“Fasten your seat-belts please. And that goes for both of you.” This advisory is no bland pre-flight protocol over an airplane’s public address system while personable flight attendants demonstrate the safety drill. It’s what you will hear from your friendly neighbourhood traffic cop over the next week.
The Mumbai police have launched a week-long awareness and counselling drive telling motorists that seat-belts are mandatory for both the driver and the front-seat passenger. This is the one more step towards full enforcement of a 2003 Bombay High Court order on motorist safety. Earlier phases made helmets for two-wheeler riders and seat-belts for four-wheeler driver smandatory.
On February 6, 2016, the Maharashtra State Transport department issued an advisory asking for the implementation of phase II of this rule. This makes it mandatory that both rider and passenger on two-wheelers wear a helmet and in four-wheelers, that both driver and front-seat passenger have their seat-belts fastened. The circular also stated that at the time of registering a two-wheeler, proof of sale of two helmets would be required from the dealer.
ADVERTISEMENT
Joint commissioner of police (Traffic) Milind Bharambe told The Hindu, that since April 29, 2016, “our traffic officers have started the awareness drive as well as counselling.” In other words, fines won’t be levied just yet, just a gentle warning.
“Some people do argue with the traffic policemen,” Mr Bharambe said, “but while it is the law we are enforcing, it is for their own safety.” Mr Bharambe said that in phase III, in six months, all passengers seated in a four-wheeler would be required to have their seatbelts on.
The word-of-mouth route for publicising the enforcement of the rule is a necessity because the traffic police, despite being a high revenue-earner for the state, have no budget to publicise their drive through paid advertisements in the media. “In fact, even for our earlier initiatives on drunken driving and other traffic advisories we could only request the owners of hoardings to flash our public messages without charging us any fee,” Mr Bharambe explained. “Hence, we have now launched an awareness drive [where] our policemen will create awareness of the legal requirement. Our experience teaches us that once awareness is created people take to adhering to the traffic laws fairly well.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The writer is a freelance journalist