[TheRajput]

Two young lives were lost yesterday near Malad on the WEH. They were best friends residing in the same colony and were on their way home from college.
Both from the same college as mine and one was my junior studying in the same department.
Presumably a case of hit & run where the activa was hit by a vehicle and the rider as well as the pillion were thrown in the opposite direction of traffic.
No one knows how it happened and how long the victims were lying on the spot until they were spotted by a cop patrol.
May the departed souls Rest in Peace..

[anjan_c2007]

Today morning, a colleague Mr D.K. Saha from Kolkata, was going to his office and he his Mrs were seated on the backseat of their own car. A driver (not the regular but hired from an agency) was driving the car. The latter was heavily drunk as per the information passed on.

The driver lost control and hit a few people and tried to escape as per the press report. The car ultimately hit a parked bus and got damaged. My colleague was hit by the driver's seat that moved backwards due to impact and seriously injured both his legs, while his Mrs seated to the left on the backseat, suffered some injuries. The drunk driver escaped with minor injuries, however.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/57877095.cms

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

My colleague was hit by the driver's seat that moved backwards due to impact and seriously injured both his legs, while his Mrs seated to the left on the backseat...

Were they wearing seat belts in the back seat?

[BenjiRoss]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

A driver (not the regular but hired from an agency) was driving the car. The latter was heavily drunk as per the information passed on.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/57877095.cms

Hope everyone recovers from this accident.
If the driver was noticeably drunk, I wonder why the owners went ahead with the trip.
Also if the impact was so great that the drivers seat moved backwards, I wonder how the driver continued to drive.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Were they wearing seat belts in the back seat?

I am not sure. Since they have suffered serious injuries, I would be able to get information after they recover.

[VKumar]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Today morning, a colleague Mr D.K. Saha from Kolkata, was going to his office and he his Mrs were seated on the backseat of their own car. A driver (not the regular but hired from an agency) was driving the car. The latter was heavily drunk as per the information passed on.

Driver was heavily drunk and the car owner let him drive!!

I personally wont even allow a drunk man even touch the keys of my car (I am a teetotaller), and here a couple allowed a heavily drunk man drive their car. They simply reaped what they sowed - no offense Anjan sir.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by VKumar

I personally wont even allow a drunk man even touch the keys of my car (I am a teetotaller) ...

Same here. I would not want the smell of alcohol in my car, and I would certainly not let someone obviously drunk drive it. I once refused to let an alcoholic foreign visitor sip spirits, as a passenger in my car. Which is probably mean, but I really do not want even the smell near me.

Hope this post is negative enough not to break forum rules!

[Roy.S]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Same here. I would not want the smell of alcohol in my car...
..
..

This is actually a sensible thing to do because once I did let a passenger have a drink in my parked car. This guy spilled a bit of his 'beverage' on the back seat and I cleaned it up with tissue and drove on about half an hour later. Now, after a bit I realised that the car had started to smell suspicious so I rolled all windows down and continued to drive and shortly encountered a police checkpost. This was before Blr cops got breathalysers and they used to rely on their sense of smell.
To cut a long story short, I spent 15 min trying to explain to the cops how I was sober but my car smelt like a distillery. They did let me go without much fuss but I got some dirty looks from them.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

My colleague was hit by the driver's seat that moved backwards due to impact and seriously injured both his legs, while his Mrs seated to the left on the backseat, suffered some injuries.

Originally Posted by samaspire

Were they wearing seat belts in the back seat?

How can a drivers seat move backwards when the car has a frontal collision? It should be the other way round. Your colleague and his wife slid from their seats and crashed into the front seats or whatever was in front of them, causing the injuries. Especially in the case of Mr. Saha which is a classical example of sliding into the front seat, causing hip and leg injuries.

How ignorant of learned and well placed officials to let an unfit person drive their car, forget wear seat belts. A good lesson learnt the bad way. Too many hot heads to answer now, and a lot of loss financially. I usually have noticed many government cars too in Bangalore with no regard to wearing seat belts. Either they have zero knowledge of safety, or have the assumption that they are invincible.

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by audioholic

How can a driver's seat move backwards when the car has a frontal collision? It should be the other way round.

Exactly. No way the driver's seat moves back so violently in a frontal collision. Recoil - yes, but not enough to injure greviously.

