According to a poll by a neighbourhood social media site on Monday, almost 70% of Indians do not use seat belts in the back seat of moving vehicles.
The survey’s findings, based on 10,598 responses from all over the nation, were released the day after Cyrus Pallonji Mistry, the former chairman of the Tata Group, was killed in a vehicle accident on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway.
A police officer stated that Jahangir Pandole and Mistry sat in the unfortunate car’s rear seats.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the automobile collision was caused by overspeeding and a mistake in judgement. A police officer reported that none of the fatalities was using a seat belt.
When asked if they typically use seatbelts in the backseat of a car, 26% of the survey’s 30% of participants responded positively, while 4% indicated they did so infrequently.
The Central Motor Vehicles Rules of 1989 state that, despite little widespread knowledge of this need, “persons occupying front facing rear seats” are required to use seat belts.
“In a motor vehicle, in which seat belts have been provided under subrule (1) or sub-rule (1-A) of rule 125 or rule 125-A, as the case may be, it shall be ensured that the driver, the person seated in the front seat, or the persons occupying front-facing rear seats, as the case may be, wear the seat belts while the vehicle is in motion,” states rule 138 (3).
Only 27.7% of the 6,306 respondents in different research by the SaveLIFE Foundation in 2019 that was performed across 11 cities were aware that rear seat belt usage was required.
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