Enforcement of bus exit regulation faulty
Enforcement of bus exit regulation faulty
JAKARTA (JP): Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs TB. M. Rais is urging the central government to clarify the national law which requires buses to have emergency exits.
Rais said that although the 1993 law stipulates that all buses must have emergency exits, the city's vehicle test centers cannot enforce it because they have no standard guidelines.
"I agree that the regulations should be enforced but they need to be clear about design aspects and other things," he told The Jakarta Post.
Rais explained that the central government must determine how the buses are to be designed and their road-worthiness. The provincial administration, he said, is only meant to uphold the guidelines.
Rais said the central government should also include automotive industries, which build the bus bodies, in the design process.
"It is important to include them because if there are no bus construction guidelines the automotive companies won't know how to make them," he said.
Mandatory emergency exits are stipulated in clauses 92 and 93 of the 1993 law on vehicles and drivers. Clause 93 also rules that signs pointing to exits and explanations of their use must be displayed.
Last Saturday, March 23, 31 people were killed in a bus accident. Twenty-nine of the passengers on board the bus, owned by the Kramatdjati bus company, were killed when the bus hit a jeep parked on the shoulder of the Jagorawi toll road. Two women in the jeep were also killed in the collision.
The bus driver later told the police he wasn't able to reach the control buttons to open the automatic doors, which are the only exit points. A Kramatdjati employee said that the company's buses do not have controls near the exits which allow the doors to be opened by passengers.
Other inter-city bus companies have said that they either have no knowledge of a rule requiring all buses to have emergency exits, or that they generally do not follow it if it exists.
They add that their fleets always pass routine examinations which check on the construction of each bus, its length, the width of its doors and other aspects. But the procedure does not cover the testing of emergency doors.
Rais said that first-aid kits and fire extinguishers are also required by law.
"The public should realize that this equipment is necessary for its safety," he said.(yns)