[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by bejoy

I find it a bit tedious to unlock normally, imagine if someone is panicked. Also, the central un-locking would have got disabled due to the fire, thus both driver and passenger needing to open the locks manually. And if someone is used to central unlocking, the thought of manually unlocking will not even strike at that moment.

I hate the implementation of central locking in many modern cars. Had a rental Kushaq with me for a few days. The unlocking was so unintuitive and every time a passenger had to get in or out, it was a pain. Heavily used valet during that period and even they were clueless most of the time. I mean even the guys in star hotels who handle luxury cars all the time were struggling. Imagine the confusion during an emergency.

[Gannu_1]

RIP those poor souls.

Just watched a clip on a vernacular news channel - 2 bottles of petrol were stored under the driver’s seat of the car.

Link

[CrackedHead]

What a terrible tragedy - please take this as a reminder not to go for aftermarket electrical audio installations in an unorganized market like ours.

Originally Posted by GTO

I keep this (Kubotan: The $5 safety device that can break a car window & help you escape a fire) in the glovebox of my cars. Suggest you also buy it.

+1 to having a tool handy for breaking glass.

Originally Posted by GTO

How many costs are cut by Maruti for safety in other less-visible areas (incorporating fire safety into the wiring & electrical architecture, engineering the doors to unlock easily in such situations etc.).

I don't think this is a cost cutting issue - I haven't owned a car in India for several years now but even the humble Maruti 800 dating back 20+ years came with a main fusible link and all the electric load is supposed to be passing through this and then the secondary fuse box protected individual circuits.

A fuse of the correct capacity is the engineering solution to preventing something like this. However, they average untrained installer loves to tap / attach directly to the +ve terminal of the battery and fuses may be added / determined arbitrarily if you're lucky and are often bypassed altogether. Most aftermarket power windows / central locking doesn't match OEM in quality either.

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

Every car has a manual override to the electrical locking mechanism.

And for all the doors? Heard that for some of the Suzuki ones, only driver can do manual over ride unlock. Is that true?

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by m3t4ph0r1c

Really sad news. Being burnt alive is just a terrible way to go.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time I am hearing such incident in which the car was an entry level Maruthi. Last year an alto caught fire and killed a family of 5 - More info here..

The link says the car caught fire after it met with an accident. It didn't simply go up in smoke while on the move.

Apart from the above incident, I firmly believe 9 out of 10 cars that catch fire will have aftermarket accessories fitted by a third party installer who had no idea about the capacity of fuses involved.

[Newtown]

Om Shanti! What a terrible loss.

My opinion is that the lady was feeling labor pains which would be further exacerbated due to the accident the car had. As a result, she may have been immobilized and her husband would have tried to get her out but succumbed as well. Perhaps had they not been in that situation I would hope to imagine that they would have made it out of the car safely and quicker.

[JithinR]

Seems like the fire officials found petrol bottles, hand sanitizer inside the car in a preliminary investigation.

https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news...icle-1.8277295

Don't really understand why journalists are publishing pics of the little girl. These vultures should have been barred from going even near the funeral. She has already been through enough.

P.S Earlier this year, I had got 2L of fuel to get my bike started again (after going through the usual routine of draining the existing fuel, connecting back the battery, bleeding brakes etc.). I carried the fuel in the backseat of the car..now it feels like one of my most stupid moments this year.

[greenhorn]

My experience - this whole manual unlocking fail safe is not as robust as everyone assumes. I have experienced this both in my Indica, and my Relative's harrier

#1 I was driving my indica through a flooded area, water got in and flooded the floor, and the central locking module which was mounted under the driver side door started acting up. It started trying to lock the door continuously - the actuators were chattering away like anything. I could not open the doors until I had driven some distance. Both the lock and central locking levers were jammed

#2 My relative's harrier's central locking system went haywire. Thankfully the drivers side door was open (but could not close - the lock was jammed) and the rest of the doors were stuck closed. Here the drivers side lock/unlock levers were unresponsive, and the remaining doors were not able to unlock, even forced. After trying a lot of random things (opening the door handles inside and outside repeatedly in different combinations) we finally managed to get the central locking to unlock the remaining doors

