When rules are broken, death inches closer to motorists on toll roads. Sophisticated tools may help people to remind themselves to obey these rules. However, the simple awareness of living a long life should be the main motivation.
In mid-December 2015, there was a new activity at kilometer 165 of the Cikampek-Palimanan (Cipali) toll road in Palimanan, Majalengka regency, West Java. Along with toll road management company PT Lintas Marga Sedaya (LMS), a number of police personnel from West Java Police and Majalengka Police stood in the middle of the road holding a plastic gun-like tool. This was a speed gun, which measures the speed of passing vehicles.
Aiming the speed gun at passing cars was West Java Police guidance and law enforcement sub-directorate head Adj. Sr. Comr. Matrius. With the US-made equipment in his hand, he set his eyes on the numerous cars going at high speed on the toll road.
Click! A sound was heard as a car passed by. Matrius was standing 100 meters from the vehicle lanes at the 116.7-kilometer point of the toll road.
The reading seemingly disappointed him. The speed gun’s small monitor showed that many motorists were breaking the traffic rules on the Cipali toll road. More than 20 vehicles were seen driving either under or over the speed limit. A number of huge trucks were going at 40 kilometers per hour, especially on uphill stretches. Meanwhile, private cars were speeding at over 100 kph.
“We had prepared personnel along the roadside. Road users who broke the speed limit were told to pull over at the rest area. Some protested, but we gave them tickets anyway as we want to avoid fatal accidents,” he said.
Matrius’ concerns were proven true. As the rules were broken, death arrived. At the end of 2015, 11 people were killed in a car crash. Another accident followed in April 2016, killing four.
Such tragedies blemish Cipali’s safety record. Kompas records show that since the toll road opened in June 2015, at least 62 have been killed on Indonesia’s longest toll road. This means an average of three people die on the toll road every month. “Most of the accidents were the result of human error,” Matrius said.
Tragedies are still occurring on Cipali. On Monday (16/1), a car crash occurred at kilometer 161, just four kilometers from where the speed gun was first used in mid-2015.
Seven died in that accident. A minibus with license plate B 1138 UKS ran into a truck with license plate AB 8837 AK. Police investigation found that the minibus had been traveling at over 100 kph while the truck was traveling at under 40 kph.
To prevent future accidents, the Majalengka Police’s toll road patrol unit and PT LMS held a campaign promoting speed limit discipline at the same point on the road on Tuesday (31/1).
Speed guns were used in the campaign. This time, Majalengka Traffic Police operational division head First Insp. Erik Riskandar tried the equipment. In over two hours of monitoring, the results were still the same. Some 23 vehicles were found to have broken the speed limit. Despite handing out tickets, Erik said that he was still concerned that the many fatal crashes had not resulted in people improving their traffic discipline.
“We will keep reminding them. We will stand here on the roadside and monitor their speed with our speed gun. It could be once a week or once a month,” he said.
Inviting death
According to Matrius, it was important that road users obeyed traffic rules, especially on toll roads like Cipali. Being lost in one’s thoughts due to the enjoyably smooth, straight road would only invite death to come calling. Speeding at over 100 kph or crawling along under 60 kph clearly broke the rules.
Such behavior, Matrius said, violated Government Regulation No. 79/2013 on traffic networks and road transportation, which stipulated vehicle speed on highways should be between 60 and 100 kph.
“We have held many campaigns, but not everyone understands this. People do not realize that many traffic accidents on toll roads happen simply because of speeding violations. On the Cipali toll road, usually the cases involve speeding cars running into slow moving trucks, resulting in deaths.”
The police have also installed speed cameras on several toll roads in West Java, including on Cipali and Purbaleunyi (Purwakarta-Bandung-Cileunyi). Vehicles that break the speed rules are automatically recorded by a program monitored by police personnel, who can take further action. Warnings are sent to the drivers’ homes. The police also ticket drivers of overloaded trucks.
“By using this program, law enforcement will be more effective,” he said.
PT LMS deputy president director Hudaya Arryanto said that the company fully supported the police enforcing traffic rules, as well as their involvement in traffic discipline campaigns, putting up road signs and providing rest areas where tired drivers could relax.
“In the future, we need better collaborative efforts between toll road management companies, the police and the Transportation Ministry to deal with overloaded trucks,” he said.
Such tasks take time. When Kompas revisited the Cipali toll road recently, many road users were seemingly using the smooth, straight toll road as their private racing track and speeding at over 100 kph.
Road user Anendi Darmadi, 57, said that he did not know about the speed limits on the Cipali toll road. “Sometimes, as the toll road is very smooth and straight, I do not even realize that my car has sped up to over 100 kph,” he said matter-of-factly.
