You cannot put a price on your head, goes a popular adage. With time, it was evolved and interpreted in different ways, and the automobile world, especially in the developed countries referred to it as the holy mantra in terms of safe vehicles, and safe on-road behaviour.
Despite being one of the largest automobile markets in the world, seat belt culture in India is still a rarity. The same goes for helmets on two-wheelers, but the death of former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry in a car accident has put the focus back on the use of seat belts.
In the past few years, India has witnessed a ‘safety wave’, among others, initiated by government with stringent penalties and technical interventions, and primarily driven by a couple of home-grown manufacturers trying to expand in the competitive Indian market by booing young, educated millennials. There has been a massive growth in the number of adequately safe cars as determined by various crash tests while the active and supplementary safety equipment has been made standard across the segments of passenger vehicles. However, there is only as much as the government and the manufacturers can do.
India has a law mandating the use of both front and rear seatbelts in vehicles. However, the reality is far from it. While front seat-belts are worn by as many as 7 out of every 10 persons (73%) in the country, largely thanks to legal requirements as well as built-in warning beeps in cars, the number is astonishingly low when it comes to rear seats, with the figures being 7%. As per a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) report released recently, a total of 16,397 persons were killed in road accidents in 2021 due to not wearing seat belt, of which 8,438 were drivers and remaining 7,959 were passengers. The report titled ‘Road accidents in India — 2021’ further said that not wearing seat belt caused injuries to 39,231 persons during 2021. What is even more surprising is the fact that the numbers have actually soared from the last year.
The road and highways ministry’s road accidents report for 2020 reveals 15,100 drivers and passengers were killed due to non-use of seat belts. For perspective, 17,800 travellers in four wheelers were killed that year. Not using safety devices such as seat belt does not cause accidents but are critical for averting fatal and grievous injuries in the event of road accidents. Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry was killed in a road accident on September 4 last year after his car hit a divider in Maharashtra’s Palghar district.
It appears that Mistry, who along with his friend Jahangir Pandole were seated in the rear, wasn’t wearing a seat belt and must have been thrown in front at great velocity once the speeding car crashed into the divider. Both Mistry and Pandole died in the accident. Although not wearing a seat belt by passengers sitting in the rear seats attracts a fine of Rs 1,000 under Rule 138 (3) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR), most people are either unaware of this mandatory rule or just ignore it.
With the government making its best efforts to contain the accidents and the fatalities on the road, the need is to bring about a behavioural shift in ourselves. Next time, when you turn on the ignition of your car, make sure everyone is buckled up.
