[haria]

Punjab: SUV airbags fail to open during mishap, dealer, manufacturer fined Rs 5 lakh

On June 7, 2017, when Bhinder and his wife were travelling to Bathinda, the car met with an accident with a tractor trolley and was badly damaged in the front on driver’s side, causing a loss of Rs 4.05 lakh in repair from an authorised dealer.

The State Consumer Redressal Commission has directed a dealer and manufacturer of an SUV to pay Rs 5.33 lakh fine to a Mohali resident as the airbags of his Toyota Innova did not inflate at the time of an accident leading to injuries to him and another occupant.





See article here: https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...edium=referral

[Ambi]

A good decesion but it raises a larger question. What quality and how tested are the safety mechanisms installed in cars these days. Crash test ratings can be one way but ive read other threads in the forum where parts have been found to be marked as for ncap tests. May be if we know the vendors for various unit components used and their customer bases/ratings it might help the customer take a more informed decision.

[tsk1979]

The article is a shining example of the exemplary standards of the traditional media and their editors.

• Picture of Jeep
• Manufacturer stated as Toyota Kirloskar
• Vehicle is "Innova"
• Not even a single photo of front

Coming to the question of quality etc., a head on collision and only 4.5 lakhs damage suggests minor damage. I had a 20kmph collision in the indica and the total repair cost was over 1 lakh rupees (Insurance paid approx 80k)

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Ambi

A good decesion.

I do not think so. Nowhere in the article does it become apparent that the airbags should have deployed.

Unless a proper technical investigation was done which showed clearly that the airbags should have deployed would this decision make sense.

Jeroen

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by haria

Punjab: SUV airbags fail to open during mishap, dealer, manufacturer fined Rs 5 lakh

On June 7, 2017, when Bhinder and his wife were travelling to Bathinda, the car met with an accident with a tractor trolley and was badly damaged in the front on driver’s side, causing a loss of Rs 4.05 lakh in repair from an authorised dealer.

The State Consumer Redressal Commission has directed a dealer and manufacturer of an SUV to pay Rs 5.33 lakh fine to a Mohali resident as the airbags of his Toyota Innova did not inflate at the time of an accident leading to injuries to him and another occupant.





See article here: https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...edium=referral

A good precedent. Even though a small amount - it could set things in motion if more people start doing this.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

The article is a shining example of the exemplary standards of the traditional media and their editors.

• Picture of Jeep
• Manufacturer stated as Toyota Kirloskar
• Vehicle is "Innova"
• Not even a single photo of front

Coming to the question of quality etc., a head on collision and only 4.5 lakhs damage suggests minor damage. I had a 20kmph collision in the indica and the total repair cost was over 1 lakh rupees (Insurance paid approx 80k)

Lol! Good catch, I think they mixed up the photo and writeup. See the text describing the photo.

[GTO]

Toyota definitely has to provide answers. First, on this thread (Poor quality spiral cables used by Toyota India? It can affect airbag deployment).

Not the first time they've been fined either - link (Toyota to pay 25 lakhs for Fortuner Accident (airbags didn't deploy)).

More cases here (Toyota Fortuner crashes, Air bags did not deploy *EDIT* Another similar case Pg.7).

[CoolFire]

Mahindra and many other manufacturers will be having tough times ahead if the principle is carried forward. I personally know a case where XUV 5OO failed airbags did cost a valuable life. This verdict, even if the amount is only of token interest, should bring in much needed change. Hope things will be better now, both in terms of safer cars and adequate compensation whenever deserved.

This was one glaring omission in vehicle safety measures and its a big positive that it is being plugged by court intervention. You can have all the hallowed safety features in your car, but it counts for nothing if they fail to work the one crucial time they are needed.

[Axe77]

Assuming the facts are correct I am glad a penalty has been imposed. Toyota cars may be decent quality and reliable in running but all these instances as listed above plus their famous brake issue all make me question their quality standards where it matters most - Safety!!

Separately, I don't understand why a dealer should be fined for what is essentially a manufacturing defect. The blame here should exclusively lie with Toyota India is it not?

[Miyata]

Airbag failure have become a severe problem off late. Here's one link talking about "massive airbag recall covering many millions of vehicles in the United States from nearly two dozen brands"

Sadly, our poor journalism (reporting) and lack of tough laws and its regulations about such issues means too little happens in the aftermath.

[libranof1987]

While this is a good decision indeed, how binding is it?

Overall, this seems to rather too easy. Especially this statement,

A person buys such a high end car with thinking that the Airbag feature will protect him or his co-passenger from impact of the accident. However, in the instant case, it did not happen as the airbags of the vehicle, in question, did not inflate,” reads the judgment.

