Homecoming: Transport Ministry Finds Over 80 Pct of Buses Unsafe

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The data provided by the Transportation Ministry recorded 30,868 buses from the total of 39,660 had not passed the ramp check safety inspection for this year’s Eid homecoming. This means that there are a staggering 80.94 percent non-road worthy vehicles used to transport thousands of people.

“We have conducted numerous ramp checks and there are still many of them that fail to pass, many of them are not great,” said Transportation Ministry’s Directorate General of land transportation Budi Setiyadi on Monday, June 11.

Following the surprising number of buses that failed to pass safety inspections, Budi asked bus operators to find a solution as soon as possible as the Ministry has given the bus operators a second chance to participate in a safety inspection later on.

“We urged them to fix the units that did not pass the first phase of ramp checks. Some passed the second inspection,” he said.

Budi said that bus operators are obligated to pay extra attention to its vehicles’ road-worthiness considering that it involves the safety of many lives and spend less time prioritizing its business aspect.

“This is how our operators are. They would rather prioritize the business aspect rather than its safety level,” said Budi.

According to Hindro Surahmat, Transportation Ministry’s Directorate General of land transportation secretary, the number of accidents were claimed to have been reduced by 50 percent since the ramp checks were conducted within the past two months.

BISNIS