TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Deputy Minister of Public Works Hermanto Dardak said the ministry currently prepared a number of means to improve road safety. Among them, he added, was by creating several indicators to measure road safety—including the roads’ evenness and slipperiness levels, and the holes on the roads.

“These are among the indicators we will use in our efforts to reduce traffic accidents,” he said.

Hermanto said the ministry would also reorganize street vendors, which it deemed to be reducing the roads’ capacity. “The roads’ capacity is not the same as our data” he said.

Hermanto revealed the Bina Marga (Highway) Directorate General had received over Rp40 trillion from the ministry to boost the quality of roads vital to economic growth. He said economic losses from traffic accidents had been estimated to reach Rp200 trillion a year. “That is equal to 2.9 percent of the GDP,” he said.

The police have recorded some 120,000 of traffic accidents in 2012, with 24 percent of which taking place on national roads, 31 percent on provincial roads, and 45 percents on regency’s and villages’ roads. The data show death toll from the accidents reaches 30,000, with the majority of victims are of the productive ages of 26-40.

The National Safety General Plan seeks to reduce traffic accidents’ fatality rate by 80 percent by 2035.

AHMAD FIKRI