Buckle up please
Comes June 1st it is mandatory for rear seat passengers to wear their seatbelt. This applies to all cars manufactured from 1995 and above. This is a friendly reminder since June is only five days to come.
Here’s the news extract from NST (source):
PUTRAJAYA: Owners of cars manufactured from 1995 onwards which do not have rear seat belts will have to have them fitted with the safety device.
Road Safety Dept director-general Datuk Suret Singh says it is a question of safety However, owners of these cars will be given a three-year grace period to comply.
The exceptions are owners of the 400,000 Perodua Kenari and Kancil which were rolled out between mid-1998 and mid-2004.
Road Safety Department director-general Datuk Suret Singh said yesterday cars manufactured from 1995 onwards either had rear seat belts or the anchorage points needed for rear seat elts to be fitted.
He said, however, that Kenari and Kancil models made between 1998 and 2004 did not have anchorage points, and so could not have rear seat belts retrofitted.
Perodua cars manufactured between 1995 and 1998, and between 2004 and 2005 do not come with seat belts at the back, but have anchorage points, and so are required to be retrofitted.Suret has asked Perodua to do the retrofitting for these cars for free, adding that he was hopeful for a positive response from the management.“And, I urge all owners of cars which need to install seat belts to go back to the manufacturers, instead of doing it at unauthorised workshops, as this is a safety issue,” he said.Quoting the latest survey done by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), Suret said nearly 70 per cent of the Malaysian public supported the ruling, making it compulsory for back seat passengers to buckle up.
The ruling comes into effect in June, but Malaysians have a three-month adjustment period to get used to the practice before the police start issuing summonses for the offence.
Miros director for biomechanical research and vehicle safety Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon said studies had shown that buckling up at the back would reduce casualties and fatalities among back seat passengers when accidents occurred. Some 350 back seat passengers die in accidents each year.
On the issue of having three seat belts but four passengers at the back, Suret said it was sufficient for now that the three passengers buckled up.
“Anyway, Miros research found that 91 per cent of the time, three or fewer persons were seated at the back seat, so the rate of there being more than three passengers at the back is only nine per cent. We will try and convert them through education,” he added.
He said that in time to come, it would become compulsory for babies and toddlers to be in child seats in cars, adding that they had started promotional campaigns on this issue.

