Quote:
Originally Posted by sudev What would you reckon the speed differential for almost entire car to go under a container carrier?
Would under run bar offer any protection if speed differential was so great?
Happened in Yamuna expressway connection Delhi Agra |
For once i thought its some small hatchback, and then I took a closer look just to get
Reminded me of a similar incident where an Innova carrying some VC of some university met with a similar accident with a truck.
Found it, here it is:
Around 2 years back, I have came across an Aria which rear ended a truck at high speed (Even pushed the truck around 10 feet) and the outcome was nowhere as tragic as in the Innova crashes. I know that my judgement can be wrong, but the way things do turn out in most of the Innova crashes, I doubt if its structure was any good. Mark it, Innova was never a fast car (I have owned 2 of them and over 2 lac kms of ownership) that loves going fast on itself.
Going by the accident, there are 2 probabilities:
1) Slow moving truck - very fast moving car
2) Parked truck - very fast moving car
Last year, when I was working on a project in Agra, Yamuna Expressway is the route I used to take twice a week or even thrice at times. Day time its good enough with some people doing insane speeds, but most of the people still maintaining 100-120 kph speeds. It is after the midnight that things do change, at times you hit some stretches where not a single living being (except plants) is to be seen in front of you or in the rear view mirrors and that is the moment when your body starts relaxing. Since most of the time I used to return back after a sleep at 3-4 am, the sight of expressway at times used to be horrific and you really won't want to even stop your car anywhere else other than toll plazas. Since I am chauffeur driven, it was a strict rule that we used to stop on the second toll plaza for a tea (I used to sleep in the back, or chauffy used to at times) and there used to be a car or two that was always insanely driven. I have seen Alto or Wagon Rs' doing 140 kph there and the likes of Swift / DZire etc are better not talked about.
So my opinion, the way the Innova has rear ended the truck, I doubt if the driver was awake (I am unable to find any sings of hard braking at all or even hard steer, it wouldn't have been such a straight hit if the car was steered hard at last moment). Late night drives at Yamuna expressway are normally filled with solitude and going to extreme left and rear ending a truck is out of context IMO, had the driver been awake then either it would have been a small frontal overlap or if it was an overtaking attempt, then also there is no chance of such full frontal overlap. The presence of reflectors on the road do help to identify if there is a heavy vehicle moving on the road and any driver can make this estimate even if its a black truck with no tail lamps. When I got to know that it was a chauffeur driven car, my belief that it is a case of sleeping behind the wheel gets even stronger. I have came across many (a huge number) of chauffeur driven gentlemen who are normally lest bit bothered if the chauffeur is tired or not and have a thought process that "get him a cup of tea and he is good to go". I personally used to take a special care that my chauffy is fit for drives and have at least 10% of times taken wheel also asking him to get into back and sleep.
Coming to under run bar, I have these days seen many truckers doing a formality of the same (Now it's mandatory and every truck has it) by just putting an angle there. Had there been a proper under run bar, it would have definitely helped, but yes, at the same time, if a 1.9 tonne (Car + passengers) load hits the bar at over say 120 kph, I really doubt if the under run bar could have done any good there. You guys may have seen bent or broken bars, which already prove how strong they actually are.
Looks like this 165 kms stretch is turning to be the most lethal one in India, other highways may have worse figures but taking the distance to fatality ratio, Yamuna expressway is definitely a red zone going by the speeds, number of vehicles (we can take traffic density to fatalities ratio and I can bet that Yamuna Expressway will be on the top):
548 killed in 5 years in accidents on Yamuna Expressway