In its notification, the Mumbai Police had said that whoever drives a motor vehicle without wearing a safety belt or carries passengers not wearing seat belts shall be punishable.
As reported by ANI, Mumbai Traffic Police will begin a seat belt awareness drive that'll continue for 10 days, following which action will be taken.
"From 11th Nov strict action will be taken against defaulters who will be found seated in cars without seat belt - even in back seats, they said.
The Mumbai Police had earlier stated that motor vehicle which do not have seat belts facility have to install the seat belts for all the commuters. The due date for this was also set at November 1, 2022.
"All motor vehicle drivers and all commuters in vehicles, whoever travels on the road of Mumbai City are hereby informed that, it will be mandatory for drivers and all passengers to wear seat belts while traveling from 01/11/2022. Otherwise, action will be taken under section 194(B)(1) of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019," read the notification.
A a Traffic police official told news agency PTI that sensitising errant four-wheeler drivers and co-passengers will be the focus of the police as the rule to strap on seat belts in cars in Mumbai comes into force.
"While taking action against motorists and co-passengers, our focus will be to sensitise the drivers and co-passengers found not wearing seat belts," he told PTI.
Traffic Police have been directed to take action against the drivers not wearing seat belts, but we will issue warnings to four-wheelers which do not have rear seat belts.
Police will ask owners of such cars to install rear seat belts, he said.
This seat belt mandate came after after well-known industrialist and former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died in a road accident. Reports of him not wearing the rare seat belt soon made rounds after the accident. According to Palghar Police, Mistry was travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai when his car hit the divider. There were four people in the car. Two died on the spot, including Mistry, while the other two were shifted to hospital.
After this incident, the Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway had issued draft rules making it mandatory for car makers to install seat belt alarms in all seats of the cars. Earlier in September, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that from now on wearing seat belts would be mandatory for all passengers in a car, including those on rear seats, and flouting the rule will attract penalty.
He also informed that the safety alarms that typically beep when those on the front seats don't wear the seat belts, will now be do the same for rare seat passengers as well. The Union minister clarified that the new rule will be applicable to all kinds of cars - small and big.
"It will now be mandatory for all the people sitting in the car to wear a seat belt," tweeted had Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. He had also highlighted that the safety beeps will be present for rare seats along with the front seats which will buzz if one doesn't put on a seat belt.
Prior to Mumbai, in September, in a bid to intensify road safety rules, the Delhi Traffic Police had also launched a special drive to encourage people to use rear seat belts, failing which they will face a penalty of ₹1,000.
(With inputs from agencies)
