ODOL Truck Accident That Repeatedly Started From Karutat, Land Transport Governance

JAKARTA - The successive accident at the Ciawi Toll Gate, Tuesday (4/2/2025) night, shows the government's lack of attention to safety. These incidents reflect the weak governance and lack of improvement efforts that the government should have made.

Again and again, accidents involving over-dimensional and overloaded vehicles (ODOL) have occurred again. This time, the six-vehicle collision at the Ciawi toll gate towards Jakarta took victims.

As a result of the accident that occurred earlier this week, eight people died and 11 others were injured.

A gallon water truck is thought to have failed brakes and hit a series of vehicles lining up at the Ciawi toll gate.

"There are five vehicles being transacted. Three vehicles were destroyed, including trucks, three other vehicles were damaged," said Bogor City Police Chief, Kombes Eko Prasetyo.

On November 21, 2024, a tronton truck loaded with batteries crashed into several stalls on the Silayur incline, Semarang. This incident claimed 13 victims, with details of two dead and 11 injured.

Back and forth, on November 11, a fatal accident also occurred on the Cipularang Km 92 Toll Road. The incident occurred in the afternoon, when a paper truck suspected of having failed brakes hit dozens of vehicles in front of it.

As many as one person died in this incident.

Data from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) in 2024 shows that the fatality rate of victims due to road traffic accidents (LLAJ) in Indonesia is 25 thousand people or the equivalent of 2-3 people per hour. This figure is up 1.3 percent compared to the previous year.

Transportation observer from the Institute for Transportation Studies (Instran) Budi Susandi said accidents on toll roads have become a recurring phenomenon, which unfortunately until now there has been no solution.

Budi questioned the safety program launched by the government which is contained in Presidential Regulation Number 1 of 2022 concerning the National Public Plan for Traffic Safety and Road Transportation (RUNK LLAJ).

"I question how is the government safety program? Even though the 2024 Bappenas data shows that the fatality rate of victims due to the LLAJ accident is 2-3 people per hour," said Budi.

He added that until now the supervision of drivers and goods transport vehicles that exceed the capacity of the Toll Road Business Entity (BUJT) and other stakeholders is still weak.

"BPJT must routinely supervise the management and maintenance of toll roads by BUJT, ensuring that road safety and maintenance facilities are carried out in accordance with existing regulations," he said.

The governance of freight transport has returned to the attention after the incident earlier this week. In fact, for a long time, a number of transportation observers have echoed the importance of managing freight transport, especially because of the increasing number of ODOL trucks crossing the highway.

Djoko Setijowarno, Deputy Chairperson of the Central Indonesian Transportation Community (MTI) Empowerment and Development Area, emphasized that 12 Ministries/Institutions should be involved in the implementation of logistics transportation.

They are the Coordinating Ministry for Economics, the Coordinating Ministry for Infrastructure and Regional Development, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Public Works, the Indonesian Police, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of SOEs, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and Bappenas.

Since 2017, the Directorate General of Land Transportation (Ditjen Hubdat) of the Ministry of Transportation has started to fix the ODOL truck problem. However, this effort is always deadlocked, due to the rejection of the Ministry of Industry and the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo). In addition, this business is also not supported by the Ministry of Trade because inflation concerns are rising.

"However, there is no attempt from the three institutions to propose a program to fix the ODOL problem, apart from refusing and scaring the issue of inflation," said Djoko in a statement received by VOI.

"These incidents reflect the weakness of governance and the lack of improvement efforts that the government should have made," he added.

Djoko regretted that the problem of repeated collisions or ODOL truck accidents seemed to have never found a solution from the government. An incident like this, according to Djoko, is an accumulation of chaotic implementation or governance of logistics transportation in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of MTI Tory Damantoro urged the government to immediately take concrete and measurable steps in improving land transportation safety.

"If this problem continues to be ignored, people will continue to live in anxiety and have to risk their lives every time using land transportation modes," he said.

"We don't have to wait for officials or families of officials to become victims, many lives have been lost, so we have to fix them immediately," Tory added.