[vasanthn21]

Man!!! Seriosuly God saved you!

If someone had showed me the pic of the car, I wouldn't have believed anyone would have survived it, forget about walking out of it!

I do not have any practical experience of such scenarios, but theoritically it makes sense to accelerate instead of braking as suggested, BUT I wonder if one would remember to accelerate and NOT brake at that instant if in that situation. The natural tendency would be to brake, I reckon!

I was once in an accident where the car rolled-over on a flat road twice on Oct 8th 2000 (it was my cousin's b'day). We were lucky to walk out of the car with only bruises and no scrathces, except for the person driving who had pieces of windshield glass stuck all over his forehead. We were lucky that we did not hit the median when the car rolled-over. We were in a Lancer and we were mainly safe because of the build quality.

I believe Polo and Punto are the only hatches who have this build quality.

[honeybee]

You were already taking the curve and turning towards your left, and the truck nudges your car from the left, causing it to spin. If it happened on a straight, the car might not have spun, so maybe the curve aggravated the situation. Also like the majority of the drivers you were probably not sticking to the right edge and were driving closer to the lane marking (or were probably between lanes), in order to take a wide curve, which might have reduced the distance between the truck and your car.

From the accident pics, I for one would say your front left tyre was out of alignment and was near the end of its life, as I can see the grooves have all but vanished from the left / outer edge, while the grooves on the right / inner side look pretty much ok.

There's also a possibility the car fell into the gorge sideways and then toppled over.

All said and done, all speculations and facts apart, you did have your guardian angel watching over you.

[sudharma]

ABS and EDB will not have much effect when your car is spinning as the movement is sideways not forward.
Only problem area is why the Air bags did not inflate (if you had hit the wall head on). If your rear has hit the wall, then the Airbags may not inflate. If you have side impact Air Bags, They should have deployed. Only through investigation will reveal the reason. If they were defective WV should pay compensation.

Note from the support team: Post edited. Thread starter didn't complain anywhere here in the thread. Let's not assume anything that's not there in the first place.

[mpksuhas]

Would not have guessed if I would have seen the car pic in accidents thread that occupent of the car walked away safely. Hope you get over the incident soon.
I have seen a similar kiss of truck first hand around 5 months back on Chennai - Bangalore route. It was a Tata truck which was hogging the right lane of highway leaving left lane for overtaking, guess the truck was doing around 50kmph. I was in left lane in my Alto and was followed by an Ambassador filled with people. I reach behind the truck and see the cleaner craining his neck and looking left lane, a sure sign they planning to change lane to left. So i wait without overtaking more so since Iam always wary of left lane overtaking. Guess we went this way for around half kms. Since there was no lane change by truck I honk again wait and overtake through left lane quickly. As soon as I pass in my rear view mirror I see truck changing lane to left just as Ambassador was trying to overtake it. The truck fender brushes against back door of Ambassador putting it in a spin of 180 degree. Luckily no one got hurt and since afternoon there was no much traffic which would have caused a headon. Eventhough I was not involved I still gets jitters when I think about it. Cant even imagine how you would be feeling.
Had seen in Tv once that for such accidents real drive cars offer more control. This was said by a police officer in a program on high speed police chase.
Regarding airbags, deployment of it is based on many inputs- seatbelts, speed, input to sensors etc. In your case during initial impact sensors would not be activated due to position and by time it should have been activated your speed may have come down.
Also your passenger side looks more impacted. If there was anyone in there I dont feel they would have been as lucky as you. Part of damaged roof and what was your A pillar looks dangerously close to where passenger head would have been.
As the advertisment say roads are filled with idiots, you had to scrap your ride due to someones stupidity. However you came out fine without any injury, in the end ie what that matters.
Hope you decide on your new ride soon. Many safe and happy miles in that.

[IQBAL VEERJI]

Originally Posted by Frontosa

Hello Dear Friends,
God wanted me to stay alive and I really thank him. On 14th August it was raining moderately on Lonavala Ghat section. I was alone, time 12 noon or so. Speed of the car about 80 at that junction.

As some one said GOD must be sitting next to you.Thank god you were spared with some injuries. Now for police asking money, contact C.of Police controlling that area right away instead of going step by step ranked officers.Bring the attitude of that person asking money to his notice. Contact VW for what to be done with non operating airbags matter. Pls post us what VW has to say and compensate.Next step will be taken after their feed back.

[ECM]

Reason of spinning your car can be this, the moment you applied your 50% brake as per you,your back side of your car was still in contact of that orange truck,in a fraction of a second truck may have applied full brakes which separated the contact between these two vehicles but made your car to spin around.
I saw images of your car BUT these are shots of damaged car pulled by the crane out of that canal,am I right?If that is the case "some" damages shown in snaps may be related to crane lift up mostly.
Nice to see you safe and sound,God saved you and He loves those who help others and you must be kind with others in your life,God bless you my friend.

[Off Roadie]

Hi Frontosa,
It's been said over and over again but after having read all posts I still want to tell you that you are one lucky guy.
Thank God you are alive after a shunt like that. I can only imagine your family's reaction on seeing the picture of your car. I am also glad that you were alone in the car, a codriver would not have been as lucky.
Despite the air bag not deploying the polo really did save you and I guess it is a safe hatch you could consider buying again.
98% of our truckers are really disciplined drivers but the remaining 2% can cause havoc. The only thing that gets some respect (distance) from them is an SUV which makes them safer than Sedans (on our highways) in my books.
Disclaimer: this is just a personal point and I do not want to start a Sedan Vs SUV debate here.

