Earlier in October, the Mumbai Police issued a statement saying that it will be mandatory for the driver and co-passengers, even those in the rear seat, to wear seat belts from November 1.
Although the mandate for wearing seat belts was supposed to come into force in Mumbai today, it has now been postponed for 10 days. For the next 10 days, police will issue warnings to the general public, and after November 10 they will issue fines, which can go up to Rs 1000.
As per the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, whoever drives a motor vehicle without wearing a safety belt or carries passengers not wearing seat belts shall be punished.
Although the rule is already in existence, however, a survey suggests that up to 97.6% people do not wear seat belts in the backseat.
The people of Mumbai had a mixed reaction to the issued advisory by the Mumbai Police. Traffic police personnel Saili Konkar said, "People should respect and abide by this law as this is for their own safety and should not be for the fear of challan. To start with if, we find people not following the rule we will be issuing challans maybe that way the awareness would come and people will follow the rule. Right now we are doing our best to make people aware about the new rule, however, the ultimate decision lies in their hands."
Traffic cop Saili Konkar educating Mumbaikars about the new law |
Firoz Khan, a taxi driver from Byculla said, "It is completely unfair to taxi drivers as we are not going to be the ones making this decision. Taxi drivers should not be punished for the decisions passengers make, and this is very inconvenient for the passengers as well when they are traveling to a shorter distance."
Rule comes into effect after Cyrus Mistry's tragic accident
The decision came after the death of Cyrus Mistry who died in a tragic road accident on the Mumbai-Pune highway. The former Tata chairman was allegedly not wearing a seat belt while sitting in the back seat of his Mercedes. He did not survive the accident which took place on September 4, 2022. His death highlighted the importance of wearing seat belts in the backseat.
