"We are in the process of drafting presidential instruction on land transportation safety. Admittedly, we already have law on land transportation safety. But we are going to make presidential instruction now to lay a stronger legal basis for land transportation safety," the agency`s transportation director Bambang Prihartono said here on Sunday.
Bambang said land transportation safety has become increasingly important to draw attention due to the huge losses caused by ignorance of land transportation safety.
"The percentage of deaths caused by road accidents is high or even higher than that of deaths caused by heart attacks," he said.
The presidential instruction would lay a legal basis to lower the number of deaths caused by ignorance of land transportation safety, he said.
Even the United Nation has asked Indonesia to think of how to improve land transportation safety as part of efforts to reduce the number of deaths caused by road accidents, he said.
"That is the reason why the presidential instruction is made. The presidential instruction is expected to be completed later this year. We hope the number of deaths caused by road accidents will fall by 50 percent per year," he said.
The Indonesian Police Headquarters recorded 30,629 people were killed, 35,787 people injured seriously and 107,281 people injured lightly in 106,129 road accidents last year.
The number of road accidents in 2011 rose 2.27 percent from a year earlier.
(SYS/S012)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
