Let's fix our buses

The 10 children who were killed in Wednesday's bus accident in Jember, East Java, were from the Theobrama II Kindergarten in the village of Kemuningkulon, Arjasa district, Jember regency, East Jakarta. With parents and teachers, they were heading to Pasir Putih beach in Situbondo for a picnic.

Whether the brakes of the state-owned Damri bus failed is being investigated. What is clear is that the bus was overloaded, with 47 seats and 107 passengers. The driver lost control when the bus was on an incline and hit a bridge, crashing to the rocky bottom of a nearly dried up river (In all, 22 were killed).

In the mountain resort of Puncak recently, a bus whose brakes failed caused a chain accident involving 16 vehicles, killing two people.

Frequent accidents may have left people without the capacity to care about vehicle and traffic safety. And promises are always made that bus services will improve along with increased fares.

But the causes of many of these accidents point to poor management of bus companies and poor maintenance of buses; which shows an uncaring attitude toward the work.

Everyone praised the outpouring of public participation in aiding the victims of the recent floods in Jakarta. This attitude should be developed in other public affairs, such as transportation. No excuse should be put forward to counter arguments for greater safety measures and more comfortable bus services. We cannot be a nation that can only complain.