An 18-year-old girl who went pandal-hopping with her family on Sashthi night ended up in hospital on Saptami morning with two fractures in her spine and a deep cut on her head after the car in which she was travelling hit a lamp post.
Doctors treating Trisha Halder said she was in the rear seat and not wearing a seat belt, which caused the severe injuries.
Her father was at the wheel and her brother was seated in front — both were wearing seat belts. They escaped with minor cuts. Trisha’s mother, who was also in the rear seat and not wearing the belt, had a deep cut on her forehead, which needed stitches, said doctors.
In Kolkata, like other parts of India, barely anyone wears a seat belt while on the rear seat, but doctors and road safety experts said it could save many lives and prevent injuries like Trisha’s.
“The girl suffered a whiplash injury in which the neck went backward with force and then forward causing fractures in the spine. If she were wearing a seat belt, the impact of the crash on her would have been much less,” said Animesh Kar, neurologist at RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, who is treating the girl.
Trisha told doctors that she had dozed off in the car after night-long pandal-hopping. “Because she had dozed off, her reflexes did not work properly, which increased the severity of the accident. This is all the more reason why anyone who has fallen asleep in the car should wear a seatbelt,” said Kar.
She underwent surgery to repair a fracture of the C6 vertebra or the sixth cervical vertebra of the spinal column.
“She also had a fracture of Atlas or first cervical vertebra, which will be managed by non-surgical treatment,” said Amitabha Chanda, senior consultant and head of neurosurgery a RN Tagore hospital who performed the surgery.
The girl was released from the hospital this week.
Not wearing seat belts in the rear is a major safety issue on Indian roads, said experts.
A recent report, Road Accidents in India 2022, published by the Union ministry of road transport and highways (transport research wing), highlights the problem.
A total of 4,61,312 road accidents occurred in 2022, which claimed 1,68,491 lives, while 4,43,366 people were injured. According to the report, this marks an 11.9 per cent year-on-year rise in accidents and a 9.4 per cent increase in fatalities.
“Non-usage of safety devices such as helmets and seat belts are critical for averting fatal and grievous injuries in the event of road occurrence accidents. During 2022, 16,715 persons were killed who were not wearing seat belts,” stated the report.
Out of 16,715, 8,384 (50.2 per cent) were drivers and the remaining 8,331 (49.8 per cent) were passengers, the report stated.
It revealed that 42,303 persons injured in road accidents were not using seat belts in 2022.
After last year’s fatal crash of Cyrus Mistry, former chairman of the Tata Group, while he was sitting in the rear seat without a seat belt, the ministry of roads and transport made an amendment to Section 138(3) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR) and made it mandatory for all passengers, including those sitting in the rear, to fasten their seat-belts while the vehicle is in motion.
“In a motor vehicle, in which seat-belts have been provided … it shall be ensured that the driver and the person seated in the front seat or the persons occupying front facing rear seats as the case may be, wear the seat belts while the vehicle is in motion,” says the rule.
“The penalty for not wearing a seat belt is Rs 1,000. But there is no enforcement of the rule,” said Dr Kamal Soi, member, national road safety council of the road transport ministry and also chairman of Raahat The Safe Community Foundation.
“In road safety, two factors are very important for motorists to adhere, FOBC (fear of being caught) and FOBP (fear of being punished),” said Soi. “However, in India, there is no such fear and so enforcement of seat belt rule is negligible.”
Soi said vehicle manufacturers should be asked to make it mandatory to have rear seat belt alarms. Some high-end cars have rear seat belt alarms but most cars in India have alarms only for front seat belts.
In Kolkata, the police said though not wearing a belt in the rear seat was a punishable offence, it was difficult to implement the rule without the “cooperation” and compliance of motorists.
Mistry’s death prompted Kolkata police to initiate an awareness drive among motorists to buckle up the rear seat belt too.
The police had started displaying awareness messages on electronic boards encouraging people to fasten seat belts even in rear seats. The awareness drive, however, lost steam over time. An officer said it was “difficult to execute the rule by stopping all vehicles on the road to check for compliance”.
“Violations like not wearing a seat belt in the front seat or motorcyclists not wearing helmets are easy to spot. But if we start checking the rear seats of all vehicles it will slow down traffic and cause traffic snarls,” the officer said.