Car safety measures have recently caught a lot of attention and even though we shouldn’t be surprised, making further news is how most of us simply don’t have a clue about basic traffic rules. The government has decided to draft a set of new rules and highlight the current ones so that everyone is aware of them. After all, safety is paramount, but today we want to bust a couple of myths about airbags and emphasize why seat belts are still the most important safety feature in a four-wheeler.
How many times have we heard this line, “Why should I wear a seat belt, when the car is equipped with airbags”? For many, it’s a valid point, but sadly, not an informed one. Let’s just nip it in the bud by saying they are all invalid reasons, no matter what excuses we can all come up with. It’s not rocket science, but let’s get down to the bare basics and functions of these safety restraints.
1. Airbags don’t mean a licence to thrill
When you flip through a car brochure or scroll down the specs and features section on an automobile website, you will come across the acronym SRS with airbags. For those who don’t know what that stands for, it is Supplement Restraint System. In simple words, it is an additional safety measure which is designed to support seat belts, not substitute them. Airbags can only reduce fatal injuries and prevent life-threatening accidents by cushioning the impact when the passenger is seating in the right position by wearing seat belts.
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2. Seat belts are the primary defence
Many don’t realise this, but both seat belts and airbags work in tandem and provide multiple layers of safety for the driver and the passengers. Even the pioneer of airbags, Bosch has stated that ‘combined with a belt and belt tensioner, airbags are the most effective passive safety system in cars.’ Airbags deploy within 25-30 milliseconds and side-impact airbags activate a lot quicker, so to ensure that impact is shielded from the occupants during an accident, one has to buckle up as seat belts restrain passengers from being thrown forward and hitting their heads and injuring their knees. In worse situations, a person could be thrown out of the car hitting the windscreen or even the A-pillar.
3. An optimum driving position reduces airbag injuries
Apart from this, the correct driving position is also very important. A simple way to make sure there’s optimum space between you and the steering wheel is to reach your hands out and make sure the steering wheel is under your wrists. Now comes the height, the steering wheel should be angled towards your chest, not lower or higher than that cause then the impact of the airbag can lead to severe injuries. Hence, the correct seating distance ensures people aren’t sitting too close to airbags.
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Ever heard of the 10 and 2 O’clock steering wheel hand position? Well, thanks to power steering, the ideal position of your hands has now changed to the 9 and 3 O’clock position. The previous hand position allowed the driver to hold the steering wheel tighter and exert more force while taking a turn. With the technology of power steering, this has now become redundant. Also, keeping safety in mind, in the 9 and 3 O’clock position, when the front airbags are deployed, the hands ricochets back to the sides rather than hitting the driver.
4. New initiatives by MoRTH
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has drafted and updated the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR), 1989 that all vehicles manufactured from October 1, 2022, onwards must be equipped with at least six airbags. Currently, only the front two airbags are made mandatory for car companies, which was introduced in July 2019.
Highlighting the importance of seat belts, the Road Transport Ministry is pushing the mandate to make seat belt alarm systems for all other front-facing seat occupants, including all rear passengers mandatory. At the moment, the only driver and front passenger seats come equipped with seat belt reminders.
The third important update is to ensure all the seats including the middle and rear rows be equipped with three-point seat belts. Minister of Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari announced earlier this year that he has approved this move making it mandatory for all automobile manufacturers. The main advantage of a three-point seat belt is that it offers a more distributed and balanced restrain by strapping the occupant’s shoulder, pelvis and chest during an accident.
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