Mistry death: Experts call for better enforcement of seat belt regulations

To begin with, seat belts for rear passengers should be enforced at least on national highways when one is travelling at 70 kmph and above, say safety experts

The Mercedes-Benz GLC 220d crash, which claimed the lives of Cyrus Mistry, the scion of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, and Jehangir Pandole, director-global strategy group at KPMG’s London office in the UK, has brought into sharp focus the passive safety features, including airbags and seatbelts — and their enforcement.  

Safety experts are of the view that it is high time a regulation like wearing a seatbelt is enforced in a more stringent manner. To begin with, seatbelts for rear passengers should be enforced at least on national highways when one is travelling at 70 kilometres per hour and above. National highways comprise 4 per cent of roadways, but alarmingly contribute to 39 per cent of the total number of road accidents, says Rohit Baluja, president, Institute of Road Traffic Education.

Piyush Tiwari, chief executive officer and founder at SaveLIFE Foundation, says this incident and others occurring every day call for serious review of the lack of implementation of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, fixing road engineering issues leading to such crashes and injuries, and embarking on a mass awareness and training campaign to ensure higher compliance with safety standards.

SaveLIFE is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to improving road safety and emergency medical care across India.

Having passive features like seatbelts alone don’t warrant safety in the event of a crash, their use does.
 

“For effective deployment of airbags, the occupants have to be buckled up. Else, in the event of a crash, the rear passenger will be hurtled forward with severe force, leading to injury or worse, fatality, to the front occupant as well,” says Baluja.

Sixty per cent of all fatal crashes are caused by speeding.

“As for the top reasons for injury, the non-use of seatbelts and collision with exposed hard structures along roads play key roles,” says Tiwari.

Preliminary investigations by Maharashtra Police revealed that Mistry and Pandole in the backseat weren’t strapped in and must have been thrown to the front at great velocity once the speeding car crashed into a divider, PTI reported on Monday.

Officials have noted that prima facie, the luxury car was speeding when the accident took place on Sunday afternoon, the news agency reported. The car covered a distance of 20 km in under nine minutes after crossing the Charoti checkpost in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, 120 km away from Mumbai, according to police officials.

Rear seatbelts are an important safety device. According to the World Health Organization, the use of the rear seatbelt reduces the probability of being killed by 25 per cent and injuries by 75 per cent. When examining the use of rear seatbelts in India, a study by SaveLIFE reveals that a majority of the people surveyed are aware of the presence of the rear seatbelt.

Although India has a law on the use of seatbelt, implementation is a challenge due to lack of awareness and weak enforcement of laws.

In 2017, 26,896 people died due to non-use of seatbelts in India, according to government data.

The GLC has seven airbags, including two curtain airbags in the rear. The S-Class and the Maybach are the only two models in India that come with rear airbags. Most other high-end cars have curtain airbags for rear-seat occupants.

“For those seated in the rear, the seatbelt is the only prevention from injury in the event of an accident. The curtain airbags won’t be effective if the occupant isn’t fastened,” says an official at a car company.  

According to the Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2021 report, 155,622 people were killed and 371,884 injured in 403,116 road crashes in India in 2021 — an increase of 17 per cent over 2020. The crash severity has increased from 37.5 in 2020 to 38.6 in 2021 and is the highest in two decades.

According to Baluja, it is important to have a scientific investigation into road accidents, which only takes into account seatbelts, airbags, etc, but also the traffic engineering of that area — whether proper speed limit signs were put up, whether there were blindspots.

The investigating officers are not trained enough. “We need to look at the entire system comprehensively to arrive at a conclusion.”  

Human injury-contributing factors

Observed in crashes (in %)

1. 47% Seatbelt not used
2. 2% Helmet not used 2%
3. 1% Overloading of cargo or occupants
4. 0% Improper accident/breakdown management