Guest Column: Let’s buckle up! A critical imperative for Indian roads

Seat belts are often perceived as an inconvenience rather than the life-saving tool they are by a majority of drivers and passengers in India. Too frequently, they are neglected or discarded at the earliest chance after getting into the vehicle, be the front seat driver and passenger or passengers seated in the back.
Sadly, India faces an alarming road safety crisis, with thousands of lives lost annually due to accidents. Despite legal mandates, the use of rear seat belts remains strikingly low. Recent surveys show that 7 out of 10 Indians neglect to wear seat belts when seated in the back, exacerbating the risk of fatality and severe injury in collisions. Seat belts provide crucial protection, as tragically evidenced by accidents like the recent July 2024 Delhi-Mumbai Expressway crash, which claimed two lives, or the fatal Mahendergarh school bus accident in April 2024 in which six students got killed. These deaths could have been prevented if seat belts had been properly worn.
Globally, countries have made significant strides in enforcing seat belt usage. In countries like Sweden and the United Kingdom, seat belt compliance rates exceed 90 per cent, with stringent laws protecting both adults and children.
In 2022, India’s roads bore the tragic toll of 4,61,312 crashes, a stark reminder of the country’s ongoing road safety crisis. These incidents led to the loss of 1,68,491 lives and left 4,43,366 others injured. At the heart of this catastrophe lies over-speeding, which continues to be a key factor in both fatal accidents and severe injuries. However, another often-overlooked but critical cause of death in these accidents is the failure to wear seatbelts.
In a troubling statistic, 16,715 people — around 9% of the total fatalities — lost their lives simply because they did not buckle up. The consequences of this simple omission are profound: over 42,000 people were injured for the same reason. More than half of those who died were without seatbelts, 8,384 to be precise, were drivers. But passengers, often trusting their safety to the vehicle or the driver, were equally at risk, with 8,331 of them losing their lives.
What emerges from this data is a clear insight: while over-speeding may be a top contributor to road crashes, the simple act of buckling a seatbelt could have saved thousands of lives.
Despite the legal mandate stipulating the use of seat belts, its enforcement is still lacking. In India, both the driver and the co-driver in the front seats are required to wear seat belts. As per the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, mandatory wearing of rear seatbelts was notified in 2004 and came into force from 2005. However, compliance with rear seat belt usage remains alarmingly low.
Lack of rear airbags in vehicles exacerbates the risks associated with not wearing seat belts. The absence of rear airbags in vehicles highlights the critical role of seat belts in protecting rear seat occupants. Despite advancements in automobile safety, a significant percentage of vehicle models in India lack rear seat belts and fail to meet the safety standards set by organisations like the Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP).
Road crashes can result from various factors such as poor road conditions, rash driving, or drunk driving. Analysis of accident data consistently shows that seat belts significantly reduce the risk of death by 50%. If occupants are buckled up in the front seat of a passenger car, they can reduce risk of fatal injury by 45% and moderate to critical injury by 50%. This reinforces the urgent need to promote seat belt usage, especially in rear seats, to prevent needless deaths on Indian roads.
Through innovative engineering and a comprehensive safe system approach, road safety can be significantly improved. However, without adherence to fundamental safety measures such as seat belt usage, these efforts are undermined. Seat belts remain indispensable tools in mitigating injury risks during collisions, with a proven track record of saving lives.This calls for a multi-faceted approach involving heightened and sustained social behaviour change awareness campaigns and rigorous enforcement by law enforcement agencies on seat belts compliance.
According to the Save Life Foundation study 2019, only 10% of school buses have seat belts for children. There is an urgent need for school bus/van drivers to have seatbelts for all passengers as per CBSE (2017) guidelines. Also, vehicle manufactures must prioritise the inclusion of rear seat belts and airbags in vehicles to enhance passenger safety comprehensively and not cut corners to save production cost.
India’s road safety narrative is not just one of better infrastructure or technology, but also of cultivating a culture of responsibility and behaviour change starting at young age, where drivers and passengers alike understand the power of their own choices in ensuring a safer journey.
(Alok Mittal is a senior IPS officer of Haryana. and Sarika Panda Bhatt is a road safety expert)