Teaching Traffic Rules: Jakarta, West Java

Its damn hazardous riding a motorbike or even driving a car in Indonesia and the job requires full-time attention. If you don’t give it 100% then you are surely to come apart in a mishap. New statistics show that one Indonesian dies on average every hour in traffic accidents, with the total number of deaths having reached 15,762 in 2006, data from the Indonesian police office shows according to an article in the Jakarta Post.

“It means that last year, traffic accidents killed 1,300 people every month, 45 every day, or two people every two hours,” the chairman of the national boy scout movement, Asrul Azwar, said on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the Taman Lalulintas Saka Bhayangkara traffic park in Cibubur, East Jakarta.

Asrul said he was deeply concerned that most accidents were caused by people’s ignorance of traffic rules.

Operational deputy of the national police, Insp. Gen. FX Soenarno added that a lack of understanding and obedience of traffic regulations resulted in more than 2.6 million traffic infringements last year.

Soenarno said the traffic park, which was initiated by the Indonesian police headquarters and the national boy scout movement, was intended to educate people about traffic rules.

The park will also be aimed at educating children to become traffic conscious and obey traffic rules when they become drivers.

The park comes complete with traffic signs, transportation simulations and miniature cars for the children.

A miniature of the National Monument (Monas), Gambir railway station, and the parliamentary building were also built in the garden.

First Lady Ani Yudhoyono officially opened the park, which was built on a five hectare former camping ground contributed by the boy scout movement.

Mufidah Jusuf Kalla, members of United Cabinet Solidarity, the national Police Chief Gen. Sutanto and Henny Sutanto, the chairwoman of the organization for the wives of police officers, Bhayangkari, also attended the event.

The First Lady urged all motorists to obey traffic rules, including wearing helmets, for their own safety.

“People should use the pedestrian bridge to cross the street whenever possible,” she said.