[Wireless]

Still in India, if you ask the rear seat passengers to buckle-up, 99% times I am sure that you will get looks that will ridicule you. The front seat occupant now wear seat belts just because of fear of Challan.

When I started to drive, seat belt was a big hassle.And it was done marely to avoid that greedy policewalla. After driving for couple of years It became a habit and now I cannot drive without buckling up. Just trying to highlight that maybe proper enforcement might lead to more poeple getting habitual to seatbelts. Who in turn will ask pasengers to buckle up and may be then rear paseenger mightnot give that look when asked to buckle up.

[Mohan Mathew A]

The report says in india seatbelt is compulsory for all passengers ie. both front and rear. Is this correct?

My understanding is that it is compulsory for only front seat passengers. I just want to know the correct legal position

Also i understand the manufacturers of passenger cars have to now provide seat-belt for all passengers. What is the seat-belt rule for manufacturers of buses, minibuses and Vans (a la Force Traveller) as i don't seat belts for passengers on those. I know for a fact that in many European countries it is mandatory even on public intra-city buses

[nkishore_007]

Originally Posted by Mohan Mathew A

My understanding is that it is compulsory for only front seat passengers. I just want to know the correct legal position

Just to be on the safest side, making it a habit to buckle up front and rear is the best bet.

I would not be surprised if the cops find it intriguing in finding the read occupants wearing seat belts.

The intent of our law enforcing agencies needs to change apart from us (the common people). If I am a cop and go to my daily work thinking only about the amount of money I will pocket without challan, the whole battle is lost.
The same goes for each and every responsible person on the road ( I specially hate those 'toilet emergency' idiots) who drive like like their life (read pants) depends on it.
At the end of the day, all that matter is to keep a peaceful mind while driving, and understand that fellow drivers deserve the same good drive as we expect for ourselves.

[punto_]

This should be taken as an eye opener for everyone. I think the awareness should be given to all the road users - bikers, cars, including bicycles, people crossing the roads, etc. We in general don't care about the road rules or even apply our commonsense while using roads.

I have pasted this link in Hyderabad Traffic Police's FB link. Hope they look into this and try to ensure the helmets and seatbelts are made mandate and the rules are actually followed.

[FlatOut]

Don't focus purely on speed per se - what is dangerous is inappropriate speed. The safest roads are where there is segregation of different types of vehicle so that you don't see pedestrains and animal-drawn carts mixing with cars. Where this happens in Britain, the accident rate is much higher. Our fastest roads where speeds are typically 140km/h are the safest by a massive margin. These are roads where traffic only travels in the same direction on a two, three or four-lane carriageway, with crash barriers separating traffic moving in the opposite direction.

Education is key as always. Not that there is much of that in the UK - just a focus on speed rather than good driving. Seatbelts for backseat passengers prevents the front-seat occupants from being killed in a rapid stop by those in the back who catapult into those in front of them.

Segregating different road-users from each other is the real key to road safety, though. The Dutch and Germans are good at this.

[lancer_rit]

Great thread Rehaan. Very informative data. As some of us already known, wearing seatbelts and crash helmets reduce fatalities and severe injuries by a huge margin. But, we still have so many big cities in India where people don't follow this. I was in Hyderabad a couple of months back, and it seemed two wheeler riders there think helmets and 2-wheelers are mutually exclusive :-(

For the pedestrian casualties, two factors contribute heavily IMHO.
* 4-wheelers and CV drivers not slowing down in densely populated areas - unless there is a speed breaker, a lot of us just drive at highway speeds in the city. Any speed limit signs (if there at all) are willy-nilly ignored.
* Jay-walking by pedestrians. There is no value put on one's own life by some of the morons crossing roads, red-lights, intersections. This needs to be a big enforcement drive as well, not only catch the motorists.

Another big road safety issue is the "wrong-side" driving whether on city roads or highways :-(

Originally Posted by GTO

Two words - LAW ENFORCEMENT

It's in the hands of the government to ensure safety on our roads. Strict enforcement & steep fines are the only way out in a country that is used to breaking the law.

Spot on GTO. I have seen this work wonders in 'laws don't apply to us since we are connected' Delhi, and helmet use in Bangalore later - so it can easily work anywhere. We need missionary zeal of enforcement.

[apachelongbow]

Why dont we compare the ratio of deaths on road versus population of the country? Consider that India has 5 times the population of USA, and with 130k deaths a year, it is only 4 times the 32k deaths a year in USA. Now we see that US has more road fatalites/per person compared to India, this in spite of them having excellent roads, primary and secondary health care facilites a police and emergency response team that works.
So instead of foisting such studies on us, to gain more market share for their companies, why they dont concentrate on seeing if the measures they have in place, really work or not?

I am not anti road safety, but I hate it when one sided studies are performed by US funded agencies, at the behest of their greedy corporations, to provide once sided information, which is then used to beat smaller/weaker contries with a stick and gain consession for US companies and technology.

[KL54]

Another potential controversy generator :

The WHO maps shows the whole of Kashmir as part of Pakistan.

[Mohan Mathew A]

Originally Posted by nkishore_007

Just to be on the safest side, making it a habit to buckle up front and rear is the best bet.
:

As i mentioned i am not questioning the efficacy of wearing seat-belts, what i am trying to figure out is what does the law say in india. My understanding is that only front passengers are required but the WHO reports seems to suggest otherwise

[arjab]

Until and unless we take the strictest corrective action to root out one of the main causes of accidents in India :
That is enforcing the strictest of the strict penalties/fines/examinations - or whatever it takes necessary to enforce the STRICTEST norms for issuance of driving licences in INDIA, these alarming figures will continue to rise. Licensing has to ULTRA-STRICT - period.

