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KUALA LUMPUR: “They don’t think they need it.” That’s what most road users think of when it comes to rear seat belts.
The president of the Malaysian Road Safety Research Institute (Miros), Surjet Singh, said that although the regulation has been in place for more than a decade since 2009, many road users are not even aware of the importance of wearing seat belts. rear seat safety.
He said that based on observations, the rate of use of seat belts in the rear seats among Malaysian road users remains very low, at just 11%.
“According to studies, if the driver and passengers of a vehicle are involved in a traffic accident, the risk of death can be reduced by 50% with airbags and this increases to 80% if used together with seat belts”, he said recently to Bernama. .
Therefore, he said that based on the compliance rate, a strategic plan was developed to instill the use of the seat belt in the rear seats as a springboard to educate and increase awareness on the importance of wearing seat belts by stages.
“The plan had been approved by the Miros board of directors and was supposed to be implemented last year until 2022, but it was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Miros will work with the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Road Transport to ensure that the plan is improved,” he said.
Surjet added that Miros was optimistic about reaching a 95% compliance rate by 2022 and instilling rear seat belt use as part of the habits of Malaysian road users.
The rear seat belt use law went into effect on January 1, 2009 under the Motor Vehicle (Seat Belt) Rules (2008 Amendment) and offenders can be fined a fine of no more RM2,000 or incarcerated for not more than one year, or both.
He said Miros will use various approaches, from the school level to public and private agencies, in an effort to raise awareness among Malaysians.
“In the plan, we will turn the highest government officials into role models because it is the aspiration of the chief secretary of the government himself,” he said.
On November 1, 2020, the Chief Secretary of the Government, Mohd Zuki Ali, signed a Circular for the Use of Seat Belt Campaign that required government officials to use the seat belts of the rear seats in vehicles of government property.
