Mercedes S-Class Accident : Owner dead, Airbag doesn't activate and Court orders FIR

[tbppjpr]

I've been following this unfortunate accident thread from when it was originally posted in "Pics of Accidents in India" thread. This also matters to me becasue I am also from Jaipur and on that sad morning my brother told me about this sad news as I was yet to read the news paper that day, I got shocked. We used to hear in the childhood that no one can be killed in a Mercedes, all the myths are washed off as the time passed and I got to know that after-all that is also only a car which is also built with some metal sheets, might be the sheet used is more thicker than a 3-4 lakh rupees hatch and some extra safety features added to it.

Here are few points from me :

1. As I posted earlier, I didn't find any safety ratting for the S-class from a trustworthy institution like Euro NCAP. Can we blindly believe on what company claims about this car in terms of safety?

2. I got to know from someone who is known to Saraf family that the S-Class was recently got repaired after an accident which costed some 7 lakhs rupees amount or so (confirmation from the BHPians is needed who are relative/known to them). So as the car was returned from an accidental repair, chances are that the sophisticated functions/features messed up during the repair. So that service station might also be culprit here, isn't this?

3. S-class also comes with some other intelligent safety features like automatic braking which slows down the car by applying brakes automatically if a upcoming disaster is detected, so what about this feature, didn't it work? This is much more important to me than the malfunctioning of airbags. Other similar/supporting safety features are also there in the S-class, all are questionable here.

4. Airbags are not life savers, those are just added safety features. The car's build quality, intelligently introduced crumple zones and seat belts all-together comes at first place in terms of life saving safety, other features including airbags are just addition to those as assistants. (This is purely based on what I think/know)


5. As many other fellow members also mentioned earlier, world's most safest cars can't help in collision with an Indian truck or similar things becasue those cars are designed to absorb the frontal impacts through bonnet, not designed to take impact directly on pillars. So always drive on safe speeds, atleast we have less damage if something happens bad.


Second news posted about Mercedes accident in this thread is also form my state, car was hitted directly on A pillars and again the airbags were questioned by the family of deceased. Feels like people take airbag as accident proof cover to them.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

I've been following this unfortunate accident thread from when it was originally posted in "Pics of Accidents in India" thread. This also matters to me becasue I am also from Jaipur and on that sad morning my brother told me about this sad news as I was yet to read the news paper that day, I got shocked. We used to hear in the childhood that no one can be killed in a Mercedes ...

I'm truly shocked. Of all the things I've ever heard, I guess this ranks with you can't get pregnant the first time.

[ajmat]

3. S-class also comes with some other intelligent safety features like automatic braking which slows down the car by applying brakes automatically if a upcoming disaster is detected, so what about this feature, didn't it work? This is much more important to me than the malfunctioning of airbags. Other similar/supporting safety features are also there in the S-class, all are questionable here.

The S class does not come with Distronic. Besides if it did, it needs to be switched on. Even if it was switched on, it cannot detect a side impact which this car suffered

[sbala]

I have heard similar incident on Merc in a place called Nagerkoil in Tamil Nadu. 2 people got killed in that accident and none of the front airbags got opened. I remember Merc team visiting the accident site and doing investigation on the car to find out the root cause. But not sure, what was the conclusion

This happened during the year 1999.

these guys never change..

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by ajmat

The S class does not come with Distronic.

Thanks ajmat for reminding me the exact name of that feature - Distronic, I couldn't recall it while I was typing that.

I mentioned that the S-class has Distronic feature becasue I found mention about that on Mercedes-India website few days back. Today I again visited the website after your comment and found that this is present in the S-class, (I am not sure if the discussed car model had it or not).

