Victims of Damaged Road Now Eligible to Sue Government

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Government negligence on road safety can now be prosecuted as all factions in the House of Representatives reached a consensus on Tuesday to endorse an amendment to the Traffic Law. “There are a couple of new additions to the new law. For example, state executives can be charged with crime for failing to preserve the road condition under their jurisdiction,” head of the House working committee on the traffic bill, Yoseph Umar, told The Jakarta Post.

A new provision in the law states that a government road authority can pay a maximum of Rp 12 million in fines should a damaged road caused an accident. A maximum penalty of Rp 120 million will be given if the accident resulted in a fatality.

“If the government institution is not able to repair the damaged roads immediately, then it must install warning signs on the side of the roads,” Yoseph said.

Indonesia has about 350,000 kilometers (km) of roads - 35,000 km of national roads, with around 65 percent of those heavily damaged, Transportation Ministry says.

This year, central government allocates Rp 18.7 trillion for developing, maintaining and reconstructing around 33,000 km of roads and 62,000 meters of bridges. (hdt)