Texting While Driving is Dangerous

" Be careful guys, the Police will Fine you Rp 750,000,- if they catch you texting while driving. " That's the text message that I received from my big sister Aty as I was driving to my office this morning.

I was thankful that she reminded me that the Jakarta Police will now enforce the Traffic and Land Transportation Law 2009 Article 283 which prohibits activities that distract drivers from focusing on the road. Violation of this law carries a maximum sentence of three months in Jail, or Rp. 750,000,- Fine.

According to The Jakarta Post, the Police impose this ban because of the very high numbers of traffic accidents in Jakarta. Their record shows that between 8 November and 1 December 2010, there were 416 accidents with 61 fatalities, 139 injuries and total loss of Rp 846 million. Due to which, 92,282 drivers were caught violating traffic regulations, 78,882 violation tickets were issued.
The biggest offenders were motorcycle riders with 66,555 violations, drivers of public transportation with 18,443 violations and drivers of private cars with 9,076 violations.

I believe that the texting while you are driving is dangerous for yourself and for others, therefore should be banned. In this case, I hope that the Police would be consistent in issuing the violation tickets.