June 2024 was a month of tour bus inspections in Indonesia. Ahead of the Eid al-Adha long weekend and the school holidays, the Ministry of Transportation, the National Police Traffic Corps and district transport offices ran simultaneous ramp checks of public and tour buses on 15 and 16 June. The Minister of Transportation stressed that a roadworthy bus is one that has passed periodic vehicle testing, carries complete papers and is driven by a capable driver, and reminded the public that buses can be checked through the Mitra Darat website (Sari, 2024). Globally, the World Health Organization estimates about 1.19 million road traffic deaths a year, and road traffic injuries remain the leading killer of children and young people aged 5 to 29 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2023).
Several inspection results were announced before the nationwide ramp check. This article reads three of them, because the figures appear to contradict each other.
The Data Sources
The first comes from the West Java Class II Land Transport Management Office (BPTD), which on 1 and 2 June 2024 directed tour buses leaving the Subang toll exit to the Subang Type A Terminal. Of 69 vehicles, 92.75 percent were declared roadworthy, 5.80 percent unroadworthy, and one vehicle had already been ticketed by the Greater Jakarta transport authority (Ravel, 2024a). The second comes from the same office in Ciwidey, Bandung Regency, on 8 and 9 June. Of 23 tour buses, 60.86 percent were roadworthy and 39.13 percent were not. The checks covered technical condition, paperwork and licensing data through the Mitra Darat application (Ravel, 2024b).
The third comes from the Sleman Regency transport office. By 11 June 2024 it had inspected 291 buses from 116 schools applying for permission to run school trips, and three buses were not allowed to depart because of brake problems. In 2023 the same office inspected 778 school trip buses (Kusuma, 2024).
What the Numbers Show
Converted to bus counts, the three sources give an unroadworthy share of about 1 percent in Sleman (3 of 291), 5.8 percent in Subang (4 of 69) and 39 percent in Ciwidey (9 of 23). That is close to a fortyfold difference within two weeks, in two provinces on Java.
We calculated 95 percent Wilson confidence intervals for each proportion. They come to roughly 0.4 to 3.0 percent for Sleman, 2.3 to 14.0 percent for Subang and 22.2 to 59.2 percent for Ciwidey. The Ciwidey interval is very wide because only 23 buses were checked.
How to Read Them
The gap more likely reflects how the checks were done than a real difference between regional fleets. In Sleman, buses were inspected because schools had to submit them before departure, so operators knew their buses would be checked. In Subang and Ciwidey, buses were stopped on the road or at the destination. The definition of unroadworthy may also differ: some checks count missing paperwork, others only technical defects such as brakes.
The same caution applies to claims of a trend. The West Java office read the Subang data as showing a rising share of roadworthy buses and growing awareness among bus companies (Ravel, 2024a). A week later, the same office's check in Ciwidey found nearly 4 in 10 buses unroadworthy (Ravel, 2024b). In our view, a snapshot of one weekend at one location is not enough to conclude that the trend is going up or down.
Haddon's injury epidemiology framework helps place these data. Haddon treated injury as the result of energy exchange shaped by human, agent or vehicle, and environmental factors, and noted that passive measures, which do not require individual action, have historically worked better than active ones (Haddon, 1980). In our view, ramp checks target the vehicle factor before a crash, but they still depend on hirers and operators being willing to check and replace unfit buses.
Limits of the Data
All three sources are agency releases quoted by the media, not an open database with a uniform definition. Ramp check results describe vehicle condition, not crashes, so they cannot be used to estimate crash risk per bus. We had also not found a published summary of the 15 and 16 June nationwide ramp check at the time of writing.
Steps for Companies
Companies often hire buses for staff events, site visits or employee shuttles. Some practical steps:
- Make proof of periodic testing and an operating permit a condition of the hire contract, and check the vehicle data on Mitra Darat before the day of departure.
- Require a pre-departure roadworthiness check, especially of brakes and tyres, and keep the right to reject a replacement bus that does not meet the requirements.
- Plan trips that give drivers enough rest and avoid routes unsuited to large buses.
How Nusa Safety Helps
Nusa Safety helps companies set selection and evaluation criteria for service providers, including transport providers, through CSMS Development and Prequalification, develops travel SOPs and technical guidelines, and trains teams through the risk assessment and JSA workshop for activities involving employee travel.
This article is general information and not legal or professional advice for any specific case.
References
- Haddon, W., Jr. (1980). Advances in the epidemiology of injuries as a basis for public policy. Public Health Reports, 95(5), 411-421. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1422748/
- Kusuma, W. (2024, June 13). 291 bus study tour diperiksa Dishub Sleman, 3 unit tak diizinkan jalan karena masalah rem [291 school trip buses inspected by Sleman transport office, 3 barred because of brake problems]. Kompas.com. https://yogyakarta.kompas.com/read/2024/06/13/142202378/291-bus-study-tour-diperiksa-dishub-sleman-3-unit-tak-diizinkan-jalan
- Ravel, S. (2024a, June 4). Klaim BPTD II Jabar, persentase bus pariwisata laik jalan meningkat [West Java land transport office says share of roadworthy tour buses is rising]. Kompas.com. https://otomotif.kompas.com/read/2024/06/04/163100215/klaim-bptd-ii-jabar-persentase-bus-pariwisata-laik-jalan-meningkat
- Ravel, S. (2024b, June 10). BPTD Jabar ketatkan pengawasan bus pariwisata [West Java land transport office tightens tour bus oversight]. Kompas.com. https://otomotif.kompas.com/read/2024/06/10/163100715/bptd-jabar-ketatkan-pengawasan-bus-pariwisata
- Sari, H. P. (2024, June 16). Libur panjang Idul Adha, Menhub ingatkan masyarakat gunakan bus laik jalan [Eid al-Adha long weekend: Transport Minister reminds the public to use roadworthy buses]. Kompas.com. https://money.kompas.com/read/2024/06/16/212200026/libur-panjang-idul-adha-menhub-ingatkan-masyarakat-gunakan-bus-laik-jalan
- World Health Organization. (2023). Global status report on road safety 2023. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240086517
