A group of Kalimantan Off-Road Team (TOK) members were eventually released by the Brunei Darussalam authority on Saturday after being detained for having dark windows on their cars, a traffic violation in the neighboring country.

The Brunei authority gave BN$50 (US$36.10) fines to six TOK cars as the dark films on their windows exceeding the allowed standard in Brunei.

“We regret that this trivial mistake detained them in Brunei for almost two days,” Minister Counselor from the Indonesian Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan, Endy Ghafur Fadly, said Saturday.

Endy accompanied the off-road team members while they underwent legal processes there on Friday and Saturday.

Brunei police detained a total of seven cars and 18 people. Of the seven cars, one avoided being fined because a team member, Shamsuddin, negotiated with the police as the vehicle only had a stripe of black tape stuck on the windshield.

TOK coordinator Dato Haji Helmi said the authority to give sanctions to owners of modified cars actually fell on the Brunei Transportation Agency. He said the cars were taken there by the Brunei police, but the agency officials refused to process the cars because the cars didn’t have Brunei license plates. But the police wanted to fine them anyway, Dato said.

The TOK group was crossing the trans Kalimantan and trans Borneo route in its annual tour event. This year the group was touring Borneo from Oct. 30 to Nov. 6 after their Kalimantan leg. Kalimantan is the Indonesian part of Borneo. (evi)

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