Should A Victim Appear, Before The Electric Scooter Rules Apply

Penggunaan GrabWheels (Aditya / VOI)

JAKARTA - Problems with electric scooters or e-scooters, one by one, began to emerge. Starting from regulations governing the use of electric scooters in public areas to the lack of safety supporting facilities for its users.

Until last Sunday, November 10, two Grabwheels electric scooter users were victims of a hit and run in the FX Sudirman area, Central Jakarta. Wisnu (18) and Ammar (18) had to die, and were hit by a car driver.

The traffic accident occurred in the Gate 3 area of Gelora Bung Karno. Based on the accounts of the survivors, the incident occurred when a sedan was driving fast enough from the direction of Senayan to the FX Sudirman shopping center.

At that time, the driver of the car, who was later found out under the influence of alcohol, tried to avoid the teenagers who were riding on the electric scooter. "When he was about to overtake towards the left lane, he ended up crashing," said Head of Sub-Directorate of Bin Gakkum, Traffic Directorate of Polda Metro Jaya, Kompol Fahri Siregar in Jakarta, Wednesday, November 13, 2019.

my younger brother, Ammar is one of the victims of this accident and strangely enough, none of the media has covered this accident, please @TMCPoldaMetro thoroughly investigate this accident. and @GrabID, make a review of your safety grabwheels service. pic.twitter.com/qAyq0KZ7Lz

- Alan Darmasaputra (@alandarma_s) November 12, 2019

According to Fahri, four of them suffered minor injuries because they avoided the collision. Meanwhile, the other two, Ammar and Wisnu, were not helped, even though they were taken to the nearest hospital to be given help.

"From the results of urine testing, he did not test positive for drugs. But he did drink alcohol, he (while driving) was influenced by alcohol," said Fahri.

From the TKP results, DH the driver who hit the six teenagers was named a suspect and charged under Article 310 in conjunction with Article 311 of Law Number 22 Year 2009 concerning Road Traffic and Transportation.

Electric scooter safety rules

Grab Indonesia, as the GrabWheels service provider, has commented on the incident. GrabWheels will follow up on the reports that occur and investigate the incident.

"All Grab management regrets this incident and condolences for the families and colleagues left behind. We have contacted the user's family and our priority at this time is to provide full support and assistance needed by users and their families," said CEO of GrabWheels, TJ Tham in the description.

"Grab is committed to continuously improving the safety of using GrabWheels through educating users and working with related parties in an effort to maintain safety," he continued.

On the other hand, the DKI Jakarta Transportation Agency (Dishub) is still working on regulations and regulations regarding the use of electric scooters in the capital. This is the aftermath of a collision between a car driver and an electric scooter user who died on Sunday, November 10 yesterday.

"The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government will make arrangements for the leased eScooter operations and for the initial stage while waiting for the regulations to be issued. We have told the eScooter operators to prohibit them from operating on sidewalks, JPOs, and if they want to operate please enter the bicycle lane," said the Head of Transportation Agency DKI Jakarta, Syahrin Liputo.

The current polemic of electric scooters is not only happening in Indonesia. Since early November, Singapore has issued a ban on the use of electric scooters on sidewalks. The prohibition is made for security reasons. In early 2020, users who use electric scooters on sidewalks will be fined.

This policy came out after the carelessness of an electric scooter rider killed a cyclist named Ong Bee Eng (65). He was seriously injured as a result of being hit by an electric scooter rider in the Bedok area, near the Tanah Merah MRT station.

Now electric scooters in Singapore can only be used on bicycle lanes. Singapore became the third country to ban the use of electric scooters on sidewalks after Germany and France previously imposed a similar ban.