New Delhi: With former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry’s death putting the focus back on seat-belts and airbags in cars, Union Minister for Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has slammed car manufacturers, questioning their decision to put just four airbags in units sold in India while installing six airbags in export models.
“The same company, when it exports those cars, puts in six airbags but when they make them for the locals, they only put four. Are our lives not worthy of being saved?”
Gadkari was talking to India Today’s news director Rahul Kanwal on the sidelines of an event organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) on Monday.
He dismissed the argument of manufacturers that increasing the number of airbags will push up costs significantly, saying that the cost of adding one airbag in a car can be as low as Rs 900.
Gadkari said the process to mandatorily install six airbags in vehicles was already under way.
He described the Ahmedabad-Mumbai highway, on which Mistry was killed, as dangerous.
Nearly 90 per cent of vehicles plying on Indian roads do not have six airbags, according to a report in TOI.
Even the number of cars with more than two airbags is low, the report said.
Gadkari told India Today, “Every year, there are five lakh accidents in India and 1,50,000 deaths from road accidents. Out of this, 65 per cent of deaths are of people who are in the 18-34 age group”.
Mistry, who was occupying the car’s rear seat, wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.
Following Mistry’s death, industrialist Anand Mahindra on Monday posted a tweet that focused on the importance of wearing seat-belt by all passengers.
“I resolve to always wear my seat belt even when in the rear seat of the car. And I urge all of you to take that pledge too. We all owe it to our families,” Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, tweeted.
A simulation video also circulated on social media, urging rear seat passengers to always wear seat belt.
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