Indian cars to become safer from July 1, 2019: Heres’s how

In a bid to make the Indian cars safer, new safety rules will be implemented from July 1, 2019. As per the new rule, all the vehicles manufactured after 1st July 2019 will have to be equipped with airbags, seat-belt reminders, an alert system for speed after crossing 80 km/h, reverse parking alerts, and manual override over the central locking system for emergencies.

The additional safety features were in talks since a long time but Union road transport ministry has approved the timeline for the same. The new rule will be notified in a matter of few days. At present, a lot of manufacturers offer a part of such safety features and the high-end luxury vehicles offer all of these features as standard fitment.

The new rule has been approved by Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari in the wake of passenger and pedestrian safety. India has one of the most dangerous roads. Nearly 74,000 road accidents are reported every year with more than 1.51 lakh fatalities.

Talking about the speed limit buzzer, a transport ministry official said,

“The new cars will be fitted with a system that issues audio alerts when the speed crosses 80kmph. The alert will be sharper when the vehicle crosses 100kmph, and non-stop when it’s over 120 kmph.”

The manual override system will enable the passengers to unlock the doors in case of an electric power failure due to accidents or fire. Many fatalities are caused due to the passengers getting trapped inside the vehicle after an accident.

“To reduce the possibility of accidents while parking in reverse gear, the provision of reverse parking alert is being introduced. When the car is put in reverse gear, the feature will give an indication to the driver whether there are objects in the rear monitoring range,” said the official.

The new rule will also allow quicker implementation of front and side crash test for vehicles. India is also drawing an outline of BNVSAP (Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program) that will make vehicles much safer than the current ones.

The reverse sensors and airbags will also be made mandatory for light commercial vehicles that primarily operate in the urban areas.