Even
though safety belts in cars are meant to protect your life in case of an
accident, a majority of Delhi-ites are not convinced of the fact that wearing a
safety belt while travelling in a car can actually save your life.
Motown
India conducted a painstaking survey in different parts of Delhi over a
staggered period of three weeks at different times during the day and found out
that not just the ordinary private car drivers, but even law enforcers,
government vehicle drivers, truck drivers, bus drivers, and ambulance drivers
blatantly flouted safety belt norms.
200,000 vehicles monitored for safety
belt compliance
SEATS BELTS IN PRIVATE
CARS
In
these three weeks more than 200,000 vehicles were monitored for safety belt
compliance. Since safety belts are mandatory for those sitting in front, it was observed that
while more than 80pc of those driving
private cars wore their seat belts, only 60pc of co passengers sitting in front
wore seat belts. Also alarming was the fact that among the co
passengers, both men and women were equally to be blamed for their lack of
safety sense.
According
to a WHO report, India has the highest number of road deaths in the world, More
than a 100,000 people die every year in around 4,00,000 accidents that occur on
the roads in India. Of these deaths, 25pc can be avoided by wearing seat belts.
According
to a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways report released a year or so back,
nearly 1.5 lakh Indians died on the roads and the total number of accidents
crossed the five-lakh mark.
By law, after March 25, 1994
manufactures were asked to equip cars with front seat belts in India. The rule
then extended to cover rear seat belt in 2002. The Use of front seat belt was
made compulsory in 2002.
Safety
experts say that by wearing front seat belt you reduce the chances of fatal
injury by 45%, chances of moderate-to-fatal injury are reduced by 50%. If you
are travelling in SUV or van then by wearing rear seat belt chances of fatal
injuries are reduced by 73% and children of parents wearing seat belts are 92%
safer.
POLICE, MILITARY, PARA
MILITARY, GOVERNMENT, AMBULANCE VEHICLES
But when it came to vehicles
belonging to police, military or the government, or even ambulance, the record
was terrible. More than 80pc of drivers and co-passengers did not wear seat
belts. Did not someone say, “Charity
begins at home?” As for military trucks
and those of para military forces, they strictly do not seem to believe in seat
belts.
DTC BUSES
Delhi’s DTC bus drivers, the
ones driving the bright red and orange coloured buses, well more than 90pc of
them did not wear seat belts. The same went for truck drivers carrying load.
TAXI SEGMENT
But the record got better as
we moved on to the taxi segment. Whether it was the yellow & black taxi or those from
Uber, Ola or private taxis, more than 99pc of the drivers wore seat belts. More
than 80pc of Co-passengers travelling in these taxis also wore seat belts.
OFFICERS OF ARMED FORCES
Officers of the armed forces,
driving their own personal vehicles wore their seat belts. The compliance was almost
100pc.
REAR SEAT PASSENGERS
When it came to passengers
seated in the rear, whether rich or middle class, more than 99pc did not wear
seat belts.
SAFETY BELTS FOR CHILDREN
Also, when it came to children,
the record is sadly very terrible. In more than 75pc of cases where children
were being driven in cars, they we seated in front without any seatbelts.
Children below 10 years or so year of age are not supposed to sit in front.
Again when children were in
the rear seat, in more than 90pc cases they were without seat belts. As far as child
seats are concerned, in all the cars that carried children, not a single child
seat was attached.
There
you go, do we really care for our children?
Apart
from the fact that the government has recently increased fines for violating
traffic norms from mere Rs 100 to thousands of rupees, the real issue is, we
need to wear seat belts because they make a lot of sense. And when I say seat
belts, every occupant in the car needs to do so.
The
Motown India team dug into the archives of Volvo Cars press room and got a lot
of relevant information related to seat belts and child seats. When it comes to
safe cars and safety related efforts, we have always felt that Volvo Cars tops
the chart.
Volvo
Cars was the first car maker to actively test child seats in crash tests as far
back as the early 1960s and in 2016 it launched a range of three new child
seats with a focus on design, comfort and convenience.
Lotta
Jakobsson, Adjunct Professor, PhD and
Senior Technical Leader, Injury Prevention at Volvo Cars Safety Centre in
Sweden has stated that the focus of her company is on ensuring that young
children travel in the safest manner possible, depending upon their size and
age. This means rearward-facing up to the age of at least 3 or 4 years and
after that with child seats or booster cushions up to 140 cm in height. The
safety benefits are unquestionable, yet many parents unwittingly allow their
children to sit forward-facing too early, she said.
Talking
about seat belts, Volvo Cars developed the three-point safety belts in the
front as standard in 1959, tested the prototype of the first rear-facing child
seat in 1964, introduced seat belts in the rear in 1967, introduced three-point
safety belts in the rear in 1972 and a rear-facing child seat the same year. In
1986 it got in the three-point safety belt in the middle of the rear seat , got
the safety belt pre-tensioner in 1987 by 1993 had three-point inertia-reel
safety belt in all seats.
While safety is now paramount
for all car manufacturers in India, it’s our terrible habits we need to
change. So next time you drive around,
stay belted.
A VIDEO RECORDING OF THIS
SURVEY WILL BE POSTED ON WWW.MOTOWNINDIA.COM IN A DAY OR TWO