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Journalism of Courage
Seat belts came into existence in the late 1800s. Invented by George Cayley, an English aviation innovator, the original purpose behind their creation was to ensure that pilots were kept inside their gliders. It was not until February 10, 1885 that the first patented seat belt came into existence. Created by Edward J Claghorn, it was meant to keep tourists safe in New York City taxis. Ever since, seat belts have gradually made their way into our daily lives and have rightfully become our first line of defence while on the move on roads across the world.
This, though, was the rudimentary phase of the genesis of seat belts.
The 3-point seat belt
The seat belt as we know it now came into existence in 1959 after Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the V-type three-point seat belt at the behest of Volvo. Up until then, seat belts were two-point lap belts — as we now see in aeroplanes. This elementary design helped strap drivers and passengers with a buckle that was fastened over the abdomen. In comparison, the innovative three-point seat belt provides much better protection to drivers and passengers in the event of a road crash. By virtue of its design, this seat belt, which helps secure both the upper and lower parts of the body in a much more firm manner, has helped save millions of lives globally over the years.
Piyush Tewari is the Founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF), a non-profit organisation committed to saving lives on roads in India since 2008.
How seat belts protect
This fact is corroborated by simple science. In a vehicle travelling at 100 km/ hr, a rear seat passenger weighing about 80 kg and not secured with the help of a seat belt, is hurtled at an enormous force of 30,864 Joules in the event of a road crash. Needless to say, such tremendous speed is capable of causing severe injuries to both the said passenger and others, both within the vehicle and outside.
In the event that back seat passengers fail to secure themselves with seat belts, there are three ways in which they are prone to injuries.
Required by the law
Road crashes entail two primary components: cause of crash and cause of injury. The former deals with matters pertaining to driver behaviour, road engineering, and vehicular issues. The latter deals with the causes leading to the subsequent injuries and deaths mostly in the realm of infrastructural and vehicle safety issues. Today, seat belts are a standard feature in most vehicles as they are an essential element that work towards preventing serious injuries and deaths.
Even the law requires seat belts to be worn, not just for your safety but the safety of other occupants as a single unbelted passenger can collide with and severely injure other passengers. Rule 138(3) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, makes it mandatory for the rear passengers too to wear seat-belts. Further, non-wearing of seat-belts by the driver or passengers has been made punishable with a fine of one thousand rupees according to Section 194B(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (as amended by the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Compliance and enforcement
Despite penal provisions, the level of compliance among rear seat passengers remains abysmally low. In a 2019 survey undertaken by SaveLIFE Foundation, only 7% of respondents confirmed using a rear seat belt. In fact, most people are unaware of this rule mandating rear seat belts despite it having legislative force.
As far as enforcement is concerned, there is much greater emphasis on the use of front seat belts as compared to rear seat belts. In that sense, the usage of the rear seat belts suffers both from lack of adequate information as well as strong enforcement.
Life-saving prescription
In the crashes investigated by SLF over the years, while overspeeding has consistently been a major causal factor behind road crashes, the non-usage of seat belts has emerged as a major cause of injury and fatalities. For the authorities to prevent such unnecessary injuries and deaths, it is imperative to ensure strict enforcement of rear seat belt usage. This combined with a rear seat belt reminder — as in the front seat belt— should be made standard practice across the board.
What is also the need of the hour is an extensive awareness campaign at the level of the Swachh Bharat Mission to address the issue of road crashes. A combination of these is required for the prevention of road crash deaths and injuries being witnessed in record numbers in recent times.
In an alternate reality, the Palghar incident might have panned out differently— wherein the vehicle may still have veered off for any unknown reason but had not collided with an exposed concrete structure owing to the presence of crash barriers or other attenuation measures. Within this reality, even if the vehicle came to a sudden halt, the rear seat passengers would have emerged largely unscathed, or with minor injuries owing to the fact that they too were secured with rear seat belts, like their front seat counterparts.
Such incidents are to a large extent avoidable, and therefore, must not be viewed as accidents or near accidents. The mandatory use of seat belts, not just front but also rear, is the simplest behavioural change that each one of us can practise every time we step into a four-wheeler. With a simple click of the seat belt indicating it getting fastened securely, each of us works towards ensuring our own safety as well as that of fellow passengers.
