Anybody who has spent much time in traffic around Jakarta is familiar with the sight of police convoys escorting officials through traffic. Generally this forces all the other cars on the road to stop or make way, though if you’re you’re lucky and get in right behind them you can cruise through the path they carved through the macet.
A woman arrested for hitting a police officer on the road yesterday claims she was so desperate to get to her office that she allegedly drove, not just behind a convoy, but through it.
And not just any convoy, but President Joko Widodo’s convoy.
According to the police, the incident took place yesterday morning at around 8:30am on the Cimanggis Toll Road when the president’s convoy was traveling from Bogor to Jakarta.
The driver, a woman police identified by her first initial A, suddenly entered the line of cars guarding the president’s path. Police quickly responded by forcing her to the side of the road and out of the convoy
Some media reports suggested that A was driving erratically in a zig-zag pattern while others accused her or her passenger of making a rude gesture with their middle fingers at the convoy. Police did not confirm nor deny those reports.
But they did confirm that A’s car hit a motorcycle mounted police officer in the convoy, knocking him off his bike and causing minor injuries.
At that point, police drove A’s car off to the side of the road again to investigate and question her and her passenger. Video of the questioning was posted by Instagram gossip account Mak Lambe Turah.
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According to Jakarta Police spokesperson Argo Yuwono, A’s explanation for the incident was just that she wanted to get to her office quickly.
“By joining Jokowi’s motorcade, A hoped to avoid the congestion and quickly get to her office, that’s what she was thinking,” Argo said today as quoted by Detik. He also said A claimed not to realize that it was Jokowi’s convoy she was trying to cut into.
However, police also said that A had been given a urine test and it came up positive for benzodiazepine, a controlled substance in Indonesia for which she could not immediately prove she had a prescription for.
A was taken into police custody following the incident for questioning. She has been charged with violating traffic laws leading to injury of an officer.
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