[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by Anand123

An E-class from Kerala.

I was near the spot when the accident happened. It collided with an ambulance (Omni). When I reached, they had already taken away the merc.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

The Innova in this accident is mangled beyond recognition -

Innova owners - dont take this an offence, I too have an Innova. But surprisingly, in every crash, the Innova always takes a heavy beating.

It was sandwiched between a truck and a bus. What would you expect of any vehicle?

Looks like the Innova driver was the innocent victim in this accident, though.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by Sarvodaya

A Sand Lorry smashes into a House in Bangalore. No details yet.

Houses that are situated at T-junctions or dead-ends generally have these pictures/idols of Gods, just for this purpose. It's an auspicious thing to have the idol of a God on the wall of your house.

Just look at that wall. I hope no one was inside that room at the time of impact. Would have been dangerous, with shards and stones flying all over the place.

Hope the driver of the truck is okay.

Looks like the brakes on this truck might have failed, and it would have come barreling down that road, being a slope and everything.

[vineethvazhayil]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Looks like the brakes on this truck might have failed, and it would have come barreling down that road, being a slope and everything.

Sand lorries are really heavy, very difficult to shed inertia of motion. Even if the brakes are alright, on a downward slope it might just take too long to stop. However some of the drivers of these laden trucks always seem to think that they are driving sportscars with ceramic brakes and there you go!

[DevilsCry]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

But surprisingly, in every crash, the Innova always takes a heavy beating.

I feel that most cars are designed such that they can just pass frontal and side impact tests and earn stars in EuroNCAP. But they fail in real life tests. This accident thread helps me in keeping track of safe and unsafe cars. So far from this thread and from news, I've observed the following (I might be wrong)-

Supremely safe cars (not in any order)-
1. Ford Fiesta Classic
2. Every Skoda car
3. Suzuki Swift & Dzire (old model, new models not in any accident news yet)

Unsafe cars-
1. Honda City (except the oldest model)

I have excluded obvious cars like Tata Nano and Volvo's from the above two lists. The purpose is to bring notice to certain cars which might not be as safe as their crash test stickers tell and to list under-rated cars.

raj_5004, thanks to you, now I know that I should add Innova to list of unsafe cars. It would be of great help if you could help us further by giving a list of safe and unsafe cars based on your observations

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil

Sand lorries are really heavy, very difficult to shed inertia of motion. Even if the brakes are alright, on a downward slope it might just take too long to stop. However some of the drivers of these laden trucks always seem to think that they are driving sportscars with ceramic brakes and there you go!

Valuable point worth noting.

I was giving the trucker the benefit of doubt. Driving trucks that are decades old with rusty brakes and downward-slope.

Generally, truckers are decent drivers who 'know' their vehicle's capabilities. However, there are exceptions.

When they drive in city-limits, they do show some of their hooliganism though.

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by DevilsCry

Supremely safe cars (not in any order)-
1. Ford Fiesta Classic
2. Every Skoda car
3. Suzuki Swift & Dzire (old model, new models not in any accident news yet)

Unsafe cars-
1. Honda City (except the oldest model)

On what basis have you made this observation?

[DevilsCry]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

On what basis have you made this observation?

Just by following causalities, damage to passenger cabin, angle of crash etc in a considerable number of reports in this thread and in newspapers. Hope you noticed my disclaimer "I've observed the following (I might be wrong)". Some examples are given below-

Ford Fiesta Classic-
1. From many news clips about highway crashes, like this one http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2559976
2. This BHPian also says same http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2560843

Skoda cars-
1. News of Octavias and Lauras crashing at 120-200 kph in newspapers (not found here in this thread)
2. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2274104

Suzuki Swift & Dzire-
1. See 1st point of Honda City
2. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2628784
3. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2626147
4. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2605330

Honda City -
1. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2696309
2. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ml#post2699421

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Generally, truckers are decent drivers who 'know' their vehicle's capabilities.

