Strictly enforce traffic rules to reduce accidents: Mercedes after Mistry death

At a time when Mercedes Benz in India is busy investigating the accident that killed Cyrus Mistry, former Chairman of Tata Motors, the carmaker is batting for stricter implementation of traffic rules on Indian roads to reduce number of accidents and casualties. Mistry was on the backseat of a Mercedes GLC that crashed in Palghar a couple of weeks ago. Mistry, along with another backseat passenger, were not wearing seatbelt when the accident took place, as per cops. The accident has triggered debate on the current state of road safety and traffic rules in India.

Martin Schwenk, Managing Director and CEO at Mercedes-Benz India, said, "If everyone would behave as per the regulation, we would already have a significant reduction in road fatalities, and that's for two-wheeler, three-wheeler and four-wheeler." Schwenk, who was attending a summit hosted by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). He said that Mistry's death has brought back road safety on the ‘agenda in a different way’.

Questions were raised why Mistry and his co-passenger were not wearing seatbelt at the backseats despite traffic rules suggesting a fine of ₹1,000 for such violations. While most Indians do not follow the backseat safety norm, the rule was never strictly enforced by traffic police anywhere until the accident happened. Schwenk said "It's in the behavioural and in the enforcement of existing regulations, which both could significantly reduce the road fatalities in all modes of transportation. Behave as per the codes and enforce the codes."

Schwenk also underlined the safety credentials in all Mercedes-Benz models sold in the country and world over. "Mercedes Benz has excelled not only on the product side, but also engaged a lot in creating the most safest vehicle. We are known for having superior safety standards and all of our cars for example, all of them have at least six airbags, some of them seven, nine and the Maybach has 13 airbags... we have all five star tested (for crash) vehicles," he added.

A team from the German auto giant collected data from Mistry's car to analyse what went wrong before it crashed. Mistry and Jahangir Pandole were killed in the accident in the Palghar district of Maharashtra. Anahita Pandole, who was driving the car, was seriously injured.