Car-train collisions

When I picked up The Jakarta Post of June 17, I saw a news article on the front page titled 15 people killed in Central Java bus-train collision.

Again another publication (a weekly or monthly) reported more road accidents. The question is: Who is to blame? As far as I am concerned, in the case of a car-train collision the fault is almost always on the part of the driver.

During my almost 50 years of driving experience there has always been one thing I remember from my childhood while approaching a railroad, a sign Awas kereta api (Watch out for the train) placed on the left side of the road just before the railway track. In those days everybody traveled by bicycle, while cars were the exception. No wonder, accidents were few and far between.

Now in this era of cars and all types of vehicles on the road in an over populated country, can we stand still because of a car-train collision every now and then? Where does the fault lie? Who is to blame? Who is in the wrong?

In my opinion the train is never wrong. It has a schedule to serve its commuters. There is no point in changing the procedure, just for the sake of a cyclist, a car or any other vehicle which suddenly happens to cross the road.

NETTY MULIA, Jakarta