Pics: Accidents in India

[paragsachania]

Slippery road due to rain has also ensured the Merc had to bear lesser impact as it easily got pushed aside soon after the bus collided rather than the bus ploughing into it and the resistance offered by the Merc on an otherwise normal (dry) tarmac.

The dents on the doors and quarter panel looks so minimal even for a very well built car if one looks at the way the bus(and speed) collided.

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by tharian

The buses front wheel is locked up,also turned right. There is no steering effectively. ...the KSRTC bus in the beginning of the video going in the opposite direction probably blocked the bus drivers view a..

Spot on, keen observations.

Originally Posted by v12

The Merc seems to have the impact very well. Good to see all the airbags deployed -

Originally Posted by Rodie09

...what saved the day for the merc is the fact that the bus hit the rear left door of the car, thereby giving it a spin and eventually throwing it out of the way. Things would have been very different had the car been hit on the front passenger door in which case the car would have got dragged and sandwiched between the bus and nano.

This merc proved to be an absolute tank of a car. The passenger cell held up so well with no intrusions even after taking a side hit from such a heavy vehicle providing both survivable space and cushioning (airbag deployment). This is the right design philosophy, having crumple zones at the right places along with real solid passenger cage and not necessarily the whole car crumpling like paper.

The bus could have hit the car anywhere, but the car held up, resisted the side intrusion and its whole body swerved rather than allowing the bus to plough through it. With such a rigid passenger cage, had it been sandwiched between the bus and the nano would have been in serious danger (assuming it is the weakest of the three).

Its just amazing the way the body structure of the merc has taken the impact from the bus , makes it look like it had a minor brush rather than such a horrendous side impact.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by bordeaux

Once the bus driver realizes he is going to hit the merc, he is potentially blind to hitting other cars ahead.

Including the oncoming i20 and Santro!

If his front tyres had traction when he turned right, there would have been a pretty high chance of a head-on collision, which would not have ended as lightly as this incident did.

[JediKnight]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

Its just amazing the way the body structure of the merc has taken the impact from the bus , makes it look like it had a minor brush rather than such a horrendous side impact.

The bus driver had braked pretty hard was rapidly decelerating at the point of impact. That saved them merc more than anything else.

[CAPTAIN REX]

Originally Posted by Jr Godzilla

Nevertheless the bus driver was speeding at a potential point of hazard, since we exit and enter any side of a petrol bunk in India.

Merc driver learnt a lesson.

If you have driven through Kerala you would notice that most of the so called "National Highways" are just 2 lane roads, as seen in the video, with all sorts of establishments ranging from offices, hotels, petrol pumps and even houses having their entrances / exits right onto the national highway.
It is the driver who is turning into these exits, or entering onto the highway to exercise extreme caution.

I do agree that the KSRTC bus was also on a higher speed given the prevailing weather conditions.

And the bus drivers in Kerala - they push their buses to the max, having no idea what the consequences would be when something goes wrong. The worst drivers are on the Kozhikode to Kannur route, driving with the A pedal to the metal and zigzagging a 12+ meter bus as if it were an auto rickshaw.

And, true, the Merc guy learns a lesson, a lesson that he will not forget.

Originally Posted by balenoed_

If some has understood the Malayalam commentary in the video, they are kind of blaming the polo for blocking the way, and the bus for causing the accident, and not the Benz because he had put on the indicators it seems

Yes, and there is a chorus for approval for the Merc guy to take the turn into the petrol pump, as he has his indicators on.
Little more of the video and may be we could have heard them questioning why the bus did not stop, after seeing the Merc with the indicators on.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by tharian

Got this over whatsapp.
The Merc has taken the hit quite well for that force.
...

If you look carefully, I think you can see that the Merc had both the indicators blinking.

[Thad E Ginathom]

In a humerous guide to sailing small boats (wish I still had that book), the author advised hoisting a boot before entering harbour and shouting at anyone who gets in the way, "Didn't you see my signal?"

So, the Merc driver was indicating. What can we say? Ha. Ha. Ha, Merc driver: next time, use the horn as well. That might work.

[bordeaux]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Including the oncoming i20 and Santro!

If his front tyres had traction when he turned right, there would have been a pretty high chance of a head-on collision, which would not have ended as lightly as this incident did.

