New laws slated for city parking garages

Following a spate of incidents involving cars breaching barriers at parking buildings in Jakarta, a city agency is drafting a new regulation to tighten safety standards.

The city property management and control agency said Wednesday the planned regulation needed to include more technical specifications pertaining to safety standards, in the absence of secondary structure regulations in national safety standards.

Secondary structures serve to protect a building's primary structures (made of concrete, bricks or steel) from damage. When secondary structures are damaged, primary structures should remain undisturbed.

"The Jakarta administration has only translated a section on primary structures, stipulated in the national standards, into its bylaw on building structures," agency-appointed independent team chairman Widiadnyana Merati said at a press conference.

Jakarta has yet to draw up regulations for secondary structures in parking buildings since they are not mentioned in the national standards, and accidents only occurred recently, he said.

The latest supporting regulation, issued last year by the agency, was on building structures and geotechnical planning.

"After a series of parking building accidents, we realized there was an urgent need to regulate the technical specifications of secondary structures including railings, structural ornaments and barrier walls (designed to prevent cars from dropping off the edge of buildings)," Widiadnyana said.

The team, consisting of academics and professionals, is working with the agency and is responsible for assessing building structures across the capital, he said.

"As a follow-up measure, the team is drafting a gubernatorial regulation that will require developers to apply safety standards, particularly in barrier wall design and car stoppers (that prevent cars from rolling)," Widiadnyana said.

The team, he said, was referring to international standards to set the required specifications.

In the future, Widiadnyana said, developers must build a barrier wall between 10 and 20 centimeters thick, strong enough to withstand a 1.5-ton passenger car traveling at 15 kilometers per hour.

Currently, developers determine their own specifications for secondary structures.

Another team member, Davy Sukamta, said developers would need to spend more money on construction.

"Additional costs invested for public safety are normal," Indonesian Construction Expert Association chairman said.

"Developers must agree these safety requirements are for their own benefit too," he said.

"Who wants to visit a mall which has an unsafe parking building?"

The new bylaw has emerged after four separate incidents involving cars breaching barriers at multistory parking buildings, all in South Jakarta, over the last year.

On Monday afternoon, a car fell from the first basement level to the second basement level of South Jakarta municipality's parking building, causing no injuries.

A similar accident occurred at the Menara Jamsostek building last month, claiming one life.

The other two accidents occurred last year, both at the Permata Hijau International Trade Center parking lot -- in one of the accidents a family of three was killed.

The agency plans to begin inspections of more than 284 parking buildings across the capital next Monday, after surveying 22 structures and deeming eight of them unsafe. (The Jakarta Post)