[blue_pulsar]

We do not know how exactly the accident took place and at what speed. It is definitely wrong to conclude either ways.

And do you guys honestly think that any small car is safe in India? I believe none is.

[ram_hyundai]

Its not alone safety but the situations in which the crash occurs also matters.So a proper analysis of the event in the sequence is required to determine if the casualty was due to any lack in safety issues or any other cause.
ram

[elfhelm]

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

We do not know how exactly the accident took place and at what speed. It is definitely wrong to conclude either ways.

And do you guys honestly think that any small car is safe in India? I believe none is.

It is wrong to conclude without knowing any of the facts.

Do I think any small car is safe? Shouldn't that be do we think any car is safe? The biggest safety device in a car is the nut behind the steering wheel.

No matter how safe a car claims to be, if driven rashly or if it goes out of control at speed what can the driver do? Even speeds of 40-50 could potentially be lethal.


So are small cars safe in India? I don't think any car is safe in india mainly because of our road conditions. I recently drove down the NH 4 from Bangalore to Mumbai. We encountered trucks going the wrong way in the fast lane. We saw families in small cars driving at night with the lights off.
At places the "highway" became a one lane dirt track.

Thats why IMHO, no car in india can be considered safe. It is always the drivers prerogative to be alert and go at sane speeds and expect the unexpected to happen.

[manojkgopalan]

No car in this world is safe when the bonnet of the car goes underside of a truck like in this kind of situation. even a high end merc could not save princess diana. Most of the safety features are incorporated into the bonnet portion of the car. if that is crashed directly against something, then most of the safety features of the car will come into effect, from A pillar of the car nothing can save. Then dont believe all those safety features will save you from all kind of situation. But if you use safety features like seat belts and abs etc.. it can save your life at some points. I know one accident in which all the people travelling in a scorpio lost their lives when it rammed into a truck parked roadside. considering all these, a swift can be considered safe to some extend.

[nikhil3456]

Hmmm.. haven't been active for a while on this forum. Now, let me re-start with this thread.. (and its going to be a loooooong post )

First of all, it would be interesting to know if the Swift sold in Europe which has a good rating has the same configuration as the car sold in India. My experience of 4 years in automotive crash-testing & occupant safety simulation has taught me that cars sold in Europe and the US are safer. For markets such as India, where the safety regulations are practically non-existent, these cars are sold without safety features like ABS, airbags (which is commonly known) but also without crash countermeasures.

Crash countermeasures are things which are embedded in the body of the vehicle, or between the body and interiors. These countermeasures, such as foams, tubes of soft materials, plastic cones etc have one main function -- to absorb the crush energy and thereby transfer lesser energy to the occupants. The reason most car manufacturers insist that their engineers make most crash countermeasures as stand-alone pieces is so that these need not be manufactured and fitted in countries where it isnt mandatory.

When a country's regulation gives this leeway, why wouldn't any manufacturer try and cut costs by excluding these? Though this thread is about Swift, I don't think any manufacturer is an exception, after all better profits are involved. It'll be interesting to export some of these cars (which claim higher safety ratings) as-is to Europe and get an actual EuroNCAP test done!

Talking about safety in cars, is there really a value for life in India? I know people who prefer the VXi version of the Swift so that they can use the money they saved on ZXi for a better ICE. How many Indians would really invest in safety features? How many people actually wear seatbelts?

As far as trucks are concerned, if my memory serves me right, it was decided that as of Oct 1 2004, all trucks should have the mandatory rear intrusion-protection beam fitted on the chassis. Where do you see them now? From what I heard, a lot of trucks are overloaded and this beam scrapes the speed-breakers. So, the intrusion protection beam is taken off! Smart!

[aaggoswami]

If you carefully observe, then also, the rear intrusion protection is of very little use. It is still high compared to the present cars.

We need a better design and lower intrusion beam that can really prevent the cars from going in.