I am not trying to celebrate this accident but the outcome is as good as it could have been in this scenario. Nobody got hurt and one car, luckily the most capable one in the scenario, absorbed the maximum impact.

Originally Posted by pjbiju

If you look carefully, I think you can see that the Merc had both the indicators blinking.

My guess is it's raining and no harm in having your hazard lights on.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by bordeaux

...
My guess is it's raining and no harm in having your hazard lights on.

Hazard lights are not meant to be used when it is raining, at least not unless you are in a blinding rain with a couple of meters of visibility or so. It is to be used when you are a hazard to other road users e.g., your vehicle has broken down and is stationery; you are moving at a very low speed (because of vehicle problem, you are towing another vehicle etc.) compared to the other vehicles on the same road. The habit that people have in turning on their hazard lights when raining, when inside tunnel etc. is so absolutely wrong. How do I differentiate between a vehicle doing 90-100 kmph inside a tunnel vs another vehicle that has broken down, when both have their hazard lights on. We do have a thread on this - I would recommend that you read through that.

In this case, if you had the hazard lights on, how in the world are you going to convey to the vehicles around you that you are planning to make a turn and get into the path of other vehicles?

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

If you look carefully, I think you can see that the Merc had both the indicators blinking.

Wrong, the hazards turned on after the impact, whenever SRS is deployed, the hazards auto turn on in any car.

That said, I have seen them turn on in cars which do not have aribags or impact sensors as well.

[bordeaux]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

Wrong, the hazards turned on after the impact, whenever SRS is deployed, the hazards auto turn on in any car.

Not really. They are on starting at 5 seconds, before the impact.

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

If you look carefully, I think you can see that the Merc had both the indicators blinking.

I too tried to figure that out whether it's indicator or is he flashing the lights. Stopped looking after it became too much strain on the eyes.

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Yes, merc driver felt he could squeeze in before the bus, but had to slow down for the blue car. Wrong judgement and surely an expensive one.

Expensive ? If he had the standard cover, he may end up paying 4-5 k.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by FORTified

Expensive ? If he had the standard cover, he may end up paying 4-5 k.

It's possible that the driver bought only 3rd party insurance and got after-market alloys with the money saved.

Jokes apart, even if he has the best insurance he is definitely going to lose lot of time and resale value.

[King_pin09]

Well, I believe I am the only person to differ in opinion over here. To me the KeRTC bus driver appears to be more at fault (although the Merc driver is no angel) for the following reasons,

1. Firstly, the road, as it appears, is a two lane undivided road within a inhabited (urban/ rural) limit. Naturally, one has to be expecting sudden entrants like, rickshaw, children, cattle, two wheelers, etc, into the pathway as a norm.
2. The surface seems to have been wet due to downpours; this would reduce the braking efficiency for any vehicle.
3. As few other members over here have mentioned, the bus driver might have moved on to the shoulder, due to the first bus not having completed its overtaking process. The driver might have also had restricted vision due to the first bus blocking a portion from the front view.
4. The fuel station is located on the same side of the bus path. Movement of vehicles into and from the fuel station needs to be accounted by the KeRTC driver.

Under the circumstances, it is expected that the KeRTC bus driver drives at sane speed so that he can maintain full control over the vehicle.

From the video it is clear that the car was hit a few moments after it made the turn and not immediately. This means the bus driver had some time in hand to apply brakes and come to a halt. However from the video it appears that the driver did not apply brakes on time.

Coming to the theory of brake locking, we are judging it based on the video footage. However one has to account for a phenomenon called “aliasing” where the wheels can appear as stationery or even moving backwards on a video footage even while the vehicle is moving in a forward direction. This effect is creatively used in commercials.

Coming to the theory of the Merc attempting entry into the gas station from the exit point, the Merc driver had promptly turned on the indicator and commenced the turning maneuver a healthy 7 seconds prior to the crash. Going by the speed of the bus (around 60Kmph) it would have been at least a good 100-120 metres away from the Merc at the moment the Car began its turning maneuver. So definitely the driver had ample time to slow down the bus and avoid the accident.

In my opinion, if not the Merc then the Blue car (Polo?) would have got crushed after exit under the speeding bus.