Police, DLLAJ ticket 1,142 buses for violations
Police, DLLAJ ticket 1,142 buses for violations
JAKARTA (JP): A special team of the City Police and the City Traffic and Land Transportation Control Agency (DLLAJ) has ticketed a total of 1,142 public transportation drivers in the last two days for keeping their vehicles' doors open while in motion.
"The buses were ticketed Tuesday and Wednesday at various locations, not only on main roads and highways but also on smaller streets around the city," City Police spokesman Lt. Col. A. Latief Rabar said yesterday.
Of the drivers ticketed, Latief said 346 were from Metro Mini minibuses, 226 from state-owned PPD buses, 199 from Mayasari Bhakti buses, 170 from Kopaja minibuses, 156 from Mikrolet vans, 39 from KWK minibuses, five from Mini Artha minibuses and one from a Bianglala bus.
"So far the team has arrested none of the violators and impounded no vehicles in connection with the ticketing," Latief added.
The enforcement of the regulation began on Sunday.
The ticketing, however, started only two days later in a bid to allow the crews, owners and the commuters as well to adapt themselves to the new regulations.
During the first day of the ticketing, the team ticketed 544 bus crews, covering 175 driver of Metromini minibuses, 113 of Mayasari Bhakti, 87 of Mikrolet vans, 76 drivers of PPD buses, 72 of Kopaja minibuses, 16 KWK minibuses and five of Mini Artha minibuses.
On the next day, the number went up slightly to 598 violators, consisting of 171 crews of Metromini, 150 of PPD, 98 of Kopaja, 86 of Mayasari Bhakti, 69 of Mikrolet, 23 of KWK and one Bianglala.
"We're never proud of the large number of violators," Latief said. "The lower the figure, the better," he said.
Therefore, he said that police are still hoping that the concerned parties from the public to the bus crews as well as the owners learn a lesson on how to behave in the streets.
Strict
In a related development, City Council Chairman MH Ritonga told reporters the authority had to make a definite schedule for the phasing in of the traffic law.
"There is what we call the sociological aspect of the law. It means we cannot strictly implement the law once it is enacted. We need, for example, a conditioning period that the public can gradually adjust themselves to. But it must be clear when the conditioning process stops and we start to implement it strictly," said Ritonga, the former chief of the City Police.
Ritonga said the 1992 traffic law, which took effective as of September, 1993, obligated public transports to close the doors while in motion.
"The policy needs some conditioning. But it should be made clear and definite as to when its enforcement is fully done to prevent the conditioning period from being protracted," he said.
Earlier, Herdjan Kenasin, chairman of the Jakarta-based Trisakti Transport Management Academy, told The Jakarta Post the public transport companies were in fact never prepared for the close-door policy before.
Before the strict implementation of the regulation, he said, the government had never enforced the safety regulation and allowed bus crews to operate recklessly.
"Now it needs time to let bus companies and their employees to adapt to this new situation," he said, adding the adjustment might take more than a month. (bsr/jsk)