India tops the list of countries with the highest number of road accidents and deaths in the entire world. Having said that, it has been learnt through a Times of India report that nearly 90 percent of the vehicles plying on roads are not equipped with six airbags. This life-saving feature is only limited to premium and high-end luxury cars.
The sources in the government and auto industry stated that mostly buyers prefer entry-level/mid variants with dual front airbags even of the models that offer six airbags as safety feature in top-end trims. Though the exact number is not available, it can be said with utmost certainty that the market share of cars with 2+ airbags is very low.
Also Read: Here’s Why a Car’s Airbags are Useless if You Don’t Put on Your Seatbelt
The Union government had made dual front airbags as compulsory in all the cars from January 2022. Reportedly, the government is of the view that inclusion of more airbags will save more lives in case of an accident. The stats are rather shocking as despite owning 1 percent of the global vehicle population, India has a staggering share of 11 percent in road fatalities.
The Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways has proposed to make 6-airbags mandatory in all cars from October 2022. However, it is highly unlikely to achieve it and the Ministry is expected to issue an extension soon. The draft notification of the same was released recently and it received mixed reactions from the auto manufacturers. But MORTH officials said that the plan to make 6-airbags as standard feature in cars is still in the works.
Nitin Gadkari put questions on the role of some auto manufacturers by asking why they were against the introduction of 6-airbags in India-spec models when they could equip the export model with the same feature. He had stated in the recent Parliament session that inclusion of 6-airbags in vehicles could have saved 13,000 lives in 2020 alone.
As per the report, around 1.6 lakh people were victims of road fatalities in 2021. Contrary to the opinion of the Union government, a few automakers have also suggested implementing stricter rules in order to curb road accidents which involves strict enforcement of seatbelt rules, heavy fines on drunk driving and put a check on wrong-lane and high-speed driving.
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