Recently transport minister Nitin Gadkari has made six airbags mandatory for motor vehicles. To strengthen the existing road safety, this mandate has been drafted. This order will be mandatory from the October sales. Is this step will improve our road safety. Let’s have a look in detail.
CONDITIONS FOR THE AIRBAGS
The six airbags will be mandatory for the vehicles falling in the M1 category of vehicles. M is a category of motor vehicles which means all the motor vehicles which have 4 wheels will fall into this category. Similarly, M1 is a sub-category that is defined as a motor vehicle that has 4 wheels and can carry up to 8 passengers falls under this category. Making airbags mandatory can reduce the effect of the accidents happening every year.
this concept of airbags is not new to the world but it is a new concept for India. Since 2015 two airbags were mandatory that too frontal airbags. However, frontal airbags and lateral airbags can help to reduce the impact of the collision up to a certain extent.
It is generally been observed that whenever an accident takes place, the passenger’s body gets collided with either front glass, side windows, stirrings, etc therefore, frontal and collateral airbags can provide greater safety.
CHALLENGES WHILE IMPLEMENTING
there are certain challenges before the government while implementing this order. Firstly, adding six airbags from the consumer’s point of is useless. Because India is a country where people are more price-conscious. They never pay much attention to road safety and not even the safety features. So, anything which makes the price of the car rise can make them uncomfortable while making the purchase.
Secondly, from the manufacturer’s point of view, it will directly have an impact on the manufacturing stage as adding the safety features will increase their cost of raw material, and ultimately the price of the car is also increased. Especially when the cars are manufactured for the Indians who are price conscious it makes the car less desirable and therefore the sales of the company decreases and sometimes drastically like in the case of the ford.
It is been often seen that companies manufacturing at the international level cut a few of its features for the same modal while launching in India. Whereas the people of foreign countries are much more well aware of the usage of airbags. They are more conscious of the safety features rather than the price.
FINAL WORDS
it’s high time that we realize that safety features like airbags are the core aspects while making any purchase. Nothing can compensate for a life.
One can have money, fame in later days of there but life once gone would not come back. Every year we lose thousands of lives because of poor quality of roads, fewer safety features, poor construction of roads, and guess what? this can be avoided but we pay attention because we are busy with cost-cutting. Therefore, airbags like features are a necessity in every motor vehicle. BECAUSE LIFE DOES MATTER, IF NOT FOR YOU THEN YOUR LOVED ONES.
