[sabsubs]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Any update on this incident? Was the car repaired? Any news from the other party?

My apologies. I should have updated the thread long back, but because of various reasons, I could not do it.

Before dwelling on the specifics, I would like to inform that I have fully recovered physically & mentally from the accident. My parents are fine. Mahindra sent me an email explaining why the airbags did not deploy in response to my question about airbags. I will post a screenshot of the email here. The response may be tepid but I did not have any other way. I just wanted to complete the process and get my car back. I did not go behind them because of my health issues (not related to the accident). There is no news from the other party involved in the accident. I showed the accident video to the Mahindra's regional manager & the manager from the service center. I didn't want to hide anything since the video was widely shared in various forums after I posted the video here. Eventually they would have seen the video in any one of the forums where the video got circulated.

When the car was in the body shop, the dealer helped us with a car on call and this helped us to go to the hospital for the injuries that we sustained from the accident. The body shop manager kept me updated whenever major repairs, such as the chassis or painting work, were done. The regional manager of Mahindra visited us once and the manager of the service center visited us frequently and informed about the work in progress and supported us.

Insurance claims went on smoothly and the body shop gave a bill for 2.9 lakhs. I spent nothing on my side, but when we took delivery of the car; they charged me 10k. I just wanted to get over it, so I paid it.

After the accident, I took the car for a couple of long drives and I was happy with its performance and handling. I am not sure about the structural integrity of the car since they had to cut a portion from the engine bay till the front portion of the car and they have welded the portion. Opening the hood reveals visible welding marks. I will upload a photo of the welding marks in my next post.

I am skeptical about chassis because I believe that the body shop must have just repaired the old chassis. I have a question here. Chassis from the manufacturing plant will come with a new chassis number, right? Or is it possible to imprint the old chassis number on to the new chassis?

Here is the reply from Mahindra. The day of the accident was a bad day. No one would expect two cars to be parked right in the middle of the road. I have been driving cars for close to 25 years and I have never met with an accident.
So I leave it to fate, it was bound to happen and it happened and there was no escape from it. Thanks for everyone who showed their support here in Team-BHP.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by pandabear

I would suggest that the mods edit the title to add "airbags did not deploy". More clicks would atleast lead Mahindra to fix this issue. Nothing makes a company wake up as much as negative publicity.

....heard a guy sue them that his car was missing the airbag.

Same here. Does Mahindra think every one in the Indian public is too dumb to work out this simple puzzle? I have noticed it from the past few years that Mahindra cars seem to protect their airbags (yes airbags not the occupants).

What's the point of having airbags if a decent crash is not enough to inflate them? Also, in these cases we hear that the occupants are injured... doesn't this news reach the Mahindra engineering team and make them think that perhaps the airbag deployment logic is not right?

I am actually slowly going into that conspiracy mindset that I am starting to believe that Mahindra cars might not have airbags.

[Sidban85]

At least the car did not get set of fire while on way to repairs or at service center. With Mahindra cars, you never know!

[adrift@life]

Completely understand you wanting to move on from the trauma, hope you move on to a better and safer drive from the scorpio N.
The reply from Mahindra and the video should be sent to gncap who tested and rated the car.
What's the point of awarding stars when you are not held accountable.
I know it's just fantasy, and I'm ranting.

[VellVector]

Originally Posted by sabsubs

I am skeptical about chassis because I believe that the body shop must have just repaired the old chassis. I have a question here. Chassis from the manufacturing plant will come with a new chassis number, right? Or is it possible to imprint the old chassis number on to the new chassis?

Most engine or chassis replacements that come from the factory to a dealership come blank without any number. The dealership locally punches the same number as the old part being replaced. This way they don't have to get involved with changing the numbers at the RTO.

[sabsubs]

Originally Posted by VellVector

Most engine or chassis replacements that come from the factory to a dealership come blank without any number. The dealership locally punches the same number as the old part being replaced. This way they don't have to get involved with changing the numbers at the RTO.

