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-   -   Safety last? Maruti Chairman Mr. R.C. Bhargava's controversial statements (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/157597-safety-last-maruti-chairman-mr-r-c-bhargavas-controversial-statements-26.html)

In my opinion, yes safety on road depends on multiple factors like road engineering, others driving skills but those are out of our control. Only things in our control is our own driving skills and the ability of our car to protect the occupants in case of an accident. While it may never be 100 percent effective but we give ourselves a better chance with a car with a better safety rating.

1. This thread title is misleading.
2. Reading the article, Mr Bhargava’s comments are neither irresponsible nor ridiculous
3. He is a very senior bureaucrat and has headed the country’s largest auto manufacturer, hands-on, for decades before going on to be its Chairman. Therefore, let us acknowledge his competence and merit.

I do agree that Maruti cars are engineered to a price and perhaps don’t meet NCAP norms.
But some of Mr Bhargava’s points do make sense.

Notably this specific excerpt;

However, R C Bhargava has finally opened up about Maruti Suzuki’s stance on crash tests, accidents in the country, and how we need to navigate road safety in the country. “Nobody looks at why do accidents happen in India. When you really think of it, should safety not be related to preventing accidents?”

When talking about road safety in India, Bhargava focuses on reducing the number of accidents rather than the crash safety in itself. “Putting NCAP standards into cars in India will have no significant impact on number of accidents at all,” he says. This is a fair argument to make, because NCAP tests determine what a car does after the accident happens. He continues to elaborate on what he believes are the big concerns that need to be addressed.

“There are two major areas we [India] are way behind others. [First is] Vehicle fitness. How do you ensure vehicles on road remain as compliant with safety features [that were installed during manufacturing]? There are no laws, no regulation, to govern that. [There is] No certification for vehicle fitness. Lots of accidents due to failure of some systems,” he says.

He then goes on to the second bit of his argument: “How much does a person who gets a license know how to drive safely and correctly? There’s no such thing in India (referring to rigorous training and licensing laws in other countries). Driver error is major cause [of accidents]… not only driver, but other factors like wrong side driving.” He goes on to talk about other seemingly unimportant factors on the road that do go a long way to contributing to road safety. “We can’t do a simple thing like putting proper signages.” Circling back to the safety systems on cars, he says, “We are looking at safety features that make them [cars] more expensive. [But] Is it not as important to have proper vehicle and driver fitness?”

Speaking about what Maruti Suzuki is doing for safety in India, he says, “Maruti has developed whole lot of [safety] systems. Driving schools have simulators. Funded largely in Delhi ways of enforcing traffic laws with cameras and ways of prosecution. Trying to get state laws to change driving tests but for various reasons that is not happening.”

Bhargava also has strong opinions on NCAP and the way that it functions. “NCAP assumes all regulators world over really don’t know their business”, he says while addressing the concerns that people have about how Maruti’s cars performed. “NCAP [thinks they] know their business better than anybody. NCAP funded to large extent by automotive component manufacturers like airbags.” Bhargava’s and Maruti Suzuki’s stance is clear. “Putting NCAP standards into cars in india will have no significant impact on number of accidents at all. Prevention far better than cure,” he ends with.

These statements are definitely irresponsible. I'll reserve my judgement of 'ridiculous', but these kinds of statements coming from a leading manufacturer falls into the definition of irresponsible.

Maruti is not in-charge of the condition of the roads or driver awareness in the country. But what it is absolutely in-charge of is making its cars safer. And that seems to be of least priority. At best, this is just passing the blame around.

A good manufacturer designs their cars for the roads and the infrastructure where their products will be used. For India, this means highest priority should be crash safety. Everything else comes secondary.

I appreciate and respect the work he has done, and acknowledge his business acumen in creating this VFM brand in India. But that doesn't make everything that comes out of his mouth right. He is a businessman, not a regulator or an authority on road safety.

Let's see -

Swift/Ignis vs Tiago,
Baleno vs Polo/Altroz

These are cars at a similar price point with similar features, but the ones from Maruti stable are lower crash rated. 'Engineered to a price ' shouldn't mean compromising on safety. In fact, a well engineered car will be affordably safe.

While I appreciate that there shouldnt ideally be any compromise on safety aspects in any car irrespective of price, I still say these points below are absolutely
valid.

There are two major areas we [India] are way behind others. [First is] Vehicle fitness. How do you ensure vehicles on road remain as compliant with safety features [that were installed during manufacturing]? There are no laws, no regulation, to govern that. [There is] No certification for vehicle fitness. Lots of accidents due to failure of some systems,” he says.

He then goes on to the second bit of his argument: “How much does a person who gets a license know how to drive safely and correctly? There’s no such thing in India (referring to rigorous training and licensing laws in other countries). Driver error is major cause [of accidents]… not only driver, but other factors like wrong side driving.” He goes on to talk about other seemingly unimportant factors on the road that do go a long way to contributing to road safety. “We can’t do a simple thing like putting proper signages.” Circling back to the safety systems on cars, he says, “We are looking at safety features that make them [cars] more expensive. [But] Is it not as important to have proper vehicle and driver fitness?”

After their spectacular showing at the NCAPs here's the statement put out by the chairman of Maruti Suzuki

"Putting NCAP standards into cars sold in India will have no significant impact on the number of accidents at all" - difficult to comprehend the genius that is contained in a single sentence rl:

https://www.autocarindia.com/car-new...hargava-426724

For me more than the safety ratings, these kind of immature statements are more damaging. Agree, in isolation, his statements make sense - but what that has to do with your own car’s safety ratings. It’s like you are failing in exams and rather than improving yourself you are trying to find fault in the entire universe. And these coming in from such senior guys is a shame. Disappointing.

