Bali Police Investigate Tourist Who Attacked Local Driver After Traffic Collision

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Police in Bali have launched an investigation into a traffic collision and subsequent attack that happened on Jalan Padang Tawang in Canggu on Wednesday morning. Footage of the incident has been doing the rounds on social media, gaining an increasing amount of attention. The incident involved a tourist, believed to be from Ukraine, and a local couple. 

According to local reports, the Ukrainian citizen, known as Y, collided with a Balinese couple named as I Komang Suwastawa and his wife Ni Made Ernawati. Eyewitnesses had reported that Y crashed with the couple when he failed to look in all directions before making a right turn onto Jalan Padang Tawang. 

The Head of Public Relations of the Badung Police, Iptu Ketut Sudana, told reporters that the couple was shaken at the incident and were left injured. He told reporters, ‘Ernawati has a lump on the back of her head and her chest hurts. The woman from the county of Jembrana was taken to the Mangusada Kapal Hospital for treatment’.

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But it was what happened immediately after the collision that caught the attention of the internet. According to eyewitnesses, Y started out on an angered rampage. He is reported to have attacked the couple, even strangling Suwastawa. Eyewitness first ran to the aid of the couple and tried to bring Y under control.

In the viral video, he is clearly unsteady on his feet, shouts loudly, and tries to shake off the local men who are trying to usher him away from the scene so that traffic doesn’t build up further. The videos of the incident are patchy as more onlooking arrived and started filming as the situation escalated.

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Speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, North Kuta Police Chief Kompol Putu Diah Kurniawandari confirmed that an investigation is underway. He explained, ‘It started with a traffic accident. We have handled the traffic accident, and we have arrived at the initial crime scene, including the police who arrived. Then they were both directed there…For more details, I can’t get any information because it is directly handled by the Lakalantas Polres…Yes, of course it will be followed up. Initially, from the traffic accident, it developed from there, if there is a crime, yes, from there later’. 

In the video, Y can be seen wearing long white shorts and a white singlet. He is barefoot and behaves aggressively toward those who are trying to de-escalate the situation. He appears to be drunk. The video pans around to Ernawati, who is being helped by another woman. The footage of Ernawati has been blurred as she has injuries to her head. She can be heard wailing in pain and shock. 

The incident has shocked commentators online. Even local newspapers eluded to their confusion and frustration at the increase in these kinds of events. One newspaper opened their reporting of the incident with the statement, ‘it’s just getting weirder again [the] foreign citizens in Bali’. One commentator on the viral video did not hold back, writing, ‘Just deportation…the guest has no manners, he is a human, not an animal? Even pigs have manners these days’. 

This is not the only time a tourist in Bali has gone viral for a moped-related incident this week. This week online commentators were calling for the deportation of an Australian tourist who was caught burning out the tires of his rental scooter. In the video, the tourist can be seen revving the bike’s engine and holding the brakes, making skid mark circles on the street, holding up traffic, and creating a noise disturbance. 

Hundreds of people commented on the post, which went viral on several different social media platforms. Many were tagging everyone from the local police to social justice advocates to the Immigration Department of Indonesia.