There are two types of truckers. Long-haul truckers who criss-cross the country's length and breadth are very disciplined lot. Others should learn driving manners from them. The local quarry trucks which carry sand / bricks / iron rods over short distances are completely opposite. These local short-haul guys are always in a tearing hurry to maximise profits by doing more and more trips. They are the ones who cause most accidents. You will see them on highways barreling down the wrong side at full-speed.

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by DevilsCry

Supremely safe cars (not in any order)-
1. Ford Fiesta Classic
2. Every Skoda car
3. Suzuki Swift & Dzire (old model, new models not in any accident news yet)

Unsafe cars-
1. Honda City (except the oldest model)

Look at these images and another high end Merc story which we already discussed in this forum. It all depends on so many factors and the way accident happens.

Just google for any car and you will find so many mangled cars beyond recognition.

IMO, no car is 100% safe. (No offence to any brand)

Edit: Pics from google search

[DevilsCry]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

It all depends on so many factors and the way accident happens.

Agree that no car is 100% safe but everyone would prefer a safer car. You would choose a Swift over an Alto on highway driving, right?

With manufacturers increasingly getting familiar with NCAP procedures, many cars are coming out which is safe only under NCAP crash conditions but not much safe in real life condition. What choice do we have? Observe a large number of accident threads, try to understand the extend of safety of cars. If someone follows a quite a number of accident threads (for example I instantly recognized the pics you shared here) then he can somehow guess which cars are relatively safer.

An example is Mercedes Benz W124. Even after a decade, people still call it safest car ever.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It was sandwiched between a truck and a bus. What would you expect of any vehicle?

Looks like the Innova driver was the innocent victim in this accident, though.

I agree. But if you look at the pics in this forum itself, there are other vehicles which are involved in similar accidents and have come out in a relatively better shape.

I have an Innova and I do know how tinny it is. I have spent a lot on the maintainence of it's body panel merely because of small stones, cyclists and even handcarts! Till now, we have passed it off as the reliable Japanese engineering and there have been enough discussion of crumple zones too. But after looking at the pics in this thread, I am having serious doubts. For sure, the job of crumple zones is not to crumple the vehicle beyond recognition.

Originally Posted by DevilsCry

raj_5004, thanks to you, now I know that I should add Innova to list of unsafe cars. It would be of great help if you could help us further by giving a list of safe and unsafe cars based on your observations

Well very honestly, just by looking at a car's pic, I cannot really determine which car is safe as we dont know under what circumstances the crash has actually happened.

But in case of Innova, repeatedly I am watching fully crushed examples in this thread. Cmon, all Innovas were not driven at 150 kmph and did not have a collision with a trailer... then why are the other Innovas so badly mangled?

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by DevilsCry

An example is Mercedes Benz W124. Even after a decade, people still call it safest car ever.

Google for some images, you will be shocked. That doesn't mean that its an unsafe car. Also, how many cars can withstand a high speed hit on A pillar?

We should only say "relatively safer" at "normal conditions"
(Even a diamond can be sliced easily when hit at the proper angle)

[Ketan]

Majority of it is how safe you drive and how much alert, disciplined you are while driving. very slim chances that you may become a victim of a sole mistake by someone else and same amount of chances that the car used will make a real big difference. Thats my opinion.

Lets not judge the damage just by looking at the deformed car or its shape, like someone said earlier, its because of the crumple zones it may get deformed keeping the cabin safe. However, we mostly get to see major incidences, real bad ones where make / brand of the car wouldnt have made big difference. I agree when you compare Skoda build v/s maruti van for an average incidence where Skoda may save you some, but cant really compare cars from same category, Swift v/s Tata cars, if not same, both of them may have been with the similar build and safety standards.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by vineethvazhayil

Sand lorries are really heavy, very difficult to shed inertia of motion. Even if the brakes are alright, on a downward slope it might just take too long to stop. However some of the drivers of these laden trucks always seem to think that they are driving sportscars with ceramic brakes and there you go!

It is also quite surprising that this sand laden truck was allowed into a residential locality, and that too a double axle one like this.
Normally it is TATA 407's or 709's or the TATA 1612 SFC that get loads inside the city.