The Christmas and New Year holidays are almost upon us – and that means that there will be a mass exodus of people leaving major cities to pulang kampung and spend the time off in their hometowns.
As is the case with previous years, many will be traveling by road, which means that traffic jams on inter-city toll roads are to be expected.
One particularly horrific traffic catastrophe occurred during the last major holiday, Idul Fitri, in which at least 12 people died from fatigue and inhaling fumes as their cars got stuck in a three-day traffic jam at a toll road intersection in Central Java locally known as “Brexit”, which is short for Brebes exit.
The National Police say they still have the horrors of Brexit fresh on their minds as they’re about to launch Operasi Lilin (Operation Candle) 2016 with the aim of keeping roads safe and secure, as well as directing traffic to avoid huge macet madness.
“We don’t want a repeat of Brexit,” said National Police Chief Tito Karnavian yesterday, as quoted by Warta Kota.
Operasi Lilin will be enforced from December 23 until January 2. Tito added that police officers would also be deployed to keep places of worship secure from potential terrorist attacks.
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