Up to 3 die on city's roads daily

JAKARTA (JP): The capital's traffic police chief said yesterday that so far this year between two and three people had died every day in traffic accidents in Greater Jakarta.

Col. Fachrudin Bakar said so far this month 35 people had died in traffic accidents.

"The number of traffic accident fatalities was 166 in August, up from 155 in July. Most of the accidents were caused by speeding and reckless driving," Fachrudin said.

City police data shows that a total of 563 people died in traffic accidents last year as compared to 462 in 1995.

"Most of the victims died in toll road accidents," he said.

Fachrudin said that his office had striven to help reduce the growing traffic problems by conducting operations throughout the city against reckless drivers.

The latest operations have been conducted every day since Monday and will continue until drivers understood that the police were serious in their attempts to crack down on bad drivers, he said.

"An average of 300 ill-behaved drivers of both public transportation and private vehicles are fined each day, mostly because of speeding on the toll roads," he said.

He said the police had been using electronic speed-reading meters to monitor drivers during the operations.

"The number of fined drivers on Thursday 467, the highest number during the operation," he said. The result of yesterday's operation was not available.

Fachrudin said his office had started giving public transportation drivers a three-day training course on Thursday.

"As many as 80 drivers from numerous bus companies are participating in this first stage. We are targeting to train a total of 4,000 drivers," he said.

During the course drivers were given theoretical and practical lessons and tests. They were also psychologically and physically tested, he said.

"The tests will show whether or not the drivers were mentally and physically suitable for the tasks."

Fachrudin said that his office would also cooperate with the City Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ) to control public transportation drivers' driving manners.

"Starting Tuesday we are going to issue control cards for each driver which will be issued by police officers and DLLAJ officials before they leave bus stations and collected at their destinations," he said.

The cards, which contain data, including the time taken by the drivers to finish one trip, would be used to analyze the drivers' driving attitude, he said.

"The control card program will be examined after three months to see to what extent it has helped reduce reckless driving," he said. (cst)