Toll roads: The killing fields
Toll roads: The killing fields
At least 15 people have been killed in toll road accidents this month. The most recent fatal accidents took place in Cibubur on Tuesday and Cikupa, Tangerang, and claimed three lives.
Latest records indicate that a total of 34 people have been killed in toll road accidents since April this year, with the most deadly accident killing 12 people on the Jakarta-Cikampek turnpike on April 21.
The toll roads in and around the capital city, which were constructed to facilitate traffic movement, have now turned into 'killing fields' given the large number of deadly accidents.
Most of the accidents are caused by human error; recklessness and fatigue.
It is high time for the toll road operator, state-owned PT Jasa Marga, to try harder to minimize accidents in the future. Appeals to drivers to be extra careful while driving on toll roads have been ineffectual in curbing accidents. A thorough inventory of the accidents must now be made so as to ascertain what exactly is causing them accidents. The imposition of strict punishments on reckless drivers would be a further step. The violation of speed limits could be cited as an example. The speed limit on toll roads is 100 kilometers/hour, yet many drivers go at up to 160 km/hour.
Many drivers also use the hard shoulder on the toll road to pass other vehicles, which is prohibited by road traffic regulations.
The recommended distance between vehicles is at least 10 meters when the vehicle is traveling at less than 80 km/hr. But drivers continue to ignore this safety recommendation.
Unfortunately, the police seem to be doing nothing to deal with the violations that occur all the time on our toll roads.
-- Warta Kota, Jakarta
; ANPAk..r.. Otherop-Aceh-operation Aceh military operation JP/6/
Aceh military operation
What have we achieved from the one-month-old integrated operation in Aceh? Evaluating the operation, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said last Thursday that as regards the quantitative achievements, the body count and the occupation of (former) strongholds of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) could be used as the indicators of success or failure.
Let's go back to the Vietnam war in 1975 when more than 5 million Vietnamese, many guerrillas, were killed. To distinguish guerrillas from civilians, the U.S. Army established hundreds of strategic hamlets. However, all the killing and strategic hamlets failed dismally.
It is interesting to review the qualitative achievements claimed by Gen. Endriartono, who said that the Acehnese (civilians) now had the courage to resist GAM and help the military by providing information about GAM members' whereabouts.
Now that these qualitative achievements have been gained, why is it necessary to prolong the military operation?
--Koran Tempo, Jakarta