PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA: The Road Safety Department will propose to the Government to allow a short grace period for motorists to get rear seatbelts installed and be "prepared mentally" before its implementation.

Department director-general Datuk Suret Singh said the rear seatbelt ruling would be enforced around the third quarter of this year.

"I feel we have given the public enough time to get ready," he said, adding that the move for compulsory wearing of rear seatbelts did not need to be tabled in Parliament.

He said promotional activities encouraging the use of rear seatbelts had already taken place in the past year and it was time to move forward.

Previously, the Malaysian Institute for Road Safety Research said that more than 80% of cars had rear seatbelts installed.

Suret Singh also spoke about the department's plans for the rest of the year and said emphasis would be on community-based programmes, such as the helmet-wearing initiatives, that were successfully implemented in 20 districts.

"This particular programme has been well documented and there is already a standard operating procedure so that we can implement it in any district in the country."

Suret Singh said road safety education was taking off well in schools and now even included security personnel being trained as traffic wardens.

"It is an understanding we have with the company that the Education Ministry hires. They provide the security personnel and we train them as traffic wardens so that there is no need to hire extra people."

Suret Singh said that by 2011, road safety education would have worked its way up to Form 4 students and that a whole new breed of motorists who took safety seriously would emerge as a result.