Over 100 public bus drivers pass safe driving course
Over 100 public bus drivers pass safe driving course
JAKARTA (JP): A total of 103 bus drivers, with black marks on
their records for traffic violations, have passed a city police
vehicle safety course.
City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto expressed
surprise yesterday over the drivers sterling performance on a
test which is much more complicated than the one given to new
applicants.
"In general, they correctly answered 95 percent of the test
material, which has been revised with lots of difficult
questions," Hindarto said.
The bus drivers transgressions' include speeding, reckless
driving, picking up or discharging passengers illegally and
lending their vehicles to unauthorized drivers.
The course was a condition for their reinstatement and was
part of broader police efforts to instill good driving habits.
The test consisted of a written and a driving portion.
The test items also contained questions regarding the new
traffic law which was issued last September.
As predicted the drivers had no problem with the test drive.
Head of the driving license unit at City Police headquarters,
Maj. Yudi Sushariyanto, who chaired the tests, said the results
showed that bad driving does not come from a lack of knowledge.
"The result of this review test indicated that many drivers of
public transit vehicles know well about traffic regulations, and
that their obedience to traffic law is another matter-- their
attitude," Yudi said.
Transit safety has become a focus after a series of serious
accidents in the city recently, in particular the packed minibus
which careened into the muddy, heavily polluted Sunter River
killing 33 people.
Sloppy drivers
Critics, blaming Yudi's office for the accident, said that
many of the sloppy drivers get their licenses easily as long as
they pay a bribe to the police officers, regardless of their
driving ability.
According to Yudi, the police will blacklist any of the
participant of the driving course if they are find to violate the
law in the future.
"They would never get another driving license for the rest of
their life and we'll ask their companies to discharge them," he
insisted.
According to data at the City Police, the number of traffic
accidents, especially those caused by the drivers's negligence,
have increased significantly in the last few years.
Last year, of the 249 serious traffic accidents in the city,
36 were caused by the negligence of public bus drivers.
As of the third month of this year, four of 30 fatal accidents
have been caused by the negligence of city bus drivers. (bsr)