Nitin Gadkari said the orders for the new rules will be issued in the next few days.
Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, has announced a host of safety measures for all cars following the death of iconic industrialist Cyrus Mistry in a car accident on Sunday. He said on Tuesday that car manufacturers will be asked to install seat belt alarms for rear passengers as well. The Central government will formulate a draft notification to enforce this rule.
After the BS-6 rules came into force, all new four-wheelers have preinstalled alarms that keep beeping until the front seat passengers fasten their seat belts. With the proposed rules, the alarm will keep pinging until all passengers fasten their belts.
Gadkari said the orders for the new rules will be issued in the next few days.
Not wearing rear seat belts is an offense under the amended Motor Vehicles Act. However, the rule is not effectively enforced. Since these alarms will cause inconvenience to passengers, they would be forced to fasten seat belts.
Gadkari said the government is also mulling bringing seat belts to buses, Indian Express reported.
He said the Centre would make it mandatory for car manufacturers to install at least six airbags in eight-seater cars.
He said the volume of car horns will have to be below 70 decibels.
Mistry was traveling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai when his Mercedes-Benz car rammed into a divider near Maharashtra's Palghar district. He and his co-passenger -- both sitting in the rear seats -- died on the spot whereas the couple on the front seat survived with serious injuries. The victims weren't wearing seat belts.
A preliminary probe revealed that the driver -- a Mumbai-based doctor -- couldn't handle the speeding vehicle as the road narrowed down from three lanes to two. The car was moving at a speed of 130 km per hour on a highway with a permissible top speed of 80 km per hour.
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 "Cyrus Mistry (File)")
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