Indonesia tries to deter train surfers again
By Ali Kotarumalos
Associated Press
POSTED: 10:09 a.m. HST, Jan 17, 2012
LAST UPDATED: 10:13 a.m. HST, Jan 17, 2012
JAKARTA, Indonesia >> Indonesia has gone to imaginative extremes to try to stop commuters from illegally riding the roofs of trains — hosing down the scofflaws with red paint, threatening them with dogs and appealing for help from religious leaders.
Now the authorities have an intimidating and possibly even deadly new tactic: Suspending rows of grapefruit-sized concrete balls to rake over the top of trains as they pull out of stations, or when they go through rail crossings.
Authorities hope the balls — which could deliver serious blows to the head — will be enough to deter defiant roof riders.
“We’ve tried just about everything, even putting rolls of barbed wire on the roof, but nothing seems to work,” said Mateta Rizahulhaq, a spokesman for the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api. “Maybe this will do it.”
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/Indonesia_tries_to_deter_train_surfers__again.html?id=137507138
Talk about determination...
