[mobike008]

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

@Mobike008 - read what was written to "jigbarai"

Speed was good, he did not take his eyes of the road, the indca was not stationary all the while this guy pulled over like when we 300, 400, 500 mts behind him.... i do not recall the distance... we had to avoid the swift and the crowd which was on the right we changed lanes moved to the outer left lane and we needed to make sudden corrections back to extreme right lane to miss the indica... but there was not enough time....

driver was awake as he spoke to us couple of seconds before we crashed.

No drinks or alcohol. only nicotine. and caffine

If the indica was moving slowly and you were just 300 meters behind it, it is even more confusing why your driver didnt spot it and slow down?

Somehow your above description does not jell with the story that you narrated in your OP and also looking at the horrific crash which clearly indicates there was no reaction time for your driver and he just rammed into the Indica/M800 at a high speed.

[suman]

Hemanth, God definitely saved you & your friends, I'm not so sure if FIAT had a hand in it as well. From your unwillingness to disclose the speed, I can only assume that you guys were going way too fast. I can understand this happening at a bend or a corner but cannot fathom how it can happen on a straight stretch of road if speeds were reasonable.

To be honest, I'm also a little surprised by quite a few posts on this thread praising the build quality etc of the Palio. It was sheer luck that they survived (as did the occupants of all the other cars that the Palio slammed into), let us thank God & stop eulogizing the build quality (just MHO)

Oh & btw Hemant, please do use the "Edit" feature if you're posting within 20 minutes, there are far too many back to back posts on this thread.

[nairrk]

Great escape - all of you guys. Yes,thank god.

YOu still managed to take some photographs (the accident happened at 03:15am and you were on the spot all the time till the morning- the photos shows that it was taken in a day light as the clarity is good).?

[Smooth Drive]

Hemanth, that was a nasty accident. Thank god nothing happened to you guys.

I think the area you guys crashed is Karur. I live down the road where the accident took place. I did hear from my driver that 4 cars crashed and 2 died on spot .

Good to know that you guys are fine.

[Brix]

Shudder !!!

Glad you guys are safe.

[DRIV3R]

@Hemanth : Were you guys wearing seat belts? I can see some blood on the shattered windscreen.

[Sujith1100]

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

Trivia question - can you identify which car. This was not a part of the accident but a car found in the yard

Fiat Palio ? Got a clue from it SRVM

[prince_pervez]

Arre baaap re! Those pictures are nasty. Good to know that all of you are fine and the paper work was done fast and there were no pending issues with the police and law. Highways is not a place to stop and slowdown at will, I hope the M800 and Indica guy learnt that, albiet the hard way. From your posts and reaction of other honorable member's it seems the driver of your car did not expect anyone to stop or slow down in your path. A still assert that managing an accelerator and a gear knob is not driving and there are rules to be followed, I guess this too the indica and M800 guys learnt the hard way.

[ahwajid]

You guys are very lucky. I was driving on the same highway myself between May 13 - 16th in my Punto. Awesome roads!

And really good response time for the ambulance I would say. They have good safety features too. I would agree with you Hemant that the Indica guy is at fault. Slowing down on the right lane will mostly lead to pile ups. What if there was sleepy lorry guy coming behind him, wouldn't he end up in a coffin? Wasn't this Palio in the classified section a few months back? Also, did the car have ABS and airbags (i'm guessing no, but still wanted to clarify). Once again, you are very lucky and thanks to FIAT for building such robust vehicles. You think the GP would be as safe as the Palio?

[issigonis]

Originally Posted by mobike008

If the indica was moving slowly and you were just 300 meters behind it, it is even more confusing why your driver didnt spot it and slow down?

Somehow your above description does not jell with the story that you narrated in your OP and also looking at the horrific crash which clearly indicates there was no reaction time for your driver and he just rammed into the Indica/M800 at a high speed.

Originally Posted by suman

Hemanth, God definitely saved you & your friends, I'm not so sure if FIAT had a hand in it as well. From your unwillingness to disclose the speed, I can only assume that you guys were going way too fast. I can understand this happening at a bend or a corner but cannot fathom how it can happen on a straight stretch of road if speeds were reasonable.

