PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) and police will start issuing summonses from Jan 1 to all passengers for not wearing their rear seat belts.

JPJ director-general Datuk Solah Mat Hassan said vehicle owners and passengers would be given a six-month grace period during which they would only be issued a compound of RM300 for not wearing their rear seat belts.

From July 1, drivers and passengers caught not using their seat belts would have to pay a fine of up to RM2,000, serve up to one year's jail or both under the Road Transport Act, said Solah.

"We are not trying to punish anyone here. It is for their own safety. Make it a habit and wear your seat belt. It doesn't take even a minute to put on," he told a press conference during the department's Ops Pra Tahun Baru at the Batu 3 Shah Alam-Kuala Lumpur toll plaza yesterday.

Securely fastened: JPJ officer Mohd Shahrul Nizam checking on young passengers during a rear seat belt campaign in Shah Alam

Asked by reporters on the age limit for paying the compound and summons, he only said that the summons would need to be paid and that there was no provision on who was supposed to pay.

"It is the parents' responsibility to ensure their children wear the rear seat belt," he said.

According to Solah, wearing a seat belt could cut the rate of death and injuries to passengers in an accident by about 50%.

The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research has found that there had been 350 fatalities, 700 seriously injured and 2,100 lightly injured among rear seat passengers in 2007, he said.

Solah added that vehicles without rear seat belts registered after Jan 1, 1995 had three years to get their vehicle retrofitted with the safety feature.

He said it was not mandatory for cars registered before Jan 1, 1995 to be retrofitted with rear seat belts as they do not have the rear anchorage points.

Other vehicles that were exempted from the ruling were commercial vehicles such as taxis and rental cars, large vehicles that can seat nine passengers or more and haulers that have a tonnage limit of more than 3.5 tonnes.

Road Safety Department planning, research and development director Sim Say Kiong told reporters that car makers Proton, Perodua and Honda had signed a memorandum of understanding to retrofit rear seat belts in 227,000, 435,000 and 35,000 of their respective vehicles for free. --THE STAR