[GeekSrik]

I ve been thinking a lot whether the swift is really safe for the occupants on a frontal collision. And my worst fears came true after reading todays times of india article which i replicate here.

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Six from Bangalore die in crash

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



Haveri: Six persons of a family were killed on the spot when the car in which they were travelling rammed a gas tanker parked on roadside on the Pune-Bangalore National Highway-4 near Haveri on Sunday.
Software engineer Gangadhar Nalawatti of Hubli, who was working in Bangalore, had come to Hubli along with his family members on Saturday for the marriage reception of his brother Santosh. The accident occurred at Chakapur Cross in Shiggaon police limits when they were returning to Bangalore on Sunday. An eyewitness said Gangadhar, who was driving the vehicle, tried to avoid a cow which suddenly came on to the road, and rammed the tanker.
The deceased are Gangadhar Nalawatti, his wife Jyoti, son Arya, sister Shilpa, mother-in-law Vasanti and aunty Vimala.
Superintendent of police M Nanjundaswami, Additional SP K Manjunath, inspectors L Venugopal, Girishmurthy, PSI Prashant Naik visited the spot and shifted the bodies to Shiggaon Government Hospital for postmortem.
The number of tea stalls has been increasing along the national highway in the district limits. “Truck drivers park their vehicle along the roadside at such stalls, which poses a danger to traffic. Hence, I have decided to ask them to vacate those places”, said SP Nanjundaswami.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com
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Attached is the picture (courtesy times of india) to detail the article even further.

[vikram_d]

I doubt any car which is crumpled to this stage is safe. Looks like a really high speed impact. I mean the front passengers area has quite literally dissappeared.

[gemithomas]

No car would have come out of such a thing. Atleast not under the 10-15L. The swift cabin is known for holding together though the rest of the car gets thoroughly distorted in case of impacts. I guess in this case the impact was on the top part of the car when the car ran under the truck.

[ajmat]

First thing - do not expect the car to save you in its enterity

1: The tanker had no guard rails - so car dived under thus penetrtaing the A pillar

2: While the front two passengers had no chance, the remaining could have had a chance if they wore belts but there were six people

3: My bet is that the child was sitting in the front seat on someones lap

4: For such an impact - the car was easily doing 120, late reflexes, panic and hit the truck at around 60km/h

They should have hit the cow, there would have been some survivors but no one would have been safe. Highways should be elevated and entry restricted like mumbai-pune

[Gangsta]

That's Really Sad, Last night in Chanakya Puri, New Delhi. A Swift hits a divider at around 30-40 kmph with 6 people in the car. I know the speed because the car was there infront of me and we were not more than 30-40 kmph before the turn. The driver wanted to take left from the circle in the chanakya puri and he lost his control and rammed his car in the divider.
His car was busted open like anything. Front Doors were jammed, and were moulded due to front impact. Me and my Friend were really surprised to see swift after the impact in such pity condition.
Ok Fine, we have damage to radiator, bumper, front grill, lights etc due to front impacts on other car's too. But Due to front impact Doors gets moulded when the car was there in such small speeds? Is it safe? If this is the case at just 30-40 kmph then what about the actual crash tests with double the speeds?

Comments Please

Originally Posted by ajmat

4: For such an impact - the car was easily doing 120, late reflexes, panic and hit the truck at around 60km/h

This can't be the impact of 60 kmph mate.

[jkdas]

Just cause a car is rated 4/5 stars doesnt make it the safest. These rating as like under standard driving conditions etc and where road rules are followed to max. But seat belts and airbags can save you.

Saw a Merc without its front after being bit by a Swift. The Swift didnt take much damage. This happened at Kwodiar last eve.Hope someone has the pix.

[hellstar]

Agree completely with Ajmat ,

the front two passengers never had a chance at survival especially when the tanker did not have the guard rail.

Maye the souls of the departed rest in peace .

Classic example of situation where better skills would have saved lives, I know its difficult to do so in such situations but still as Ajmat said had he decided to serve back and hit the cow , there could have been some hope ....

[hellstar]

Originally Posted by jkdas

Saw a Merc without its front after being bit by a Swift. The Swift didnt take much damage. This happened at Kwodiar last eve.Hope someone has the pix.

thats interesting but , the question is what happened to the passengers in either cars? I would expect the merc passengers to be relatively less fluttered than the Swift Passengers even if the Swift sports lesser damage

Off topic but where did this happen ? near the entry to Jawahar Nagar ?

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by hellstar

thats interesting but , the question is what happened to the passengers in either cars? I would expect the merc passengers to be relatively less fluttered than the Swift Passengers even if the Swift sports lesser damage

Off topic but where did this happen ? near the entry to Jawahar Nagar ?

Yes, as always CCD.

Merc passengers would have away but I bet he went home to see if he have enough $$$.

[Sankar]

Jk do you remember the accident near Kayamkulam we saw on the way to Blore?

A Innova rear ended a Zen and it lost it's mudguard and radiator and was pretty nicely crumpled. The Zen had damage near the rear tail lamp and the bumper was a bit skewed.

I'm not saying that the Zen has a super strong structure but the Innova has well designed 'working' crumple zones

[visu03]

Today morning iam going to book my car (Cedia Sports)

Looking at the pictures and reading the story, i am having a churning feeling in my stomach.

I hope i will get over it soon.

All the people involved in the accident may RIP.

Amen.

[theMAG]

A car can have all the safety features on earth and yet can never be considered being everlastingly safe at 120 kmph and no airbags/seatbelts. 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.

The irony is the "authorities" will now be expected to make this stretch of highway even more dangerous by now constructing unmarked and lethal speedbreakers.

[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 ....

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by theMAG

A car can have all the safety features on earth and yet can never be considered being everlastingly safe at 120 kmph and no airbags/seatbelts. 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.

The irony is the "authorities" will now be expected to make this stretch of highway even more dangerous by now constructing unmarked and lethal speedbreakers.

Not all 'authorities' are stupid (or not always). They are clearing the roadside tea shops and preventing trucks from stopping along the road.

[PatchyBoy]

A car cannot be considered safe just because of safety features. I guess a cars safety depends on the safety consciousness of the driver and passengers. Remember, princess Diana was travelling in one of the world's safest cars when she met with a fatal accident.

A car equipped with Air Bags cannot be considered safe, just based on this feature. Airbags are known to kill, without the use of seat belts. A car can have multitude of safety features, but how is that going to help if the users do not make use of them?

May the departed souls rest in peace.

Rajan