What do the draft rules for rear seatbelts say

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has come up with draft rules that make it mandatory for car manufacturers to install an alarm system for rear seatbelts. Issuing a notification on the draft rules, the ministry has invited public opinion for the same. The last date to give comments/suggestions is October 5.

The announcements come days after former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died in a car accident. Mistry was on his way back from the Parsi pilgrim of Udvada in Gujarat to Mumbai. Seated at the back, he was not wearing a seatbelt when their Mercedes car crashed in Palghar on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway. Mistry died on the spot.

Last year, the World Bank said that one person in India died every four minutes in road accidents.

Even though it has been mandatory for all occupants in a car in India to wear seatbelts since October 2022, passengers at the back seldom put them on. Rule 138 (3) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR) allows the authorities to fine Rs 1,000 for passengers sitting in the rear for not wearing seatbelts. However, people are mostly unaware of the rule and enforcement has also been lax.

According to the draft proposal, seat belt reminders or beepers would become mandatory in M and N category vehicles. These would include audio-video warnings, prompting passengers to put on seatbelts, including the rear ones.

'M' category vehicles are those which are used for ferrying passengers, while 'N' category vehicles are used to carry goods and may also carry passengers.

Apart from this, cars will also come with a speed alert system to check speeding and manual override for the central locking system.

A safety-belt reminder alerts the driver when the occupants in the car have not buckled up. There are two levels of warning given to the driver.

The ‘First Level Warning’ is a visual warning which gets activated soon after the driver engages the ignition switch or turns on the engine. The government’s proposal said an audible warning can also be added to this as an option. A ‘Second Level Warning’ includes both a visual and audible warning which gets activated when a car moves without the driver or the front-facing seat occupants wearing a safety belt.

According to the draft rules, both M and N category vehicles will also have a reverse parking alert system.