Originally Posted by ajmat

Besides if it did, it needs to be switched on. Even if it was switched on, it cannot detect a side impact which this car suffered

This is what written on the website about this feature there -

"The valuable seconds just before an accident occurs can make the difference between an incident and catastrophe. PRE-SAFE® uses these seconds to great effect by detecting critical driving situations, such as heavy over/under steer, critical steering movements, panic braking and emergency stops"

So as we have been guessing in this thread about the accident that heavy under/over steer and /or panic braking may had been applied to avoid the collision but unfortunately it didn't help, so it seems like the above feature didn't work in this situation where it was supposed to work (If the car had Distronic feature in it).

Now as you said there is a button to activate/deactivate this feature and if the above feature didn't work due to it was deactivated, then why that button was deactivated? Who deactivated this, car users or the service station where the car got repaired? Or the things were messed-up during the repair of an earlier accident repair.

I am more interested to know the roll of other safety features then the airbags alone in this accident as I found those safety features are more questionable in this kind of situation where they could had helped to avoid this accident or could had helped to reduce the scale of accident. Airbags work only after a collision and in this kind of large-scale and fierce collision can we really expect only from airbags to save someone's life. Whole the driver's side of the car got ripped off so drastically, so how the airbags could had sustained in this situation? We still don't exactly know if the airbags got deployed or not. Or may be after the deployment those got ripped off to such an extant that we can't even judge if those were deployed or not. Or may be the airbags of that side lost connection from the sensor/air pipe due to so much damage and couldn't deploy. (I am talking about driver's side curtain airbag/s here).

Can someone enlighten the roll of other safety features like Distronic, ESP, PRE-SAFE brake, Brake Assist Plus etc in various critical driving situations.

[ajmat]

PRESAFE -senses a a potential crash - it only rolls up windows, closes sunroof, resets seats to upright position, tightens the seat belts

Distronic - is a radar adaptation of the cruise control. It sets speed and distance in front of the car and stops accordingly. It is not offered in India

ESP - ensure stability by controlling power and braking on the wheels

Brake Assist - senses the type of pressure that you apply during an emergency braking situation and adds more force to it

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by GTO

They actually do. Both front airbags of Moderator Rtech's Octavia needed to be replaced, at a whopping cost of 1.2 lakhs (IIRC). The insurance covered 50% of the cost.

This is correct. A friend of mine got 50% of the charges for replacing his Sonata Embera's front airbags, seat belts with pre-tensioners, dashboard and steering wheel. This was in July, 2011.

The total bill was 3.7 lacs, of which the above components were around 2 lacs. He paid Rs 1.85 lacs from his pocket. The car was 6 years old.

Coming to the topic, I am really sad to know about the accident described above. It is good that Mark took the trouble of starting this thread, despite the grief he underwent. It really serves to educate the community that no machine is invincible.

[krish82]

There are several reports in websites for many renowned manufacturers where the airbags did not open. A manufacturer manual does not state that airbag will open in all situations, i think they play safe. All crashes are different, crash test cannot testout all the permutations and combinations where airbag should and shouldnt open. You will also find instances in the net where airbag has opened and caused injury. As some one said it in this thread, this is the cumulative failure by all
1. The Truck design
2. Indian road
3. Indian rules/strictness
4. Truck driver
5. Speed of that S class in indian road if it might have been more.
6. Finally God, no one can survive against gods will.

Then why blame Airbags alone, But i know even i would have felt the same if something happens after spending a crore on an S class.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by krish82

Then why blame Airbags alone, But i know even i would have felt the same if something happens after spending a crore on an S class.

I would have felt like a misinformed person who is biased, opinionated and judgmental.

First of all, I would NOT blame the airbags for not opening. I'd blame the person behind the wheel of the car at the time of the accident. It is because of my relative's rash driving and speeding that has gotten him into this mess. Why must I blame someone else for my action? He did have the option of driving carefully and below the speed-limit, didn't he?

I may not have been in a similar situation. But I have been a part of accidents, and when it's my fault, I will jolly well accept it and not blame the other things around me.

