Traffic fatalities caused by passengers’ failure to wear seatbelts are increasing, with National Police Agency statistics showing that 52 people have been killed and 245 injured in accidents on freeways since last year.
Thirty-two people were killed in freeway accidents last year as a result of failing to wear a seatbelt, the same number as in 2012 and 2013, according to the agency, which warned that the number of casualties this year could potentially exceed last year if nothing is done to ensure car passengers wear seatbelts.
As of last month, 20 people had been killed and 90 injured this year as a result of not wearing a seatbelt at the time of an accident, agency statistics showed.
Previously only car drivers and front-seat passengers were required to wear seatbelts.
Since February, 2012, backseat passengers have also been required to wear seatbelts, following an amendment to the Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road Traffic Regulations (道路交通管理處罰條例) in 2011.
Since August 2012, children aged between four and 12 have been required to wear seatbelts while sitting in the back seat of vehicles, with parents required to purchase booster seats for children if seatbelt straps rub against their neck.
However, legal requirements have failed to prevent fatal accidents.
Last month, a crash involving a sports utility vehicle on Freeway No. 3 killed six people and injured one after one of its tires burst, causing the vehicle to flip over and fall off a 10-story-high overpass.
The police found that five of the six passengers were not wearing seatbelts when the accident occurred.
A similar accident occurred on Freeway No. 1 last year, in which two people were thrown out of a car after the vehicle hit barriers on the freeway and overturned.
An investigative report last year by the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) found that taxi drivers rarely remind passengers to wear seatbelts in their vehicles.
An image circulated on the Internet showed that some drivers even wore a “safety-belt shirt,” featuring a black stripe drawn across the front of the shirt, to avoid penalties.
Commenting on the rising number of deaths caused by vehicle passengers not wearing seatbelts, the police said that it might be related to the fact that police crackdown efforts were hampered by the removal of toll booths on freeways after the introduction of a distance-based electronic toll-collection system.
According to the agency, freeway toll stations were a convenient location to spot traffic violations, because drivers would need to stop to pay toll fees.
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