Seat belts and car seats...

4gotoIndia

Hi there,
Wondering how common it is to find seat belts in the back of cars in India. We're going to be living in Tamil Nadu for a year, with a 5yo and 2yo. We're hoping to be able to come to an arrangement with a taxi driver for any regular driving round town - and are hoping to find one with seatbelts, so we can use car seats. Am I being hopelessly unrealistic?
Any thoughts much appreciated (and do move this if its in the wrong place!)
best,
4gotoindia

machadinha

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you'll find a box with "similar threads" that may have something for you.

Alternatively, search the site for "seat belts" and "seatbelts" and "car seats," which throws up a number of hits.

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Prashant.M

New cars do have seat belts at the back. By new cars I mean cars that are around an year old. I am not sure if cars that are more than an year old have seat belts in the back.

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dhans

When we had our holidays in India we specifically rented cars with safetybelts for the kids. We found them, but we also found out that they are certainly not common in taxi's and (even worse, but unresistable for the kids auto rikshaw's. A cabdriver that can get a regular fare will certainly be interested to add seat belts to his car. The major car rental companies do have child seats available (e.g Hertz in Chennai), so they might be able to point you to a provider in Chennai. Otherwise I would suggest taking at least one carseat for the two year old.

Hans

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gautam

I agree with Dhans. Most of the taxi's will not have the rear seat belts. If you will be changing taxi's often, then its your luck.

If you have one taxi at your disposal, you might want to speak with the owner / driver to provide you with a taxi that has the rear seat belts.
They may charge you for that, include that in your bill . Be careful

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machadinha

Living there as an expat, wouldn't you be more likely to get a car and driver through your employer or so? Making it easier to make some fixed arrangements I mean?

At least that's the deal many seem to get. (I hate to think of having all these servants, but it's a different and irrelevant issue. It's also by no means a reflection on the original poster, just another general observation. In any case, many better-off Indians seem to live the same way.)

Nick-H

All imported cars will have the usual compliment of seat belts.

Modern Indian cars will have them too. The older Ambassadors may very well not have (although I suppose the newer ones do; its not a car I choose to have anything to do with, if I an avoid it!), other regularly used travels cars, like Indica, Indigo, will.

Not a big worry.



Nor is having servants , although it is not necessarily trouble free. (and they do not necessarily do what they are paid to do --- but, hey, neither did I in my days of employment )

I do understand where you are coming from, though Mach --- I think it takes some getting used to. We don't have anyone full time, but I still find myself taking a mental double take when my wife asks someone to carry something that it would be no trouble at all for one of us to pick up! My brain still goes, 'But...!'

It is part of the cultural difference, that one adjusts too --- and gets very lazy .

It's worth pointing out that one doesn't have to be that much better off to employ someone to do some cleaning, a bit of cooking, washing etc, maybe a couple of hours a day. There is a pool of domestic servants not because of 'rich' expats, but because they are commonly employed by middle-class Indians.

I know from another post that these guys have previous experience living here --- but I just thought I'd fill in this area of cultural shading a bit even though it is way offtopic to car seats.

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4gotoIndia

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful and reassuring - I think we should be able to find a sufficiently modern taxi. (No company car with driver for us, I'm afraid - we're not on that kind of a package!)

Next question - does anyone know where we might be able to buy car seats in Chennai or in Coimbatore? (Or will we have to lug it out with us?)
Many thanks,
4gotoindia

Nick-H

Try a search on this one: it may take a few tries to get the wording right, but you're not the first to ask about car seats.

If it was me, I'd buy and take with me. I might be well out of order on this, but I'd trust a British-standards-compliant seat more than I'd trust one bought in India. I don't remember the outcome of the previous discussion.

julesa

many cars seemed to have seat belts in the back, but tucked under the seat bolster. you may need to dig it out.

i was riding in my friend's mother's car and i asked if she'd mind me doing that. he replied, probably not, but she'd be confused as to why i'd bothered.

crvlvr

If safety is your paramount concern, then money should not be. Take the car seats with you. The ones if available will probably not meet any safety standards. Also, you will have to sent one of the larger vehicles in India -- for safety reasons and to have sufficint space to install these car seats. You may have to resort to something like a Toyota Innova http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...t),_Kajang.jpg