Belt up or shut up! What the motorists have to say

JAKARTA (JP): Belt up! You'll be likely to hear that order a lot more from Sept. 17, when the government enforces a traffic rule requiring all front seat passengers to wear safety belts.

Some object to it on the grounds that it's inconvenient and pointless wearing a seat belt in Jakarta, considering the city's bumper-to-bumper traffic. Others agree that seat belts are essential for safety but have questioned whether it is appropriate to enforce the law at a time when many drivers have been forced to use their cars more sparingly to save money. The following are the views of some motorists.

Sukman, an Express taxi driver:

I've heard about the seat belt regulation, but because only a handful of people use them, I never use one, except on toll roads.

I don't think it's going to matter anyway because Jakarta's roads are always jammed, especially on weekdays.

Sugimin, a Gamya taxi driver:

I know that drivers are supposed to use seat belts while driving. But I don't think it's a very practical proposition, especially when the journey is only a short one.

My passengers rarely use a seat belt when they sit in the front seat. They don't seem to care about the rules, even now that the law has been publicized.

Uma, a reporter for a Jakarta daily newspaper:

I have a 1994 jeep with seat belts that don't stretch. They're really useless, so I can't use them at all while driving here.

It's bad because I had three accidents when I was living in the United States and I was twice saved from serious injury by my seat belt. I was lucky to come out alive from the first accident, when I wasn't wearing one, and that's when I started to belt up.

It's a law in the United States but it isn't observed by all drivers. I think it should eventually become law here too, but not now, for Pete's sake!

Even under normal conditions, before the crisis began, it was hard to make car owners install seat belts in their vehicles. Most cars bought more than two years ago either aren't equipped with seat belts, or have very inadequate ones fitted, like mine.

If the government doesn't state clearly how the law should be enforced, it will simply be used as another pretext for policemen to extort money from drivers.

Yoyok, a mikrolet (minivan) driver on the Tanah Abang-Kebayoran Lama route:

I don't know if the police will make us use safety belts. I don't think it's possible because mikrolet have three seats in the front but only two seat belts. It would be very impractical for two passengers to share a single belt.

We shouldn't have to use belts anyway, because my route is always jammed, especially during business hours.

Linda Hollands, an expatriate Australian national:

I've been wearing seat belts for years, so I'm used to them. I feel uncomfortable whenever I get into the front seat of a car that doesn't have seat belts fitted.

I had seat belts put into my Feroza jeep. They are not retractable ones though and it's lucky that I'm quite thin because anybody larger than me finds it impossible to do them up. I would not have paid for them if I had realized my passengers would be unable to do them up. I guess they were not made for my type of car.

That will probably happen to a lot of people who try to save money. The most common vehicles are vans, which probably require seat belts that have more length to them.

I believe seat belts are essential car accessories.

I often see small children standing in the floor space of the front passenger's side of a car and it always horrifies me. I cannot understand how an adult would even consider allowing a child to stand there.

All it would take is a sudden application of the brakes and that child could go head first through the windshield.

If we can't be bothered to protect our most precious possessions -- our children's lives -- what good are we as people? If a child is a front seat passenger, he or she should be seated and belted in.

Still, will the seat belts that are most readily available here be any good? Or will they be just like the plastic helmets that are sold to motorcyclists at the side of the road?

One heavy impact on the road surface, and instead of protecting a motorcyclist's head, a helmet of that sort would be more likely to end his life when it breaks and part of it gets lodged in his brain.

Tini Hadad, chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumers Association:

The seat belt policy should indeed be implemented on Sept. 17 as the law on traffic and transportation stipulates, but the government have not given motorists sufficient time to prepare themselves.

Actually I agree with those who say that many drivers are too lazy to wear seat belts even though they have been fitted in their cars.

I don't understand why the government likes to announce that certain regulations will take effect within a very short period of time and does not leave people enough time to prepare themselves and accept the new changes.

Offering the owners of old vehicles and those used for public transportation a five year grace period is a good step and will prevent an undue burden being placed upon people while the economic crisis is still in progress.

I want to remind the government that they should ensure that it is the company and not the driver who pays the fine in the event of drivers of public transport vehicles being found guilty of not wearing a seat belt.

Chandrawati, a business woman:

I have an 1994 Daihatsu Hiline jeep. It's really old and only has one safety belt left on the front seats.

But I think I am going to get new ones fitted because of the new rule. Anyway, I have no objection to using safety belts at all. After all, it's for our own sake, isn't it? (aan/das/ind/yan)