Thank you very much for the reply. Even my dad, who is having a mechanical background, told me the same thing.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by JithinR

Same here. Does Mahindra think every one in the Indian public is too dumb to work out this simple puzzle? I have noticed it from the past few years that Mahindra cars seem to protect their airbags (yes airbags not the occupants). What's the point of having airbags if a decent crash is not enough to inflate them? I am actually slowly going into that conspiracy mindset that I am starting to believe that Mahindra cars might not have airbags.

Even though Mahindra could take another look at the airbag deployment threshold, their explanation in this matter makes perfect sense. Modern airbag sensors are not based on just impact. Deceleration is the most important factor. In this case, the impact was against a soft target that moved instantly upon impact and this resulted in lesser deceleration than the airbag deployment threshold. A large amount of deceleration happens when a vehicle is moving at high speed and an impact makes it stop almost instantly. Here, the impact was more like heavy braking as the object impacted moved away and allowed the vehicle to continue moving forward.

[buzzy_boy]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Deceleration is the most important factor.

Absolutely. Many people think that being hit by an airbag is akin to being gently hit with a soft pillow. It's anything but that.

It's simple physics, the inertial forces must be at least greater than the least force with which the airbag can deploy. If not, the deployment of airbags could cause an even more serious injury.

M&M's claims are sensible. And their claims about the control module detecting the collision can be easily verified by looking at the logs if so desired.

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by buzzy_boy

Absolutely. Many people think that being hit by an airbag is akin to being gently hit with a soft pillow. It's anything but that.

.

Airbag inflation is programmed to handle all that in conjunction with the tensioners in your seatbelt which hold you back while the airbag is inflating so that the airbag does not explode in your face. Plus the airbag even deflates slightly to provide a cushioning effect. If is only then that the seatbelt releases you. These are techniques that have been perfected before the millennium so Mahindra's claim is just a load of crock.

Whether it is hitting the other car in the rear or the front doesn't matter. From the OPs description this was an accident where the airbags should deploy. Period. He was travelling at 90kmph in a close to 2 tonne SUV with all other variables in favor of a deployment . Is the chassis so strong that it precludes opening of an airbag to protect it's occupants?
What more momentum does the airbag need to deploy? The priority is to protect the occupants of the car irrespective of everything else. You can err on the side of caution but not otherwise.

But again we don't know what complex sensors are used in Mahindra to compute all this logic.



Drive on,
Shibu

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by shibujp

Whether it is hitting the other car in the rear or the front doesn't matter. From the OPs description this was an accident where the airbags should deploy. Period. He was travelling at 90kmph in a close to 2 tonne SUV with all other variables in favor of a deployment . Is the chassis so strong that it precludes opening of an airbag to protect it's occupants?

Once again, the main criteria in airbag deployment is deceleration. A high amount of deceleration takes place when a vehicle traveling at speed hits an object that stops it instantly or even pushes it back. That's what happens in a normal frontal collision or when colliding against an object. You need a certain threshold of deceleration for airbag deployment.
In this case, the collision did not take place at 90kmph. The damage to the vehicle is far less than even what happens in crash tests which are conducted at 60kmph. The driver might have been traveling at 90kmph but he braked hard at the end and speed reduced ro around 30 kmph. The next factor is that his vehicle hit another stationary vehicle facing in the
same direction and that vehicle immediately moved forward and allowed the impacting vehicle to also continue moving forward. In addition, the bumpers and the boot further cushioned the inpact as per Mahindra. This makes perfect sense. The required deceleration did not take place as the impacting vehicle did not stop suddenly and kept moving forward.

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Once again, the main criteria in airbag deployment is deceleration. A high amount of deceleration takes place when a vehicle traveling at speed hits an object that stops it instantly or even pushes it back. That's what happens in a normal frontal collision or when colliding against an object. You need a certain threshold of deceleration for airbag deployment. .

This explanation is too simplistic to make any sense. Even going over a hump triggers the accelerometers that you then have to program out. Not to mention that where you place the sensors in the vehicle makes a big difference.

Anecdotically from a customer point of view occupants in a car equipped with airbags were injured by specifically those type of injuries airbags are designed to prevent. Obviously there is a design flaw in the system. A customer cannot be expected to consider all these kind of variables before being involved in a crash. The car is driven with the trust that the airbags will deploy in the event of a crash.

Drive on,
Shibu.