Actually I am keen on replacing my diesel swift with an EcoSport 2 years down the line.

Getting back to the accident, please keep a very safe distance from all vehicles on a wet road even if it is straight.
An incident changed my life.
I was driving back with friends after a great escape and it was a wet straight, 8 laned road, a truck which was about 2 car lengths (nothing in between us) in front of me applied it's brakes and one of it's wheels locked up, it spun 180 degrees left and the driver was looking at me, we still continued travelling in the same straight line.
He had been trying to correct the spin frantically and spun 90 degrees right, he was now going along with the traffic only sideways, occupying 2 lanes while doing so. His rear hit the central divider and that caused him to spin another 90 degrees and he managed to gain control.
To be honest, there was mild traffic but not a single person or car was hit in this whole incident but that's only because no one was riding, driving in the lane at the truckers left hand side.
Throughout this incident I just used my SUV's width to block the two lanes that were affected, while slowing down gradually with my hazard lights flashing.
My friends laughed it off later on but it has changed my monsoon driving pattern completely.

[quattroa4]

I don't understand what GOD has to do with it . Someone is saying GOD was sitting beside you , what ? Is it 21st century India we are talking about? where God does everything and we say so because we don't exploit the technical side of the instance .
Look in this way , the momentum of the car was absorb by
1> The 6 spins you took .
2> Hitting of concrete wall did absorb much of the impact force
3> as you said it went down making noises , so it did rumble along the walls while falling in the ditch rather then going for a free fall.
That said the major credit goes for the seat belts that you were wearing which did not allow your body to bang against the roof and hence to YOU dear for wearing them, without which it was impossible to survive . Othe major contributing factor is the built quality of that hatch which absorb all that impact and deform , dispensing the impact energy.
In the case with front airbags not working , i do not see a point as it was an side and roof impact.

[shashank.nk]

I have a Polo in the exact same colour and looking at your car its almost unbelievable you walked out of it alive!

You're really lucky to survive such a shunt, and may be the build quality of the car helped. ABS helps prevent a skid when you are braking and not in case of an impact.

Front airbags haven't deployed as the impact was from the rear followed by side impacts.

Originally Posted by quattroa4

I don't understand what GOD has to do with it . Someone is saying GOD was sitting beside you , what ? Is it 21st century India we are talking about? where God does everything and we say so because we don't exploit the technical side of the instance .

While I agree with you that in this "21st century India" we appreciate a technical understanding of what happened and why, one cannot rule out a certain amount of 'luck' when you walk out of a car with its shell crushed, alive! It may be his luck, but some of us chose to call it 'divine intervention' or GOD as the OP has put it.

[coriollis]

Originally Posted by Frontosa

I think only GOD saved me and no other car would have. Please share whatever thoughts you have for this incident.
2. Went to Lonavala Gramin Police station - they need 20K for FIR !!! Same old shitty behavior
3. VW helpline was helpful -- they towed the vehicle immediately after I requested FREE OF COST
7.Please suggest me a safer car.

Thank god, you are safe.
I happened to visit Mumbai for a one day on 14th August. While returning back, I saw your car at the spot, and was very sorry to see its condition and prayed for the occupants safety but truly speaking I was not very optimistic. A big to god for proving me wrong. Polo's engineering also did its bit in the cause.
I also own a Polo Tdi, and have also tasted its robust construction and yes! VW helpline is top notch.
Go for any VW car buddy, it is totally worth it.

And lastly,
If you have any problem with lonavla gramin people, please pm me.
get well soon buddy.
cheers.
Abhijeet.

P.S: Is Airbag/ Abs really a luxury feature to have?

[novice]

Originally Posted by 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.

Not a lot of people would be happy to read this. But I wouldn't be surprised if crappy S-Drives were the root cause for this mishap. I had them on my Mondeo, Oh God, every drive used to be scary. Even moderate braking would make them scream and kick in ABS. I ultimately ended up with something like this but thank god damage was not so much. These tires don't like brakes at all. I replaced them with Hankook Ventus V12 Evos and no such dramas anymore even on aggressive driving.

[DrvSafe]

Pics just scream out the turn of events, but it is really a miracle that you escaped with few broken ribs. As .anshuman pointed out, may be there was no frontal collision, airbags wasn't deployed. Anyways, happy for you as this could have been worse. GOD really was in your passenger seat.

[MuscleCarBuff]

Airbags are activated through sensors. From what I know, your Polo is equipped with only 2 frontal airbags which are activated via sensors, they have their detection area limited to the front of the car.
However after seeing the mangled remains of your car the airbags must have opened at some time during the entire event as there is a considerable amount of frontal crush.
Crash Protection is a combined effort of the way your BIW or the Body Structure is built, the restraint system (Airbags and Belts system) and the cabin design.
You must thank VW for the strong built and thank your head for making a conscious decision in not buying a poorly built Tata/ Maruti.
However you must lodge a strong complaint with VW which should compel them to initiate a through inspection. This will go a long way in improving their services and benefit the consumers at large.

[ashthedivx]

Good lord, you must thank your stars that you good enough to narrate the story and recall the whole incidence.

Did you contacted VW regarding airbags ?? I am curious to know how they reacted for the same.

[luckyarcher]

I wish you all the best for a speedy recovery. However you must get this accident investigated, the pics show that there are enough damages on the front for the aribags to deploy.
I'm sorry if I've missed a couple of posts, but at what speed were you driving when this accident occurred?