[Ram]

Sunday morning 4 am. Ghastly accident on Pune-Mumbai expressway.

A Mumbai-bound Force Trax vehicle rear-ended a 14-wheel trailer truck at 130 km/h, got stuck in its rear axle and got dragged for 7 km. The trailer-truck driver did not realize what had happened.

The bloodstained vehicle had human flesh, broken bangles and windshield glass scattered within its interior.

Sixteen lives were lost in the Trax: 10 women, 3 children and 3 men including driver. The driver was 25, tired and had fallen asleep before he died and killed so many. The 8-seater Trax was crammed with 19 people.

The accident happened 8 km before the expressway ends.

At the Kalamboli exit, another Force Trax carrying other members of the marriage party stopped the trailer, and beat up the innocent driver for not realizing that a collision had happened. He was beaten-up so badly, he had to be hospitalized.

The Trax's speedo is still stuck at 130 kmph.

[Ram]

This morning's paper: Mumbai edition, Times of India carried the story.

[wanderlustindia]

16 killed in Mumbai expressway mishap-Mumbai-Cities-The Times of India

Looks like a shocking incident. The Trax driver was at fault, apparently. 16 people in a Trax. The Trax was stuck behind the trailer at the axle and was dragged for 7 kms before the Trailer driver realised someone was stuck behind.

The trax was doing 130 kph when he bumped into the trailer. Amazed to know the trailer did not realise the impact.

[Ram]

Posted an hour and a half before at
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...aims-15-a.html
with pic.

[condor]

Sad. And the trailer driver gets beaten up for no fault of his.

OT: This Trax looks to be the Cruiser / Toofan, and would have an official capacity of 14, not 8.

[Aditya]

Though the report and pictures say it, I'm not sure if a Trax is capable of touching 130km/h. Packing 18 - 19 people in an LMV, let alone for highway travel, is nothing short of criminal. Many such vehicles ply on our roads. The police should get more strict regarding such vehicles rather than going after relatively harmless issues like freeflow exhausts.

[theMAG]

Thats terrible. Doing 130 kmph in a vehicle not designed for speed is not recommended either.

[extreme_torque]

@ram... this isnt a 8-seater. The car has four rows of windows so a 14-seater as condor said.
@aditya... You cannot stop it... this is the way we travel. Here the vehicle isnt at fault, its the driver. But then you never know becuase drivers in India are overworked and underpaid, especially these cab and truck drivers.
Sad Incident.
Same day in Delhi NCR, a Hyundai Accent banged into a stationary LCV at full force on greater noida expressway leading to the death of two promising state level athletes. Apparantely the Accent driver failed to spot the stationary truck and rammed straight into it... both the occupants died on the spot. It was a gory sight... the Accent was a heap of metal no front or back with blood stains all over.

[suvi]

Yet another "taking law into hands" case. we need to introduce some law to protect drivers. my sympathies for the poor Trailer driver and the passengers of the other vehicle.

[GTO]

Was really upset to read about this story, but carrying 19 people in a UV designed for 14 is just asking for trouble. Add night driving with a sleepy driver, and it makes for a dangerous concoction.

God bless their souls.

[Su-47]

May the departed souls RIP.

130 Kmph? Would a trax carrying so many people be able to reach those speeds?

We had a bad scare when our driver fell asleep on Hapur-Delhi road. If my attentive Brother-in-Law wasn't sitting on the front passenger seat, the driver would have rammed us into the back of a truck and I wouldn't be writing this today. We forced him to get out of his seat and my BIL drove after that.
Subsequently, we follow the following things, especially, when we have a hired car:
- We make sure that the driver, on whom our life depends, gets a good night's sleep. Since we dont know what he did last night, we try to limit the driving on the first day of hire.
- On other days, we limit the driving to about 8 hrs, mostly during daytime.
- A good driver sits at the front passenger seat, keeping an eye on his reflexes. At the slightest hint of fatigue, we will take a break.

[Maverick5490]

A sad incident indeed.. TOI says the trax was dragged for 7 kms without the driver realizing.. seems difficult to understand how the truck driver did not realize an impact oh 130 kmph into his trailer.. seeing the pic in TOI of the trailers rear axle wonder how the driver drove the truck with the axle bent to such an angle..
Whereas Mumbai Mirror says the trax was dragged for 600 mtrs.. things are not very clear here.. May their souls re3st in peace..

[ramie2400]

R.I.P. to the lost souls,really sad incident my condolence to their family.

[Ram]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

@ram... this isn't a 8-seater. The car has four rows of windows so a 14-seater as condor said.

Rows of Windows have nothing to do with seats in the 3.05m wheelbase Trax vehicles.

This is a Blue sapphire metallic, Force Trax Cruiser Classic or Force Trax Toofan Classic. (both come in that color). The only difference is that the sideways facing benches are two seaters in the Cruiser and three seaters in the Toofan.

So the capacity is either 9+ driver or 11+driver. In both cases less than
the 19 that were travelling.

[Ram]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Though the report and pictures say it, I'm not sure if a Trax is capable of touching 130km/h.

Originally Posted by Su-47

May the departed souls RIP.
130 Kmph? Would a trax carrying so many people be able to reach those speeds?

Most likely he was going downhill in a heavily loaded vehicle.

Two streams of thought:

ONE: At the Kon-Shedung expressway connector, a trailer truck joining the expressway leaves the tollstation, passes under both strips of expressway, bears right and lumbers uphill to join the expressway half a km away from the tollstation.

Imagine it's 4 am, and the truck is barely illuminated. Expressway traffic headed for Mumbai would be negotiating the 21-degree left bend at Borle village and meet the slow unlit trailer trying to crawl onto the expressway in the leftmost lane.
Something like an underpowered overloaded Force Trax Cruiser/Toofan, would stay in the left lane while accelerating downhill from above the Borle underpass.

Crash! He has been driving sleepless all night, accelerating downhill and suddenly meets a dark or barely lit barn-size rear wall of a huge trailer truck -- an accident waiting to happen. The prime-mover hauling the trailer has so much extra torque that the driver does not even realize the drag of a twisted vehicle entangled with its rear axle, at 4 am in the wee hours.

TWO: On the Mumbai-Pune expressway,
the law tolerates a 16 bhp 700 cc two-cylinder Tata Ace that runs out of breath at 64 km/h
as well as a 230 bhp V6 Nissan Teana that cruises at 210 km/h
Imagine trying to set a common speed limit for both.

How do you rein in a hapless youth driving a diesel MUV all night, in a hurry to get to a destination?
How do you preach safety to him, when hordes of better designed vehicles are doing 100 to 120 km/h on the same expressway?

May the departed souls rest in peace.

Ram