The long road to safety

Car-makers' airbag objections are disingenuous

The road transport and highways ministry’s proposal to make it mandatory for vehicles that carry up to eight passengers to have six airbags has, predictably, met with protests from car manufacturers, especially those that make entry-level small cars. The car companies’ have offered three interconnected arguments against this proposal. They say the introduction of five extra airbags — a driver airbag has been compulsory since 2019 — will drive up costs, which in turn will crimp demand at a time when the sales have been near-stagnant and safety equipment ranks low on buyers’ priorities in any case. When set against the value of passenger safety, none of these arguments holds water. India has one of the world’s worst road safety records. According to the World Bank data for 2019, India has 1 per cent of the world’s vehicles but accounts for 11 per cent of the road accident deaths.

Not all of these deaths will be caused by collisions; the number of people run over by cars is also high in the country. Even so, the government’s goal to have safer cars on Indian roads is unexceptionable and, indeed, long overdue. In 2014, Indian cars scored abysmally in the first crash tests conducted by the Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP). Matters have improved steadily since then, but it is worth noting that most of the cars that earn four stars (out of a possible five) in recent years tend to be closer to sports utility vehicles in nature. It is no trade secret that several global automakers introduced cars with stripped-down safety measures for India; fully safety-equipped cars tend to be only at the top end.
 

But India can no longer afford this level of risk in the cars plying on its roads, given the rising speed limits on highways and certain city roads. For one, the progressive thinner metal panelling that car-makers resort to — to cut costs — makes the need for seatbelts and airbags even more critical. For another, the widening of the market for online cab-hailing services alone adds to the higher safety standards, given the number of rookie or poorly trained drivers who take to the roads to provide these services. India has often been a laggard in terms of passenger safety. Seatbelts were made compulsory for front seat passengers only in 1998, way behind the US and Europe, and enforcing that rule entailed heavy policing. But the government is catching up: From October this year, a draft notification has said rear seat belts will be compulsory, and manufacturers are required to have seat belt alarms as well.

The manufacturers’ argument on higher cost is also off the mark. Airbags cost Rs 5,000-10,000, perhaps Rs 20,000 for side rear airbags. Levelised across large volumes, the additional cost should not be unaffordable. Besides, the Indian car market has matured considerably with demand for mid-sizers and luxury cars growing faster than for entry-level cars. The case that car safety is a low priority for buyers is irrelevant and merely a matter of consumer education. The government is yet to set a timeline for the six-airbag rule — dual airbags were made compulsory in January — but Indian roads would benefit from an early green signal.