I hope the judgement isn't so because it is a "high end car". Airbags on any car should function similarly. I hope there is some technicality used as basis for this judgement.

I want manufacturers to be held responsible and for their products to function as advertised so such judgements will definitely bring in more accountability.

Wonder how such a Commission would fare against Mahindra in the XUV crash case.

[sprocket]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I hope the judgement isn't so because it is a "high end car".

Yes sir, high end only. Tell that to the tens of thousands of Swift buyers (2 star rated) where the airbags need not deploy as the body shell will take care of the occupants...

High time we had the ability to have class action suits like elsewhere. Silverwood is doing it from the policy side and I wish we had lawyers to take this to the next level.

Can we do something about collecting statistics? For example; instead of just documenting issues, we classify and add it to the manufacturer statistics. How feasible/valuable would something like that be?

[gururajrv]

Well, it’s really concerning to know airbags failed to deploy. Thanks to GTO for sharing similar threads showing Toyota giving a cold shoulder towards the known issues, which is entirely unacceptable.

Consumers are going for Toyota mainly because of their quality. If this is the case, then QC or the items or components used in the critical areas is something that they need to do a thorough QC before dispatching the units to showrooms.

But this is seriously a good decision from consumer court & I hope the consumer redressal forum gets stronger each passing day to ease the pain consumers suffer in few areas.

[jaaz]

Scary!! Penalty is in right direction, although minuscule to the value of life. Apart from penalty, the entire batch of particular Car should be recalled and replaced with a set of new Airbags.

Airbags are something, which doesn't need any maintenance as far as the Customer is concerned. So, the onus is on the manufacturer.

[peus017]

Originally Posted by jaaz

Scary!! Penalty is in right direction, although minuscule to the value of life. Apart from penalty, the entire batch of particular Car should be recalled and replaced with a set of new Airbags.

Airbags are something, which doesn't need any maintenance as far as the Customer is concerned. So, the onus is on the manufacturer.

Just curious to know is there possible way where we can have a periodic airbag check ? Like we have for Engine Oil, Fuel Indicator etc.. something which shows they are on active mode.

Also, is there any cleaning or other sort of maintenance required ?

[Jeroen]

Well, everybody seems hell bent on this being a good decision. But I still havent seen or heard a shred of evidence that suggest the air bags should have deployed.

The way the court ruling is reported is puzzling at best. Would be interested to see what the full text and arguing of the court is in this matter.

The article states:

Bhinder stated in his complaint that at the time of the accident, the driver (complainant) and co-passenger sitting on the front seats were wearing seat belts, but due to non-opening of airbags, they experienced huge shock and even minor injuries.

Let me tell you, airbags deploying is not something you are going to forget either. It comes with a huge bang and if anything adds considerably to the shock. It would be fair to say that if the airbags had gone off, their Shock would have been considerable more!!

These folks had “minor injuries”. Do we know if an airbag deployment would have meant their injuries would have been less. What would have been less?

The more I read about airbags in India it seems that quite a few folks seem to regard airbags as something that makes the occupants invincible, or at least have them walk away from any accident left unshaken en completely uninjured. That is simply not true. Airbags start deploying at reasonable speeds for a reason.

And believe me from somebody who has been in accidents with airbags deploying, it is not an experience you forget. It is extremely startling and confusing. I thought the car was on fire at first. (lots of smoke initially from the deployement) And I still ended up bruised badly all over. My glasses broke and were pressed into my face. Three days later you could still see the indents. Missed poking out my eye by mm. Only when you start realising how bad it would have been if the airbags did not deploy do you start thanking your lucky stars everything worked as advertised.

Truth be told, if you walk away with minor injuries from a car crash, wearing only seatbelts, and the air bags did not deploy, there is a very good chance they were not supposed to deploy in the first place, because the accident simply wasn’t bad enough.

Again, if manufacturer sell you wonky, unsafe and unreliable cars, that must be addressed by all means. And there is plenty that needs addressing in the Indian car market as far as I can tell, do not get me wrong.

But this seems to be turning into a witch hunt. Somebody has an accident, no airbags, no facts, a laughable article in a newspaper, still blame the manufacturer. Everybody jumps on the bandwagon.

Sorry, I do not work like that. Until somebody explains to me in simple facts what happened, preferably backed up by some facts, there is simply no reason to believe the airbags should have deployed or not. We just do not know.

The fact they had minor injuries, as stated earlier, is certainly an indication the airbags were not supposed to deploy at all.

Jeroen