Java, as also over the weekend, thousands of travelers on their motorbikes were forced to wait for hours at Ciwandan Port, waiting for their ferry ride to Lampung. Several travelers, after waiting for at least five hours under the scorching sun, while fasting, collapsed from exhaustion and heatstroke and were evacuated to a nearby medical center. Things were so bad that on Sunday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo instructed Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi to pay special attention to riders stuck at Ciwandan.
With the rainy season still in full swing, this year’s holiday travel was also slowed down by heavy weather. Days before the Idul Fitri travel reached its peak, the ground beneath a section of the Bogor-Ciawi-Sukabumi (Bocimi) toll road collapsed, forcing the authorities to initially shut down the thoroughfare, before allowing one lane to open just for the holiday travel.
Turns out that the Bocimi landslide was a sign of a trouble ahead.
On Monday morning, as the flow of traffic bound for eastern Java eased off, and with millions of travelers already safely arriving home, tragedy struck. For years, the contra-flow policy, which allows several west-bound lanes along the Cikampek toll road to be used for east-bound traffic, has been successful in easing congestion along the northern coast trans-Java toll road network.
However, on Monday with only two west-bound lanes still open for traffic heading toward Jakarta, a driver of a minivan carrying 12 people, unaware of the incoming traffic from the opposite direction, perhaps from fatigue or a mechanical problem decided to make a stop on the emergency stopping lane and was struck by a speeding bus. The resulting collision ignited a fire and all 12 passengers in the minivan were killed in the tragedy.
It was one of the worst traffic accidents involving holiday travel in recent years and certainly the first major accident resulting from the National Police’s contra-flow policy. Police in charge of the Cikampek toll road, seemingly admitting an error in their decision, immediately suspended the traffic-engineering policy and promised to conduct a thorough investigation. We can certainly ask why the police appeared to half-heartedly apply the contraflow policy by leaving one lane open for westbound traffic.
Did the police let down their guard, knowing that the holiday travel had reached its peak on Saturday and passed without any major incident? We demand a thorough investigation into the crash and those responsible for any errors resulting in the loss of lives should be held accountable.
The same goes for the Bocimi toll road collapse. Whether it was shoddy construction work or force of nature, its effect on travelers is clear, the journey from Bogor to Sukabumi now takes six hours to complete, up significantly from a mere 1.5 hours prior to the landslide.
In the spirit of Idul Fitri, we certainly can forgive the mistakes made by authorities in charge of administering our holiday travel, but those affected and injured by the crash or who have had their travel delayed by government incompetence should not forget their deadly mistakes.
This weekend, millions of travelers will return to Jakarta and other major cities in Java. The risks remain the same, so we call on the authorities to step up their game. Our lives are literally on the line.
For now, we can only wish everyone a safe journey and happy and peaceful Idul Fitri celebration.
Eid Mubarak.
