For some parents, letting their underage children drive in Jakarta is not a difficult decision to make as they are left with a riskier option: taking unsafe public transportation.



Although they are aware that underage driving is against the law, the fear of seeing their children fall victim to street crime has clouded their judgment.



'I allow my 16-year-old son to drive a BMW 318i to reach his school in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, because I don't want him to take public transportation, where robberies and kidnappings may happen,' Irwan, a 58-year-old man who lives in Ancol, North Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.



He said that he did not want his son to take a bus provided by the school because it wasted his son's time as it had to pick up other students living in various areas.



'I have given up attempts to find a driver for my son after three months of fruitless searching,' he said.



Karyono, a 35-year-old civil servant from Pamulang district in South Tangerang, said he allowed his 14-year-old son Aldi to drive a motorcycle to school on Jl. Mahakam, South Jakarta, because the school was far from their home.



'His school bus does not reach our house and I don't want him to take public transportation because it is very dangerous. I trust that he will drive his motorcycle carefully. Furthermore, I'm not afraid of the police ticketing my son because they can be easily bribed,' he said.



Adeline, a 40-year-old marketing executive from Pamulang, said she allowed her 14-year-old daughter, Dina, to drive a motorcycle to her school in Serpong, also in South Tangerang, because she was horrified with sexual harassment cases that took place in minivans.



'I've gotten really paranoid about allowing Dina to use minivans since I heard about Livia, a student who was raped and killed while on board a minivan in 2011. Of course I don't want my daughter to experience the same thing.'



Concerns over underage driving have returned to the spotlight with the recent case of 13-year-old Ahmad Abdul Qodir Jaelani, or Dul, who drove on the Jagorawi toll road in the early hours of Sunday morning.



The police said he lost control of the car as he swerved to hit the road separator and hit oncoming traffic, he then hit a minivan with 13 people onboard in a head-on collision. The minivan later hit another minivan that was behind it. Six of the passengers of the first minivan died on the scene, while Dul and his friend sitting in the front seat were seriously injured.



Jakarta Police recorded that in 2012, the number of underage driving-related traffic accidents in Jakarta and its satellite areas had increased by 160 percent to 104 cases from 40 cases in 2011. From the six age categories, children under 16-years-old contributed to the highest leap.



Jakarta Traffic Police law enforcement unit chief Comr. Sukarno, acknowledged that unsafe public transportation led to underage driving.



He said that in the first eight months of 2013 alone, his institution ticketed 8,264 underage drivers in Jakarta and its satellite cities, as compared to 17,000 in 2012.



'When we catch an underage kid driving a motor vehicle, we will confiscate his or her vehicle for a month and summon his or her parents to the Jakarta Police headquarters. Ideally, we should fine the parents Rp 1 million [US$89],' he said.



He claimed, however, that some police personnel did not have the heart to fine parents from the low-income bracket.



National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait, acknowledged parents' concerns about their children's safety on board public transportation.



'Numerous cases of robbery, sexual assault and kidnapping happen on public transportation,' he told the Post on Tuesday.



He added that adult passengers failed to protect children because they were ignorant when a child became victim to a crime taking place onboard.



Traffic Police education unit chief Comr. Suzana said that every week, her division visited up to 10 schools to inform their students about traffic safety and warn them of the dangers of underage driving.



'Unfortunately, parents never come to our education programs, citing their hectic schedule. That's why they still allow their kids to drive motor vehicles,' she said. (ogi)

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