Team-BHP - Accidents in India

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/s...om=home-cities

News from NDTV website: This time an Audi crashes into a truck, they may be from the same family or close friends as they were returning from a wedding. If the driver is overspeeding the occupants can atleast ask him/ her to slow down and save their lives. Took half an hour for the cops to pull out the drivers body, imagine the force of impact despite it being such a safe car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha (Post 3598301)

Fat chance of that happening - it is almost a certainty in India.

See this accident described in The Hindu couple of days back: http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...cle6668174.ece

The (physical) newspaper article had one more paragraph in the end - the bus driver had been arrested!

The rule in India is the bigger vehicle is always at fault . Like in the case in the chennai accident, even though the car was over speeding and rammed into the bus, the bus driver will be detained.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gannu_1 (Post 3598459)

Man, that looks awful! :Shockked:

Looks like the Audi T-boned the truck? Truck might be missing the side under-run protection bars.

Don't think side beams on the truck would have helped. Speed of the Audi seems to be have been quite a bit and the under run beams wouldn't have stood a chance.

A fire incident was avoided because this looks like the left side of the truck., fuel tank being on the right.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tharian (Post 3598464)

Don't think side beams on the truck would have helped. Speed of the Audi seems to be have been quite a bit and the under run beams wouldn't have stood a chance.

I would assume the severity of the crash to be a lot lesser if the bars were present. The bars would have taken some impact, absorbing some energy from the crash before giving away.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gannu_1 (Post 3598482)

I would assume the severity of the crash to be a lot lesser if the bars were present. The bars would have taken some impact, absorbing some energy from the crash before giving away.

Definitely , it would have absorbed some of the impact.

But from my 'truckspotting' sessions, I have hardly seen a truck with any of their under-run beams in good state. All of them bent out of shape or missing.

Well, I am not even thinking that the trucking company will replace the beams once damaged.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tharian (Post 3598554)

But from my 'truckspotting' sessions, I have hardly seen a truck with any of their under-run beams in good state. All of them bent out of shape or missing.

There are 3 type of under-run bars in existence in India:

Type 1: Invisible bars: These don't exist on a truck because the money to fit them doesn't exist, or won't be allocated by the owner.
Type 2: Fitted on because the law wants it: These bars are added on to pass RTO scrutiny. However, they are just lightly spot-welded onto a few points to ensure they don't fall off when traversing potholed roads. In an actual collision, its quite likely that these spot welds will shear off after dissipating only a little energy, and from that point onwards will turn out to be quite useless.
Type 3: Properly fitted on bars: These bars are rarer to see than a drunk dodo on Diwali, and they are correctly and securely fitted onto the chassis, are fitted at the correct height and form a strong and integral part of the truck - they therefore adhere to both the letter and spirit of the regulation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arunphilip (Post 3598264)

Is that a taxi or private car? Passenger compartment intrusion doesn't seem to have occurred and the steering wheel position is unchanged, so you're quite right in your assessment that its a failure to wear seat belts.

The driver knows about seat belts, and on top of that, knows there's a rule for it. Despite that, he didn't buckle up. While its sad he's passed away, I will be harsh and say that nobody killed him, he killed himself.

Now here's where I hope the bus driver isn't blamed automatically since he's in the bigger vehicle, and a meaningful investigation is performed to ascertain blame for the accident (but not the death).

I was on the scene within seconds - it was practically at my front gate. I saw the driver struggling in his seat to open the door and also when he was lifted out. I saw the female passengers get off. None of them were wearing seat belts, it is not just my assumption.

The bus had stopped well on the left side of the road. There were tyre skid marks under the bus wheels, but only for a couple of feet. Means he was on the correct side of the road and not speeding. He had actually moved further left than necessary, and was mere inches away from our gate. At the point of impact, the car was well on the (to his) right side of the road and there were no tyre skid marks of the car. I wonder what happened. Perhaps he saw the bus while overtaking another vehicle, but thought he could complete it and go back to his side of the road and his calculation went wrong. May be he even passed out due to some reason. We can't know now. It was a private car. The driver was about late forties, and was wearing "maala" for Sabarimala pilgrimage.

Next day the news item in the Indian Express stated the MTC bus had "ran amock" and hit the car. Nothing could be farther from the truth. :deadhorse

Quote:

Originally Posted by arunphilip (Post 3598594)

There are 3 type of under-run bars in existence in India:

Type 1: Invisible bars: These don't exist on a truck because the money to fit them doesn't exist, or won't be allocated by the owner.
Type 2: Fitted on because the law wants it: These bars are added on to pass RTO scrutiny. However, they are just lightly spot-welded onto a few points to ensure they don't fall off when traversing potholed roads. In an actual collision, its quite likely that these spot welds will shear off after dissipating only a little energy, and from that point onwards will turn out to be quite useless.
Type 3: Properly fitted on bars: These bars are rarer to see than a drunk dodo on Diwali, and they are correctly and securely fitted onto the chassis, are fitted at the correct height and form a strong and integral part of the truck - they therefore adhere to both the letter and spirit of the regulation.

In most of the trucks, the bars are bent or broken and I don't think the owners will shell out money to rectify that. For them business is more important rather than focusing on safety issues.