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Originally Posted by ameaa Thats a hell of an accident. May their souls rest in peace. Just for every ones opinion, toyota cars are reliable but how good are they in safety front as i have seen few innova crashes with fatalities. |
Time and again on this thread we have had enough debates on the safety aspects of a car and the "Build quality" that a car can have to save lives in case of accidents. Let us simply not waste time talking about Brand A being safer than Brand B under similar circumstances.
In cases like these, there is simply NO CHANCE for survival. The stretch where this happened is super fast and will entertain any irresponsible driver who wants to try his car's top speed.
Jumping off the median and clashing head on to a fully laden truck! Even if that had happened at the slowest of speeds, the results would've been disastrous.
As you can read from the report, even the truck driver is serious and is admitted to a hospital.
The occupants of the ill-fated vehicle were returning from Shirdi and were proceeding towards their destination in Goa. Hence, It is also a possibility that they may have started their journey midnight and would've continued towards their final destination without proper sleep after that tiring day at a pilgrimage center.
Another typical reason for accidents is families returning from pilgrimage trips. Owing to standing in long queues and back to back Darshan of their deities at various temples within a single day and the urge to return back by driving overnight leaves them completely tired :-
This perhaps is the biggest RISK people fail to realize and becomes one of the major reasons for loss of so many lives just because the driver dozes off at the wheels. Moreover, none of the occupants of the ill-fated vehicles would be even awake to keep their driver busy and attentive while he is feeling miserably sleepy and bored due to an empty stretch at night, typical sound of a constant RPM of a Diesel engine (Tempo Trax, TTs, Boleros, Sumos) that kinda becomes a lullaby for them.
I may have been the co-passenger next to the driver so many times during those fun filled college and school trips and I always prefer to virtually drive along with the driver and get into a constant conversation with him right since my childhood.
I still remember when my uncle had hired a Sumo from Pune (Wayback in 1997 when we drove from Belur to Sirsi to Pune in 24 hours) and I preferred staying awake - One reason was the love for watching roads and other was for making sure that the driver doesnt feel lonely (Or even insulted for that matter) that everyone else sleeps while he drives.
And most the such accidents where a vehicle jumps off a median, the reason quoted is a Tire Burst. I have been a part of one such accident in Kalol (Near Ahmedabad) where I was behind the wheel of an Indica and a rickshaw suddenly swerved right. To avoid hitting the rickshaw, I tried my best to slow down and squeeze the car with whatever space was left between the median and the Rickshaw. I may have been at speeds of 50-60kmph when my front right tire (brand new) brushed against the median and immediately burst. Since my speed wasn't much, I was lucky that the car didn't climb the median.
Hence, there can be cases where the driver can also doze off at the wheels and come too close to the median and the tire bursts. Essentially, a tire burst may have happened "During" the accident but may not have been the cause for the accident itself the way media reports most of the times.