After #1, my locking used to stop working intermittently. Sometimes door would not open, sometimes the door would fly open during driving. Looking at the central locking actuator and the manual door mechanism, the assumption that the actuators will fail by not working at all is not an assumption that works always. Sometimes in extreme conditions, the actuators can go haywire creating situations where the manual overrides may not work. I ultimately ended up replacing the door handle mechanisms and the actuators and the control unit as it was a safety issue. Things have been working fine since

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Just watched a clip on a vernacular news channel - 2 bottles of petrol were stored under the driver’s seat of the car.

Originally Posted by JithinR

Seems like the fire officials found petrol bottles, hand sanitizer inside the car in a preliminary investigation.

This is not confirmed. The forensics have collected the samples. The bottles were carrying water, according to the survivors. Also a reverse camera and a head unit were recently installed to the car.

[windrider]

The reports coming in saying there were 2 bottles of petrol stored under the seat of the car is completely fake news being spread by the media. The father-in-law, who was traveling in the car at the time of the mishap has confirmed the same that there was no need of carrying petrol in bottles as he had just filled full tank a couple of days ago and there is a petrol pump within a kilometre from his house. He says he got a slight burning smell a few minutes before the accident happened and he notified his son in law but as the lady was going through labour pains and the hospital was within 2-3 kms they decided to continue.

Another thing he mentioned is as soon as smoke and fire started to come from beneath the steering column, the car started to loose control and was not responding to steering inputs. Within a matter of seconds the entire dashboard and front section of the cabin went up in flames.

According to the family members, the only extra accessory fitted in the car was reverse camera. Even before any investigation was done, the MVD and authorities were blaming extra fittings. Then when that theory started to fall apart, they said the driver had stored petrol under the seat. The family has verified that there was only a couple of bottles of drinking water inside the car and it's logical that in case the bottles were carrying petrol, there would have been an explosion and the entire car would have gone up in flames and the plastic bottles would have been vaporized.

The only reason the plastic bottles survived the fire must be because they were filled with water. Now that the bottled petrol theory has crumbled, the authorities are saying the driver must have stored some other chemicals in the bottle . At this point its pretty obvious the media and authorities are trying to save MSIL. As of now, not a single mainstream media channel or newspaper have mentioned the name of the car or the manufacturer. Obviously no one wants to hurt Maruti Suzuki's sentiments and hurt any future ad revenue.

[Blooming Flower]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The other thing is of course why could they not open the doors from inside? Sure, they might have had power locks, but the normal inner door handle should be just mechanic? Not sure what my cars do, to be honest. I will test them.

Jeroen

The only possibility of door not opening from inside is due to the previously deployed child-safety lock mechanism (available only in the rear doors). In that case, the rear seat occupants can't get out using manual override. But the front doors could be opened manually unless jammed by some crash. So, that's really strange.

However, the quality of crash/accident forensic investigation in India is quite shoddy if compared to some developed countries. This is why the actual cause often remains buried under the multitude of possible assumptions.

[buzzy_boy]

Originally Posted by windrider

The reports coming in saying there were 2 bottles of petrol stored under the seat of the car is completely fake news being spread by the media.

When I read the reports about the petrol bottles, it seemed really odd - especially when someone is taking their wife to hospital.

It is clear that the authorities would do as much as possible to make this an open-shut case. They'd just wait for the media coverage to taper-off before closing the investigation citing some non-sensical reason.

Another instance that makes me wonder what the honest tax payers are getting in return for the exorbitant amounts they're paying.

RIP poor souls.

[100Kmphormore]

They should have broken the windows using the car headrest - could have gotten away from death if ain't nothing else. RIP

[tharian]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

They should have broken the windows using the car headrest - could have gotten away from death if ain't nothing else. RIP

S-Presso has fixed head rests and moreover that trick is something that very few, especially enthusiasts would be aware of.

[sole_rider]

I just passed through this place. What is more saddening is the fact that the fire and rescue station is some 300 meters away. There is still some burnt rubber residue on the road.