Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it has removed from its Indian marketplace listings of products that disable car seatbelt alarms, a day after the country's transport minister said he had asked the company to act against such devices.
Road safety issues have been in the spotlight in India after
business tycoon Cyrus Mistry died in a car crash at the weekend. Local media
reported that Mistry wasn't wearing a seat belt, reigniting the road safety
debate in the world's fourth-largest car market.
In an interview on Wednesday, Nitin Gadkari told Reuters
metal clips available on Amazon were inserted in seatbelt slots to bypass the
alarm that typically keeps pinging when seatbelts are not in use while a car is
being driven.
In a statement to Reuters on Thursday, Amazon said it takes
strict action against sellers in case they are found to be selling any product
in violation of Indian laws, "including listing of unsafe or non-compliant
products."
"The products in question are no longer
available," Amazon said.
Amazon's India website on Wednesday had several listings for
small metal clips described as products that can "eliminate" seatbelt
alarms across car variants and models.
The devices were priced from as little as 249 rupees
($3.12), and one of the product pictures also showed how the seatbelt warning
light indicator in a car turns off and the alarm stops when the clip is used.
A search on the platform on Thursday showed several such
products were no longer available for sale.
Gadkari had said he was concerned as people were buying
"clips from Amazon to evade wearing seatbelts".
Vehicle accidents killed more than 150,000 people in India
in 2021. The World Bank said last year that India had a death on its roads
every four minutes.
Gadkari also said India plans to make seatbelt alarms
mandatory for rear seats, not only for the driver and front passenger seat, in
an effort to halve road accidents and deaths by end-2024.
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