[Emvi]

2020 has been a year to forget, ironically it is the one that will be remembered forever.
SAFETY has been the most discussed topic these days. If ever there was an award for "Word of the Year" it would go to "SAFETY" hands down in my opinion and rightly so, given the pandemic situation we are all in. This presents me an opportunity to touch upon a few things that have been lingering in my mind since last few months.

Whenever a crash test rating for a particular vehicle is published or whenever a vehicle gets involved in an unfortunate road accident, a lot of buzz is created in social media. Lot of netizens go ga-ga over SAFE cars or bash UNSAFE cars. People take pride in owning SAFE cars, which is absolutely perfect. But people who own the so called UNSAFE cars are looked upon as criminals! The UNSAFE cars are called tincans, carts, coffin on wheels and what not. And the owners of such vehicles are called morons, idiots and stupids! Alas! This is how we treat our fellow motorists for buying something they have long aspired for, spending their hard earned money.

My thoughts are straight and simple.

1. How safe is our public transport system? The buses, vans, trucks and cabs. Most of our kids go to schools by school buses. How safe are these buses? Do they have crash test ratings - I seriously doubt. Forget crash test ratings, they don't even have seat belts. And what about auto rickshaws!

2. How safe are the two wheelers?
Be it a bicycle or a sub 100cc moped or a 1000cc plus superbike, how safe are they on Indian roads irrespective of the speeds they are ridden at. Fine, a person upgrades to a car from two wheeler for safety, and then he is blatantly criticised for buying "Tincans". Sorry, I don't get this logic, India still is a developing country and majority of our population is still middle class.

3. Many of us might own SAFE cars, but how safe/unsafe is our workplace!? Everyone can't afford an air-conditioned comfortable workplace, but no one is concerned about their safety. The moment we see a "Tincan" on the road, everyone's concerned about the safety of the car owner and his family! Hypocrisy much?

How many of us wear seatbelts and ensure co-pasengers also wear seatbelts while travelling in a car? How many of us wear helmets or safety gears each time we go out on a two wheeler? How many of us wear facemasks each time we venture out? How many of us restrict our kids from peeping out through sunroofs in a travelling car? How many of us restrict our kids from cycling on the main roads?

Everyone's concerned about themselves or their family more than anyone else. A lot of factors influence a person when he/she spends his/her hard earned money on something. After all, owning or driving a "Tincan" is not a crime by any stretch of imagination. If it is, then a lot of other things that we do is a crime as well. In that case, a lot of sinners and very few saints in this world. Period!

[AYP]

Vigilantism is a huge problem in our country.

With the advent of social media and better internet access, people have now been able to showcase this vigilantism on a larger scale.

[freakmuzik]

I think I totally understand what you're mentioning in your post. The Mob-mentality is hard to deal with and the lack of being able to see from different perspectives hurts this even further.

But more than bashing the people, I think the bashing is towards the manufacturers. Manufacturer A provides a car at xx lakhs with superb safety and Manufacturer B provides a car at the same price with horrible safety. If I purchase a car from B,

1) I have a relatively unsafe car (compared to other market options)
2) I'm also encouraging that manufacturer to focus on their profits and bling features marketing vs. evolving their products to latest standards
3) I'm making a choice with the SAME AMOUNT OF MOMEY to buy something less safer for other reasons.

This talk exists only because better options are available in the country and people aren't choosing them at a rate some want the public to. In so many places, ridiculous school transport mechanisms are slowly changing to atleast decent buses and vans. People with a family of 4 travelling in a Chetak or Splendor have moved to an Alto or Nano. All these are totally understandable and Safety or anything is merely relative. It's just when there's a better option for the same amount of resources that such comments matter.

Right now, we have a 4 star rated hatch back under 6 lakhs, 5 star under 7 or 7.5, 5 star rated CSUVs under 10! These are times like never before, isn't it? I guess that's all most T-BHP members want people to be aware of when they make a choice.

2010 vs. 2021 - So many more people are wearing seatbelts, So many more people are wearing good quality helmets, more homes are better built. So things are definitely improving! But such noise and talk is a part of the process in a society and I think it would just end up to us personally being able to choose on what works for us and what doesn't.

[Cessna182]

You pay hard earned money for a car. Why not get a safe one which sells at the same price?

Change what you can to make your environment safer. Just because one cannot change the public transport system or the roads does not mean we should call the concern for safety as vigilantism.

