Jakarta Globe, Hotman Siregar, July 25, 2013
A fatal MetroMini bus accident on Tuesday has led to calls for the Jakarta city administration to take over the long-running public transportation operator.
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| A MetroMini is seen partially submerged in a canal after veering off the road in Jakarta on Jan. 21, 2009. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya) |
A fatal MetroMini bus accident on Tuesday has led to calls for the Jakarta city administration to take over the long-running public transportation operator.
“The city
administration should just take over MetroMini. The developers are illegal and
out of control,” Jakarta Transportation Board chief Azas Tigor Nainggolan said
at City Hall on Wednesday.
According
to Azas, the company behind the MetroMini, the city’s red-and-blue mid-sized
buses, had been prohibited from operating in the city since 2009, with its operating
permit frozen, therefore making its current activities illegal.
“Those
buses have no documents, the drivers do not have driving licenses,” he said,
adding that such issues had been a major contributor to various public
transportation accidents on the city’s streets.
“The
transportation office is not brave enough to crack down [on them]. Their
operational licenses should just be revoked altogether,” Azas said.
Not only
were the city buses operating without official documents, most of the mid-sized
and big buses were in very poor physical condition, he added.
His remarks
came a day after a MetroMini bus serving the route between Senen, Central
Jakarta, and Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta, was involved in an accident that
claimed the life of a middle school student and injured two others.
An
investigation into the crash by the East Jakarta Police found the vehicle was
not roadworthy, with the clutch held together using a piece of rubber from an
inner tube.
“The
investigation revealed that the MetroMini bus involved in the crash was not
certified for use,” Adj. Comr. Agung Budi Laksono, the head of the police’s
traffic accident unit, said on Wednesday.
Police
identified the victim as 13-year-old schoolgirl Benity. She was hit by the bus
while crossing the TransJakarta bus lane with two friends, Rahmi and Revi, who
suffered serious injuries.
The bus
driver, identified by police as W.S., admitted that he did not have a driver’s
license and that he had been cited by police several times before. He faces up
to six years in jail if convicted.
Azas said
he appreciated the city administration’s plan to revitalize Jakarta’s public
transportation system but asked that emphasis also be placed on traffic law
enforcement efforts.
“Before
revitalizing transportation, law enforcement has to be strictly implemented,”
he said.
Udar
Pristono, the head of the Jakarta Transportation Office, echoed Azas’s
indignation over MetroMini’s operations, which he said had often placed the
lives of commuters in jeopardy, and suggested that the operator be disbanded.
“MetroMini
has been operating without a license. It has no operational license. When its
buses are stopped [by law enforcement officers], the company still insists on
taking other opportunities to operate. This is no longer just the
transportation office’s problem,” Udar said on Wednesday, adding that his
office had many other transportation-related issues to deal with besides law
enforcement.
He
suggested that the closure of MetroMini would be the best option, as the
operator’s own monitoring efforts had failed.
“MetroMini no
longer qualifies to operate in Jakarta. The buses are inadequate. So just disband
them,” he said.
Separately,
the city administration plans to add a number of mid-sized and bigger buses,
including those operated by PPD, a state-owned operator, in an attempt to boost
city’s the public transportation fleet.
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