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Well , this is regarding the accident i met with ! Man ,it was horrible !

I was drivin on Delhi - Jaipur highway .

After paying the first toll tax , i was beginning to enjoy my drive much more , keeping in mind that there won't be any other stoppage until the next toll tax , which was miles away !

There i am , cruising in my octavia at around 130-140 kph along with my friend , who is relaxing at the passenger seat and enjoying the music and far away (around 500-600 metres) i see a tanker(16 tyre one) standing in the corner of the road (but hell with , who cares as its standing right in the corner , with no flashing indicator/s) , i move on looking straight on the road , but the moment i reach , say around 20-30 metres from tanker(which is still standing where it was) , it suddenly take full right and stands in the mid of the road , i keep on honkin but it doesn't move an inch , i brake harder ,i nearly stand on the brakes but nothing works , the front wheels gets locked and the car straight goes and BANG in the fuel tank of the tanker !

It was such a severe accident ,that the tanker's fuel tank was broken into pieces and the octavia was ofcourse a total loss, the front of the car was fully crashed (what else can you expect when the car is cruising at 140 kmph) and both the front airbags came out and saved our lives ! Thankfully (to god), i and my friend escaped from the crash nearly unhurt ! Courtesy , the solid build of octavia and those airbags and would you believe it , none of us were wearing seat belts !

I thank makers of Skoda , who has given us a world class car in india but has lost out on ABS . I would like to urge car manufacturers or rather indian govt., to make it mandatory that every car sold in india should be equipped ABS as standard , like it is in the UK coz i know and am preety sure , had my octavia been equipped with ABS , it would have prevented the car wheels from locking , hence preventing from such a severe acident !!!

However , pals , whenever you go out to buy a car , alwayz consider the car having ABS coz god's forbid , if you ever come across something like this ,it can really be a life and your car saver , its worth the extra money spent !!! Give your shout on this, guys
and THANX for the patience for reading this !

good to know you're alright! :D

you should thank skoda, and your luck, that your car had airbags!

why weren't you wearing your seatbelts?? :WTF: :Shockked:

hey dood, that was well told.. but not well done...
And thanks for making me aware of the importance of ABS. I am about to go in for hyundai accent. I was contemplating GLE/GVS/GLS. And i thought ABS is something I can do without. And save some money.
But listening to this .. ABS seems like very instrumental..

Beemer,

Its great to hear that neither you or your friend got serious injuries...but its equally depressing to know that a petrolhead was travelling without seatbelts.

I hope that this is a learning experience not only for you, but for all those who read this thread.

And yes, ABS is important.

Drive safe fellas,

GTO

jesus,
That was nasty,

For me, ABS was a must when i chose my second car.
Fortunately Fusion+ comes with that.
Good that the air bags worked.
However, empty the roads are, I always drive at 100KMPH.
that is it.
I think my life is much more worth.
Our Indian roads are still filled up with jokers like the tank drivers that you had mentioned

Hey man, I'm glad you guys were unhurt. Just a thought I wanted to share...ABS may not have prevented your accident, if you had no way of steering around the truck. It would have prevented your wheels from locking-up, yes, but this is where the misconception about ABS comes in...most people think that ABS shortens your braking distance. It will do that only when the conditions are right (a high-grip road surface which is clean and dry). In sub-optimal conditions (most roads in India) ABS can actually INCREASE your braking distance.

The thing is, ABS is designed to prevent wheel lock-up, since locked-up front wheels will not allow you to steer your car out of harm's way, which is why your car went straight ahead. However on low grip surfaces (such as concrete roads, roads with gravel and pebbles on them, oily, wet or icy roads) ABS almost always causes your braking distance to INCREASE. You will still be in control of your car's steering, but your braking distance will go up because the propensity for the wheels to lock up will be greater on a bad road, and therefore the ABS will keep modulating your braking, thereby making it less efficient.

So, as with most things, there's a plus side and a minus side to ABS. All-in-all I'd say it's still worth having, but it isn't a cure-all solution to dangerous situations.

