KOCHI: Road accidents are a leading cause of death in India. As per the Road Accident Report 2016 by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), around 1.5 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents in India.
Considering the seriousness of the issue, MORTH has taken an ambitious target to bring down the road accidents by 50 per cent by 2020. Towards this, the government has taken several steps in the four key areas: Engineering (Vehicle, Road), Education, Enforcement and Emergency care. MORTH has, after studying the best vehicle safety practices across the world, laid down new vehicle safety norms which are at par with safety standards in Europe. With the new safety standards airbags will become standard in all cars. Supporting the ministry’s decision, various passenger vehicle manufacturers are taking steps to improve the safety standards of the passenger vehicles.
However, these efforts by the government and passenger vehicle manufacturers will be nullified if seat belts are not used. MORTH Road Accident Report released in 2016 claimed that 5,638 people who died in road accidents were not wearing seat belts.As per WHO, wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of fatality among drivers and the risk of serious injuries comes down by 45 per cent. Among passengers on the rear seat, says WHO, seatbelts reduce fatal and serious injuries by 25%.In fact, in a vehicle with airbags, if the passengers don’t wear the seat belt at the time of a crash, an airbag could end up causing harm to the passengers. Thus, the role of seat belt is even more critical. Even the overall usage pattern varies across the nation due to regional and demographic diversity.
With a view to promote seat belt usage and help bring down road fatalities, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, undertook an initiative to study the seat belt usage patterns - across regions, age group, gender, passenger vehicle segment, etc., motivators for usage of seat belt and reasons for non-usage of seat belts. Maruti Suzuki engaged Kantar Group (Millward Brown and IMRB), a reputed organisation in doing primary research to execute this study with higher accuracy.
The study – Seat Belt Usage in India 2017 – was conducted across 17 cities in India, spread across all zones (North, East, West, South), consisting of a mix of metros, tier 1 and tier 2 cities. The respondent profile included passenger vehicle drivers, co-driver seat occupants and rear seat passengers.
To that effect, Maruti Suzuki as a market leader has taken up this cause and undertaken a pan India survey on the usage of seatbelt and how it plays as an important safety device during an accident. The survey report has thrown light on some astonishing facts around the usage of seatbelts :
- Only 25% Indian Drivers in India Wear Seat Belts
-Only 12 percent of passengers wear seat belts when seated in a cab
- 25% of people don’t wear seat belt because they think it ruins their clothes.
‘#PehniKya’ is the first-ever campaign of its kind where the objective is to drive behavioural change among passenger vehicle users, create awareness about seat belt as a safety device and promote usage of seat belt. High impact, nationwide awareness programmes highlighting the importance of seat belt as the most effective safety device should be conducted. Passenger vehicle users who regularly wear seat belt should be rewarded and encouraged, this will help improve the image of seatbelt users. All these initiatives along with stringent law enforcement can effectively change the seat belt usage rate and behaviour among vehicle users.
REASONS FOR NOT USING SEATBELTS
Weak legal enforcement (32%) was the top most reason for non-usage of seat belt. There was practically no enforcement of this rule. Even where enforcement was stringent, it was confined to the passengers in the front seats.
Negative Image perceptions (27%) and the belief that seat belts ruin clothes (25%) emerged as other key reasons for non-usage of seat belts.
23% did not consider seat belts as a safety device leading to non-usage, an important factor that needs to be addressed.
20% said that they did not wear seat belts as family and friends don’t wear / do not encourage seat belt usage.
REASONS FOR USING SEAT BELTS
77% respondents said they wear seat belts because of legal enforcement.
64% of car passengers wear seat belts, because they considered seatbelts as a self-safety device.
63% respondents said they had prior experience of seeing how seat belts
had saved lives, hence they use it.
Encouragement from family and friends to wear seatbelts was one of the key reasons for wearing seatbelts among 56% of the people interviewed.