Police assigned to promote seat belt use

JAKARTA (JP): The city police are deploying 290 policewomen to help promote the use of car seat belts in the capital, an officer said.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said the uniformed policewomen were, from yesterday, assigned at certain locations, such as the traffic lights at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in Central Jakarta, to remind motorists to use their seat belts.

They are also to give short lessons at public gatherings on using seat belts and the impending law stipulating their use, he said.

According to Aritonang, publicizing the use of seat belts is meant to stimulate public awareness ahead of the city's Sept. 17 deadline when all drivers and front seat passengers will be obliged to wear safety belts.

The use of policewomen in the campaign is part of the policewomen's 50th anniversary celebrations on Sept. 2, he said.

"We want people to get used to the idea of wearing seat belts as it is important for their own safety," Aritonang said.

The ruling on the use of seat belts is stated in a six-year- old law on traffic and transportation.

According to Article 23 of the controversial 1992 legislation, motorists failing to wear their seat belts may face a maximum one-month jail sentence or a Rp 1 million (US$86) fine.

However, the rule would only come into effect on Sept. 17, 1998 as stipulated in government regulation number 43/1993, Aritonang said.

At present almost all motorists, including police officers and drivers of top government officials, leave their seat belts untouched.

Some of the vehicles are even unequipped with the safety devices.

Ministry of Communications spokesman Bambang S. Erlan said recently that owners of vehicles made before 1993 (which have no safety belts) would be given two years to equip their cars with belts.

"And those vehicles will be given a sticker that reads "Seat Belt Free" but they are not allowed to be driven more than 60 kilometers per hour," Bambang said, as quoted by Antara on Aug. 11.

Aritonang strongly denied criticism that the implementation of the regulation would do little other than to provide greater opportunities for the police to collect bribes.

"No. It's not because we want to collect more money by ticketing violators. We just want people to learn, bit by bit, about how to drive safely," the officer said.

He predicted that the widespread use of safety belts among motorists could help reduce the number of traffic accidents and fatalities.

Based on the latest police survey, he said, those who failed to wear safety belts in accidents were far more likely to be severely injured.

"We found out that most of the victims who did not wear the belts were thrown out of the vehicles or crashed into the front windshield.

"For instance, if a driver speeding at 90 kilometers per hour suddenly hits the brakes, he or she would be thrown forward with the equivalent force of falling from a nine-meter height, he said. (edt)