[amitk26]

Originally Posted by 100kmph

RIP
The safety of the car (SX4) didn't play a great role as the minister died of trauma.

Originally Posted by VW2010

Poor indica driver. The accident is just another accident if you compare it with the dozens of pictures people are posting in our accident thread. And to add to that the pictures of Indica or the SX4 does not suggest life threatening for passengers inside either of them.

The minister died of something or anything other than the accident.

.

Munde died of broken spinal chord and ruptured liver as per postmortom report.

I think poor design of SX4 also had a role to play.

I had a similar accident 2 years back while travelling in a Logan taxi from
Bangalore Airport to home at the Koramangala 80 Feet and 100 Feet road junction.

A loaded Water Tanker ( Tata 709) hit the rear compartment at high speed. Boot ,rear wheel and rear door collapsed and absorbed the impact , I was not thrown to other side and just had a neck sprain. Suppose if the vehicle body would not have absorbed the impact it would have killed me.

[PPS]

It appears from reports that Munde's driver was at fault as he jumped the red light. He had a 7am flight to catch & he left his house at 6:20am !
It can be assumed that to reach the Airport in a hurry the driver must have jumped the red light.

Now have often have we seen this happening in cars with red beacon. I regularly see a Sonata with red beacon & police escort in Mumbai drive on the wrong side of the road just to beat the red signal!

[deetjohn]

RIP!

Did the Indica hit the SX4 on the rear wheel or that bar under the running board transferring the energy to the passengers? The SX4 doesn't look damaged at all. A direct hit on the body shell could have reduced the shock on impact.

[amit]

By now it's clear that the accident happened due to the minsiter's car jumping a red light. It's also clear that the deceased passenger was not wearing seat belts & that if he had belted up he would be safe. Both the reasons point to mistakes on part of the minister's car. Yet, the only solution that the authorities will come up with is to block traffic for longer duration when ministers are travelling. Ultimately, we are the ones who will suffer from this accident!

[pgsagar]

I admire Delhi Police for their honesty in declaring that Minister's car was at fault, instead of conveniently scarificing innocent Indica driver.

If the Indica T-boned SX4 then how come Indica's left rear door panel is dented. And it is surprising that Indica driver got off wihout even minor injuries, assuming that most cabbie-type Indica drivers seldom use seat-belts.

[binand]

Originally Posted by amit

Yet, the only solution that the authorities will come up with is to block traffic for longer duration when ministers are travelling.

Ultimately, we are the ones who will suffer from this accident!

Folks, let us not lose our perspective here. It is downright silly to say that "we are the ones who will suffer" when a family has lost the husband, the brother, the father, a state has lost a prominent leader and a whole population has lost someone who by all accounts has been instrumental in their rise to relevance.

[psankar]

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/we...-s-life-535842

Doctors have opined that wearing seatbelts could have saved Munde's life. If he had seen the team bhp thread on how seatbelts saved lives, I bet he would have been alive by now.

I wish at least with this shocking accident where a minister is dead, the Government of India will make 6 airbags and seatbelt warning systems mandatory for all cars in India.

I wanted to file a PIL on strict enforcement of seatbelts warning systems and airbags in Indian cars and found a nice paper: http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xbcr/..._to_Safety.pdf

It shows how the litigation system in the US helped improve the automobile security. It is an eye opener. I wish we didn't had so many pending court cases in India to get similar effect here as well.

[GJ01]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-...1-1225966.aspx

Heartening to see that the government is advocating the use of seat belts. The Health minister has quoted not just this incident, but other past incidents where wearing seat belts would have saved lives.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by psankar

Doctors have opined that wearing seatbelts could have saved Munde's life. If he had seen the team bhp thread on how seatbelts saved lives, I bet he would have been alive by now.

Agree with you Sankar. No doubt about it that wearing seatbelts would have saved not only Mr. Munde's life, but a lot more lives that are lost uselessly on roads. I have always maintained that no amount of built in safety of any modern car can save lives unless seatbelts are worn properly. Seatbelts are primary restraint system of a car apart from its construction. All other features like Airbags, pretensioners etc are supplemental restraint system.
One can simply cannot bypass primary systems and bank on 'supplement' systems alone to save own life. Not saying that SRS are not important, but if you ignore primary systems, they are simply not going to help. In fact, they can do more harm than good.

Hope the new Govt. takes this as a wake up call (though late) and direct the manufacturers to produce safer cars. And only producing safer cars is not enough, people should be educated to know that a seatbelt can decide one coming out dead or alive from a crash.

[Maky]

I would be very happy if more mandatory safety measures would be added to our road going cars even If a little sad that it would take a ministers death to do so and not the many hundreds of thousands civilian deaths a year across our country.

Anyways, Better now than never.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by psankar

I wanted to file a PIL on strict enforcement of seatbelts warning systems and airbags in Indian cars ... I wish we didn't had so many pending court cases in India to get similar effect here as well.

Originally Posted by saket77

Hope the new Govt. takes this as a wake up call (though late) and direct the manufacturers to produce safer cars.

Can Team BHP file a PIL, instead of just an individual? I mean, if there's a collective group of people who feel we need better safety in automobiles, it would be us.

[psankar]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Can Team BHP file a PIL, instead of just an individual? I mean, if there's a collective group of people who feel we need better safety in automobiles, it would be us.

I will be totally happy to contribute in anyway to that. I do not have any legal experience anyway. Any lawyer among us could share more points.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by psankar

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/we...-s-life-535842

TOI article has some more comments from our Union Health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan. He is spot on regarding the following observation. I hope he would take this up and get the legislation passed as an initiative from Health Ministry.

Stating that the ignorance level about the importance of safety belts is alarming, Vardhan said, "Many car owners cover the back seats of their cars with attractive cloth or other material to give comfort. In the process the seat belts get concealed. This fallacy is doubtless causing a lot of accident deaths."

Seat covers without provisions for seat belt buckles are very common and prevent even those who would normally prefer to wear one from being belted.

[rsidd]

One of my few complaints about Fiat service is that every time, and I mean every time, I give the car for servicing, the rear seat belt clips have disappeared through the crack. I have to fold the seat, open the hatch, and push them through again. At least once I had to loosen the seat and slide it a bit forward to set it right (it was caught between the seat and the body). This happened both with Concorde Motors earlier and with Ramkay Motors now, without fail. If the service centres are so casual about seatbelts, why would most motorists be any different?

[gsurya]

Looking at the autopsy report of Munde, its clear a seatbelt would NOT have saved him.

He was sitting against the door that was impacted, so its likely the door handle smashed into his stomach/liver area with great force puncturing it.

Only a rear door side airbag could have saved him, this is only in the high-end sedans / SUVs.

Forget seatbelts, this morning at 7 AM people were merrily again breaking the red signal in front of my society recklessly, we just dont value life, ours or others.