Off topic but I fail to see what value a thread about the overemphasis of safety in Indian cars can adds to this forum.

[Sanidhya mukund]

It is always good to talk about safety, and it is also a great sign if consumers are becoming safety conscious. But the main thing to be kept in mind is that the discussion should be healthy and constructive.
I see a lot of toxicity and abusive language being used in YouTube comments, when it comes to safety. I see people fighting with their teeth and claws to justify their purchase, and leave no stone unturned in deriding the person who owns a car from a rival brand. The term ‘build quality’ and safety are being misused by influencers, and their wrong meanings are being propagated far and wide. Just look at the comments section of any YouTube video showing a crash test or accident, and you’ll find these mis-informed people harping about how safe their car is.
While it is still okay for a random Tom/Dick/Harry to say such stuff, what really surprises me is that the manufacturers themselves get into this sort of exaggeration:

[shancz]

I share the observations mentioned here.
We love to criticize others(people/companies/places/vehicles/stuff) without taking a step back and putting ourselves in the same scenario. I guess its human nature to want others to toe your line.
Probably this was always present, maybe to a lesser extent but like AYP said with social media the most minor stuff is blown out of proportion and perpetuated until something else replaces it.
But IMO we should ignore that and move on.
I am no saint either and its very easy to get sucked into a pointless tennis match with no apparent winners(I have been guilty of that) just wasted time and effort.

That's why we should actively try to avoid it, like accidents

Here's a good piece on real-world safety in India that I saw yesterday and seems apt for this topic (Credits to the providers) :

Autocar : Understanding Car Safety

[Emvi]

Yes, it is always better to opt for a safer car when you have a choice in your price range. That's an ideal scenario but might not be practical on occasions. In rural and suburban India, not many brands have good presence as far as showrooms/service centres are considered. One might have to travel 50kms to 100kms just to get the vehicle serviced or rectify a niggle which might not be practical for everyone. There are a lot of districts in our country where few car brands have just a solitary showroom/service centre for the entire district. Safety is important to everyone but might not be a top priority for many when purchasing a vehicle due to such practical issues.

[V.Narayan]

Very pertinent thread initiated by the OP. Thanks. These days at least on Team BHP I observe what I call the 'Safety Arrogance Club' who repeat the tin can cars mantra ad nauseum. Mind you safety is good, safety is needed, safety is desirable but...but... safety is relative and a function of where you started from and what you can afford.

For the citizen family riding 4 to a motorcycle or jam packed in a three-wheeler auto the move up to a second hand Alto is a vote in favour of safety. Looking down on them as morons, which several on Team BHP do, is unfair to them and reflects a lack of understanding of what is affordable by most. Let's also bear in mind the discussion around car safety and the consciousness in India is barely a decade old. All cars sold in India till 1996 would be tin cans by the description of some but they did their job. 1996 is not so far back. I'd been driving for 18 years by then.

Should we have better safety - yes - but not at the expense of making the basic availability of a car, which by definition is way safer than a two or three wheeler, out of reach of large swathes of our population.

[SS-Traveller]

Couldn't help smiling at the title and the content of the first post.

For a nation that believes in the installation of idols, lemons and chilies as the primary mark of safety; for a country full of drivers who have not undergone basic driving training, or never been tested for colour-blindness; for the thousands of km of roads in a country that do not have proper lane markings, pedestrian infrastructure or segregation of slow moving vehicles; it is a paradox to discuss or express our concern for safety without actually following safety norms ourselves.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

For the citizen family riding 4 to a motorcycle or jam packed in a three-wheeler auto the move up to a second hand Alto is a vote in favour of safety.

All cars sold in India till 1996 would be tin cans by the description of some but they did their job. 1996 is not so far back. I'd been driving for 18 years by then.

Should we have better safety - yes - but not at the expense of making the basic availability of a car, which by definition is way safer than a two or three wheeler, out of reach of large swathes of our population.

Agree and if I recall correctly something similar was also said by Mr. Ratan Tata about the Nano. Point being that we cannot be agnostic to our realities.

Ratings aside even if we just look at the videos of frontal crash tests from the last 10-15 years the changes are visible. Even the zero rated cars like the S-Presso don't crush/fold like tin cans, like some of the sedans of the 90's used to.
Safety has come a long a way, even for the entry level car. I never imagined that I will see ABS and airbags in an Alto.

