[vjbox]

Came across this new sort of a crash test Volvo did recently to help the Swedish Emergency Services prepare for extreme crash scenarios. I really adore the lengths the guys at Volvo go to simulate these crash scenarios and it speaks volumes about the top notch engineering and safety tech that goes behind their cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM_6EY7T5To

Here is the article below.

https://www.media.volvocars.com/glob...eleases/274379

[V.Narayan]

You got to hand it to the Swedes the way they pursue excellence in design and engineering - steady, process oriented, low-key, conscientious and result oriented. They Swedes (via Saab) invented the three point seat belt and made the design available for free for all to use in order to promote human safety and not profit from a design intended to save human lives. Can't even imagine an American or Japanese car maker being altruistic in this way.

I am glad to observe that safety features are discussed so vigorously on Team BHP today and lack of safety features is a concern for young car owners today in India. This was simply not so in your father's (i.e. my) generation. We had little knowledge of car & driving safety and lived with a 'Ram Bharose' attitude.

[vjbox]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

You got to hand it to the Swedes the way they pursue excellence in design and engineering - steady, process oriented, low-key, conscientious and result oriented. They Swedes (via Saab) invented the three point seat belt and made the design available for free for all to use in order to promote human safety and not profit from a design intended to save human lives. Can't even imagine an American or Japanese car maker being altruistic in this way.

I am glad to observe that safety features are discussed so vigorously on Team BHP today and lack of safety features is a concern for young car owners today in India. This was simply not so in your father's (i.e. my) generation. We had little knowledge of car & driving safety and lived with a 'Ram Bharose' attitude.

Very true! I continue to be in awe with the sophisticated engineering and the finesse with their design. I am glad too that the importance of safety is catching up widely and as members of such a forum I think we certainly need to advocate more on it. I have been very vocal about it for the past few years and even went on to persuade a couple of my employees to choose Nexon over Creta and they are happy with the cars.

[saisree]

Take a bow Volvo. Their stand on Safety first and performance next is laudable. Our local players are finding it difficult to send couple of cars for GNCAP test and here Volvo drops 30 cars.

Though there is a slight moment among buyers to consider safer cars, there needs much more marketing and advertising on educating the masses on the importance of it.

Kitna Deti Hai has gone into bloods and it needs to be flushed.

[casnov]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

They Swedes (via Saab) invented the three point seat belt and made the design available for free for all to use in order to promote human safety and not profit from a design intended to save human lives. Can't even imagine an American or Japanese car maker being altruistic in this way.

I believe it was Volvo and not Saab who invented three point seat belt. The patent was given to Nils Bohlin who was with Volvo at that time.

[carthick1000]

It is painful to see all the latest generation volvos being dropped from a height of 30m, but considering they are done for the greater good sounds reasonable. Volvo recently dropped about 10 of their current generation models to train emergency services personnel for training in recovery and extraction methods. Not only for the Swedish emergency services, but they eventually also are planning to make the data available worldwide.

Watch

It is the most extreme crash test ever executed by Volvo Cars, and a crucial one. Extrication specialists often use cars crashed at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre to hone their life-saving skills.

To allow rescue services to prepare for any possible crash scenario and to simulate the forces that erupt in the most extreme crashes, beyond what can be simulated with ordinary crash testing, Volvo Cars recently took equally extreme measures. For the first time, it dropped several new Volvos multiple times from a crane, from a height of 30 metres.

This approach helped create enough damage to adequately simulate the damage found in the most extreme crash scenarios: think of single-car accidents at very high speed, accidents whereby a car hits a truck at high speed, or accidents whereby a car takes a severe hit from the side.

In such situations, people inside the car are likely to be in a critical condition. Therefore the priority is to get people out of the car and to a hospital as quickly as possible, using hydraulic rescue tools known in the industry as ‘jaws of life’. Extrication specialists often talk about the golden hour: they need to release and get a patient to the hospital within one hour after the accident has happened.

“We have been working closely together with the Swedish rescue services for many years,” says Håkan Gustafson, a senior investigator with the Volvo Cars Traffic Accident Research Team. “That is because we have the same goal: to have safer roads for all. We hope no one ever needs to experience the most severe accidents, but not all accidents can be avoided. So it is vital there are methods to help save lives when the most severe accidents do happen.”

All findings from the crashes and the resulting extrication work will be collected in an extensive research report. This report will be made available free of use to rescue workers elsewhere, allowing them to benefit from the findings and further develop their life-saving capabilities.

Usually, rescue workers get their training vehicles from scrapyards. But these cars are often up to two decades old. And in terms of steel strength, safety cage construction and overall durability, there is a vast difference between modern cars and those built fifteen to twenty years ago. And new Volvos are made of some of the hardest steel found in modern cars.

This makes it crucial for rescue workers to constantly update their familiarity with newer car models and review their processes, in order to develop new extrication techniques. In other words, these training sessions can mean the difference between life and death. So at the request of the rescue services, Volvo Cars decided to step things up a notch.

