[lambuhere1]

From 2010, 'baby seats' will be compulsory in cars - Express India

In a bid to make Indian roads more child friendly, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to make “baby seats” compulsory for all passenger cars from 2010.
“This is a long pending step and will be introduced in Indian vehicles for the first time. The idea is to create a safe and designated space for children in cars. Across Europe and USA, besides other countries like Australia, ‘Child Restraint Systems’ (CRS) is mandatory in all vehicles. So the ministry has decided it’s time for such an initiative to be taken in India as well,” said a top official.
“The planned implentation schedule is two years for new car models and three years for existing models. This will also be introduced for commercial goods vehicles and passenger buses,” he added.
The Central Motor Vehicle Rules-Technical Standing Committee is formulating automotive industry standards to in order to make CRS compulsory. The ministry held a high-level meeting in this connection earlier this week.
It is learnt that automobile manufacturers have agreed on the need for CRS in passenger cars. There is, however, some debate over who should bear the cost — the automaker or the buyer.
The CRS — defined by the ministry as an “arrangement of components (combination of straps, buckles, adjustment devices, supplementary devices such as carry cots etc.) capable of being anchored to power driven vehicles” — will, despite being mandatory fitment, be removable.

I am wondering about the implementation shown in bold above


Just saw this news, wanted to share it with you.

Mods: Can you kindly merge it with an existing thread, if any

[TheHorse]

If they implement it then it will be a great step and MRTH deserves kudos!!

[samirsarkar]

This is a very welcome move !! However, Child Restraint Systems usually mean having a car seat in the car and the rear seat of the car should be equipped for a car seat to be buckled in. The cost of the car seat will be obviously borne by the buyer and most of today's cars already have buckling systems for a car seat (even my Santro has one btw). In fact, many couples do use car seats even now for their children.

Apart from the safety factor, putting a child in a car seat is also good for the baby's spine...it helps holding the soft spine of the baby in place rather than having the baby in someone's lap.

One fact to note is many of the car seats available in India are not of a very good quality and do not offer the kind of body support it is expected unless we buy the imported ones with a huge premium. We need more such outlets/manufacturers in India who make child friendly products at reasonable rates.

[johy]

At last - some common sense. Most welcome move.

[sameel]

here we go again. Sheeeessh!!
absolute Crap this is india..not Europe!
this might become yet another reason for cops to fine people!!

all this while we had nothin and now this..!!
yeah whatever!!

lets wait and see what happens when one case where a car crashes and due to this waste set up the baby will be killed!!

when will these people learn.

wht the heck arent they making Air bags compulsary in all new models! ..only the Crap rules like these come up..idiots!! :X

Note from Mod : Please take the time to type out your posts in full words as per Team-BHP rules. Avoid the use of SMS language (wht = what, dat = that, etc), and please use proper punctuationa and avoid..typing...like..this... Thanks.

[samirsarkar]

Originally Posted by sameel

here we go again. Sheeeessh!!
absolute Crap this is india..not Europe!
this might become yet another reason for cops to fine people!!

all this while we had nothin and now this..!!
yeah whatever!!

lets wait and see what happens when one case where a car crashes and due to this waste set up the baby will be killed!!

when will these people learn.

wht the heck arent they making Air bags compulsary in all new models! ..only the Crap rules like these come up..idiots!! :X

A very negative remark I must say. Do you mean that since all cars abroad have multiple air bags, people are not killed in them ?? What the heck, even a Merc S-class couldn't save Princess Diana. There is always a risk of anybody being killed due to an accident but what we are trying to do here is reduce the probability of that.

I do agree that making air bags compulsory in all cars will definitely help to reduce the number of fatalaties during accidents but so will having a child strapped to a car seat in the rear seat of a car reduce the probability of him/her getting killed by a wide margin. Children are normally killed when they are flung out from the lap due a bad accident and a car seat will definitely impede this particular factor.

