More than 600 Indonesians have been killed in the country's worst holiday road toll in years.

The country's traffic management centre says there have been more than 3,600 crashes over the past 10 days, injuring more than 4,500 people.

Another 638 Indonesians have died.

That is up from the same period last year when police ran a targeted campaign urging people not to make long trips on motor scooters.

Soon the tens of millions of Indonesians who travelled back to their villages will begin returning to the big cities, after the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

So the death toll could end up being even higher.

This year the religious holiday also coincided with Indonesia's Independence Day celebrations.

For many in Indonesia, motor scooters are the cheapest and most effective mode of transport, but often whole families pile aboard and children rarely wear helmets.