Indonesia targets road death reduction

The government of Indonesia says it is working to reduce the number of road deaths in the country by 50 per cent by 2020 and by 80 per cent by 2035. To achieve this, the government will be upgrading the road infrastructure as well as introducing a road safety programme that will run over a ten-year and 25-year plans, starting this year. The programme will be overseen by the National Planning Development Board with involvement of the national police as well as the public works, transportation, national educa
April 17, 2012
The government of Indonesia says it is working to reduce the number of road deaths in the country by 50 per cent by 2020 and by 80 per cent by 2035. To achieve this, the government will be upgrading the road infrastructure as well as introducing a road safety programme that will run over a ten-year and 25-year plans, starting this year.

The programme will be overseen by the National Planning Development Board with involvement of the national police as well as the public works, transportation, national education, communications and information, home, health, industry, finance and research and technology ministries.

From a traffic accident fatality rate of 13.15 per 100,000 people in 2010, the government intends to slash the figure to 2.63 per 100,000 people by 2035. A fatality index of 0.79 per 10,000 vehicles is also aimed at by 2035, said the National Planning Development Board's Director of Transportation, Bambang Prihartono.

In 2010, traffic accidents claimed the lives of 31,234 people in Indonesia, with more than three deaths each hour, according to national police figures. The financial costs arising from the accidents in 2010 were estimated at about 3.1 per cent of GDP.