Mumbai: The traffic police on Friday issued an order making seat belts mandatory for all passengers seated in four-wheelers from November 1. This means that rear-seat passengers too will have to wear seat belts, and if found violating the rule, action will be taken against them.
The drivers will have to shell out the penalty of ₹500 per person found travelling without a seat belt. This order is based on provisions in the Motor Vehicles Act and issued by Rajwardhan Sinha, joint commissioner of police (traffic).
The death of Cyrus Mistry, the former chairman of Tata Sons, in a road accident in Maharashtra’s Palghar on September 4 put the focus back on the importance of wearing seat belts. Mistry was seated in the rear seat with Jehangir Pandole, director at KPMG Global Strategy Group. Both were not wearing seat belts and both did not survive.
“As per the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, under section 194(b) (1) whoever drives a motor vehicle without wearing a safety belt or carries passengers not wearing seat belts shall be punishable. Accordingly, to install seat belt facilities in motor vehicles, which do not have seat belts for all commuters, the period is being given till date 01/11/2022,” stated the order.
According to the traffic police, this year till September 30, at least 1,24,124 drivers were caught and penalised for not wearing seatbelts.
“After November 1, we will start taking strict action against those whose vehicles do not have seat belts in the front and rear seats,” said Mahesh Patil, additional commissioner of police (traffic).
Meanwhile, general secretary of Mumbai Taximen’s Union AL Quadros, said that they will not accept this rule, as they cannot force passengers to wear a seatbelt and several of their cars (driven by taxi drivers) do not have any provision for rear seatbelts.
“For travelling short distances, no passengers will wear seatbelts, and we will oppose this. If the agitation fails, we will let our vehicles impound but not adhere to this rule,” said Quadros.