Jakarta roads offer freedom for F1 wannabes
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Neither the traffic or the potholes can stop some Jakartans from speeding, and with the police turning a blind eye to the problem speeding motorists have turned some roads in the capital into their own private race tracks.
Of the 295,003 tickets issued by the Jakarta Police from January to July, surprisingly not a single one was for speeding.
The highway patrol can often be seen cruising along the toll roads, but they are also seemingly uninterested in citing speeding drivers.
"No, we no longer use speed cameras on the toll roads," Marijanto, the operations director of toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
"We did have a speed camera trial once. But almost all of the motorists violated the maximum speed limit ... and the camera was overloaded," he said. "So we decided not to use the equipment because it would be very hard for the highway patrol officers to stop so many speeding cars. Moreover, it would cause traffic congestion."
Comr. Agus Carel, chief of the highway patrol on the Jakarta- Cikampek toll road, said that besides causing traffic, chasing after speeders could put other motorists in danger.
Instead, he said, the highway patrol often ticketed drivers for driving too slowly.
On Aug. 15, a public bus speeding from Bekasi to Kalideres on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road hit another bus and a pickup truck, killing 14 people and injuring 33 others.
The head of law enforcement at the Jakarta Traffic Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Naufal Yahya, however, said ticketing speeding drivers would not be that difficult if only there was a serious push to fine them.
The absence of data on the causes of traffic accidents in Jakarta may have led some people to believe that it is unnecessary to go after speeders, on the assumption that they do not pose a serious threat to other motorists or pedestrians.
The latest data from the police shows that from January to July this year there were 2,631 traffic accidents, in which 586 people died and 1,508 others suffered serious injuries. However, there are no details on the causes of these accidents.
Naufal said that when people registered their cars, they had to provide a mailing address. This would allow the police simply to mail speeding tickets to car owners caught speeding on camera.
The World Health Organization announced recently that speeding contributed to at least 30 percent of traffic accidents and deaths. Neighboring countries such as Singapore and Australia have identified speeding as one of the biggest killers on the road.