Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
165
Safety Management Pillar. The establishment of Law 22/2009 has been an important activity.
This law is generally for the Indonesian National Traffic Police Corps (INTPC). Under the law,
the INTPC is charged with the responsibility for road traffic and transport safety (M. Naufal
Yahya et al., 2013).
Furthermore, the inclusion of the Provincial and Regency/City Governments in the law, is an
important step ensuring that all levels of the government take an active role in road safety.
Another major role for the Indonesian Government is to target the business sector and civil
society to take more responsibility for remedial measures to improve road safety and to
promote road safety information. Bringing leaders in Indonesian society, such as imams and
other religious leaders, into the campaign on road safety can be a very efficient way of creating
road safety awareness.
Pillar 2: Roads and mobility
Road conditions are an important factor for the road safety in Indonesia. The road environment
can influence traffic accident probability according to the data given by the Ministry of
Transportation. There are certain environmental factors that influence road safety. The traffic
flow on the roads has a strong effect on the speed of road users. The traffic flow depends on the
vehicle types, speed limit and the road quality. The weather is also an important factor on the
road safety. Indonesia experiences extremely wet days and there can be a lot of dense fog. These
factors directly affect the road users and the (unpaved) roads (Arwar, 2014).
Two of the most critical failings at roadwork sites in Indonesia is the failure to use any advance
(road works) warning signs to warn approaching drivers of the workers ahead, and a lack of
adequate demarcation signs and markings to protect road workers at the work zone. Some of
these signs are only placed one meter away from the workers.
Another safety concern is the lack of sealed road shoulders along Indonesian roads. Most of the
roads have unsealed shoulders and have deep drop offs from the road pavement. Sometimes
these drop offs can have a depth of twenty centimetres, putting road users in great danger.
Particularly motorcyclists are prone to crashes should they suddenly have to leave the road in
order to avoid other road hazards such as oncoming trucks or buses, or potholes(Indonesia
Infrastructure Initiative, 2010) .
Road conditions in Indonesia are far from ideal. For road safety development there are two types
of treatments: short term and long term countermeasures. On the one hand, the short term
countermeasures are low cost improvements which can be carried out immediately and have
direct impact. These countermeasures include routine maintenance (e.g. cutting the vegetation
which obstructs sight distance, covering ditches, removing roadside hazards, patching potholes,
etc.), installation of proper safety devices (e.g. markings, crash barriers, etc.). Funding would not
be a major problem since these countermeasures are low-cost. However, creating the awareness
to perform such improvements by road authorities is the real challenge. On the other hand, the
long term countermeasures, such as realignment of the road, planning new infrastructure and