Road Safety: Middle Seat in Cars Will Soon Have Y-Shaped Seat Belts in India

According to the government official, this initiative will be the second intervention to make cars safer after the government recently proposed to make six air bags mandatory for all passenger vehicles.

New Delhi: The government will soon make it mandatory for automakers to provide three-point seatbelts in all the seats of a car, including for the third passenger seated in the middle of the rear seat, according to officials in the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH). At present, only the front and rear window seats have three-point seat belts, also known as Y-shaped belts. The middle rear seats in most cars have a belt similar to aircraft seat belts that go over the lap.

According to a report in Hindustantimes.com, the ministry is likely to issue a notification in about a month, after which suggestions an d comments will be sought from the public. “The intention of the government is to improve the overall safety ratings of passenger cars manufactured in India. The ministry found that barring a few models, no vehicle has three-point seat belts for the passenger seated in the rear middle in India,” the report in the publication quoted a ministry official as saying.

Automaker Volvo developed the three-point seatbelt and introduced the then-patented seatbelt in its cars in August 1959. However, the company decided to leave the patent open in the greater interest of public safety. It has also been proven to be safer than the lap belt.

According to the government official, this initiative will be the second intervention to make cars safer after the government recently proposed to make six air bags mandatory for all passenger vehicles.

The MoRTH issued a draft notification seeking comments from the public and other stakeholders on the proposed rule that will make it mandatory for car makers to provide six airbags.

However, experts said that a lot also has to be blamed on passenger behaviour as almost 90% of Indian car passengers risk their safety by not using rear seatbelts at all.