PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) has come out with a video against the use of uncertified "dummy buckles" for car seatbelt locks through a graphic yet meaningful video.
The dummy buckle is an accessory originally meant as a seatbelt extender.
Last year, Miros director-general Dr Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim was quoted by a Malay daily as saying that the accessory was misused by people who do not want to wear their seatbelts.
With the dummy buckle inserted into a seatbelt buckle, these drivers can silence the intrusive chime of internal car alarms when they are not strapped in.
The 1min 40sec video begins with a scene of a woman crying while accompanying her injured husband on a stretcher being wheeled by two nurses into a hospital emergency room.
A time stamp of 4.30pm appears during the scene.
The scene then flashes back to 4pm and shows the man, unconscious and with his face bloodied, in the driver’s seat of a car with his injured wife trying to revive him after a car crash.
The video then shifts further back in time to 10.28am with the man seen at a car accessory outlet, asking a shop assistant if he could look at a dummy buckle.
However, he pauses for a fleeting moment as a scene of him and his wife in a car accident flashes before his eyes.
The man then looks at his wife lovingly and smiles to himself before deciding against buying the dummy buckle.
The video, produced together with the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia and the Asean Road Safety Centre, is accompanied by a narration on the importance of safety.
“Our life is not just about us but whatever we do can alter destiny.
“Stay away from using uncertified car safety belt accessories.
“Don’t allow accidents to teach us the meaning of safety, ” the narrator says as the scene ends at 4.30pm with the couple arriving home safely.
