Team-BHP - Why aren't car fires properly probed in India?

Well, here's an update from The Economic Times:

Quote:

Several cases of deaths in car fires in the capital have prompted the government to prepare a roadmap for time-bound investigation of these accidents and to ensure that automobile manufacturers rectify any faults that show up in these probes.

Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday that progress on this issue will be monitored periodically at the highest level. He said although most incidents of auto fire are attributed to short circuit, there was a need to take detailed "technical opinion" in each case so that faults can be fixed - if necessary, through a controlled recall of models.

Quote:

As per the proposal, the monitoring will be on a monthly basis. Every three months, all such cases will be taken up by the Central Motor Vehicles Rules-Technical Standing Committee (CMVR-TSC), the apex body for type approval of vehicles and components.

Instead of the manufacturer probing a vehicle fire it should be an independent third-party agency doing so. If the cops admit that they don't have the technical expertise to carry out any technical investigation in case of vehicle fire then why would they want to rely on a car manufacturer's report which most likely isn't going to blame itself.

I think a car fire is considered as a technical fault by the cops unless proven otherwise. They are also well aware of the unreliable aftermarket fitments that are carried out across hundreds of cars in a metro city everyday. However, this technical fault is labelled as an accident while it is as good as taking a life intentionally when the aftermarket dealer uses a lower spec wire or cheap alternates that might short or result in a spark/fire.

A proper investigation is definitely the need of the hour and if the cause of the fire can be attributed to the manufacturer or aftermarket dealer then they should be treated in the strictest manner possible. Any product that is fatal to the customer shouldn't even be continued to be sold unless the manufacturer proves that they have changed their processes in such a manner that the same defect simply cannot reoccur in their products going onwards.