Good to know that you guys are safe.

But I feel as you were traveling at high speeds even the Truck guy wouldnt have seen You in the mirror, All of a sudden are there.

Guys please wear seat belts.
Not all the cars have AIR bags/ABS to save you at that speeds.

So drive carefully and avoid highspeeds unless until you are confident to avoid any such situations in control.

By the way what was the damage estimation ? (including airbags)

Good to see the airbags doing their job, which probably saved you and your friend but next time, USE YOUR SEATBELTS!

As mentioned by kbk though, ABS would probably not have reduced your braking distance but what it could have done was to allow you to steer out of danger if that was a possibility.

If your car does not have ABS, the best thing to do is take it to an open area and practice hard braking so you know how the car would react in different situations.

Oh yea, the Octavia petrol has ABS and 4 wheel discs. just something to keep in mind incase you decide to buy a new car.

Nice to hear that you guys have escaped unhurt. You are flying at the speed of 140 KMPH. Why so?

Always keep your mind saying that someone is going to run inbetween. I do when I travel on empty highways. This is Just to keep a check to our speed guns.

I bet there is a lot of difference between traveling at a speed of 100 kmph & 140 kmph. Speed is okay, but at the same time make sure that you are in control. Do not assume that everything will happen correctly to you. Having negative approach in driving that will help you a lot. To quote you with an example, when ever I cross a stationed bus at the busstand , I imagine a guy is going to cross the bus to go to the other side of the road. Due to this I will keep myself away from the accelerator pedal. Fake it until you make it. So your subconsious mind will give you a alert whenever you cross the stationed bus

DO NOT INVITE THE DEATH TO YOURSELF

Thats the best bit of advice you can give to anyone driving anything, anywhere. Always presume the worst case scenario for all situations and drive accordingly.

Safety devices are great, but its always better to avoid testing them!

Good to know that you guys are safe.
i think that having ABS would have helped however as one can always do something to save himself.
How about some pictures if you have any.
Always wear seatbelts.

Thank god you guys are alright!!
Yeah, and i agree with everyone......... wear seatbelts........ they do their job effectively.

Thanks guys for your replies and suggestions . Ya i agree , ABS would not have prevented the accident but it could have helped the wheels from getting locked , hence reducing the speed of the car from 140 to say around 50-60 kmph or may be less (in those 30 metres) and that really could have made a hell lot of difference !

Yes , wearing seatbelts is very necessary and now if you ask me, i will never buy a car equipped without ABS and for sure i will be in my limits as far as the speedometer of the car is concerned !!!

I , totally agree with SURPRISE (a newbie to this forum , like me) , Never assume that everthing will work well , uncertanity can happen anytime , no matter how good or experienced you are as a driver, talking bout experience , i ve been driving since the age of 10 and i kept octavia 1.9 tdi for 2 years and drove around 40000 km(all alone) , there were hardly 4-5 minor scratches all over the car . But i believe in destiny ,i mean whatever has to happen will happen , nothing can stop it but yes being a human we are born to make mistakes but above all we should learn from our mistakes like i ve learnt that one should always drive in limit !!!

TO top it all , i would like to say, No matter what business , sports , field you are in , we have always been taught , Never to underestimate our opponents(very rightly so) but there is one thing in life where you should always underestimate your opponents and that ofcourse is DRIVING and here ,you may call all the other drivers on road as your opponents !!!

Hope , you too learn something by reading this !!!

Thanx.

Thanx tabrez ,

I dont know what and where the hell that driver was looking and i thought 120 ,130 is preety normal at Delhi-jaipur highway or for that matter any good national highway but however, IT IS WRONG , one should always drive under limit , irrespective of the road condition!

Well , the repair cost came out to be 8.75 lacs(including airbags and everything) , though it was irrepairable .

Wow! A total loss, then! (Moddys, can we get a sad smiley face?). Thank God you guys walked away from it! Having been in a fairly serious accident myself, I'm sure you'll learn from this experience.