If you follow other Indonesian media at all, you have already probably already heard about the tragic death of a man and his pregnant wife who were killed (and their 8-year-old son critically injured) by a reckless Kopaja bus driver on Jalan Warung Buncit in South Jakarta yesterday. Unsurprisingly, after the accident, the unlicensed bus driver attempted to run away from the scene.
We have seen over and over again drivers in Jakarta attempt to flee from the scene of their crimes. Christopher, the 23-year-old driver who killed four people in an attempted hit-and-run in Pondok Indah (and got a sentence so light he didn’t even have to go to jail), allegedly tried to run away and pretend he was Korean to avoid the wrath of an angry mob.
And that is part of the reason drivers tend to hit-and-run in Jakarta. When accidents (or motorcycle robberies) happen, angry mobs seem to form almost instantaneously and these crowds have been known to beat people to death or worse. So the drivers often run. In the case of the Kopaja bus accident from yesterday, the driver, Budi, was also beaten by an angry mob before he could be secured and arrested by police.
Which brings us to the video above, which is shocking but not terribly surprising. Captured by the driving v-blogger of FinZ Daily Journey, it shows a silver Yaris hitting a motorcyclist in Pantai Indah Kapuk. The motorcycle falls to the ground and the Yaris zooms away, the driver clearly aware of what they did but unaware of how hurt the motorcyclist might have been (fortunately he gets up immediately and seems okay).
The Yaris driver could easily have seriously injured the driver or killed the motorcyclist, but their only thought was to get away as fast as possible.
Obviously, people need to take responsibility for their actions and drivers who cause accidents have a moral obligation to stop and check on their victims.
But if they think there is a chance they will be attacked and killed by an angry mob, then that moral obligation becomes a little less clear.
The reason angry mobs form here is, at least in part, because people feel like they can’t trust the police and legal system to properly punish those at fault (as happened with Christopher).
If Jakartans could trust each other and trust the system to do the right thing, maybe fewer drivers would hit and run. But as things are now, it’s hard to see a change in the current mentality happening anytime soon.
