Drivers, passengers must use seat belts from Nov. 5

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

All car drivers and front seat passengers must use seat belts starting on Wednesday in line with Law No. 14/1992 on traffic.

"Starting Nov. 5, all cars must be equipped with seat belts and the drivers and front seat passengers must use seat belts," said Jakarta Police Traffic Division chief Sr. Comr. Sulistyo Ishak on Monday.

For the time being, police would not impose any sanctions for those violating the law.

"Police will only warn them and record their driving license on a form. This form is called a sympathetic warning, which will also be signed by traffic violators," he said.

"We don't want to give the impression to the public that we are too pushy in implementing the law. The regulation is to ensure motorists' safety," he added.

Sulistyo said that police would start ticketing traffic offenders in the next six months.

Article 61 paragraph 3 of the law stipulates that those who do not wear safety helmets (for motorcycles) and safety belts (for cars) can face a maximum sentence of one month in prison or a Rp 1 million (US$118) fine.

Sulistyo said the regulation on seat belts was passed a long time ago but its implementation had been repeatedly delayed as most motorists were unprepared.

The government first tried implementing the law in 1993 but got strong opposition from the public. Five years later, another implementation also failed for the same reason with motorists saying that they could not equip their cars with seat belts due to the economic crisis.

Last year, the minister of transportation issued Decree No. 85/2002 on the implementation of the law.

Sulistyo said that car owners had a year to equip their cars with seat belts before the deadline on Nov. 5.

"Hopefully, the use of seat belts will help reduce fatalities in traffic accidents," he said.

The number of fatal traffic accidents in the capital soared by 37 percent to 334 as of August this year, compared to 243 in the same period last year.

Police said that 85 percent of traffic accidents were caused by recklessness and negligence in abiding by traffic regulations.

A total of 368 people were killed in traffic accidents last year, with 682 others seriously injured and 420 suffered minor injuries. Material losses from the accidents amounted to more than Rp 3.7 billion.

As of August this year, the total number of traffic accidents reported to police rose by 4 percent to 806 cases, including fatal accidents, compared to 777 cases in the same period last year.

The figures, however, did not include minor traffic accidents, which, in most cases, were settled between the parties involved and not reported to the police.

"We also hope that through the implementation of the law, public discipline will improve," Sulistyo said.

Police also reported that the number of motorists ticketed had skyrocketing from 16,643 and 16,039 respectively in January and February this year to 40,889 and 41,732 in August and September.