Automotive players to promote safety
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The journey of Karyadi, a 31-year-old employee, to the office from his house in Ciputat, Banten, has been shorter these past four months, since he bought his own motorcycle.
"It is a little bit more risky than taking the train," he said on Monday. Every work day, now, Karyadi rides his motorcycle, wearing the standard helmet and the jacket he got for free from the motorcycle dealer when purchasing his vehicle.
"Of course I wear my helmet. It was free anyway. I don't want to get caught in an accident," Karyadi said. "It's good that they provide free helmets for us, we have no excuse not to wear one."
The automotive industry and the Ministry of Transportation's Directorate General of Land Transportation apparently agree with Karyadi and plan to launch road safety campaigns through the declaration of the establishment of the Indonesia Road Safety Partnership Council.
The council will manage a national partnership between businesses, civil society and the government, dedicated to the sustainable reduction of deaths and injuries on the roads. It is associated with the Global Road Safety Partnership -- an organization founded by the World Bank in 1999 to link related parties in road safety programs.
"Every day in Indonesia, an average of 27 people die in road accidents," said head of the Ministry of Transportation's Sub- directorate of Road and Traffic Safety J. A Barata.
"We need to do something to prevent the number from increasing."
The total number of accidents in 2003, as reported by the National Police, reached more than 13,000.
A joint study conducted by the University of Indonesia and University of Gadjah Mada shows that Indonesia suffered Rp 30.82 trillion (US$ 3.5 billion) in material losses from road accidents in 2002, or 2.17 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that year.
"It is about time that the automotive industry, which benefits from the increasing vehicle sales, worked together with the government and the community to improve road safety," Director General of Land Transportation Iskandar Abubakar said after the signing of the Indonesia Road Safety Partnership declaration last Wednesday.
The declaration was signed by representatives of the government, automotive companies and associations, the National Police, non-governmental organizations and insurance firms. All pledged to commit themselves to improving the quality of Indonesia's road safety.
"We have been trying to promote the use of helmets and jackets by providing them for free with every motorcycle purchase. And we also disseminate campaign posters on the safe use of motorcycles," the Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association's deputy chairman for commerce, Bambang Asmarabudi -- who is also Yamaha Indonesia's general manager for promotion -- said on Monday.
Barata said that the planned campaigns also included the depiction of standardized safety-belt use in car advertisements, the launch of community service announcements in the media and the provision of free helmets by motorcycle dealers.
"Hopefully the council will have been founded by the middle of the year and will soon be ready to start work," said Barata.
With the founding of the Road Safety Council, it is hoped that information on road safety regularly reaches the nation's around 19 million motorcyclists. -- 003