[evilshantanu]

Originally Posted by Frontosa

so will be on tbhp to read and study more about which new car to go for - and dare I say I'm atleast a little excited. I'm personally not so much in shock anymore, ofcourse my family hasnt seen these pictures for obvious reasons. I understand God has given me a moment to pause in life, have a relook, take stock of the situation and decide how my rest of the life should be

After the mishap in which I was involved, I am sold to the European safety norms, it will always be a car which qualify the euro safety ratings for me.

Consider the Vento, its a fabulous car

[AbhishekB86]

Frontosa,

Would you believe me if I said I was actually waiting for the last two sentences?

We've all read about it for so long. People surviving against odds and then changing the course of their lives.

I will not get technical cause I am no expert on vehicles. But yes I do agree this is your moment. The car, the ABS, the air bags and the further investigation can be looked into for sure with time but this is a perfect moment to restart and see life for what it is.

Before I start sounding like a self help author, I'd sign out. I am not much bothered about how you plan to go against VW but I am glad you survived. It made me smile. Recover soon my friend

Originally Posted by Frontosa

Dear friends, Thanks a lot for all your replies, its giving me a very similar feeling when a child is born and his parents are congratulated.. except that the child in this case is a grown up 30 year old who understands the blessings of all well wishers


Yep I understand that ABS or anyother stuff may not have helped this exact situation, its just that I am resting at home now, so will be on tbhp to read and study more about which new car to go for - and dare I say I'm atleast a little excited. I'm personally not so much in shock anymore, ofcourse my family hasnt seen these pictures for obvious reasons. I understand God has given me a moment to pause in life, have a relook, take stock of the situation and decide how my rest of the life should be

[amitoj]

That is one major accident you have walked away from!

How was your driving on that fateful trip before the incident? I ask because some people here have had some scary experiences with S Drives, under hard braking. They were all in diesel cars with ABS. I think there is a thread on that too.

[silverado]

Originally Posted by Frontosa

The truck which kissed me was overtaking another truck on the left most side

I'll surely puruse with VW though on the Airbag deployment and keep everyone posted.

Yep I understand that ABS or anyother stuff may not have helped this exact situation

Truck kissing the rear end causing a swerve reminds me of the police chase video's where they hit the suspect vehicle at the rear tyre and that causes vehicle to go out of control.

ABS / EBD /ESP /whatever will be overwhelmed in such a situation.

How do you switch off airbags in Polo? Did that happen due to the impact with RCC slabs? Difficult to know.

Anyways , thanks for Sharing and this incident makes me love POLO that much more, truly a well built car.

TAKE CARE

[prasadee]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

That was a scary accident!
1. The Front Airbags are designed to help in a frontal collision, they wouldn't be of much help in a rollover or side impact. Side and Curtain Airbags are good for side impacts and rollover. The only hatchback i know which comes with Side airbags is i20(Optional in a single variant in petrol).

For a rollover accident without a frontal collision, the explosion that causes the airbag to come out of the steering can cause more damage than good.

One question I have for Frontosa is - Did your head hit the steering wheel or dashboard? Preventing this is one of the prime objectives of front airbags. If the car had side curtain airbags, that would have helped in such a rollover accident. I recently saw a VW Tuareg after a rollover and all but the frontal airbags had deployed. Side curtain airbags, roof mounted front + rear head curtain air bags, and seat mounted torso airbags.

During collisions - airbags will have mini explosions. Better to not have the explosions that do not help. Airbag deployment causes chest injuries most of the time. It is certainly better than a broken neck. If the car can realize the need to not deploy and cause another minor chest injury its all the better.
Chest Injuries From Airbags | eHow.com

I have seen friends with chest and face burns after airbag deployment, they do not look good. Certainly happy to be alive, but with some nasty temporary pain.

[Frontosa]

Some Points:
@Prasadee - No my head didnt bang the steering, no question of any body part touching the dashboard either. I was wearing seatbelt.Probably my chest hurt the steering, the steering wasnt deformed either after the impact. And I remember both my hands were on steering and at that moment of me being hit I did NOT Accelerate and my brain didnt click that I should "steer" in the opposite direction with force to counter the spin - i thought the car could topple if I steer aggressively or something like that. This all analysis is to just help understand how safe I could be next time around.

One more question: Can I consider Skoda as safe as VW? Or Renault as safe as VW? I mean are all European cars similarly strong? (the shell I mean)? I always thought FIAT and VW are stronger but other European cars may not be. (well in the upto 20 lac budget I thought). Actual question - would Skoda Rapid & Renault Duster be as strong like VW Polo/Vento? Because these 2 seem to be front runners. I'd love to buy another Polo as well as 2nd car as we need 2 cars from next year onwards. Maybe 1.5tdi would have come.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by Frontosa

One more question: Can I consider Skoda as safe as VW? Or Renault as safe as VW? I mean are all European cars similarly strong? (the shell I mean)? I always thought FIAT and VW are stronger but other European cars may not be. (well in the upto 20 lac budget I thought). Actual question - would Skoda Rapid & Renault Duster be as strong like VW Polo/Vento? Because these 2 seem to be front runners. I'd love to buy another Polo as well as 2nd car as we need 2 cars from next year onwards. Maybe 1.5tdi would have come.