[Gangsta]

News of Accident of a Swift with Auto Rickshaw: A MUST SEE Look at Swift!!! can you believe the condition of Swift after it hit an Auto Rickshaw?

As the loop joining Sarai Kale Khan to Maharani Bagh was closed after the accident, an autorickshaw which entered the wrong lane collided head on with a car which was going towards Noida. Three occupants of the autorickshaw died, while three people who were inside the Maruti Swift were injured.

The auto driver Shailendra (34); Raghubir Singh (32), of Sarai Kale Khan; and Raghubir’s brother, Azad Singh (30), died in the accident. Ravindra, who was also in the auto, was injured. ‘‘We had planned Holi celebrations and my brothers were going to buy meat,’’ said Mukesh, another brother of Raghubir who worked as an MCD sweeper. According to police, the car had three occupants — Amit Singh (30), who was driving, Anurag Singh (28) and Prabhat Singh (28). All three are engineers working with an MNC in Noida and were returning after playing Holi with friends in Delhi. All three have been admitted to Kailash Hospital in Noida. ‘‘They are still unfit for statement but their medico-legal report suggests they were drunk,’’ said the police. A case has been lodged. The family of the auto driver has alleged that cops did not inform it about his death. The victim’s brother, Manoj Kumar, said, ‘‘The police are trying to protect the engineers and are blaming my brother.’’ According to police officers, the autopsy of Raghubir and Azad shows they were not drunk.

Source:
Welcome

Swift hits an Auto Rickshaw and 3 people in the swift are seriously injured? Duh!! People in auto rickshaw died on the spot, i can understand but people in swift were seriosly injured and that too seriously injured that they are unfit for the statement acc. to the police?

[Eddy]

1- Never believe what the police says to the press.

2- We don't know if the swift guys were wearing seat belts or not. It was a head on collision at speed >100kmph after all.

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by Eddy

1- Never believe what the police says to the press.

2- We don't know if the swift guys were wearing seat belts or not. It was a head on collision at speed >100kmph after all.

Place where this accident happened, do you think swift can go beyond 100 kmph?
Even if they were 100+ they must have applied brakes which would had reduced the speed, not much but less than 100 kmph for sure.

Head on with Auto Rickshaw, Point is Auto Rickshaw dont have much weight, even if the auto was coming from the front, it wouldnt be over 30 kmph.

But it looks car was rammed with a heavy vehical.

Head on collision and the person sitting in the back was seriously injured too. In the crash test, with such conditions of the car after the collision are not considered as 4/5 Ratings. It is 1 or 2/5.
I'm not saying that swift was not rated as 4/5. but Quality really gone down in india.

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by Gangsta

Place where this accident happened, do you think swift can go beyond 100 kmph?

It happened on the DND if I am not mistaken. 100 is the min that most people drive there. And if it was a head on and auto was travelling at 30kmph, that makes the impact velocity >130 kmph. No car survives that.

[Rahulkool]

i don't think its only fron impact from auto, car must have hit something else after collision from auto ....

anyways car looks pretty new, the red ribbon on the bonnet are still there :-O

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by Eddy

It happened on the DND if I am not mistaken. 100 is the min that most people drive there. And if it was a head on and auto was travelling at 30kmph, that makes the impact velocity >130 kmph. No car survives that.

It is not proper DND, it is where DND starts mate. If coming from Ashram it is a wide road, if coming from pragati maidan, it is not a wide road and it is not a straight one.

Now talking of 130 kmph. What if a person see a vehical infront of him?
Both will apply brakes. auto Applied brakes, Swift Applied brakes. If it was a straight road, this could not had happened. Because of the visibility for each other. But the place where it happened that road is curvish. Swift's is so awesome that it can cross the curve at speed 100+ kmph? I don't think so mate. They are the stock tyres i guess. have a look at the pic. Mate

