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I have seen people cruising safely in small cars like Alto, Eon, Kwid, Wagon R etc. They even do long trips on highways and never had encountered any such incidents till date.

What matters is how much the vehicle is in your control. A fully safe & secure vehicle with Airbags, ABS etc. doesn't guarantee your safety unless & until you are on a safe driving spree.

I think the problem lies with this generation that they don't care about people. May be you will be able to stop your vehicle, if needed, suddenly. But what, If you will injure someone else in the following incident.

Drink & drive have been common these days. If not in city, then on highways. Most accidents happen for these reasons only, not getting response time because you were too close, night driving without proper rest, drink & drive, driving too fast (If you cannot control), too much of lane changing, etc.

Good to hear that the Cruze did its job of protecting them :thumbs up.

That said, a truck probably has twice / thrice the braking distance (from highway speeds) as a premium sedan with all disc brakes & fat tyres. If you ram into a truck that suddenly braked, it means that you weren't maintaining a proper gap or - more likely - you were distracted and noticed the truck braking at the last minute. I wouldn't be surprised if the tail-lights of the truck weren't functioning.

I don't know about you, but I am a far more mature + calmer driver now than when I was 18 - 20. Am sure it applies to a majority of folk out there.

Or you take a blind turn at high speed only to find a truck parked in the right lane with a small branch with some leaves on it to indicate is broken down.

Goes without saying that the warning triangle was not placed on the road a couple of feet away but instead mounted on the truck as decoration.

Last night, A Superb hit a biker (going the wrong way) on Richmond Road. Bike hit the left offset front and grazed the left side. This triggered all the airbags. Front bike fork was damaged. I have no idea about the biker but there was a big argument happening. I passed about 5 min after this happened.

I am, believe me! Most of this has been through switching to a more relaxed car and driving mode. The Vtec and the RS demanded an aggressive driving style. The Jetta demands a more relaxed pace but can punch the the opportuniy arises

Along with age, I'd also add accountability.

I've bought all my vehicles out of my earnings. Maintain them. Feel each scratch/dent. And that gives a whole new perspective when I drive it.

Accountability doesn't take away from the pleasure of driving a car, it doesn't detract from the thrill of mashing the accelerator on a clear and safe stretch of road. Accountability only serves to enhance that pleasure.

Often, this sort of pleasure is best experienced and only acknowledged in hindsight. If the 35-year old me were to offer this same advice to 18-year old me, I honestly cannot say if 18-year old me would pay heed.

Even the most stringent of crash tests speeds for any car is capped at 64 kmph (40 mph).
All the passive safety mechanisms (seatbelts, airbags, safety cage/ structural rigidity) built into a car is designed/required to provide reasonable protection only upto 64kmph at max (most govt regulations would need cars to be crash tested upto 33mph or 56 kmph).

The star crash worthiness ratings are applicable/valid only upto this tested 64kmph speed limit. The forces that a car would be subjected to dramatically increases with higher speeds. The internal body organs would get crushed by its own weight multiplied many times when it comes to an abrupt halt from these speeds. The damage would be done even if there are no signs of external injury.
100 kmph is way above the tested limits for any car and the chances of surviving a crash at these impact speeds would be low however good the safety ratings may be.

<tugging beard and trying to look like a wise old guy>

Growing up consists of a lot of realising how wrong we were. When we are young, we are not only less willing to do that, but we are more convinced about how wrong everybody else, especially the elders, are.

A simple reason- Not everybody can afford bigger cars buddy.

Agree, but then people would know limitations. I myself know it. I guess the younger crowd will only know once they pay for it themselves. I'm 24 and know the value of it cause I pay for all of it. Others my age don't. Makes a worlds difference. :)

About the most conceited statement I have read in a long time. Please do try to understand that many people opt for 'entry level cars'; the primary reason being that our government has failed to provide good public transport. And you are better off in an entry level car than on a two-wheeler on our roads.

