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

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)