[rrahul_2778]

Boy, I cross that signal daily and many times late nights. I have seen several lorries and our MTC buses running down at crazy speeds and changing lanes at will as if they were a 2 wheeler or cycle. Scary!!! Glad your friend and his wife made it safe.

[amitoj]

It must be heartbreaking, gut wrenching experience for your friend to see his brand new car totalled for absolutely no fault of his own.

That lower bumper, the one with black and white stripes visible in the second picture, probably saved the lives of your friend and his wife. Without it, the point of impact would have been the A pillars.

At the least, the lorry driver who hit your friend from behind, should get his license taken away and made to seek employment in another profession.

[ironshark]

Originally Posted by ObsessedByFIAT

FIAT will always be a FIAT! I have personally experienced the safety I felt inside my Palio when I was about to fall around 20 feet deep with the entire family in the car!

Its great that both the souls are safe! Hail FIAT!

One question though. I always thought that the Airbags deploy beyond a certain speed. Surely when the car was hit from behind, it must have set the tyres rolling. But was it so fast that it triggered the Airbags to get deployed?

IMO there is no relation between speed of the vehicle and deployment of airbags. Airbag sensors are installed at specific crash points which sense the impact and deploy the airbags incase of an accident, or am I missing anything here?

[rameshnanda]

Thanks for the replies guys. I will share the link of this thread with my friend.

As of now, the service centre guys are preparing the estimate and would be pushing for the total loss. The insurance surveyor visited his home to see the damage and he was also convinced that it has to be totalled. We are waiting for the official confirmation on the same. I will keep this thread updated.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

1) How useless are the set of laws and even poor execution of whatever little law is present.

Very rightly said by you. I completely lost faith with our law makers and enforcers.

Originally Posted by Sridhar K

All the signals in suburban Chennai especially the new ones are potential death traps. People don't seem to follow the signal if police is not around or if there is only one policeman. If the signal is red and you stop the car, there is not gaurantee that someone from behind is going to hit you. It may just not be a lorry alone but could be anything from cars, MTC buses, motorcycles etc. It gets worse after 8:30 or 9:00 pm in the evening. My friend had a similar accident near airport but the impact was not this strong.

I second your opinion Sridhar. I have to cross the Raja Kilpakkam signal located at the East Tambaram and know what, no one follows the rule here including well educated guys.

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I share my deep sympathies with your friend and his family, who were victims of the demon like behaviour of the so called "Kings of the Road" and so on.
To claim for damages please talk to some advocate who specializes in Accident Claims Tribunal (ACT) cases. These are tribunals which have sittings to decide the compensations to be paid for damages through the insurance companies.The truck must have been insured. Or else, the owner will have to abide by the Tribunal's order and pay from his own pocket.
Your friend may file claims for the trauma, mental agony, shock and anguish that he and his family suffered.The Punto was damaged and the damages will be perhaps reimbursed by the insurer.
The tribunal hears the victim, insurance compan/y/ies and the person/s causing the accident and decides and awards damages. The claims for damages must be filed in a petition which is served as a notice to the respondents.
These are working quite efficiently and you can approach a good advocate who has been dealing with the ACT's.
The fine which you have mentioned viz. Rs 500/- is paid to the government and not to the party whose car/ motor vehicle has been damaged.

I did consult with couple of lawyers known to me. Some don't want to take this case as they are busy and take cases only with the High court. Some are hesitant and discouraged us to proceed with the case.

My friend who is already shattered was little hesitant to take this to the court. Well, this is not completely ruled out either.

[lloydofcochin]

Ramesh,

Read about this 1st in MFW. It is heartening to hear that your friend & his wife survived this bad accident.

I have observed this phenomenon of people in Chennai willingly jumping Red signals when no cops are around. The Traffic Police has to rigorously clampdown on offenders and strict action should be taken to eradicate this dangerous habit which often leads to loss of innocent lives.

Now coming to the Punto as always the FIAT Tanks deliver when & were it matters the most. And it is a shame that such a manufacturer like FIAT is not selling more Cars in this country obsessed with this 'kitna deti hai' crowd.

[noopster]

Ramesh, please convey my best wishes to your friend and tell him he is lucky to have friends like yourself, teky and Ranjith. This is the second thread in a week where people have walked away from a horrible accident caused by a rear ending, i.e. no fault of their own. This is the other. IN both cases, it's safe to presume the superior build quality of the the European car saved the occupants. In your friend's case the fact that he and his wife were belted in and the airbags worked as intended saved their lives. This is a big learning for me: NEVER switch off ignition at a signal (airbags wouldn't deploy). I know people advise that to reduce air pollution but this is too much of a risk to take!