Today we have a system, which is laughable to say the least.
We have states/RTO's where people get driving licenses without even visiting the testing centre.
We have so-called "Training Schools" teaching wannabe drivers, where the trainer himself/herself is unaware of the nuances of road safety and defensive driving.
We have no refresher courses - D.L.'s are renewed blindly without even assessing the current capability / physical fitness of the driver - which leads me to ask you - How many times have you seen a truck driver on our Indian highways wearing spectacles? Can it be that 100% of Indian truckies have 6/6 vision? - just my observations!

And to enforce any such strict legislation, there has to be Government intervention and Government legislation.
A network of accredited, comprehensive driving schools. A proper syllabus, with comprehensive Learner's and then actual driving test policies - both in Theory & Practice.
Properly equipped Learner Car's on which students can learn and finally Trainer's and Instructors who MUST be certified by an independent testing authority - maybe by some global biggies - there are lots available in the world.

Impossible? Don't think so.
The Government has to have the will to enforce this.
Look at it this way: Even 3 years back getting hold of a passport was a nightmare - with the advent of the Passport Seva Kendra's (PSK's) being run through a successful Government - Private (I think TCS right?) PPP initiative, the hassle of getting a passport and the role of "touts and blackmarketeers" in "managing" to get you a passport has reduced substantially.

So things can be made to change, let's hope it will - soon, and we as a country need not count ourselves to be at the top of the heap - in statistics as fearful as these.

[Chris_Xtreme]

Amazing statistics which will for sure be an eye opener for everyone. BTW, recently I went to a helmet shop to get a kid's helmet for my kid and I was told that the life of an ISI helmet is 2 yrs and should be replaced without fail post 2 years however the condition is. He also said that wearing a helmet which is >2 yrs old is just like wearing a cap. Do not know if that is true or was a sales pitch.

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by Chris_Xtreme

Amazing statistics which will for sure be an eye opener for everyone. BTW, recently I went to a helmet shop to get a kid's helmet for my kid and I was told that the life of an ISI helmet is 2 yrs and should be replaced without fail post 2 years however the condition is. He also said that wearing a helmet which is >2 yrs old is just like wearing a cap. Do not know if that is true or was a sales pitch.

Sales pitch. Ask him proof on his moronic (read expert) quote. AFAIK, unless your helmet suffered a fall or a crash, its structural integrity is in place. Even a light fall, should be cause for examining the helmet closely, and replace it if possible, because hairline cracks are impossible to detect.

[ashtorque]

Check out this picture. 3 youngsters riding a motorcycle on a National Highway while the helmet rests on the RHS mirror. Sadly, this is a very common site at least in Pune. I bet they have done their schooling and possibly have attended college also. Unfortunately schooling brings only literacy, not education.

Almost everyday I find motorcyclist travelling in wrong lanes with an attitude as if they have the right to do so. They will come out of an un-noticeable bylane carrying speeds that cannot be controlled by braking. Since they are already leaning they cannot stop without falling or stumbling depending on their luck. Almost in all cases they overshoot a safe turning line. And above all, everyone conveniently assumes its the responsibility of the 4-wheeler to take care of the motorcyclists. Because, by some logic, the bigger vehicle is always at fault! What I absolutely fail to understand is that HOW can anyone not care about their own life?

This problem will NOT be solved by training cops or installing cameras. We are a huge country with very small budget. This problem will only be solved by self-discipline. And no marks on guessing whether this will happen in our lifetime.

[sam003]

Thanks for sharing this Article. But in India responsibility lie on people who are driving. As words says in India people are most scared of traffic police than Police becuase they have to shell out immediate money to them. Rather for their own safety they are worried about fines. I still remember one incident in my area, I warned one fellow to cross red signal. To my surprise that fellow stopped after a while and start fighting with me. This is where the problem is.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Why dont we compare the ratio of deaths on road versus population of the country? Consider that India has 5 times the population of USA, and with 130k deaths a year, it is only 4 times the 32k deaths a year in USA. Now we see that US has more road fatalites/per person compared to India, this in spite of them having excellent roads, primary and secondary health care facilites a police and emergency response team that works.
So instead of foisting such studies on us, to gain more market share for their companies, why they dont concentrate on seeing if the measures they have in place, really work or not?

I am not anti road safety, but I hate it when one sided studies are performed by US funded agencies, at the behest of their greedy corporations, to provide once sided information, which is then used to beat smaller/weaker contries with a stick and gain consession for US companies and technology.

I am not sure if comparing by population is the right way. India may have 4 times the population of the US, but road fatalities should be linked with the no. of road users and the no. of vehicles on road. When it comes to vehicle production (2011 stats) India ranks 6th in the world with around 4 million vehicles per year. First in the list is China with around 18.5 million vehicles followed by USA and Japan (around 8.5 million). India with 1/4th or 1/5th vehicle population of China has double the number of road fatalities. Even if we hypothetically consider that China exports 50% of their cars, the difference is still very high.

It’s easy to dismiss this as a marketing tactic to support greedy corporations, but irrespective of whoever has performed these studies, we must admit that our road safety standards are severely compromised.