Agency May Tighten Seat Belts

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Yomiuri: NPA may make seat belts compulsory in back seats
The fatality rate of back seat passengers not wearing seat belts was about four times higher than that of those wearing a seat belt in traffic accidents in 2005, according to the National Police Agency...less than 10 percent of back seat passengers, who are not legally required to wear seat belts, used them...An agency survey of accidents involving fatalities and injuries in which back seat passengers had been wearing seat belts revealed that 25 such passengers died in 23,035 accidents--a fatality rate of 0.11 percent.

[otakuden]

wow. i didn't realize the japanese weren't required to wear back seat seatbelts. concept: they save lives in the front seats, so why wouldn't the back seats be any diff

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Rear seat belts could be dangerous

Four accidents involving rear seat belts of cars have occurred over the past 10 years, according to a survey by the National Consumer Affairs Center. In all cases, the seat belts were equipped with a special apparatus designed to hold a child seat in place, and in one case a boy was nearly strangled with a seat belt, it said. Passengers riding in the backseat will be required to buckle up under the revised Road Traffic Law to be enforced in June. The NCAC is working to make consumers aware of the dangers of the seat belt. According to the center, a fourth-grade primary school student of Aichi Prefecture nearly strangled when he wound a rear seat belt around his neck in December 2006.

[pbm]

hmm whats safer.

let me think. having 2 kids in the back seat strapped in while you hit that car in front at 40kmh.

how about 2 fat drunk guys in the backwithout seat belts, flying all over the car while you roll over a few times down a hill.

give me the money they spent on these brainless surveys. put those seat belts on the kids.

[Gilligan]

According to the center, a fourth-grade primary school student of Aichi Prefecture nearly strangled when he wound a rear seat belt around his neck in December 2006.

Yes, yes. Clearly the problem here lies with the seatbelt.

[kurohinge1]

According to the center, a fourth-grade primary school student of Aichi Prefecture nearly strangled when he wound a rear seat belt around his neck in December 2006.

Yes, yes. Clearly the problem here lies with the seatbelt.

If only cars had a stewardess to show you how those tricky belts are supposed to be used!

[ttjereth]

[quote="kurohinge1"]If only cars had a stewardess to show you how those tricky belts are supposed to be used!



]

That would then shift the conversation:
The fatality rate of back seat passengers:banana: The fertility rate of back seat passengers

[ttjereth]

By the way, at the risk of actually posting on topic once in awhile, when I recently renewed my driver's license we were told that the law was now that rear seatbelt were required on the highway and they could stop you to check/ticket you for passengers not wearing them.

[Taro Toporific]

...when I recently renewed my driver's license we were told that the law was now that rear seatbelt were required on the highway and they could stop you to check/ticket you for passengers not wearing them.

[floatl][/floatl]
Japan Requires Rear Passengers To Be Strapped
April 5, 2008 12:25 p.m. EST
Tokyo, Japan (AHN) - Beginning June 1, all Japanese back seat passengers in vehicles must also wear seat belts like those seated on the front row. But violators would be fined if they are only caught unstrapped while on expressways...more...

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Police tighten seat belt rule / Tickets, not warnings, set for unbelted backseat riders on expwys

The National Police Agency instructed prefectural police headquarters Friday to start ticketing drivers on expressways that have backseat passengers riding without seat belts, starting next month, changing the previous policy of only giving warnings to such drivers. In June, the revised Road Traffic Law went into force. It requires all backseat automobile passengers, excluding pregnant women and some others, to wear seat belts. The regulation applies for vehicles on all roads, but drivers will only be ticketed for having unbelted backseat passengers while on expressways. Each ticket will not carry a monetary fine, but will issue a penalty point on the driver's license. A license can be suspended if a point ceiling is exceeded. The NPA plans to inform the public of the new policy through its annual autumn traffic safety campaign period between Sunday and Tuesday. According to a survey conducted last October by the NPA and the Japan Automobile Federation, only 13.5 percent of backseat passengers wore seat belts. The NPA ordered prefectural police only to warn drivers when they are caught having unbelted backseat passengers, instead of ticketing the drivers, as a kind of grace period for drivers to become used to getting passengers to buckle up before ticketing would be implemented.

In surveys carried out by prefectural police across the country between June and August, the NPA confirmed more backseat passengers were wearing seat belts. The Fukuoka prefectural police's survey found the rate grew from 6.8 percent before the enforcement of the revised law to 77. According to latest surveys, 66 percent, 72.9 percent and 73 percent of backseat passengers in Ishikawa, Hiroshima and Nagasaki prefectures, respectively, were found to be wearing seat belts. However, according to the NPA, local police are instructed not to set up checkpoints intended solely to catch unbelted backseat passengers. If police spot an unbelted backseat passenger when cracking down on other violations such as speeding, drunk driving or reckless driving, the NPA has told police forces to ticket the driver for having unbelted backseat passengers on an expressway. On other general roads, police are to maintain the initial policy of only warning drivers, according to the NPA. "Seat belts are highly effective in protecting the lives of backseat passengers as well, so we hope people wear them even when they're in backseats," a representative of the NPA's Traffic Planning Division said.