Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday stated that not wearing a seat belt in the rear seats of cars will attract a penalty. The decision came after Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry’s death in a road accident on Sunday.
He shared a video from an event where he could be heard saying, “Earlier, there was a penalty for not wearing a seat belt for the driver and co-passenger only, but we have updated the law to include rear seat passengers as well.
Transport Minister Gadkari stated that the government will release an official statement within 2-3 days about the details of the penalty that will be levied on the passenger.
He stated that the government is in discussion with the car manufacturers to install beepers in vehicles of all price ranges that will go off if passengers in the rear seats do not wear seat belts.
Actually, the law already exists in the Motor Vehicle Act but awareness of this rule in the public domain is very less.
As per Rule 138(3) of the Motor Vehicle Act of 1989, “In a motor vehicle, in which seat-belts have been provided under sub rule (1) or sub-rule (1-A) of rule 125 or rule 125-A, as the case may be, it shall be ensured that the driver, and the person seated in the front seat or the persons occupying front facing rear seats, as the case may be, wear the seat belts while the vehicle is in motion.”
On Sunday, Cyrus Mistry was returning from the Parsi pilgrim of Udvada in Gujarat with Dr. Anahita Pundole, her husband Darius Pundole, and brother-in-law Jehangir Pandole. The car was overspeeding and crashed into a concrete road divider of Charoti bridge over the Surya river in Palghar on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway. Mistry and Jahangir died on the spot while Anahita and Darius were seriously injured.