Got these as a whatsapp forward.

Scarily crushed Baleno.

As as middle-class teen growing up in the 90's I dont recall adrenalin fuelled irresponsible behaviour being exclusive to rich kids with western values. Rich, middleclass and poor teens induldged in inappropriate behavior towards women, driving/riding under the influence of spirits and herbs, damaging public property and the likes

Interesting that you equate youngsters 'cutting loose' as a western phenomenon. My observation is that teens in west, in general, are far more responsible and aware when it comes to DUI. They recognize that driving / riding is a privilege and there are consequences if rules are flouted.

And I agree with you that we cannot place the blame on the younsters as its their parents, teachers, policymakers, traffic police, celebrities - I could go on - who fail to lead by example. But I disagree that 'western' culture is somehow to blame. Perhaps it is the Indian interpretation of western values and lifestyles that you refer to as 'western culture' that could, at best, be a part of the problem.

They also recognise that, if caught, the penalty will be severe. Failing a breathalizer test in my part of "the West" does not result in being sent home with a warning.

Safety of vehicles has always been paramount, but whenever someone says that safety is restricted to one size of cars, or one brands of cars, I feel that there is no upper limit to choosing vehicles. A driver of a Volvo will almost certainly look down upon regular "bigger" cars because they don't have radar braking, better cage and lane change assists etc, a Mercedes S Class owner can have the right to call almost every other car as unsafe trash because his/her vehicle is unquestionably the safest there is.

Not harping on this single point, but people will buy what they want to buy, entry-level, medium, large or super-large. Safety at the end of the day is a personal call and their choice at the end of the day is the safest for them given their budget, preferences and spatial limitations.

True, and I hoped I'd made it clear when I wrote "sense of belonging", i.e a warped perception of western culture. This is not to say that American kids are entirely responsible, I've heard enough stories of DUI's in America and infact, one site called MADD.org (mothers against drunk driving) cites that 28.3 million adults admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol in 2013. The same site also says that the rate of drinking is highest among 26-29 year olds. Still, yes the infrastructure and stronger legal framework of the country creates much more fear than in India.

Again, I choose my words very carefully.. you can see that I made NO mention of rich/poor, all I wrote was that the amount of adrenaline is directly connected to the amount of resources available to them. A parent can choose to give much more resources to their kids than they can afford, and at the same time a parent can choose to curb the amount of resources available even if it can be spared easily. I only made a note that I didn't have the resources due to our economic condition, and even if I did, probably the middle-class way of being raised would never have changed.

Also the post was purely for the particular incident. There is no politically correct way to call out crimes, it always boils down to something wrong at the ethos of the nation, the mindset, the parenting, the law etc as you've duly noted.

Maybe I'm the only one who sees it, but I see it nevertheless. There is a compelling need for people to copy America, consciously or subconsciously. There's a place in Bangalore called Brigade Road which is like the Indian version of the NY Times Square and much like Times Square, people ring in the new year in that location but this time reportedly, a few dozen people who were drunk resorted to getting frisky and took advantage of women standing there. The incident blew up all over the media and overnight Bangalore has been labelled an antisocial paradise. I always felt India isn't the place to be out and about at 12.a.m unless maybe you're in Mumbai. Likewise anything portrayed in movies, shows, songs etc are about the only idea most Indians have about "western" civilization. This "unorganized" party nonsense honestly, has to stop. That is the origin of way too many incidents.
Alcohol has to be consumed within 4 walls strictly and even if one has to go out, they should Uber.

BTW I have no grudges against America, I quite love it. Hollywood is the only form of t.v entertainment I like and I've glugged more bottles of Pepsi than I can remember. It is like any other country with its share of perfections and problems. However I feel that India had its own charm and simplicity and its fast disappearing under the excuse of globalization.

The new gen here in Kerala run these RE as if they are riding a Pulsar or a RX100. These guys don't know that the charm of riding a bullet is to ride it in max 40KMPH.