Belted Rear Seat Passengers Can Protect Drivers In Accidents teamcar - Rear seat passengers who wear the safety belt can prevent themselves as well as the driver and front seat passenger from being killed when a car is involved in a road accident, according to an expert on road safety.

Prof Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi said the impact during an accident could be "very harmful" to the people not wearing the safety belt."

During the impact, rear seat passengers can not only be killed (if they do not wear the safety belt) but they can even cause the deaths of the people in the front seats because the impact during a crash can be equivalent to two tonnes," he told Bernama Monday.

Radin Umar, who is deputy vice-chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), said that during a crash, the weight impact would increase tremendously and this could be harmful to the passengers not wearing the safety belt.

Therefore, he said, it was advisable for the rear seat passengers to wear the safety belt although it was not mandatory for them to do so at the moment. Currently, only the driver and the front passenger are required to wear the safety belt.  ¶ 6:38 PM