[sukhoi30]

Really sad news!! Its horryfying to even think about what would have been going through their minds during the last few minutes. One great thing about this forum is that we share our driving experiences which helps each other in learning a great deal about not only driving but also reacting properly in an accident situation.
In Hindustan times it says the following ...

"According to NDRF divers, the three executives couldn’t come out of the car after it fell into the river as they had worn seat belts unlike Buch who did not."

Now, did Chintan try to come out on his own or his body floated up as he was not wearing seat belts. Why couldn't the others open their seat belts or the car door? Was the seat belt and door jammed? Or, the shock of the accident itself knock them out?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

"According to NDRF divers, the three executives couldn’t come out of the car after it fell into the river as they had worn seat belts unlike Buch who did not."

Interesting Opinion. I wonder how they found that out.

Elsewhere it was mentioned that he had managed to free himself, but still perished. Maybe these divers know something that we don't ?

[mmmjgm]

RIP poor souls, HVK sir had the news of one body being brought up by divers. God give their family members strength to deal with their loss.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

May their souls RIP. Very unfortunate accident.

Since this is a busy highway, didn't anyone driving around them see the car going in the river? They should have atleast informed the police or the next toll gate.

.

The toll booth pic shows a bus ( looks like a mercedes) right behind them . If this bridge was close to this toll booth ,this bus driver might have seen something ...or maybe the vehicle just before them whom they might have overtaken.

[Sushubh]

This is such a tragic incident. I'm curious to know who should be held accountable for lack of proper caution signs? How can such a huge gap exist in middle of the highway which directly leads into river be left with no proper signage? Can the families sue the Toll operator or the NHAI for this?

[the_skyliner]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

The toll booth pic shows a bus ( looks like a mercedes) right behind them . If this bridge was close to this toll booth ,this bus driver might have seen something ...or maybe the vehicle just before them whom they might have overtaken.

The distance from toll booth to the bridge is approximately 20 kms. In such distance the car might have been a km or so ahead of the bus. Also, bus was behind them so it has to pay toll and usually bus/truck drivers take sometime at toll booths.

Nonetheless, it still surprises me that how come no one even saw the car going down. May be someone saw it and didn't report fearing questioning from police for possible involvement in the accident.

I doubt that someone hit them from behind because it has to hit right in the middle for the car not to swirl and if it did hit in the middle then the other vehicle should also be out of the road. All this is based on assumption that the car went right through the gap between the two bridges. AFAIK, there are barricades on the sides before the bridge starts but not in the middle. So if the car did swirl it is hard for it to go right through that gap (15 feet).

How it happened is hard to find out anyway. And in any case the loss for the families is tremendous. Hope they find strength to deal with it.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by mmmjgm

RIP poor souls, HVK sir had the news of one body being brought up by divers

NDTV weblink shared in last page is updated with image of car pulled out of river. So I guess all bodies will be recovered by now.

[AmeetGokhale]

R.I.P Pranav, Chintan, Sahil and Shrutika. All our prayers and thoughts are with your families.

Stay SAFE everyone... So important to be safe on our highways.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

Elsewhere it was mentioned that he had managed to free himself, but still perished. Maybe these divers know something that we don't ?

I'm appalled- though not really surprised- that comments like this are even made, never mind the fact that they are widely broadcast in the media. "XYZ was not wearing a seatbelt" is a conclusion that can NEVER be drawn in such a case- how could anyone possibly rule out that the seatbelt was in fact worn but unclipped after the incident by the victim? Earlier reports also had several mistakes and contradictions including what time the four left Pune, the "fact" that the mobiles were switched off (as opposed to say going off on their own by drowning), the names of the victims, the destination (even now there are allusions to "Mahabaleshwar" in reports) etc. In such cases, the details matter. Who is served by reporting wrong facts?

Originally Posted by speedsatya

The toll booth pic shows a bus ( looks like a mercedes) right behind them . If this bridge was close to this toll booth ,this bus driver might have seen something ...or maybe the vehicle just before them whom they might have overtaken.

It would be a good idea for the cops to track down all vehicles that passed through that stretch of road that night using CCTV footage and try to piece together the full story. But somehow I doubt this will happen, firstly because the resources are simply not available and more importantly because the case seems pretty open-and-shut at this point. It does seem to be an unfortunate accident and trying to blame anybody for it after the fact is just meaningless.

[Jignesh]

A very tragic end to a expectedly wonderful holidays. May their souls Rest in Peace. I can not even imagine the mental agony of the family members of the dead.

In the entire incident what puzzles me is why there were no indications of a car slipping off the road & falling into the river. I mean there are always marks of tyres in sand, broken barricades, paint / concrete scrapped off the divider walls, etc.

Though I have never passed through this stretch, is it really possible for a car to fall into river without leaving any marks whatsoever?

Thanks,

[benbsb29]

As usual, police say the car was speeding even before confirming any form of evidence pointing to that. How come no one ever considers that this may not have been a speeding car, but road circumstances like being blinded by high beams or even improper signage which led to this?!

RIP to the deceased.

[selfdrive]

I have been using this stretch for years regularly but not frequently enough. Say thrice a year.

There seem to have been a lot of positive changes to the road surface on both sides of the bridge. But the road surface on the bridge itself is quite bad. A lot of vehicles approach the bridge at high speeds and brake late on seeing other cars stopping or by seeing the bridge itself

In this case perhaps they failed to see the bridge due to lack of other traffic and probably were going too fast for their stretch. Late night fatigue could have reduced driver reactions also. All we can do is speculate but the truth is 4 lives have been lost and multiple others affected.

RIP to the deceased and I hope highways see some more sense both in their structure and the their drivers

[kannan666]

Very sad to hear the news, may the departed souls RIP !

[Warwithwheels]

Some technology similar to cockpit voice recorder/ black box found in aircrafts must be made mandatory in cars too.

This will ensure that all key parameters are recoded in real time. Moreover the voice recorder will help insurance companies/ investigating agencies verify the authenticity of the claims easily.

Given the advancement in technology, am confident that the cost of incorporating the technology in cars at the production stage is definitely not prohibitive if produced in large scale.

[createrkid]

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels

Some technology similar to cockpit voice recorder/ black box found in aircrafts must be made mandatory in cars too.

This will ensure that all key parameters are recoded in real time. Moreover the voice recorder will help insurance companies/ investigating agencies verify the authenticity of the claims easily.

Given the advancement in technology, am confident that the cost of incorporating the technology in cars at the production stage is definitely not prohibitive if produced in large scale.

Actually, car manufacturers do not see fit to install a black box since their cars are already loaded with hi-tech safety gizmos which controversially fail to provide any substantial evidence as to how a crash really occurred if there aren't any real eye-witnesses around at the time of the crash.
However, cars ,where, within the programming of the air bag control module is the capability to store crash data on an event data recorder, are prevalent. Although many people are unaware of having such a device installed. I'm not sure how many car manufacturers, in India , actually make use of such technology. USA plans to make black boxes mandatory by 2014-15.

Anyways,

Black boxes can be retrofitted as an aftermarket accessory, present with all GPS tracking and real time voice recording

.

a UK based company ships them if anyone is curious.

http://www.carblackbox.co.uk/