The Indonesian Government is planning a major safety campaign in a bid to reduce the country's road death rate by 2020.
The aim of the plan is to cut the number of deaths by 50% by 2020 and by 80% by 2035. This safety improvement is desperately needed. In 2010, traffic accidents claimed the lives of 31,234 people in Indonesia, with more than three deaths each hour, said the National Police. The financial costs arising from the accidents in 2010 were estimated from US$23.74 billion to $25.38 billion, around 3.1% of Indonesia's GDP. From a traffic accident fatality rate of 13.15/100,000 people in 2010, the government intends to cut the figure to 2.63/100,000 people by 2035. Upgrades to road infrastructure and a new road safety programme will be used to reduce the country's fatality rate. This programme has been established as a 10 year action plan, starting this year and running until 2020. The authorities have also set a parallel 25 year road safety plan in place that commences this year and runs until 2035. During the first five years of the 10 year programme, the Indonesian Government expects to cut the number of road accidents while in the following five years improved road infrastructure will add further safety benefits. The 10 year programme will focus on better road use by drivers and improvements to the road safety network. Towards the last stage of this programme, the authorities intend to complete necessary safety upgrades to Indonesia's road network. The 10 year and 25 year programmes will be overseen by the National Development Planning 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.
