Central Government last month issued orders that wearing seat belts while sitting in a car in the rear section will have to be strictly followed. Even though wearing a rear seat belt has been mandatory since 2005, passengers seldom do and enforcement is also lax. Secondly, in the year 2005 when this law was enacted there were lakhs of cars on Indian roads which did not have rear seat belts installed, additionally, most of the local taxies were using old models of cars and they protested against this rule. So the result was this rule was not strictly followed, and most people believe rear seat belts are of no use and being unbuckled in the back is not dangerous
The rule also states that it is applicable only when the manufacturer provides it. Section 125(1A) says “ The manufacturer of every vehicle of MI category (Cars and other four wheelers like Jeep, SUVs) shall equip every motor vehicle with seat belts occupying the front-facing rear seat. Section 194 (B) (1) of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 states that “ Whoever drives a motor vehicle without wearing a seat belt or carries passengers not wearing seat belts shall be punishable with a fine of Rs 1000.
The government has recently issued draft rules making it mandatory for car manufacturers to install seat belt alarms in all seats of cars. The reminders or alarms will be mandatory in all Cars, Jeeps, SUVs, and similar vehicles, with the audio-video warning in case the seat belts, including the rear ones, are not worn.
The government has been considering enforcing the use of rear seat belts after Cyrus Mistry, the former Chairman of Tata Group, died in a car crash in September 2022. He was sitting in the rear seat and did not have his seat belt on, as per the Police officials who reached the accident site after the crash.
Let us see “ How passengers in the rear seat can get injured in a crash when not wearing a seat belt”.
- During a high-impact crash, unbuckled passengers can collide with the vehicle’s interiors, especially the front seat backrest. This can lead to whiplash injury, often impacting the vertebrae and cutting the oxygen supply to the brain.
- Unbuckled passengers can collide with other passengers, causing them injury.
- Passengers could be ejected toward the windscreen and/or windows of the vehicle and can crash into the glass.
I do not about other states, but in Maharashtra and especially in Mumbai, a notice has been issued in general to car owners that even rear-seat passengers have to wear seat belts from 1st November, otherwise fine of Rs 1000 will be enforced. Yesterday on the first day of this rule, more than 200 people were fined.
Now what is the latest development in Mumbai on this issue:
1 Though cab drivers have agreed to follow this rule, not all taxis have 3 seat belts on the rear, and installing them is not possible in the next 10 days (the grace period). The cab drivers also pointed out that the majority of passengers are not willing to wear them in spite of reminding them. Cab drivers were afraid that they will be penalized for no faults of theirs, the traffic department came out with the explanation that in that case, it will be the passenger who will be penalized.
2 Aggregator firms like Ola and Uber have supported this rule.
3 There is news that the seat belt rule is also mandatory for school buses. The Bus Operators are trying to get an exemption from the mandatory seat belt rules. But many parents are reaching out to schools to ensure that their children are safely buckled up.
4 Bus Operators say fixing seat belts on flat or bucket seats will be a major task. “ Fixing seat belts for bucket seats is not difficult. School buses, generally ply short distances have flat seats, and fixing belts will involve a huge cost”. There is fear among parents that the cost of fixing seat belts may be passed on to them by the operators.
5 Actually, school management was caught unaware of this rule of having seat belts in school buses. The fact is, only a few schools operate their own buses. The rest engage private operators but do not monitor the day-to-day operational aspects of school buses.
6 Now installing a number of seat belts in school buses is going to involve huge costs, and there will be a big tussle between operators and school management about who is going to bear this cost. As this rule is not applicable to buses carrying passengers other than school children.
This issue of seat belts in school buses is not going to be resolved quickly. The practice of wearing seat belts in rear seats may take some time, as slowly people will get used to it.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
2nd November 2022
Tejinder Singh Sethi
Honestly, it’s beyond my understanding why both the people and rulers of our country have such a casual approach to road safety. It’s almost as if they have blindly accepted that there will be road accidents and people will die. But losing about 500 people every day or one every 3 minutes is really, a bit too much. And it’s not just the loss of loved ones and the pain of their families that hurts. I am told we lose about $ 60 billion or over 3 percent of GDP every year due to road accidents. If this is not enough reason to reduce road accidents and deaths, I don’t know what it is