To be honest, I'm also a little surprised by quite a few posts on this thread praising the build quality etc of the Palio. It was sheer luck that they survived (as did the occupants of all the other cars that the Palio slammed into), let us thank God & stop eulogizing the build quality (just MHO)

Oh & btw Hemant, please do use the "Edit" feature if you're posting within 20 minutes, there are far too many back to back posts on this thread.

>>> See the underlined sections in the two posts above.

My concern lies there : a straight road, smooth surface, adequate lanes. Given the fact that the Indicab slowed and stopped (suddenly) 300 m plus ahead, given the fact that the Maruti 800 stopped suddenly on the left side ( near the shoulder of the road?), possibly 200 m ahead.

At reasonably fast speeds, even in the dead of night, with your headlamps working, I would expect a well engineered car like the Palio to stop in time to avoid a collision.

However, be that as it may, the Palio is a well built car, no doubt about it. As to whether it was the build quality or your luck or a bit of both that protected you and your friends, one might never know.

I think the learning -for me at least- is : drive at a speed which will enable me to stop to prevent rear ending a vehicle ahead.

I once saw a Fiat Uno petrol that had been brushed and pushed off a bridge over a rivulet, near Delhi, by a drunk lorry driver at night. The Uno had fallen off the bridge (which had no barricades) onto the dried river bed below- supposedly a height of some 20-25 feet.

The only visible damage were deep scratches on the front door panels, a broken off OVRM ( driver's side) and badly damaged door handles. The service centre manager told me that the rear axle was bent too, as the lorry had brushed the Uno from the right for some distance and the left wheels were forced to rub hard against the stone kerb there, on the bridge.

All four occupants got off without a scratch. The lorry hit a pole a little ahead to the left side of the road by which time the drunk driver returned to earth.

The unexpected pleasures of driving in our country!

[vista_qjd]

Driving at late night with no sleep is a right recipe for disaster. Unless there is an emergency, avoid driving at nights, at least that is what i always try to. Sleep well and wake up early and drive, its much better option.
Also i think even if the tail lights were on, it still may not have helped. When you are on a highway, always avoid parking, even outside the main road at nights. There is a tendency to follow the tail lights at night and there have often been cases where people tend to follow behind onto the parked car. Have heard of so many such cases in the US. If you have to stop allow for a good space between your parked car and the actual road, especially at nights.

[Technocrat]

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

It was around 3:15a.m. Music was loud and all of us wide awake. I spotted an Indicab and just voiced WATCH OUT WATCH OUT!! And BANG…

After a couple of seconds I realized that were upside dow... I was stuck right at the bottom in the front passenger seat but actually I was sitting just behind him. The remaining three of them were on top of me and I could see their heads.

So you were not wearing your seat belt, right?

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

As per the pictorial after we crashed into the indicab it landed on the divider as where it is in the picture. Then we hit the 800 which toppled and went into the service road. Nobody was in the 800 they were very lucky. The indicab had passengers. In the same motion our left rear tire hit the service road pavement and became air borne and we toppled thrice and landed in the middle of the highway.

So basically your car first rammed into the Indica pushed it away, yet did not stop or slow down enough & went further ahead & hit the M800 in such a way that the entire shell's integrity went for a toss. You must thank your stars that there was no one inside the M800

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

No hazard no brake lamps on, not even the parking light.

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

@DRIV3R - Buy the time we made corrections tried to slam the breaks tried to avoid and change lanes we were alreay upside down. I just approached us in a flash.

This again shows that you were speeding

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

@jigbarai - the indicab was moving or going slowly and then stopped or soemting like that i dont remember clearly.. offcourse a little distance ahead but we hardly had time to make corrections.. it was not that he was stopped there from a long time .. then we would have spotted him from a distance... its more like he suddenly slowed and stopped over when we were may 500mts behind him. or something like that i am not able to recall....

