GURUGRAM: After Delhi and Noida, police in Gurugram will be keeping an eye on the use of rear seat belts in cars, a key safety aspect that has come under enforcement attention since former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry’s death in a car accident in Maharashtra on September 4.
But traffic police in the city will not issue fines right away. Instead, the cops have decided to initiate an awareness campaign in which they will stop and counsel commuters not using the rear seat belt.
Police sources said they were still working out which sections of the law could be invoked to issue a rear seat belt fine. In Delhi, the cops are invoking Section 194B (use of safety belts and seating of children) of the Motor Vehicles Act to issue a penalty of Rs 1,000 to people caught not wearing the seat belt at the rear.
“Our men have already embarked on a special drive to make motorists aware of the importance of the rear seat belts. We are not issuing any challan as of now,” said DCP (traffic) Virender Singh Sangwan.
Associate professor of transport planning at the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi, Sewa Ram, welcomed the Gurugram police’s initiative. “The Motor Vehicles Act, 2014, mandates the use of rear seat belts. The enforcement of the same will help in reducing the fatalities in road accidents,” he said.
ACP (traffic) Ashok Kumar said that apart from the rear seat belt awareness initiative, the traffic police had been carrying out different drives. “From September 9 to 17, we carried out a drive against vehicles without high security registration plates and issued 1,668 challans. During the same period, the traffic police initiated a drive against lane violations and overloading in goods transport vehicles like trucks,” he said.
In the last week, the Gurugram traffic police issued 55 challans for drunken driving. “During the same period, a total of 2,305 challans were issued for various other traffic violations,” the ACP said.
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