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Reckless driving has been a major influence in the growing number of road accidents over the past few weeks.

The most deadly being the bus that ploughed through crowds of people and several other vehicles, killing at least 14 people in the Puncak area of Bogor. And before that there was the Tugu Tani accident in Central Jakarta where Afriani Susanti hit and killed nine pedestrians while she was allegedly driving under the influence of drugs.

The press and the public did question the safety of the vehicles, but focused more on the behavior of and factors affecting the drivers, passengers and bystanders.

While there are laws that punish reckless drivers, it seems that the government isn’t serious about preventative measures to stop these road tragedies from happening in the first place.

And an official at the Transportation Ministry, Toto Noewitjaksono, recently said that Indonesia would not be a part of the planned Asean New Car Assessment Program (NCAP).

“The Asean NCAP is privately organized thus the government cannot take part. And we cannot force our automotive private sector to get involved because the initiative must come from them,” he said, as quoted by Detik.com.

Asean NCAP is a Malaysian initiative modeled after already-established NCAPs in the United States and Europe. In a bid to push carmakers to sell only products that are roadworthy and safe, the program is designed to test new cars. It will be officially launched on March 16.

A Good Initiative

“It’s a good initiative because it pushes for transparency and will provide a good education for the automotive market, as both producers and buyers must primarily consider safety before everything else,” Toto admitted.

Malaysian, Singaporean and Filipino car producer associations have already signed up with the Asean NCAP.

Funded by the Global New Car Assessment Program (GNCAP), the scheme will regularly announce its assessment results to help potential buyers make the right decisions before committing to such big purchases.

Funding has been allocated to carry out the testing and the scheme will be able to consult with the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) and Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) on technical issues. 

Looking for the Nation’s Car of the Year 

Car modification competition the Accelera Auto Contest 2012 is looking for the best designs from major cities in Java, Kalimantan, Bali and Sumatra.

The event starts in Surabaya from April 13-15, then moves on to Solo, Central Java, from May 19-20 and in June 16-17 it will be in Riau’s Pekanbaru. It will be in Denpasar, Bali on Sept. 15-16, and in Oct. 13-15 it moves to South Kalimantan’s Banjarmasin. Jakarta is the final destination, with the event taking place from Dec. 15-16. 

Organizer Cody Enterprises said that this year’s competition will be exciting because judges will be looking at a greater number of criteria than previously, namely: “The difficulty level, innovation, application, functionality and the harmonization of the design itself,” said Patricia Setyadjie, managing director.

“For the first time we will also have a King of Car Clubs category. It’s specifically for car community circles,” she added.

The grand prize for this year competition is a Chevrolet Spark.  

JG