Maruti Suzuki reveals 5 reasons why Indians don’t wear seatbelts in cars

Maruti Suzuki conducted a survey in 17 Indian cities that checked how many car users wore seatbelts. Shockingly, the study revealed that only 25 % of car users in India wear seatbelts. This has led to Maruti coming up with a campaign to  create awareness about wearing seatbelts. Here is a video.

The survey also found five main reasons why most people traveling in cars do not wear seatbelts.

1. Lack of strict enforcement of seat belt rule. In almost all parts of India, only the driver needs to compulsarily wear seat belts. Others traveling in the car think that there’s no incentive to wear a seat belt as they are not going to be fined by the police officials for not wearing seatbelts anyway. 32 % of respondents felt this way.

2. Image issues. Many people, 23 % of the survey respondents, especially drivers of cars, feel that wearing seat belt makes them look like novices. It’s macho not to wear seatbelts, and this is another major reason why people don’t wear seat belts in India even when on the driver’s seat.

3. Seatbelts crumple shirts. Susprisingly, 22 % people surveyed gave this reason for not wearing seatbelts. It may sound ridiculous but this is an issue for which many people in India avoid wearing seat belts.

4. Rely on airbags. 19 % of the survey’s respondents say that not wearing seatbelts is not a big deal as airbags will protect them anyway. In reality, this is totally a misconception as airbags can injure people who don’t wear seatbelts. Moreover, in many cars airbags don’t deploy when seatbelts aren’t worn.

5. Peer pressure. Since so many people (the majority) in India don’t wear seatbelts, people who actually want to wear seatbelts are also misled by them, and due to peer pressure, miss using this critical safety equipment. 18 % of survey respondents cited this reason for not wearing seatbelts.