Page 29 - Risk Management Bulletin January-June 2023

RMAI BULLETIN JANUARY - JUNE 2023

WHAT GLOBAL TRENDS IN ROAD SAFETY

SHOW, AND WHY SOME INDIANS WON'T

BUCKLE UP

T he tragic death of Cyrus Mistry came days front-facing passengers in a car, including the middle

after the National Crime Records Bureau’s
seat in the rear row of a car.
Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI)
report showed that 1.55 lakh individuals died
Administration (NHTSA) of the US Department of
in accidents on India’s roads in 2021, up from the 1.33 According to the National Highway Traffic Safety
lakh deaths in the pandemic lockdown year of 2020. Transportation, of the 23,824 passenger vehicle
occupants killed in 2020, 51% were not wearing seat
Mistry and Jehangir Pandole, the other person who died belts — a 4% increase from 2019. A statistical brief
in Sunday’s crash on National Highway 48, were both prepared by the NHTSA in 2019 estimated that seat
in the back seat of a Mercedes Benz GLC SUV. It is not belts saved 14,955 lives in 2017 alone, and could have
yet known whether they were wearing seat belts. saved an additional 2,549 people that year if they had
However, both the driver and the individual in the front been wearing seat belts.
passenger seat survived.
As of 2021, the overall seat belt use rate in the US was
The top-end model of the GLC comes equipped with 90.4 per cent, according to the NHTSA.
seven airbags: driver, passenger, driver knee, driver
side, front passenger side, and two curtain airbags. Attitudes to seat belts

The Ministry of Road Transport video mentioned above
Law on seat belts was published on YouTube in April 2017, and had
Seat belts are compulsory in both the front and back received just 117 views as of Monday.
seats. Section 194 (B)(1) of The Motor Vehicles
(Amendment) Act, 2019 says, “Whoever drives a motor Compliance of seat belts in the rear seat is poor in India.
vehicle without wearing a safety belt or carries For most people, wearing seat belts is mandatory only
passengers not wearing seat belts shall be punishable for the front seat. It is not uncommon to find people
with a fine of one thousand rupees”. preferring to sit in the back just to avoid the
“inconvenience” of wearing a seat belt.
A video issued in the public interest by the Union
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways says wearing There is no clear-cut reason for non-compliance. Three
a seat belt reduces the impact of an accident by 80 per broad arguments are usually presented.
cent.
Indians don’t care about their safety: It has been
In February, the government made it mandatory for argued that for most Indians, the safety of a car or a
automakers to provide three-point seat belts for all particular ride is secondary to the cost (or mileage) and

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