[BMW77]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

Swift is pretty safe car, but everything is has its own limits ..... and from the pics i can say that fault is 100% of the truck, there are no lower guard rails :( , if it was there wud have saved few life , also if the occupants were wearing seat belts or not ?? and where the truck was parked on the road ....

Lower guards are mandatory by law.
But who cares the law, even Law Makers are not caring for it.
Whose responsibility is this to check that Lower Guards are properly fitted. I drive a ot and can say 95 % of trucks don'y have that. (Some one said, to lower the weight)

[rks]

Originally Posted by theMAG

A 1000 kg car with 5 adults, whose average combined weight would be around 300 kgs and a kid weighing on average 20 kgs would result in a 1320 kg object travelling at 120 kmph on skinny stock tyres that severely reduces braking efficiency. Go figure the odds of that one.

And the equally valid question would be whether the car was capable of swerving around an obstacle at the presumed ~120 kmph under these conditions, on stock tyres. There are two possbiliites here. The driver could have done a panic swerve without noticing or even thinking about the truck and slammed straight into it. Can't really blame the car in that case.

Second possibility is that the driver made a calculated attempt to swerve around the cow, but the car did not respond to his attempts (could have understeered as he tried to get back into the right lane, or could have oversteered as the driver tried to swerve to the left of the cow). There have been complaints in this forum about the Swift's tendency to oversteer on stock tyres under fast cornering.

From the pic, is it clear that the ill-fated Swift has steel rims? I am not able to rule out the possbility that the visible wheel is an alloy (in which case the car could be a Zxi, with wider stock tyres). In any case the handling of a car is dependent on how one maintains it. At high speeds, even seemingly trivial details like tyre pressures can be vital. We will probabaly never know what really happened in this case.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by rks

From the pic, is it clear that the ill-fated Swift has steel rims? I am not able to rule out the possbility that the visible wheel is an alloy (in which case the car could be a Zxi, with wider stock tyres). In any case the handling of a car is dependent on how one maintains it. At high speeds, even seemingly trivial details like tyre pressures can be vital. We will probabaly never know what really happened in this case.

From the pics, its quite obvious that the Swift in quesion was a brand new car (2008 model), judging from the new look wheel covers, as well as the new look tail lamps. Going by the wheels alone, one can conclude that the car in question was not a ZXi, and hence no airbags, or even possibly no ABS.

May their souls rest in peace.

[ram_hyundai]

That is a hell of a crash and this could have happened at least at 80 kmph.Very wrong place to hit the vehicle.anyways i had seen a swift hit a tanker lorry and did about one and a half turtle and still the passenger compartment was safe.The car was a karnataka regn one and the incident was between haripad and alleppey.So this accident need not be a right indication of the safety of the swift.
ram

[strips007]

What is the safe speed limit on Highway in India? I have my own set speed limit, never to cross 80 and that is also on an open road.

[druva]

Even a merc did not save the princess. Inspite the crash, the body guard survived - just because he was following some basic safety principles.
It didnt matter the car had safety rating of 5 (or 4) - the princess died.
Even in that crash you could see the crushing of the front till the A-pillar.

[TeddyBear]

The Hindu : Karnataka / Hubli-Dharwad News : Six killed in road accident in Haveri

This is front view.
The accident occurred around 7.15 a.m.

[TeddyBear]

What will happen if any one installed Pete's kit and got killed in accident? (There would be no one to find and remove the kit from the crashed car) I doubt whether his family will get insurance. Any engine alteration should be registered in RC book after approval by RTO inspectors.

Altration can be done in case of changing entire engine. If they permits Pete's kit as part of engine alteration, then there won't be legal issues with Insurance companies.

[Su-47]

The surface quality of GQ gives a false illusion of fast and safe driving. Since there is no access control, things can and do go wrong many times. The truck guy who didnt meet the legal requirements and parked on the side should be held accountable, and I don't what would be the right punishment for him..

May the departed souls rest in peace...

[asr245]

Crash tests usually have their dummies wearing seat belts and those are taken into account for the results. The kid must have been with the co-driver so he/she basically acted as a cushion for the adult!! I see so many people carrying their kids on their lap with/without seat belts never realising that they r turning their kids into a cushion for themselves!! And ofcourse people in the rear think that they are safe in the rear-seat even w/o seat belts. Well... this is how safe you are!


BTW... I read an article few months back about Swift sales. It said that dealers dont keep the ZXI model (and i think the VXI with ABS model) in stock as demand for them is less. They are ordered only on confirmed customer orders. This is how much people care about safety!

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by asr245

Crash tests usually have their dummies wearing seat belts and those are taken into account for the results. The kid must have been with the co-driver so he/she basically acted as a cushion for the adult!!

Come on guys..!! Do we have crash tests in India? Or they have same built quality as in U.S or other countries so that we can consider crash tests as we have in U.S or other countries?

Talking of crash tests is irrelevant i guess.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by TeddyBear

The Hindu : Karnataka / Hubli-Dharwad News : Six killed in road accident in Haveri

This is front view.
The accident occurred around 7.15 a.m.

I thought it is a night time accident when I read the article in ToI. We don't deserve smooth roads. Wide yes, but not smooth. The other day, I saw one Logan trying to race with an E-class!

[gowda79]

Guys really speaking Swift does not have a good body built as myself had seen a accident where the Swift on the left Arch was fully damaged and the full arch was to be changed..

Guess the vehicle which the Swift had hit........ it's TVS Excel Heavy Duty carrier(NO DAMAGE)

Charges for Swift repair Rs.15,000/- and
TVS Repair charges - NIL

Guess the quality of the Swift Bdy and even the Chassis was a bit damaged with the impact and was OK to be adjusted using the same Chassis...

[vikram_d]

This link should give an idea of the swift's safety tests.

Euro NCAP - For safer cars | Suzuki Swift

[aaggoswami]

The swift with a rating of 4/5 is really safe. Now the rating is given after the car is tested at 40% offset crash test at 64kmph(40mph).

The swift has width of 1690mm. So 40 % of 1690mm is 676mm.
It means that 676mm width of Swift's 1690mm was made to hit a barrier at 64kmph. Now the barrier is at a level where the crumple zones can become active.

But running behind the truck even with gaurds at the rear to prevent the cars from going inside, will definately not activate the crumple zones completely.

The crash we are discussing above is a high speed one and is one of the worst case possible. If this car went on to hit another swift or Getz or maybe indica i.e. basically a B segment car, then the result wont be so fatal.

The swift is a safe car. But on indian road, nothing is safe.

Near Vadodara, one Scorpio ran into the backside of a parked truck and 7 people died on the spot. In a similar accident, 5 people lost their lives near Panchmahal in Innova when it ran into a truck.

That does not mean Swift/Innova are not safe. Unfortunately our indian road and drivers and automobiles that ply on the road are not really modern machines with modern engineerng. We think we are travelling in a bus, but eventually we are travelling (mostly) on a modified truck chasis that is really out of date as far as engineering and safety are concerned.


One more fact that the cars tested in NCAP are driven by external force and not by the engine. This definately will not stress the chasis as it does when the car is powered by its own engine. When the engine is working, it does put some amount of stress on the chasis and this can partially affect crash performance.


PS: Sorry if I am wrong at places. And sorry for some spelling mistakes.