[Bouncer]

Originally Posted by sameel

here we go again. Sheeeessh!!
absolute Crap this is india..not Europe!
this might become yet another reason for cops to fine people!!

all this while we had nothin and now this..!!
yeah whatever!!

lets wait and see what happens when one case where a car crashes and due to this waste set up the baby will be killed!!

when will these people learn.

wht the heck arent they making Air bags compulsary in all new models! ..only the Crap rules like these come up..idiots!! :X

Why look at only negative side like cops/fines etc? And nothing in world is fullproof. That doesn't mean measures like these are useless. Helmets, seatbelts, airbags, babyseats all are " intended " to save lives. Right sameel? Look at the safe and brighter side.

[mail4loys]

Thought the idea looks good, in India it all comes down to how it is going to be implemented.
First let there be a rule for restricting children seated in the front seat. If it is not then we'll have baby seats nicely buckled in the back seat and the child sitting in the front seat

[vkochar]

Lets see when it gets implemented. I mean I feel it is necessary for making 2 front AIRBAGS Standard before you make anything else compulsary.

[sameel]

i for one know the dangerous side of this thing! thats why i made the negative remark.

be it seat belt or airbag. in the european cars they have sensors that detect the presence of a baby seat and accordingly the seat belts are pretensioned! and airbags are not completely deployed!( full deployment will kill the baby!!!)
and yes dont even dream that OEM over here will spent that extra buck to implement these systems..even if they do..what about our cars!! what has that got! nothing like this.
an accident happens the seat belts get locked .this can actually hurt the baby seated in a baby seat same goes for airbags!!

trust me when i say this this is INDIA .. not europe.

this will be one of those money spinners for the Cops nothin else . i for one never allow my nephews( very little 2-6yrs ) sit inside my car with out seat belts being strrapped on! thats all that is needed. its safe and tested and tried ..hell i am still here after my dad was strict on this aspect. he used to drive in more speed which i liked only if i put seat belts on..to which i happily agreed

i take training session on airbags deployment working and limitations!! i know this will be a death trap!

seat belts mostly in european cars specially desinged so as to be compatible with baby seat!

this is not the case here.

while the one which i mentioned is much more practical!

ABS also has to be added to the list in fact its more important than airbags even!

get real people . you guys see only the safe side . i am seeing the technical side!
the cost involved! because i am a responsible Engineer working in Robert Bosch India

peace out sameel

[TheHorse]

well for infants i think installing baby seat on front seat is not allowed in many countries. They must be installed in backseat facing backwards.
Same goes for toddler seats
Airbags comes into picture only when baby seats are installed in front seats, which is not a wise choice

[biju_kp]

Its a good move by Govt. But if the drivers / us try to find loop holes like making the baby sit in the seat not buckle him, it will not be useful. If properly used, this can prevent a lot of child injuries.

In the west, the rule says that, if the car is equipped with airbags, child seat should not be in the front. It has to be in the rear only

[amit]

That's good news.

But this is India. What about kids travelling on motor-bikes and auto-rikshaws? How do you ensure their safety? What about taxi's? The unions will promptly call for a strike to oppose the 'harassment' being caused to their drivers by the cops.

[chncar]

I am not against the rule per se, but I think there are a lot of more basic laws that need to be actually enforced:

• Helmets for ALL 2 wheeler riders including the pillion
• Helmets for Children
• Seat belts
• Genuine testing at RTOs
• Special training, testing for commercial license holders including truck/bus/van/auto drivers.

[aaggoswami]

Theoretically, this move is good, but not in reality.
We have many things to worry about more than the child seats.
What about the crash safety standards ?
What about the basic driving discipline ?
What about ABS, atleast ?
What about 3-point seat belts for all the five passengers ?

This will just give rise to more corruption. People wont use the child safety seats and then the usual routine of Rs. 50 as fine without receipt stuff would begin.
Also if they make this move, then do they even think of the quality of seats that are sold ? About their availability ?

A new rule that will be confined to books and corruption. Nothing more. We need to work upon core values and then these things will automatically follow.