Now, the next point is, It was an accident bet. Auto Rickshaw and Swift.
Both must had applied brakes. Swift's brakes are good, I can say in 1-2 sec. 20-30 kmph decreased and auto in 1 sec. 5-10 kmph decrease.
If the car was coming at 100+ and auto from opp side at 30 kmph means a total of 130 kmph. Right?
After their speed decreased, we assumed the collion took place at around less than 100 kmph. Auto Rickshaw with less weight would had taken all the momentum, either auto rickshaw would had been in the air, or it had gone left or right. It is just a thin sheet of metal in rickshaw. That is good enough to absorb the energy, But in the crash tests, They hit the car with a solid unmovable structure and that too can't absorb the energy, to transfer the momentum. But Auto Rickshaw being very light if compared with the cars, this could not had damaged the car that much with 4/5 crash test rating and that too people in swift were so much injured that they are not in a state to give any statement and same this with the person sitting behind. Auto Rickshaw is not a car mate.
You hit a bat to a light and movable thing. It will absorb energy. But if you hit the bat to a wall, with full force damage to the bat.
but if the bat gets completely damaged by hitting a movable thing. We don't consider it as a Good Bat.

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

i don't think its only fron impact from auto, car must have hit something else after collision from auto ....

anyways car looks pretty new, the red ribbon on the bonnet are still there :-O

Valid point buddy. But where this accident happened, the swift cant hit anything headon. after hitting the auto it would had stopped or it could had came to very less speed. We have railings on both the sides. and it is not a wide road.

Yeah, the car is still new but feel bad about this accident. It was shear auto rickshaw's fault and those swift guys will be in trouble and auto rickshaw driver's family members are saying that it was just swift people's fault not the auto rickshaw driver's fault at all. Pathetic.

[Gangsta]

New Delhi: Four young men returning from a late night party had a miraculous escape as the brand new car they were in overturned and collided with a tree near Dhaula Kuan on Ring Road in the early hours of Tuesday. Fortunately, all of them escaped with minor injuries even as the Maruti Swift car was completely wrecked.
According to the police, the accident took place around 1 am when the four youths — Tarun, Sumit, Bunty and Varun — were returning from a friend’s birthday party in a Rajouri Garden mall. Just as they crossed the Dhaula Kuan flyover, Tarun, who was reportedly driving, lost control of the car and it hit the divider. ‘‘The car was being driven at a speed of over 100 kmph. It spun after colliding with the divider and crashed into a nearby tree. The entire front portion is completely smashed,’’ said a police officer.
The occupants were rushed to Safdarjung hospital, where three of them were discharged on Wednesday after first aid. One of them, who suffered head injuries, has been referred to the orthopaedic department but his condition is reported to be stable.
‘‘A preliminary medical examination revealed that they were under influence of alcohol,’’ said the officer. ‘‘The blood samples have been sent for testing to ascertain whether they had consumed more alcohol than the legally permissible limit.’’
Recalling the nightmare, Tarun told TOI: ‘‘We were returning from a friend’s birthday party and I was driving at approximately 100 kmph since the road was totally clear at night. Suddenly, one of its front tyres burst and I lost control. The car flew up in the air and landed back. I tried applying the brakes but was unable to do so and it rammed into a tree. I lost consciousness after that. My car was just oneweek-old.’’
The police, meanwhile, have registered a case of rash and negligent driving at the R K Puram police station. They are waiting for the blood report to prosecute the four for drunken driving. The youths, aged between 23-25, are all residents of Satya Niketan. While Tarun owns a pool club in the area, the others all have jobs.
In a similar incident reported last month, two youths died and two others suffered injuries in a road accident at India Gate after the driver of the car, who was reportedly under the influence of alcohol, lost control over the vehicle. The Skoda turned turtle and hit a tree. The youths were also returning from a late night party and were overspeeding, according to the police.

THIS WAS ONCE A SWIFT: The brand new car overturned and collided with a tree near Dhaula Kuan. The four occupants miraculously escaped death. (below) Driver of the car Tarun



Source:

Times Of India, New Delhi

Man They are Really Really Lucky.

[Jaggu]

Sue maruti for 165 tyres first.