In the color of the baton: they suggested "coloring" the seat belts in cars
Unbuckled seat belts are among the factors that seriously affect accidents, according to the Scientific Center for Road Safety THE Ministry OF Internal Affairs OF THE Russian Federation. At the same time, such a violation is often difficult to identify, the department notes. To make seat belts more visible to car inspectors and cameras, the NC BDD suggests making them more vivid and contrasting. Experts consider this proposal to be correct, but admit that it is difficult to implement. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Give them a belt
Approximately 7% of drivers and 8.2% of passengers killed in road accidents were not wearing a seat belt (data for 2023). This is stated in the information and analytical review prepared by the specialists of the NC BDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Despite the relatively small proportion of such accidents, they are characterized by high severity of consequences, the department notes.
In the overall structure of accidents in which people who do not use a seat belt are killed or injured, 46.3% of accidents occur in vehicle collisions, 35.3% are associated with an exit from the carriageway, hitting an obstacle accounts for 10.4% of such incidents, 4.1% are vehicle rollovers, and about 4% are other types of accidents. car accident. According to statistics, the largest proportion of passengers killed in an accident (40.4%) are those who were in the center of the back seat at the time of the accident.
"Of those who are not wearing seat belts, almost every fourth driver and passenger is killed, while among those who are wearing seat belts, only every 12th driver and every 14th passenger of the vehicle are killed," the analysis of the NCBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation says.
According to the department, as part of a sociological study, it was found that 89% of drivers and 85% of passengers in the front seats still use seat belts, which is a good indicator of road safety. The situation is different with the use of seat belts by rear passengers: only 35% of respondents use them.
Latent intruders
By the end of 2023, about 11.1 million violations related to the non-use of seat belts and motorcycle helmets were recorded in Russia, according to the report of the NC BDD. Of these, 2.84 million protocols were issued directly by employees of the State Traffic Inspectorate in the so-called manual mode, the remaining 8.2 million materials were compiled based on data from sets of photo-video recordings of traffic violations.
Nevertheless, a seat belt not fastened by a driver or passenger is called a "rather latent" offense in the NCBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Among the reasons for this situation is the low detection efficiency, the agency notes.
"For the most part, seat belts are black and practically invisible on dark clothing, as well as light ones, such as gray or beige, on clothes of identical color. In addition, folds of clothing, refraction of windshields, glare and other optical distortions can make it difficult to identify violations and cause unlawful administrative prosecution for violating safety belt regulations or, conversely, allow the violator to avoid punishment," the analytical review says.
The way out in the NCBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation is seen in the use of contrasting seat belt colors, for example, black and white, using retroreflective elements on the belts themselves.
"The use of such seat belts would allow them to be detectable by photo— and video-recording complexes under almost any conditions and more visible to a police officer, including at night," the scientific center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation notes.
According to the document, the NCBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation proposes to legislate the mandatory use of special seat belt colors in the requirements of the technical regulations "On the Safety of wheeled vehicles", as well as prohibit the sale or distribution of seat belt caps.
Implementation difficulties
The idea of making seat belts more vivid and contrasting is very interesting, experts interviewed by Izvestia say. However, it will be quite difficult to put it into practice, they emphasize.
— This initiative will reduce the number of erroneous fines for allegedly not wearing a seat belt, which in the photo from the camera merges with the clothes of the driver or passenger, they note. On the other hand, the appearance of such belts will allow traffic inspectors to identify those who ignore them faster in the flow of traffic. If the belt is brighter and more noticeable, it will eventually increase the safety of drivers and passengers," Valery Soldunov, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and chairman of the All—Russian Society of Motorists, told Izvestia.
At the same time, he noted that, according to his observations, the younger generation of motorists is more responsible about the use of seat belts and fastens them much more often than older drivers.
The proposals of the NCBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be extremely difficult to implement in practice, says Denis Zagarin, head of the testing center at FSUE NAMI.
— The requirements for seat belts are defined by UN Regulation No. 16, which is directly applied in the technical regulations of the Customs Union "On the safety of wheeled vehicles". Due to international obligations, including in the Russian Federation, the introduction of additional requirements is extremely difficult and can be carried out either by changing the relevant harmonized UN Rules, or by abandoning their application with the development of national requirements instead," he told Izvestia.
Worthy of the international level
Igor Morzharetto, a member of the Presidium of the National Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, considers the proposal to make seat belts bright and contrasting to be very interesting and worthy of attention. However, to implement this idea, it is necessary to make serious changes to legislation, including international agreements signed by our country, he agrees with Denis Zagarin.
— Representatives of Russia are members of international organizations and working groups on road safety issues. Our country may well make this proposal at the international level and initiate changes to global standards and requirements for seat belts," Igor Morzharetto said in an interview with Izvestia.
As part of a scientific discussion
The scientific center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation clarified that the center conducted research work on the topic "The use of seat belts as a factor in increasing the legal awareness of road users." As part of this work, various methods and methods of influencing road users have been proposed to solve the problem of non-use of seat belts, including based on the results of a sociological survey, expert opinion, and analysis of foreign experience in this area, the department noted.
— The provisions of the research paper are not the official position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and were put forward by the author's team as part of a scientific discussion. At the moment, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has not come up with proposals to amend the legislation regarding the use of these methods," the NTSBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation said in a statement.
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