PETALING JAYA: Rear seat car passengers are still not buckling up despite it being made compulsory by law more than a decade ago.
A mere 11% of rear seat passengers comply with the ruling, compared with 95% for drivers and 85% for front passengers, according to the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros).
Its chairman Datuk Suret Singh said stricter enforcement is needed to ensure passengers use the rear seat belts.
“Seat belts have been proven from time to time to save lives in the case of road accidents, yet many rear seat passengers are still ignorant about the need to buckle up. What we are trying to do is make rear seat belt wearing a habit. We hope the public will naturally belt up once they sit in a car,” he said yesterday.
In 2009, it was announced that all vehicles registered on and after Jan 1, 1995 must be fitted with rear seat belts.
This was enforced to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents.
A study by Miros in 2007 showed there were 350 deaths, 700 serious injuries and 2,100 minor injuries involving rear seat passengers.
About 40% to 50% of deaths, serious and minor injuries could have been avoided if drivers and passengers used their seat belts, Suret said.
Recent surveys revealed that 95% of vehicles are now equipped with seat belts, except for cars that are more than 26 years old.
“Now is the perfect time to push for this because with most modern day cars being already equipped with seat belts, it will not add any sort of financial burden to the public. It will be just a matter of buckling up to be safe on the road,” he said.
Miros is attempting to get civil servants to be role models for rear seat belt usage.
It is also trying to include community-based programmes at district level to promote the practice.
“We also hope to gain the cooperation of state assemblymen and other partners such as police and the Road Transport Department to lead this advocacy,” Suret said.
“We will also carry out events with local influencers to expand our reach to the public, especially youngsters, on this matter.”
“There were a total of 1,253 deaths in 2019,” he said.
Studies by Miros have shown that the risk of death and serious injury is reduced by 50% if seat belts are worn.
“If you add airbags into the equation, the risk of injury reduces to 85%,” Suret added.
