Wearing a seat belt at the rear has now become mandatory in Delhi or get ready to pay ₹ 1,000 Fine

New Delhi: Not wearing seat belts in the rear seats of cars will attract penalties in national capital Delhi now. A fine of ₹1,000 will be levied on people not wearing rear seat belts. The move comes after the recent death of former Tata Sons chairperson Cyrus Mistry in a tragic car accident earlier this month. For the unversed, Mistry was seated in the rear seats and was not wearing a seat belt

Following the mishap, the Centre decided to fine passengers who do not wear seat belts in the rear seat. The government was also in talks with car manufacturers to include a beeper that will go off if the rear seat passenger is not wearing a seat belt. 

“Already, it’s mandatory to wear a seat belt at the rear seat but people are not following it. There will be a siren (or beeper that will go off in the vehicle) if the people at the rear seat don’t wear belts like in the front seats. And if they don’t wear belts, there will be a fine,” Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said in an



interview.

Experts said that people, especially rear seat passengers, need to be educated to wear seat belts as abroad.

“It is to be kept in mind that in the event of a crash, if the passenger has not fastened his seat belt, the deployment of the airbag could end up killing the passenger, even if the crash does not kill. Six airbags imply that the rear seat passengers would also be covered. The practice of fastening seat belts in the rear seat is very low even in big cities and metros and near-zero in the mid to smaller cities of India. Worse still, the awareness that if an airbag deploys without a seat belt, it could be injurious or fatal – is very low in India,” said KK Kapila, President(emeritus) International Road Federation (IRF).

Although not wearing a seat belt in the rear attracts a fine of Rs 1,000 under Rule 138 (3) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR), most people are either unaware of this mandatory rule or ignore it. Even the traffic police seldom fine passengers for not wearing seat belts in the rear.