One of our companys rent agency drivers remains critical 2 weeks after a front- side on impact in a road accident. The rear occupant was unhurt. If the car ( Dzire) had side / curtain airbags, I am sure the extent of the force or shock would have lessened.So this is a case of the car actually doing ok, but lacking internal protection measures that could have lessened the injuries.

Bhargava is simply trying to pass the buck and divert attention on bringing in accident prevention into picture. Question is on how safe Maruti Suzuki cars produced by in India. Bhargava, knows very well that most of their cars are produced with poor safety standards and trying to hide behind factors which requires massive reform.

Imagine the effort required from authorities to make reform on how Driving license are issued and educating millions of new drivers. It requires a mammoth effort and government should focus on improving/educating new drivers. It should start at school level and can be part of curriculum so that young generation understands on responsible and defensive driving. Vehicle fitness and driver education is a good topic to bring up, if discussed more in main stream media and gets enough attention, government will start act on it.

Take away from Bhargava statements , Maruti Suzuki voluntarily will not produce safe cars on its own. They will blame government, public and their customers for buying unsafe cars but will not change their approach on safety.

Only two factors can change Maruti stand,

Government enforcing minimum crash safety standards or customers through their wallet. Tata & Mahindra made significant investments in safety and are reaping the benefits now. It’s time for Maruti to embrace the change or lose market share.

Highly irresponsible and adamant statements. It's like saying - you do whatever you want, but we will not change.

Even if he feels NCAP is funded by airbag manufacturers, I say it's better than companies like Maruti lobbying and deciding laws or road safety regulations, or giving such 'passing the buck' statements - at-least with the former, the users are benefited.

Not denying the fact about the current road safety but that has nothing to do with Maruti Suzukis incompetence in terms of manufacturing industry-standard safe cars to begin with.

Road safety and vehicle safety standards are two disjointed issues. Why link them? He can rather attack Govt on taxation which inflates the cost to end-consumer. Why go after safety? Bad bad optics for a brand not exactly known to be safe. I'll avoid Maruti even if it meets all GNCAP norms, just because brand-equity is really bad.

How does it matter if new vehicle safety norms reduce fatalities by only 3%-4% ? Even if one life is saved, it's worth it. Ask anyone who lost someone in accident. It's worth it because Indians are talking about vehicle Safety first time in history.

Corporates are supposed to plan ahead for regulatory environment years in advance. Did they think India will never implement strict norms? It was supposed to happen someday. You didn't plan, you suffer. And publicly going against logic of safety norms is not doing Maruti any good. It's bad PR, period. Only thing achieved here is maybe find temporary relief in terms of delay in implementation. God know who within Suzuki decided to play this card :thumbsdown

Okay brother. Please put your kid in Maruti S-Presso for highway trips hereafter.

Mr Bhargava and his company has immense lobbying power to bring about transformational changes in infrastructure and mandating fitness if they want to (than limit it to company's interests)

But what I cannot agree is, to expect 'other things' to be addressed first (a dialogue from the Tamil movie Nayagan comes to mind) and then drag one's feet to making cars safer. If anything, the poor infrastructure is one reason why passive safety (through crash tests) are so important in India!

While I believe Mr. Bhargava's company should focus more on improving vehicle safety, I completely agree with what he mentioned about driving awareness and Indian road conditions.

Every year when I visit India, I observe the driving situation deteriorating rather than improving. Driving licenses are still issued to unskilled drivers, and a considerable proportion of people do not know (or care) the rules of the road, either due to a lack of regulation or because they never taught them.

People must understand that these five-star rated vehicles are tested at 64kmph, and the net speed would be far higher in the event of a head-on collision.

Then there's the honking for no apparent reason...

I beg to differ on the irresponsible part of this dialogue.

Yes I agree that all the things pointed out by Mr Bhargava are extremely important.

- Stricter license issuance should be made mandatory. I have heard arguments that uneducated drivers or drivers from rural areas do not have the education/background to clear the test. But I also know that a ton of these drivers who travel to UAE/Saudi and some to Canada as well and are able to pick up the nuances there. Its not diffuclt to implement it, yes it might lead to longer waiting period but this is for me the most important change required in today's drivers.

- Better Infra and yearly certification are necessary but a large country like ours, this is just grounds to more corruption.

What is irresponsbile is that he is adamant on saying that changing safety features for Maruti cars will not change the number of road accidents. Providing a safe car is not an excuse for any of the above mentioned. Its one other thing seperating you from fatality. The arguments put forth by Bhargave are not mutually exclusive, but you comply on your end and the rest will be take its own sweet time.

A majority of Indian buyers even today do not understand or consider the safety ratings of car before buying it. Governments should make it mandatory to advertise cars with their satefy standards just like how warning labels are put in front of a cigrette pack. Unless you do that Maruti and Suzuki wont change. Such lack of apathy from the largest car manufacturer is a disgrace.

This man has done a lot to bring affordable vehicles to the common man in India's early automotive years but in todays world, with all due respect, It is high time for Mr. R.C. Bhargava to go.

- this is such a logically correct yet a completely misleading statement. He is an industry veteran and it shows his bias!

NCAP standards are not designed to prevent accidents - they are designed to save lives!