[rajesh.sml]

Originally Posted by rrsteer

In March this year, my uncle and the driver of the Tata Ace came out alive (my uncle with no injuries whatsoever; driver with fractured legs and jaws)from a horrific frontal collision involving the Ace and an Indica coming from the opposite side. This was on a highway, early morning and both vehicles were doing good speeds. I will be the last person to thank Tata for manufacturing a safe vehicle.

Strange !!!!!!!!!!!

What is TATA's fault, were Tata folks driving the vehicles remotely. In accidents we have many variables. Many a times it can be vehicle fragility which causes damages and sometimes vehicle sturdiness saves lives.

But having said that, losses occur with safest vehicles as well. So we need to be extra careful on the road. Take good care of our vehicles, so that they can return the favor when it is most required.

[aerohit]

Having safety features does not mean you are invincible and exempt from adhering to defensive driving techniques.

We all know speeding, constant-overtaking, cutting lanes without indicators etc, is the norm. Expect more incidents like these in future.

The only suggestion is- Drive calm and live on.

[RajaTaurus]

When it is raining and roads are wet, doing 90 kmph is not the right thing to do. Once hydroplanes there is no rolling contact between tires and road and whatever happens next are chairs not following any physics. And driver's response is spontaneous and not necessarily safe. No point blaming ALL safety aids to save the car!

[vaspro]

After going through the Owners manual (PDF file downloaded for refreshed XUV) I get few more questions:

1. ESP could be manually turned off. Did this vehicle have the ESP function in "on" state? I remember that many owners will turn off "Start-stop" function and to my horror I found that "ESP off" button is just below start stop function button. Making it prone for a human error and switching it off inadverantly

2. Owners manual clearly states that curtain airbags will not open in "most" rollover conditions. Unless the rollover started due to side impact- that impact might trigger both curtain and side airbags. In this case rollover happened due to Hydroplaning..is this the reason for curtain airbags not deploying? what about the impact from the coconut tree as someone pointed out?

[Vasuki]

Originally Posted by SDP

I believe most of the participants of this thread are using the terms "side-airbags" and "curtain-airbags" interchangeably.

When you open any of the front doors, the plastic panel that covers the side of the dashboard has a sticker which says "The car is equipped with side airbag on each front seat. DO NOT use any accessory seat covers. ... DO NOT use excessive force on the side of the seat."

So the side-airbags are embedded as part of the front seats and going by the last line on that sticker, it looks like even the impact sensor for the side-airbags is part of the seat-assembly itself. Is it possible that the topple created an impact which was mostly taken by the doors etc and did not reach the seats?

Curtain-airbags, on the other hand, are embedded in the A & B pillars and logically should have impact-sensors in the corresponding pillars. Those should have popped up by the impact from the topple. Mahindras should investigate why that didn't happen. Knowing how they operate, I am pretty sure they would investigate, but its unlikely that the findings would be shared anywhere in public.

From cartoq : http://www.cartoq.com/car-accidents-...hats-going-on/

Seatbelts not worn :

The XUV500 involved in the crash is a W8 variant, which means that it is equipped with curtain airbags. Coming to the curtain airbags, they deploy upon a side impact or a rollover. These events are registered by sensors that detect side impacts through the doors, and of course roll overs. If seat belts are not worn though, none of the airbags will be deployed. This is because the airbag can do a lot of damage to the car’s occupants if a seatbelt is not worn.
The airbag is basically deployed through controlled explosion. If the seat belts aren’t worn, the occupants of the car can come into contact with high temperature gases used to deploy the airbags. This can cause serious burn injuries, which is why seat belts are mandatory for airbag inflation. In case of the XUV500, if the seat belts of the middle row passengers weren’t fastened, there is a good chance that the airbags didn’t deploy due to this reason.

[fusionbang]

Good to know all the occupants are safe, and still I am not sure if everyone in the car were wearing seat belts. Anyways it is the structural integrity of the car which saved them with help of luck ofcourse.

I am not sure why everybody is complaining about airbags not deploying in this crash, we do not know exactly if all the criteria's were met for the airbag's to deploy. I have a excerpt from the owner's manual which clearly says the curtain airbag's wont deploy during roll over until and unless it is a rollover due to a side impact/collision.



I would surely appreciate Mahindra to have built a safe car and we cannot blame Mahindra for the airbags not deploying.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Vasuki

From cartoq : http://www.cartoq.com/car-accidents-...hats-going-on/

LOL. That article is not right. Airbags will deploy with or without seat belts. If you don't wear seatbelts then the airbags will work as secondary but it is stupid.

Because of not wearing seatbelts you will go towards the steering/dash and the airbag will blow up on your face. This can cause sever injuries.

Only very advanced systems deactivate the passenger airbag when it detects a child in the front seat. Usually if you have a child in front seat, one needs to deactivate the passenger airbag manually.

Effectively airbags will go off regardless of seat belts being worn or not.

Originally Posted by SDP

So the side-airbags are embedded as part of the front seats and going by the last line on that sticker, it looks like even the impact sensor for the side-airbags is part of the seat-assembly itself. Is it possible that the topple created an impact which was mostly taken by the doors etc and did not reach the seats?

No no. side airbags in the seat will deploy along with the curtain bags. The sensors are not on the seats but the trigger mechanism is. So you need to be careful of not putting excessive force.

If the sensor was on the seat then the shell would be compromised before the airbag is useful which would be pointless.

