All passenger cars that are manufactured in India from the New Year will have to mandatorily have an airbag installed for the front row co-passenger.
There will be no further extensions or deferment of the date for the co-passenger air bag rule, a top government official has told Business Today TV.
This implies that all existing passenger vehicle models manufactured from January 1, 2022, will mandatorily have to provide an air bag for the co-driver.
Earlier, the deadline for implementing this rule had been deferred from August 31 to this month end.
Currently, only driver airbags are mandatory in passenger vehicles in India.
India accounts for nearly 10 per cent of all road crash victims globally, as per a recent World Bank report.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a federal agency of the United States of America, says a combination of airbags and seat belts bring down risk of death in frontal crashes by 61 per cent, with airbags alone accounting for 34 per cent reduction in fatalities.
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