Jakarta Police to begin enforcing seat belt law now

Bambang Nurbianto and Evi Mariani, Jakarta

A day before the implementation of the mandatory wearing of seat belts for motorists, many were seen buckling up in business areas on Tuesday.

"I've become accustomed to wearing a seat belt since the police advised us to do so," said taxi driver Maman, 35, who usually waits for passengers on Jl. Mas Mansyur, Central Jakarta. He claimed that he started wearing a seat belt in March.

Maman said he knew that Wednesday would be the first day for the mandatory wearing of seat belts for all drivers and front seat passengers.

However, he complained that some of his passengers still refused to buckle up, arguing that they were only traveling a short distance.

"I started to remind them to wear the seat belt today because tomorrow is the implementation," he said. However, Maman has not decided whether he will do anything when passengers refuse to comply.

Most motorists claimed they were aware of Wednesday's enforcement of the wearing of seat belts, but some had yet to comply with the regulation.

"I am aware of the seat belt campaign as I've seen it on Jl. MH Thamrin (Central Jakarta). I support the campaign, but I just traveled from my office on Jl. Jend. Sudirman to here," a white collar worker, who refused to be named, told The Jakarta Post, in explanation for not buckling up.

The man was sitting in the front seat of a car driven by his colleague who wore a seat belt, when he stopped at Mal Ambasador opposite the Mega Kuningan area in South Jakarta.

Other motorists argued that wearing seat belts was impractical.

The Jakarta Police will deploy 800 personnel, 200 of them on major thoroughfares of Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin and Jl. Gajah Mada to monitor the wearing of seat belts on Wednesday.

Some officers will be stationed at several spots on the main streets, while others will patrol the streets to reprimand and ticket violators.

"Starting tomorrow (Wednesday), we will ticket motorists who have seat belts fitted in their car but do not wear them," said the Jakarta Police traffic division's education unit chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Kanton Pinem.

"We will give a grace period for cars owners, whose vehicles are not yet equipped with seat belts, until Nov. 5, 2005 to have them fitted," he said.

Kanton said backseat passengers, for the time being, would not be required to wear seat belts.

Law No. 14/1992 on traffic stipulates that violators of the seat belt regulation can be fined up to Rp 1 million (US$115.6) or sentenced to one month imprisonment at the maximum.

Police recorded a total of 1,288 vehicular accidents last year, with 482 fatalities in which 660 people were seriously injured and 601 others suffered minor injuries. The data also shows from a total of 1,743 casualties last year, 581 of them sustained head injuries.