The Union authorities has requested e-commerce firm Amazon to cease promoting units designed to disable seat belt alarms in vehicles, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has stated, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Whereas the sale of such units shouldn’t be unlawful, they’ve come below scrutiny after a automotive accident on Sunday led to the loss of life of former Tata Sons Chairperson Cyrus Mistry and his co-passenger Jehangir Pandole in Maharashtra’s Palghar district.

A police investigation confirmed that Mistry and Pandole, who have been within the again seat of the Mercedes, weren’t carrying seat belts.

On Tuesday, Gadkari had stated that carrying seat belts for all passengers could be made necessary and that fines will likely be levied for not carrying them within the again seat of a automotive. The federal government already imposes advantageous for not carrying seat belts within the entrance seats.

In an interview to Reuters on Wednesday, the Union minister stated {that a} kind of steel clip is offered on Amazon which might be inserted in seat belt slots to bypass the alarm that goes off when the driving force and entrance seat passenger don’t use the protection measure.

“Individuals purchase clips from Amazon to evade carrying seat belts,” he stated. “We’ve despatched a discover to Amazon to cease [selling them].”

Gadkari stated that car accidents have resulted in deaths of 1.5 lakh Indians final yr. In line with the World Financial institution, an individual died on the highway each 4 minutes in India in 2021.

In Maharashtra, highway accidents have led to over 59,000 deaths and 80,000 accidents in lower than 5 years, confirmed knowledge launched by the freeway police on Tuesday. Of those, greater than 11% deaths have been prompted as passengers didn’t use seat belts, in keeping with the report titled Street accidents in India – 2020.

On Tuesday, Gadkari had additionally stated that the federal government was aiming to make it necessary to have at the least six airbags in eight-seater vehicles after October 1.