[MaxTorque]

I heard a similar incident happened in South Africa again the vehicle was XUV500. The vehicle had a head on collision and toppled to adjacent line and again another vehicle hit the vehicle.

There were three occupants in the vehicle and thanks to the air bags all of them came out without even a small bruise. As the insurer suggested to write off the vehicle, he wanted to buy another vehicle. Impressed with the safety features, the wife of the customer said to go for another XUV.

This story was shared by the actual customer among Mahindra officials.

In my opinion, the safety features are just an insurance in case of any eventualities. Looking at the damages, I assume that speed might have well above 90 kmph. Fortunately the occupants are safe.

Anyway I hope Mahindra will look into this incident and will come out with a logical conclusion.

[prakhar1998]

Originally Posted by Acharya

You've hit the nail right on the head, my friend.
Had it been a German or Japanese manufacturer, people would have been rolling out reams in appreciation on the safety/ tank like built and crumbling zones and what not.... that saved lives.

Poor Mahindra faces all the flake, despite saving the occupants from a life threatening situation.

You do realise that people have survived in impossible instances such as plane crashes. But, the fact that there were survivors doesn't mean that the plane was necessarily safe.

The airbags are there for a purpose, and if they didn't come into action, something was wrong.

Now, the XUV was recallled for a curtain airbag related issue. There is a possibility that there is a correlation. Hence, finding about what happened is crucial to understand the issue and fix it. There is a possibility that such a fault is not isolated.

Going by the plane analogy, air crash investigations also function on the same logic. Looking for possible deficiencies/ errors to mitigate possibilities of future accidents by fixing current airplanes.

[Steeroid]

While everyone is equally happy that the occupants are safe, it is strange to see people taking up positions for and against the vehicle itself.

I don't think anyone here is qualified to make comments about the incident itself or the safety (or otherwise) of this vehicle based on a few photographs and a second-hand narration.

Save your thanks for luck/the Lord/fortune/stars etc. Its premature to jump to the conclusion that the vehicle itself is very safe just because people walked out alive. I've seen similar conclusions being agreed to quite fast by people who saw a terrible crash in Dubai involving a Kia. The cops themselves were amazed that the occupants walked out - that was a base-spec bargain basement vehicle that didn't have any side airbags that should've deployed.

Sometimes people are fortunate, sometimes they are terribly unfortunate to die in circumstances that defy logic - there may be no logical explanation for it, but be thankful for this scenario.

Having lost a few good friends to road accidents, all I can say is that there seems to be a lot more than human scientific inventions behind who stays and who dies. Be thankful these people lived, and please stop fighting over a few pictures.

[born_free]

No doubt XUV build quality is great and thank god all passengers came out alive. This does make XUV a safe vehicle under majority of accidental circumstances.

Now I have two questions that are bothering me since I read this thread.

(1) Would a sedan in same price range and similar accident could have protected the occupants as XUV did. I have seen many reports in accidents thread where fate of the passengers had been not so good even in D segment sedan.

(2) Would a better handing sedan like vento meet the same fate upon hydroplaning under similar circumstances. I guess a sedan would not have rolled over like the XUV did due to better maneuverability.

One learning I could take away from this accident is that we should all understand the limitations of vehicles we drive and should not get into false sense of security based on vehicle specifications.

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

While everyone is equally happy that the occupants are safe, it is strange to see people taking up positions for and against the vehicle itself.

Having lost a few good friends to road accidents, all I can say is that there seems to be a lot more than human scientific inventions behind who stays and who dies. Be thankful these people lived, and please stop fighting over a few pictures.

Exactly same opinion. As a matter of principle and owning up to the fact Mahindra or an independent body needs to do a in depth analysis and provide their results in the public domain. If thats not possible due to some issue they atleast need to make sure the safety feature present did work as expected.

Readers do not jump the gun. It was a lucky day for the passengers and thats that. Freak incidents do happen which cannot be explained.

Maddy

[Acharya]

Originally Posted by prakhar1998

There is a possibility that there is a correlation. Hence, finding about what happened is crucial to understand the issue and fix it. There is a possibility that such a fault is not isolated.

Fully agree on what you've said. There are always possibilities of malfunction of a part be is airbag or anything else.

My point is - Mahindra being a low cost Indian manufacture is already held guilty by many, before checking any possibility of malfunction, misuse, tire condition, driving condition etc etc.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by fusionbang

Good to know all the occupants are safe, and still I am not sure if everyone in the car were wearing seat belts. Anyways it is the structural integrity of the car which saved them with help of luck ofcourse.

I am not sure why everybody is complaining about airbags not deploying in this crash, we do not know exactly if all the criteria's were met for the airbag's to deploy. I have a excerpt from the owner's manual which clearly says the curtain airbag's wont deploy during roll over until and unless it is a rollover due to a side impact/collision.

Attachment 1399411

I would surely appreciate Mahindra to have built a safe car and we cannot blame Mahindra for the airbags not deploying.

Thank you for this. Maybe the impact sensors are on the doors and until and unless there is a direct impact on the doors, the side airbags will not inflate.

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

Thank you for this. Maybe the impact sensors are on the doors and until and unless there is a direct impact on the doors, the side airbags will not inflate.

IMO the sensors are placed low on the B-pillars(which is the centre of the car) for the airbags to deploy. And during roll over there is not much impact on the B-pillars especially the lower portion. If you see the pics there is not much damage on the B-pillar.