While the frustration is understandable about the traffic chaos and safety we should not expect a Polo out of an S-Presso, it costs half the price for a reason.
Although a safer S-Presso at 5-10% more price is welcome.

In the video I shared earlier, a good point is made about active safety. Better drivers along with ABS, EBD, ESP which help in crash avoidance is what we should be focussing at. Passive safety is important but not getting into a crash is better than getting into one

I am actually happy at the pace with which safety has caught up in the auto sector. All thanks to the leaders like VW/Tata/Mahindra and not to forget the govt because rules for a basic level of crash worthiness still exist along with ABS and airbags.
This will only get better with time.

[Nav-i-gator]

My discourse would be simple - if you are aware, if you know about importance of safety, and safety ratings of cars, and still you buy an unsafe car...you can't hide behind excuses like "it's safer than a bike" or "it's safer than public transport".
Those who are unaware, are innocent, those who ignore, well...
Having said that, there are only a handful of cars that are rated on safety (India made, made for India), so this whole argument is subjective

[vikred]

Crash safety is not a be all and end all for everyone. It may be important to you, but not for others. Same thing applies to any other purchasing criteria of an automobile like styling, fuel economy, interior space, ride quality, performance, etc.

This newfound awareness of GNCAP safety ratings, made popular by some manufacturers, is causing many people to bash lighter (= more unsafe, is the assumption) cars made by Maruti, Hyundai and others on social media platforms, mostly YouTube. However, where they miss their point is people are buying what they are buying on their own volition. We shouldn't judge them based on that.

Having said that, it's the consumers as a whole (and the government to a certain extent) who have the power to order a car maker to improve their safety ratings. If we all stop buying unsafe cars, we will see more safer cars in the market. But then, it also applies to other factors as well. I'm all for the govt. making more features mandatory:

1. Rear wash/wipe for hatchbacks and SUVs
2. Reversing camera, because it's getting harder to see what's behind you with newer cars
3. More airbags (thankfully, govt. has already them mandatory)
4. Auto high beams, to avoid blinding oncoming drivers

[parrys]

Each and every person has a different set of expectation from a car, when they buy it.

My very first car which my mom got for me was a Hyundai Verna XXi (O) with ABS back in 2008. We also had a Maruti Suzuki Alto LXi at the time. None of them had airbags. We sold the Alto after a while because it was barely being used.

Then, I moved on to buy a Thar. I was smitten and just wanted it. That one, had 0 safety kit. It was a 2015 Thar CRDe 4x4. Meanwhile for my father, we owned cars like the Chevrolet Sail and Hyundai Grand i10; both with ABS & dual front airbags. All disposed after clocking decent miles on the ODO.

Now, we own a Maruti Ciaz since 2015 for my father, with ABS & dual front airbags. And I have a 2017 Honda Jazz V with ABS & dual front airbags.

Moving on in life, my prime focus is to buy a four wheeler with more safety kit rather than gizmos. Being the single child, life now feels more precious with parents not getting any younger. So when I had the Verna around 18-19 years of age, safety was the least of my concerns. Few kids think of things going wrong. But now, safety is paramount.

Both my current cars have a ASEAN NCAP crash test rating of 4-stars. India-spec models? Who knows. But at least they have basic active and passive safety features to protect me & my family.

However, I would not buy a car which only boasts a 5-star crash test rating but does not offer me complete peace of mind in terms of ownership. One of my biggest expectation is also good quality interiors which won't rattle in 2-3 years (I vouch for Hyundai & Honda based on experience). Just cannot deal with rattles, no matter how old the car.

But then, to each his own...

[SoumenD]

Honestly other than team-bhp I don’t discus safety much anywhere else as I know here we have genuinely aware/concerned folks who respect safety rather than going on troll-fest(YouTube for example). In India owning a car is still a matter of pride for most rather than a point A to B mode of commute. This is why I feel people try really hard to justify their choice be it a Maruti Hyundai or TATA & in the process end up coming across really harsh (to the extent of trolling).

What I care about is my family’s safety and my duty towards fellow road users. I can do only so much. Hence while making my purchases, I depend upon knowledge available on forums like ours’ and ofcourse crash agencies like GNCAP. And of course the car needs to fulfill my requirements. That’s about it.

Rest public transport is not in my control, so I let it be just taking precautions (like buckling up in cabs) .

[GTO]

Mod Note: Thread moved to the Road Safety section. Thanks for sharing!