[ZENnist]

Originally Posted by manojgautham

This is what I saw on my way to Ooty on 29th August. Took the photos around 7am in the morning.

Apparantly the Safari was trying to overtake the truck and had to swerve to the left to avoid an on coming vehicle. We were told people were injured. No details on the injuries.

who says TATA's engines are not good. This Safari's engine is the only part that has survived the crash..(i know..its a PJ )

anyways, hope the people too have survived.

[Thad E Ginathom]

This is one time I feel sorry for the truck driver, who (assuming my snap judgement is right) has been in a serious accident, and taken major damage to his employer's truck because the Safari driver overtook in the face of oncoming traffic.

[Sarvodaya]

That Safari accident is horrible. Entire body ripped apart. Unbeliveable. Only GOD should save us from these reckless drivers. They don't care for their own lives or for others.
These accidents occur in single lane road. A lorry or other vehicle will be moving slowly. Behind some other vehicle will try to overtake. But oncoming vehicles prevent overtaking. After some time they see some gap in the road and tried to overtake. Error of judgement and this is what happens

[sj_koova]

Looks like the Safari guy was attempting a six sigma attempt that failed resulting him to turn left abruptly. Lorry driver's reciprocation ended up with him suffering a bad damage.

[Technocrat]

I was wondering if the roof & other parts were ripped off to get the people out as I somehow cant guess what kind of impact (also keeping the truck in mind) would make the roof rip off.

[harry10]

Never seen a safari in such a horrible state.
Judging by the pics as the seats are fine people might have escaped with few injuries only.

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

I wondering if the roof & other parts were ripped off to get the people out as I somehow cant guess what kind of impact (also keeping the truck in mind) would make the roof rip off.

I was thinking on the exact same lines. The reasons for ripping the roof don't seem obvious though.

[LastActionHero]

^^Agreed. This could have happened due to use of some rudimentary form of Jaws of Life tool - Hydraulic rescue tools - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Thad E Ginathom]

My thought too; I cannot imagine an impact taking the roof off like that without reducing the windscreen to grit.

[harishnayak]

Looks like it rolled down the hill , by the looks of it the driver must have been thrown on initial impact and the jeep must have conveniently rolled down the estate.

Looks like a soft top to me.

[pranavt]

Saw this in the morning today on Link Road, Malad. How he managed to plant that truck in such a way is beyond my imagination Pole was ripped off from the ground with loose wires hanging around. Probably happened at night. There's no break in the median anywhere near the place where he crashed into it, so the driver was probably drunk, and possibly the acrobatic truck too.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by manojgautham

Apparantly the Safari was trying to overtake the truck and had to swerve to the left to avoid an on coming vehicle.

Interesting to try and rebuild/visualise how the accident happened.

Likely scenario: Safari coming up too fast behind truck, looks for space to overtake, starts tailgating due to oncoming traffic.

Gap in oncoming traffic, Safari swings nose out from behind truck, accelerating.

Truck driver sees Safari in mirror, wants to slow down, takes foot off accelerator, applies brakes.

Safari's bonnet passes clear of truck under its overhang, left A-pillar gets hooked to truck's right trailing edge. Something like this...



Truck continues to brake as Safari continues to accelerate. A-pillar gets sliced off, roof rips off, all in a fraction of a second. Force of impact pushes truck on to the bridge wall, impact causes front axle of truck to tear off.

No apparent damage to right side of truck in the pics. Right rear edge seems to be a little pushed in. Very little damage to Safari's lower part of left front door - it didn't connect with the truck's tyres. Rear left door ripped off when the roof came off.

What do you think?

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by manojgautham

This is what I saw on my way to Ooty on 29th August. Took the photos around 7am in the morning.

Apparantly the Safari was trying to overtake the truck and had to swerve to the left to avoid an on coming vehicle. We were told people were injured. No details on the injuries.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Interesting to try and rebuild/visualise how the accident happened.

Likely scenario: Safari coming up too fast behind truck, looks for space to overtake, starts tailgating due to oncoming traffic.

Gap in oncoming traffic, Safari swings nose out from behind truck, accelerating.

Truck driver sees Safari in mirror, wants to slow down, takes foot off accelerator, applies brakes.

Safari's bonnet passes clear of truck under its overhang, left A-pillar gets hooked to truck's right trailing edge. Something like this...

Attachment 187863

Truck continues to brake as Safari continues to accelerate. A-pillar gets sliced off, roof rips off, all in a fraction of a second. Force of impact pushes truck on to the bridge wall, impact causes front axle of truck to tear off.

No apparent damage to right side of truck in the pics. Right rear edge seems to be a little pushed in. Very little damage to Safari's lower part of left front door - it didn't connect with the truck's tyres. Rear left door ripped off when the roof came off.

What do you think?

From the impact marks on the Safari it is obvious that whatever hit it was moving from front to back in relation to the car. This is not possible if the Safari was cutting back in behind the truck - the impact would then have been back to front on the car.

One alternative scenario to what SS-traveller has proposed is that the truck suddenly swerved, slowed or braked perhaps due to his front axle coming loose and the Safari swerved to the right to avoid hitting the lorry and almost made it but got snagged on the hooks at the rear of the lorry. (I am mortally afraid of those hooks, chains etc. at the extremeties of Indian lorries).

I like this hypothesis because it explains how a glancing blow from a 1.5 tonne Safari sent a fully loaded 14 tonne truck flying. In this scenario the Safari did not cause the accident to the truck, on the other hand the truck suffered a mechanical failure and the Safari was an unwitting victim (the dangers of tailgating - chapter 1).

What is the truth? Did the Safari do it? Was the truck the aggressor not the victim? Catch up with the truth after a short commercial break!!

Cheers,

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

...the truck suddenly swerved, slowed or braked...

What is the truth? Did the Safari do it? Was the truck the aggressor not the victim?

The Safari was obviously going much faster than the truck - it's stopped with its roof removed perhaps a hundred yards ahead of the truck.

Likely the truck would have suddenly panic-braked when he realised the Safari was nosing in to his right but the road suddenly narrowed down at the culvert, so he (the truck) had no space to pull over to the left.

Catch up with the truth after a short commercial break!!

An overnight break... err... brake??

[BurningHeart]

Aaaargh! A model T jeep?