“Normally we only crash cars in the laboratory, but this was the first time we dropped them from a crane,” says Håkan Gustafson. “We knew we would see extreme deformations after the test, and we did this to give the rescue team a real challenge to work with.”

A total of ten Volvos, of different models, were dropped from the crane several times. Before the drop, Volvo Cars safety engineers made exact calculations about how much pressure and force each car needed to be exposed to, in order to reach the desired level of damage.

Source

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by carthick1000

It is painful to see all the latest generation volvos being dropped from a height of 30m, but considering they are done for the greater good sounds reasonable. Volvo recently dropped about 10 of their current generation models to train emergency services personnel for training in recovery and extraction methods.

Watch

Kudos to Volvo for all being the flag bearer of safety.

I really wish these squid heads on YouTube comments arguing about crash worthiness of cars by comparing accident pictures. No matter how strong the car is ( like the Volvos here) if the crashing speed is higher and the impact larger any car would crumble. The only way to judge safer cars is to do scientific crash tests. Volvo is leading the way by working on extraction skills and tools.

Impact sensing Auto Unlock door could be a life saving feature in these scenarios.

https://youtu.be/fLNLUzlqRAM

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by casnov

I believe it was Volvo and not Saab who invented three point seat belt. The patent was given to Nils Bohlin who was with Volvo at that time.

Saab invented the basic seat belt, Volvo invented the 3 point seat belt.

The Volvos would have been test mules which would normally be scrapped so this is a good way to put them to good use. If you look closely, some of them are damaged already or have plates on

[ShankarG]

Can we assume all Volvo cars (India specific) as five star rated cars on GNACP standards?
To me, Volvo is a brand that is unlikely to cut corners when it comes to India product vis-a-vis EU products but I am not sure.

Is it better to increase budget and go for second hand Volvo car instead of a new loaded Harrier /Jeep (both are still untested)?

Thanks

[Turbanator]

I don’t think they produce anything in India and given the low numbers or otherwise they will have an India specific chassis. Same for Jeep, they do lower numbers so won’t have a distinction between export and domestic most likely.

As posted elsewhere, it will be a good time for companies like Jeep, VW/ Skoda, Toyota to inform people about the safety ratings being similar to what they sell overseas and here.

[extreme_torque]

This only underlines how ill prepared and unequipped our emergency response teams are even though we have more emergencies than perhaps any other country. Destroying brand new cars for the crews to be able to learn from them is also a bit of excess but an excess that Swedes can afford and are serious enough about.

[GTO]

Kudos to Volvo for their commitment to safety . And its initiatives like these that help maintain the image of Volvo as a "safe car". Although now, the best from Mercedes + BMW + Audi + other high end brands are just as safe. But Volvo stands out.

[vjbox]

Originally Posted by ShankarG

Can we assume all Volvo cars (India specific) as five star rated cars on GNACP standards?
To me, Volvo is a brand that is unlikely to cut corners when it comes to India product vis-a-vis EU products but I am not sure.

Is it better to increase budget and go for second hand Volvo car instead of a new loaded Harrier /Jeep (both are still untested)?

Thanks

All their cars are global spec and they don't really tailor make or cut down for any specific markets. This is one of those USPs with Volvo and there is that sense of assured safety when you are in their vehicles for that reason.

As far as going for a used Volvo instead of a new Harrier or a Jeep, it purely depends the individuals priority. Aside from putting in the added premium on a pre-owned Volvo, one also needs to account for the any unforeseen repairs cost assuming the vehicle is out of Warranty. Maintenance is not really an issue with Volvos in general and they are usually built to last. It is unfortunate that Volvo India's lineup is limited to only 4 cars now but each of those offer a great deal of value and user experience for those who are looking at best of both safety and luxury (of course there is decent performance too but that's not why you go for Volvos)

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by ShankarG

Can we assume all Volvo cars (India specific) as five star rated cars on GNACP standards?
To me, Volvo is a brand that is unlikely to cut corners when it comes to India product vis-a-vis EU products but I am not sure.

All Volvo cars sold in India are imported from Belgium. There is only one standard with Volvo and the same is old world wide. There are no, to best of my knowledge, cut down versions for the third world.

[VKumar]

1) They make safest cars
2) They train professional rescuers too, in case the safest car meets a crash

Wow, isn't it an entirely different league in terms of commitment to safety? Crashing 10-20-30 cars, dropping them from 100 feet, just to ensure that the professional rescuers know how to extricate the passengers ASAP, which other manufacturer would have done that?

When Ford sold them to Geely, I used to think that the real Volvo will be lost now, but look how well the small Chinese enterprise has let them stand up and walk, run in fact. We haven't seen better looking Volvo cars since a few decades, and now they have taken the passive safety too to another level with this one.