My question was not a question per se

[jinojohnt]

If you scroll through the photos of accidents in this thread, you will notice that in many cases the seat-back has collapsed and moved backwards after accidents. Strange but true, this is because a head-on is sometimes a combination of "head on/side hit/ floor rupture".

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Driver was heavily drunk and the car owner let him drive!!

I personally wont even allow a drunk man even touch the keys of my car (I am a teetotaller), and here a couple allowed a heavily drunk man drive their car. They simply reaped what they sowed - no offense Anjan sir.

Originally Posted by audioholic

How can a drivers seat move backwards when the car has a frontal collision? It should be the other way round. Your colleague and his wife slid from their seats and crashed into the front seats or whatever was in front of them, causing the injuries. Especially in the case of Mr. Saha which is a classical example of sliding into the front seat, causing hip and leg injuries.

How ignorant of learned and well placed officials to let an unfit person drive their car, forget wear seat belts. A good lesson learnt the bad way. Too many hot heads to answer now, and a lot of loss financially. I usually have noticed many government cars too in Bangalore with no regard to wearing seat belts. Either they have zero knowledge of safety, or have the assumption that they are invincible.

Originally Posted by samaspire

Exactly. No way the driver's seat moves back so violently in a frontal collision. Recoil - yes, but not enough to injure greviously.

My question was not a question per se

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

If you scroll through the photos of accidents in this thread, you will notice that in many cases the seat-back has collapsed and moved backwards after accidents. Strange but true, this is because a head-on is sometimes a combination of "head on/side hit/ floor rupture".

Yes friends, the probability of the front seat moving back and impacting the rear seated passengers is rarely heard. I was conveyed such an information on the phone by friends, who visited the injured couple in the hospital. Some of them had also visited the accident site. But none of them are teambhpians to get automobile facts right like most of us.

Secondly, both husband and wife are working in government offices and biometry has become compulsory these days to mark attendance, or else the person is marked absent electronically and has to apply for leave. I guess they were in a hurry and as Mr Saha was not well conversant with car driving, they might have been under stress to report to the office on time. The regular driver had not come and this drunk person had come through some placement agency. And the drunk driver escaped with minor injuries.

Hence, perhaps a proper and judicious decision was not taken. Taxis are plentifullly available in Kolkata however. That alternative could have saved them from such a disaster.

They are recovering and the critical time is passe. Let us hope and pray that they recover speedily.

[KiloAlpha]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

If you scroll through the photos of accidents in this thread, you will notice that in many cases the seat-back has collapsed and moved backwards after accidents. Strange but true, this is because a head-on is sometimes a combination of "head on/side hit/ floor rupture".

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Yes friends, the probability of the front seat moving back and impacting the rear seated passengers is rarely heard. I was conveyed such an information on the phone by friends, who visited the injured couple in the hospital. Some of them had also visited the accident site. But none of them are teambhpians to get automobile facts right like most of us.
...

Seat backs can and will collapse in an accident, pitching the front seat passengers into the back seat passengers - sometimes with devastating consequences. There is a lot of information about this on the internet - the first link I came across when I searched for this phenomenon is here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/seat-bac...-nhtsa-action/

[BenjiRoss]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

There is a lot of information about this on the internet - the first link I came across when I searched for this phenomenon is here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/seat-bac...-nhtsa-action/

One thing to note in most such instances is that they seem to happen when the car is rear ended. This wasn't the case in Mr. Sahas accident.

Also to quote from the Audi case

In a statement to CBS News, Audi said, "We of course are not pleased with the verdict and we will evaluate the next steps to be taken. It's worth noting that neither the driver nor the injured boy were wearing seat belts nor was the boy seated in a booster seat.''

The verdict still went against Audi as crash tests etc showed this to be an issue. There are other cases where this happened to passengers who wore seat belts, albeit from being rear ended (i've only read through only a few results from Google so far)

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

Seat backs can and will collapse in an accident, pitching the front seat passengers into the back seat passengers - sometimes with devastating consequences. There is a lot of information about this on the internet - the first link I came across when I searched for this phenomenon is here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/seat-bac...-nhtsa-action/

Crash test videos obtained during the course of our CBS News investigation show how when cars are hit from behind ...

So it doesn't seem to relevant to the accident under discussion. But it is a new one to me, and interesting to learn about. So thank you.