[DudeWithaFiat]

Another one. S-class. Brand new. This happened last night near Kozhikode (Calicut). One of my friends who happened to pass by this car, rang me up and told me he just saw a Merc burnt. And today reports appeared in a few newspapers and this pic appeared in FB. Don't know about the air-bags, but isn't it shocking that S-class caught fire upon the accident, charring almost the entire the car. The car is said to be driven by the showroom driver. The driver is still alive though.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by DudeWithaFiat

Another one. S-class. Brand new. This happened last night near Kozhikode (Calicut). One of my friends who happened to pass by this car, rang me up and told me he just saw a Merc burnt. And today reports appeared in a few newspapers and this pic appeared in FB. Don't know about the air-bags, but isn't it shocking that S-class caught fire upon the accident, charring almost the entire the car. The car is said to be driven by the showroom driver. The driver is still alive though.

The driver had a lucky escape here, since the car caught fire around 15 minutes after the accident, by which time the people were able to pull out the driver. No injury for the driver, hence my guess is that the airbags might have been deployed.

[vb-san]

Originally Posted by DudeWithaFiat

Another one. S-class. Brand new. This happened last night near Kozhikode (Calicut). One of my friends who happened to pass by this car, rang me up and told me he just saw a Merc burnt. And today reports appeared in a few newspapers and this pic appeared in FB. Don't know about the air-bags, but isn't it shocking that S-class caught fire upon the accident, charring almost the entire the car. The car is said to be driven by the showroom driver. The driver is still alive though.

Not sure if you are talking about the same accident. The newspaper reports mentioned that the accident happened on Saturday morning around 8:15am, and the location is around Edapal/Kuttipuram. So the one you mentioned from Kozhikode (last night) is a different one?

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

The driver had a lucky escape here, since the car caught fire around 15 minutes after the accident, by which time the people were able to pull out the driver. No injury for the driver, hence my guess is that the airbags might have been deployed.

This is being discussed in another thread – read from post #590.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...ml#post2847289

[DudeWithaFiat]

Originally Posted by vb-san

Not sure if you are talking about the same accident. The newspaper reports mentioned that the accident happened on Saturday morning around 8:15am, and the location is around Edapal/Kuttipuram. So the one you mentioned from Kozhikode (last night) is a different one?


This is being discussed in another thread – read from post #590.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...ml#post2847289

Yep, its the same. Didn't see it here even after a searched .

I personally did not read the news from the newspaper. It was my friend who happened to pass by this car let me know about this. He had called me late night and told me it happened 'a few hours back' then. Sorry for the confusions and thanks for the correction San.

[black12rr]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

First of all, I would NOT blame the airbags for not opening. I'd blame the person behind the wheel of the car at the time of the accident. It is because of my relative's rash driving and speeding that has gotten him into this mess. Why must I blame someone else for my action? He did have the option of driving carefully and below the speed-limit, didn't he?

I disagree on this .

Sir , they why buy it in the first place ?
Why spend 50 + lakhs of rupees for car like that with all the features and safety ?
Why buy with ABS and airbags ?
Why install sticky tires and wide tires ?
Why buy with ESP and seat belts ?

Why the pain of all the above , because you know you WILL drive safe ALWAYS .

We invest in a car with all the above to prevent exactly this kind off situation .

[Thad E Ginathom]

Why the pain of all the above , because you know you WILL drive safe ALWAYS .

Why? Don't you intend to? You should.

We invest in a car with all the above to prevent exactly this kind off situation .

You do not invest in such a car as a licence to drive badly, carelessly or dangerously. There is no such licence. It is not available for sale at any price.

But it is true that:

-- nobody is perfect, at least not all the time.

-- 50% of accidents are the other person's fault.

So, yes, we invest in our safety and, in so far as is possible, in protecting ourselves from ourselves. We certainly have a right to expect that the safety features we have spent our money on will work, but

-- we may be making wrong assumptions about them, or expecting too much of them.

-- we are still responsible for the accident.