I guess it’s better to discuss on your next car in an alternate thread. Probably this thread is a good place to start with:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sedans...vs-others.html

[NPV]

Looking at the mangled form of the car, I could never have even imagined that the occupant(s) would be alive! You are really lucky to have survived such a crash, welcome to your second life
Definitely seems like the build quality was good to have survived this impact, but not too sure about the airbags not deploying. I was in an accident several years ago in the US when a car rear-ended my Accord at about 50mph and the airbags in that car deployed but nothing happened in my Accord and I was told that it was due to the impact not being frontal. Last year a friend met with an accident driving an SX4 that tumbled across the divider and onto a field on the other side, all occupants escaped with minor injuries but the airbags never deployed!
I don't think I can say with confidence that airbags will definitely protect the occupants in case of crashes simply because it seems to depend on the scenario/place of impact/speed, etc. And after reading that airbag deployment can acutally causing harm in some cases, I'm even more confused and wary about the whole thing.

[dkaile]

Thank you for sharing such a grave experience in your life with us. It seems as hydroplaning caused your issue due to the slight rain at the time of the incident. At that time perhaps, as another mod suggested, accelerating rather than braking could have prevented the episode. But these are just iffs and buts of post evaluation.

I would suggest you remain with VW as your next choice because eventually that (and luck) ended up saving your life even after such a accident. I believe just plain luck, a little nudge here or there, plays a major part in our lives, and we end up counting/cursing our blessing.

Best of luck for your future.

[Y@SH]

Originally Posted by Frontosa

Some Points:
One more question: Can I consider Skoda as safe as VW? Or Renault as safe as VW? I mean are all European cars similarly strong? (the shell I mean)? I always thought FIAT and VW are stronger but other European cars may not be. (well in the upto 20 lac budget I thought). Actual question - would Skoda Rapid & Renault Duster be as strong like VW Polo/Vento? Because these 2 seem to be front runners. I'd love to buy another Polo as well as 2nd car as we need 2 cars from next year onwards. Maybe 1.5tdi would have come.

As far as I know all three (VW,skoda & fiat) are equally safe. It comes down to which variant you buy like the base version of jetta has 6 airbags but base of Laura has only 2 so it's better to buy jetta if you think only from the safety aspects. I remember A tree had fallen on my friends linea and it only made a dent!! Vento and rapid offer similar strength and safety as they are structurally mostly the same. But don't think that duster is as safe as the vento or polo it only scored 3 stars in Euro NCAP safety testing and thats worst than an i20 or polo!

[noopster]

Frontosa- glad to know you are safe. I saw those pics last night and couldn't believe anyone had walked away from it. It's a good thing the highway patrol guys were as prompt to help you as they were.

Did the cops who asked you 20K to file an FIR have any idea of the magnitude of the crash? You should have shown them some pics of it on your cellphone to convince them. Or maybe they were just being venal. Public servants indeed!

The Lonavala stretch of expressway is a most unsafe place to drive and I usually have my heart in my mouth when other drivers race around that curve you speak of. Getting nudged from the rear must be a scary experience.

Take care and get well soon.

[VW2010]

Frontosa...


This thread gives me goosebumps. For i realise how lucky i am to drive at speeds which in such cases would mean dooms day no matter what car i drive.

I am going to think of this thread evertime i drive in highway to stay put and be at reasonable speed.

Though there are other threads this one thread just makes me feel that extra goosegump on what can happen at speeds.

Thanks for posting this thread.

[avingodb]

Frontosa; I read this thread in one go for the sheer amount of emotions expressed.
Congratulations on the second chance in life and now make the most of it to do something extraordinary!
Wish you speedy recovery in all forms.

[parsh]

Was just looking up your tire situation, the yoko designs and specs out of curiosity. I had the specs and design pics since the time I had started looking them up for my Innova. I feel there is not much wrong about the tires. S-Drives are mostly for Sporty performance driving and C-Drives would be better with respect to grip on wet conditions. Sometimes I try to test my C-Drives on wet roads with sudden braking at various speeds etc and they respond pretty well. There does not seem to be too much to be concerned from uneven tread wear from atleast as much is visible from the pics. As dkalie says, loss of control could have been due to the hydroplaning and ABS could have hardly played any role in it.

[audioholic]

Glad that the polo saved you! Others have explained in detail about airbags and ABS, I would like to share a thought on why a simple 'kiss' from the truck sent you spinning around. Momentum is a physics lesson that I have learnt in school. When two bodies in rest or in motion collide, there is transfer of momentum. Momentum is the product of mass and velocity. The truck or any similar vehicle has enormous momentum in it though it travels at a very low speed, mainly due to its weight. Even if a bus hits a person on the road at a very low speed, the person suffers serious injuries because it transfers a lot of momentum into the person. Same way, even though you both were at similar speeds, the truck would have possessed higher momentum, which was transferred to you. This would have converted to speed. When you hit the brakes, it really did not work as you were hit in a corner, AFAIK. So this translates to change in direction also. Thats how much I could interpret from what I read.

I suggest you must go for another polo, considering the amount of damage it has suffered, yet did not cause serious casualities to you. And IMO, the air bags must and would have deployed IF the first impact was head on. After your car started going out of control, direction of motion would have been towards roll, ie your car started spinning. Hence, I dont think the airbag sensors would have detected forward decelaration.

I am no expert in such topics but based on common sense I interpreted this.