Joint team to launch operation on highways

Joint team to launch operation on highways

JAKARTA (JP): After being postponed for about a week, the City
Police Traffic Directorate and state-owned highway operator PT
Jasa Marga will start ticketing traffic violators on highways in
and around the city beginning tomorrow.

Head of the City Police Traffic Investigation Unit Lt. Col.
Herman S. Sumawiredja announced yesterday that the joint force
will mainly ticket violators who disobey traffic signs or
warnings.

"Our main targets are drivers of public buses and those who
violate the traffic signs, such as those driving below or above
the recommended speed as well as those traveling in the wrong
lane," Herman said.

Among those targeted are those who drive slowly in the right
lane and cause fatal accidents through their negligence.

"We find that many drivers, particularly those from other
cities, do not know the rules of highway driving," he said.

According to the schedule, ticketing the violators on the toll
roads in Greater Jakarta was to be carried out from Oct. 6 to 26.

Herman said that the postponement of the operation was mainly
due to the intensive preparation of related institutions,
including the City Police Headquarters, for the upcoming Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting in Bogor, some
60 kilometers south of here.

A wide number of personnel of the City Police Traffic
Directorate are now being trained to ensure a successful 17-
country meeting, he said.

"That's why few officers have so far been assigned to ticket
traffic violators on city roads during the ongoing one-month
Operation Zebra," Herman explained.

Ticketing traffic violators in the city is part of the
authorities' effort to improve the image of the capital and its
surroundings ahead of the APEC conference.

Under the new tariff scale, traffic violators, including
disobedient pedestrians and vendors, will be fined between Rp
10,000 (US$4.59) and Rp 150,000 per violation. (bsr)