Originally Posted by hemanth.das

Speed was good, he did not take his eyes of the road, the indca was not stationary all the while this guy pulled over like when we 300, 400, 500 mts behind him.... i do not recall the distance... we had to avoid the swift and the crowd which was on the right we changed lanes moved to the outer left lane and we needed to make sudden corrections back to extreme right lane to miss the indica... but there was not enough time....

driver was awake as he spoke to us couple of seconds before we crashed.

So there was a crowd & a Swift on the road in addition to the M800 & Indica, You saw the crowd & the Swift & swerved & hit the Indica & M800, toppled & all this happened in a flash??

Originally Posted by mobike008

If the indica was moving slowly and you were just 300 meters behind it, it is even more confusing why your driver didnt spot it and slow down?

Somehow your above description does not jell with the story that you narrated in your OP and also looking at the horrific crash which clearly indicates there was no reaction time for your driver and he just rammed into the Indica/M800 at a high speed.

Originally Posted by suman

Hemanth, God definitely saved you & your friends, I'm not so sure if FIAT had a hand in it as well. From your unwillingness to disclose the speed, I can only assume that you guys were going way too fast. I can understand this happening at a bend or a corner but cannot fathom how it can happen on a straight stretch of road if speeds were reasonable.

Exactly, it only proves one thing that the speeds were very high.

[issigonis]

Originally Posted by issigonis

>>> See the underlined sections in the two posts above.

My concern lies there : a straight road, smooth surface, adequate lanes. Given the fact that the Indicab slowed and stopped (suddenly) 300 m plus ahead, given the fact that the Maruti 800 stopped suddenly on the left side ( near the shoulder of the road?), possibly 200 m ahead.

At reasonably fast speeds, even in the dead of night, with your headlamps working, I would expect a well engineered car like the Palio to stop in time to avoid a collision.

However, be that as it may, the Palio is a well built car, no doubt about it. As to whether it was the build quality or your luck or a bit of both that protected you and your friends, one might never know.

I think the learning -for me at least- is : drive at a speed which will enable me to stop to prevent rear ending a vehicle ahead.

I once saw a Fiat Uno petrol that had been brushed and pushed off a bridge over a rivulet, near Delhi, by a drunk lorry driver at night. The Uno had fallen off the bridge (which had no barricades) onto the dried river bed below- supposedly a height of some 20-25 feet.

The only visible damage were deep scratches on the front door panels, a broken off OVRM ( driver's side) and badly damaged door handles. The service centre manager told me that the rear axle was bent too, as the lorry had brushed the Uno from the right for some distance and the left wheels were forced to rub hard against the stone kerb there, on the bridge.

All four occupants got off without a scratch. The lorry hit a pole a little ahead to the left side of the road by which time the drunk driver returned to earth.

The unexpected pleasures of driving in our country!

Originally Posted by Technocrat

So you were not wearing your seat belt, right?



So basically your car first rammed into the Indica pushed it away, yet did not stop or slow down enough & went further ahead & hit the M800 in such a way that the entire shell's integrity went for a toss. You must thank your stars that there was no one inside the M800




This again shows that you were speeding






So there was a crowd & a Swift on the road in addition to the M800 & Indica, You saw the crowd & the Swift & swerved & hit the Indica & M800, toppled & all this happened in a flash??





Exactly, it only proves one thing that the speeds were very high.

>>> My point exactly, Technocrat (see my piece above in bold) : the Palio was being driven at unreasonably high speeds.
QED

[echo77]

The explanation sounds fishy. All the above points crossed my mind.

Furthermore, if the Indica had only slowed and not stopped, why would he have turned off his lights?

Not just speeding. Looks like the driver also wasn't paying attention on the road in front.

This could be one reason - after swerving from right to extreme left to miss the swift and the people gathered, the driver took a glance in the side/rear view to see what happened and did not notice the indica stopping in front. Too late to hit the brakes.

[AbhiJ]

I always thought the Palio was built like a tank ... and now we have proof... The damage on the rear of the indica.