Seat belts mandatory for all passengers in car, violators to be fined: Gadkari announces new rule after Mistry's death

New Delhi, Sept 7: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari highlighted the importance of seatbelts in a car and said that it would be mandatory for all the passengers in a car to wear them including those in rear seats, and breaking the rule will attract penalty. The announcement was made only two days after former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died in a car accident near Mumbai, and police probe later revealed that he was not wearing a seat belt.

 

 

 

Sharing a video from an event, the Union Minister said that seatbelts will be mandated. "It will now be mandatory for all the people sitting in the car to wear a seat belt," tweeted Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. In the video, he also highlighted that the safety beeps will now be present for rare seats along with the front seats which will buzz if one doesn't put on a seat belt.

 

 

The Union minister clarified that the new rule will be applicable to all kinds of cars - small and big. He also informed that a fine already is in place for those not wearing the seat belt while on the front seats. However, the new rule will impose a penalty for not fastening the belt even if passengers are sitting on the rear (backside) seats in a vehicle.

 

His remarks came after well-known industrialist and former Tata Sons chairman Mistry died in a road accident near Mumbai on Sunday evening. Reports of him not wearing the rare seat belt soon made rounds after the accident.

 

 

The accident occurred when 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 before it crashed into a concrete road divider of Charoti bridge over the Surya river in Palghar on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway. Mistry and Jehangir lost their lives on the spot, while Anahita and Darius were severely injured.

 

Earlier in the day, Police asked the car manufacturer company why the airbags in the ill-fated SUV did not open at the time of the accident. Palghar Police asked several questions from the car manufacturer company, "Why do not the airbags open? Was there any mechanical fault in the vehicle? What was the brake fluid of the car? What was the tire pressure?"

 

Police said that these vehicles come out of the plant only after proper testing. "In such a situation, what is the report of the collision impact on the manufacturer's investigation? Was the steering locked after the collision?" Police asked the car manufacturer. The car manufacturer team will submit the answers to all these questions in its report.