Trucks transporting fish in West Bali are coming under fire for making roads slippery and dangerous.
With increasingly more accidents attributed to the stinky trucks, one village in Jembrana is reportedly saying the risk is not acceptable and if conditions continue to stink, then permits will be revoked for these trucks to operate in their area.
But the solution is simple, say authorities, if these truckers want to hang on to their permits: just use tarps to keep the fish and their juices from spilling all over the roads.
“We have appealed to the drivers or owners of fish trucks to use tarps to cover their trucks. If the appeal is ignored, we will coordinated with the relevant agencies to revoke their license,” said Jembrana Head of Marine, Fisheries, and Forestry Made Dwi Maharimbawa in Negara on Sunday, as quoted by Merdeka.
Maharimbawa shared plenty of instances of accident reports of people driving behind these fish trucks and slipping and sliding in water mixed with fish oil.
He added that there are no plans of making a new road which connects the port to the factory where fish are processed—because more construction in Bali is really what we would need anyway.
According to one Pengambengan Village resident, Saihurrahman, whenever there’s a slippery path behind a truck, dozens of vehicles can lose control, especially motorbike riders.
He told Merdeka that there’s yet to be a death caused by this dangerous condition, but something needs to change with the trucks’ practice if they want to keep it that way.
Illustration: Wikimedia Commons
