Despite the overwhelming skepticism of the general public, Indonesia House Speaker Setya Novanto’s car crash last night was totally not staged, like, at all.
That’s according to the Jakarta Traffic Police, who, after inspecting the scene of the accident, ruled that there Novanto’s driver did not deliberately crash the car into an electrical pole.
“I can confirm from the scene inspection last night, including an inspection of the evidence and the scene, there were several collision points from (the car’s) start to end points. It has been confirmed to be solely an accident,” said Jakarta Traffic Police Deputy Director Kingkin W, as quoted by Kompas today.
Kingkin added that the police’s initial assessment is that the driver, a Metro TV journalist, wasn’t concentrating and lost control of the car before it went off the road and crashed into the pole.
That said, the police said their investigation into the crash is still ongoing.
Novanto, who supposedly fell unconscious after the crash (he was sitting in the back seat while his aide, who was sitting in the front, and the driver were unhurt) is reportedly recovering well and was transferred to the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Central Jakarta from Medika Permata Hijau Hospital in South Jakarta this morning.
“His condition was serious last night. Now we have seen this morning that thanks to Allah, we have given him medication and he’s recovering slowly. All recovery requires rest, depending on the injury and medication,” said Dr Bimanesh Sutarjo, who was overseeing Novanto at the Medika Permata Hijau Hospital, as quoted by Kompas today.
All the skepticism surrounding Novanto’s accident is arguably warranted. For one, the timing is quite convenient for Novanto, considering that he claimed he was going to turn himself in last night to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as he’s a suspect in the grand e-KTP (electronic ID card) graft investigation (This is, of course, not the first time Novanto ended up in hospital, coincidentally preventing him from being questioned by the KPK.).
Even Yorris Raweyai, a politician of the Golkar party, which is chaired by Novanto, raised questions about the accident, particularly because he found it odd that a politician of Novanto’s standing didn’t have police escorts on the road.
The KPK has warned that there would be serious legal repercussions if the accident was staged in order to get Novanto to dodge being investigated in the e-KTP case.
Reader Interactions