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Yesterday, at my native, our Muncipal Chairman passed away in a car accident.

His Maruti Zen rammed against an autorickshaw. Driver is seriously injured with multiple fractures.

Heres the link : http://www.deepika.com/

sorry: only keralites can read that..

I knew him personally ...

This is cannibalism from maruti for the sake of more mileage. :mad:

Sorry to hear about the incident. I can't read the article and based on your post, it seems to me that your acussations are unjustified. Firstly, were both occupants wearing seatbelts? Secondly, there is no information on how the car was being driven at the time. Even the Mercs are not able to save lives in bad situations so to say that Maruti cars are unsafe based on this one incident is unfair.

You always gotto accept the way people in India think. For them safety comes last. Before buying an 800 they may think about its fuel efficiency, price anything but not safety. And as Maruti Udyog is watching that the sales of cars like Esteem, 800 are running properly..they keep on making new versions by adding useless jewelery.

I agree with Stratos.

Its really sad to know about it.

@ hasopi what speed was he at??

But Auto driver is having minor injuries

As I mentioned..he was a muncipal councillor..and accident happened at 3pm Yday. No idea what the speed was..but cant be more than 40kmph since the junction at where this happened is a very busy one.

The Auto was "APE" make..

Its unreasonable to make assumptions as to why the auto guy is safe without knowing the full details. I think it could be that the auto is made of a stronger metal but that doesn't mean it is safer than the zen.

My Father had gone to the accident site Yday & he just came back home after cremation.

Auto is bend ..but car is damaged totally in front.

Deeps..I know the full details..thats why I posted here.

Hasopi....I think you can't blame maruti just for this 1 incident. I had 2 major accidents in my Maruti Omni and came out scratchless...thanks to the seat belts as Deep mentioned. The biggest problem in India is the mindset of using seatbelts. I don't think how strong metal is used to maufacture a car matters, if that was the case, everyone would buy a Tata. Zen has a monoque body (guys correct me if i'm wrong) and this guy might have had a bull rail or something in front which changes the dynamics during a crash. That could have been another reason why he didn't survive.

Well, an Auto creating serious problems for Zen, funny that's all i can say.
Sorry for the person who died.
And I agree with gr8guzzler, might be the case where seat belts were not strapped.
Seat belts are very essential even if your car has airbags. The case is in front of us, the lancer's driver died even with airbag being used.
Bottomline, wear seat belts, it may not save you from all kind of injuries but will surely minimise the no. of injuries.
Better to be safe then ........ extremely sorry.

Yesterday an accident took place b/w a Fiat Palio and a Fiat Premier.. the Palio rammed stationary Premier's back.. and guess what.. Palio was totally damaged from front.. the driver of Palio was BADLY injured...

I guess he was not wearing the seat belt..

Another point to note is the age and fitness level of the person involved.
Case in point, in Princess Diana's accident, the bodyguard (fit as a bull) who was in the front seat survived. ( I know he was belted as well) while the rest did'nt make it.
If you are talking about a 65 yr old person, lower than average fitness..........then the body just cant handle it. In this case the auto driver was probably young and fit.

this doesnt necessarily mean that palios are weaker than premiers...the front part of the car is supposed to crumple and prevent the shock from going into the cabin by absorbing most of it.

Hasopi, sorry to hear about the incident...

Regards
Amitoj

ZEN was discontinued in europe because of it could not meet the safety requirements,thats been years and still maruti's advertisements claim it to be a safer because it has side impact beams and collapsible steering column,companies like maruti are still fooling people like us because we like to be fooled.

sorry to hear about the incident, hasopi....may the soul of the deceased rest in peace....

but like everybody said, one incident can't be used as an excuse to dent a car's safety reputation- maybe the car he was driving might have had some mishap before, and wasn't put together properly, or maybe he wasn't wearing the seatbelt..... but it says in the article, that the car had to be cut open to retrieve his body, and the car was chauffeur driven; he was in the rear seat- if that is the case, then no seatbelt could have protected him...

also, except some models, none of our indian cars have the adequate safety norms. like anshuman said, some of the manufacturers here aren't that keen on safety, and prioritise other factors....but all that's changing, and at least the newer models are getting better in terms of safety, technology and reliability.....