[srishiva]

Thank God that everyone is safe.
Similar thing happened near Mysore road and a Wagon R was involved which was crushed between a lorry with a bore-well rigging lorry hitting from behind.

Wagon R was totaled and there were no casualties.

[Zed]

Originally Posted by noopster

This is a big learning for me: NEVER switch off ignition at a signal (airbags wouldn't deploy). I know people advise that to reduce air pollution but this is too much of a risk to take!

I guess this depends on the algorithm that the manufacturer uses. Some vehicles have (or at least had) a 'stand-by' mode where airbags remains armed for a few minutes after the vehicle is switched off and the key is removed. Perhaps systems has been changed recently to prevent unnecessary deployment.

But I would assume that as long as the key is its slot - especially if its in the 'on' position, the air bag are still armed to deploy even if the engine is switched off - provided the other triggering parameters (impact forces) are met. Or is this not the case ?

[noopster]

^^ I don't know- but are you willing to take the risk?

It's a different case altogether if you are parked at a monster jam with traffic clogged in front of and behind you. Then for sure you should switch off the ignition. But I am not one of those people who cuts off ignition at every red light and just found another reason not to!

[Zed]

@ Noopster - lets try and find out rather than leave it open ended. Airbag experts - please enlighten us!

The answer may lie with a start-stop system which will take care of the electronic wizardry and decide what bits should stay on and what shouldn't.

[ObsessedByFIAT]

Originally Posted by ironshark

IMO there is no relation between speed of the vehicle and deployment of airbags. Airbag sensors are installed at specific crash points which sense the impact and deploy the airbags incase of an accident, or am I missing anything here?

Well, a bit off topic, but yes, there is a relation between the Airbag deployment and the minimum speed of the car.

Found two links which say the minimum speed should be between 16 to 24 MPH.

HowStuffWorks "Airbag Inflation"

Airbag - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Under "Triggering Conditions")

Anyways, I just hope, Airbags and ABS are made complusory on all the cars on Indian roads. Will save a lot of un-suspecting souls!

[raj_5004]

Alas! This news is coming when I am just about to sell my Punto 90hp...

I have always known the good build quality and high safety standards of FIATs and this thread is a testimony to the same. Look at the cabin, no damage at all. Thanks for sharing Ramesh.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Very rightly said by you. I completely lost faith with our law makers and enforcers.

To lose something, we need to have that in the first place. Correct?

Originally Posted by noopster

IN both cases, it's safe to presume the superior build quality of the the European car saved the occupants. In your friend's case the fact that he and his wife were belted in and the airbags worked as intended saved their lives

yay to seatbelts in both cases.

Originally Posted by ObsessedByFIAT

Anyways, I just hope, Airbags and ABS are made complusory on all the cars on Indian roads. Will save a lot of un-suspecting souls!

To both noop and OBFiat; I agree about the ABS and airbags bit. But we can equip our cars as much as we like and there will still be morons running amok on our roads. It is way overdue to plan and implement adequate measures for road safety and discipline.

Strict tests for issuing driver licenses, accumulating points for traffic offences, ban people from driving if they have x points, strict checking for valid licenses, and heavy fines + prison for people who drive without licenses. For a start.
The Government needs to look into this to prevent thousands of deaths every year. It is high time such accidents are treated at par with attmpt to murder or equivalent.
Till then, its a free for all. and such morons are free to do as they please just because they have 500 bucks in their pocket.

[funkykar]

Air bags engage or no -> No one can say until and after the crash has occurred. Drivers cant plan crash based on sensors

Seat belts -> They keep you planted in your seat, no matter how you crashed.

ABS -> Will prevent some % accidents to not occur at all. Having EBD is even better I think.

Ultimately, the most important thing is to be wearing the very simple seatbelt and having a car of solid build. Remember, your seat is the safest place whatever crash it is. If the body shell gives in, game over.

I think All Fiats that met with accidents saved lives by keeping the shell intact!

[sourabhzen]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I think the low bumpers are there to prevent a smaller vehicles from going fully underneath the truck. That would be even more dangerous. So, in a way, it is there so that the vehicle hitting from behind will absorb the full impact and hopefully save its occupants.

Yes, and it also ensures that the ladder frame chassis of the trucks do not crush the upper body of the occupants of the car. These are mandatory by law (at least for new trucks) to provide protection against a smaller vehicle going under the trucks in case of accidents.

In this particular accident it played important role on saving the lives of the occupants!