The traffic police will start levying fines on drivers who do not comply with the seat belt rule, from February 10. For the last few months, the police have been trying to create awareness among car drivers to fasten their seat belts. From next week, the police will fine errant drivers Rs 100 for the violation.

The city traffic police had launched a campaign to educate drivers on the seat belt rule since September 2011. “When we decided to implement seat belt rule strictly, we realised that most of the police vehicles did not have seat belts. Hence, we issued an order to all police heads to equip their vehicles with safety belts. It is almost six months since we launched the campaign and we will start booking cases from February 10,” informed M.A. Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

Some traffic experts however remarked that the maximum speed on city roads does not exceed 10 kmph during peak hour and wearing seat belts becomes annoying to many drivers. “Wearing a seat belt should be a matter of choice. You cannot speed up in city to warrant driving with seat belts”, lamented a traffic expert.

Mr Saleem counters this saying that infrastructure projects have resulted in wider roads in recent years. “There are a number of stretches where one can go beyond restricted speed limits and traffic cameras record such movement. There are stretches and junctions where accidents are common. Wearing seat belts can avoid fatalities during such accidents,” Mr Saleem said.