Govt issues draft rules for car firms for mandatory rear seat belt alarm

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) has issued draft rules to make it mandatory for car makers to install alarm system for rear seat belts. 

The last date for public comments on draft rules is Oct. 5, according to the notification.

The government has been considering enforcing the use of rear seatbelts after Cyrus Mistry, the former chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Sons, died in a car crash recently.

He was sitting in the rear seat and did not have his seat belt on, local media reported, citing police officials.

In India, one person dies every four minutes in road accidents, the World Bank said last year.

While it is already mandatory for all occupants in a car in India, the world's fourth-biggest auto market, to wear a seat belt failing which they can be fined, passengers at the back seldom do and enforcement is also lax.

As per the proposal, seat belt reminders or alarms will be mandatory in M and N category vehicles, with audio-video warning in case the seat belts, including the rear ones, are not worn.

Besides, there will be a speed alert system to check over-speeding and manual override for the central locking system.

"Safety-belt reminder" means a system dedicated to alerting the driver when the driver and all other front-facing seat occupant(s) do not use the safety-belt. The system is constituted by a detection of an unfastened safety-belt and by a driver's alert which is a first level warning and a second level warning.

"First Level Warning" means a visual warning activated when the ignition switch is engaged (engine running or not) and the driver's and front-facing seat occupants' safety-belt is not fastened. An audible warning can be added as an option, said the proposal. "Second Level Warning" means a visual and audible warning activated when a driver operates a vehicle without fastening of driver and front-facing seat occupants' safety-belt.

The draft rules also said that for M and N category vehicles, reverse parking alert system will be applicable. 'M' category vehicles are the ones with at least four wheels used for carrying passengers, while 'N' category vehicles also have four wheels, but are used to carry goods and may also carry passengers.