Police revive campaign on seat belts

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Model and TV personality Olga Lidya repeatedly thanks God that she survived a major traffic accident almost unscathed on the toll road on her way from Bandung to Jakarta late last month.

"I was going 100 kilometers per hour because I was in a hurry as I had something to do in Jakarta. I hit a truck hard on a bend, but I was OK and only had a few scratches on my hand."

Olga said she did not realized how severe the accident was until she got out of her car and found it half destroyed.

"The left part of my car was severely damaged and I realized I was fortunate to survive such a major crash. It was all because of the seat belt I was wearing," she told a joint press conference by the National Police and PT Honda Prospect Motor to promote the use of seat belts.

Olga is just one of thousands of Jakartans who is lucky to have survived a major road accident.

Road safety awareness unit chief at National Police Headquarters Sr. Comr. Sulistyo Ishak said that judging by the outcomes of traffic accidents these days, more people survived accidents than in the past because they wore seat belts.

"Around 80 percent of people now buckle up, while over 90 percent of Jakartans have seat belts in their cars. Analysis shows that the majority of people who wear seat belts survive an accident," he said.

According to police data, 4,544 traffic accidents occurred in Jakarta in 2004, in which 1,146 people died and 2,632 were injured.

"Most of them died because their heads hit the dashboard, the windscreen or the steering wheel. It shows the importance of seat belts," Sulistyo said.

"We haven't got the details of traffic accidents this year, but the number of fatalities has decreased," he added.

He said studies in countries like New Zealand, Germany, Japan and Britain found that wearing seat belts reduced road fatalities by around 40 percent.

Sulistyo said that starting Nov. 5, all cars must have seat belts fitted in the front.

"Back in 2002 we warned that owners of old cars would have to install seat belts before the one-year awareness campaign ended in November. We will ticket drivers of any vehicles -- buses, trucks, vans and sedans -- not wearing seat belts," he said.

Law No. 14/1992 on traffic stipulates that drivers and front- seat passengers are required to wear seat belts. Violators can be fined up to Rp 1 million (US$100) or be imprisoned for one month.

Sulistyo said that since it had been mandatory from May 2003 for new cars to be fitted with seat belts, people had begun to realize the importance of seat belts.