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

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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