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-   -   Accidents in India | Pics & Videos (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/109249-accidents-india-pics-videos-2072.html)

One thing to note that is the City somehow seems to accelerate before the crash - maybe the driver had panicked. This is more evident in the video than the gif. This may have contributed to more damage to the City, although it does not explain the minimal damage to the Nano. Maybe the Nano had more damage than what meets the eye.

On seeing the damage happened to both cars and considering their price tags, the build quality of Honda City is questionable. Other cars in the same segment like Vento or Linea would have performed better.

I remember the accident pics of a Fiat Punto which rear ended a Maruti Ertiga. Punto's front end is intact while Ertiga's rear end caved in with its rear glass broken. :Shockked:

For the crumple zones working well arguments, imagine the same situation but with either Vento or Rapid or Linea, then they wouldn't undergo as much damage as the Honda City(s) in the above accident, does it mean that Vento, Rapid, and Linea aren't designed well and are without crumple zones?

If crumple zones crumple to this extent for these kind of accidents, then at comparatively higher speeds(say highway kind speeds) they will definitely crumple too much beyond what is needed and end up crumpling the passenger cabin too. It is like airbags opening up at crawling speed jolts/crashes and airbags end up damaging the driver/passenger more than what the jolt does.

Companies like Maruti, and Honda in this case are literally taking too much advantage in the name of crumple zones.

Also got to agree with the fellow member that Nano doesn't have enough space to implement crumple zones.
Exactly.

There are regulations in some countries which mandate auto manufacturers to make the vehicle/bumper resistant to impacts under 5mph or some other low speed limit. This translates to car designs that resist deformation (and consequent repairs) on minor bumper to bumper traffic collisions. They do have crumple zones but don't crumple on very low speed impacts.

I have a vague guess that the design of this low impact meaningless crumpling is a ploy to milk some extra money from after sales repairs & spares. They earn nothing extra when nothing breaks. Cannot be? Okay, just a wild guess.

Attaching pictures of my old nano that I had, here you can see clearly the sub chassy that's probably stronger than everything else in the car. The rear of all Nanos made before the Genx were super strong. The already flimsy build of some new cars, now called as pedestrian safety bumper and over protective crumple zone:deadhorse, cannot take a hit with this part of Nano.

Note: Only the rear has this sub chassy, front has a normal cross member to hold the AC condenser .

Can't agree more. It seems some companies are using crumple zone theory as marketing trick.

True that. If we see the accident pics of Maruti it looks like the entire car comes under the so called crumple zone. :D In the case of Hondas, their flimsy build is cleverly masked by the Honda brand image.

Perhaps the earlier Brio based platform were relatively weak (hatch, sedan, mpv all discontinued now). The current offerings in the Honda stable all have quite strong (4+ stars rated) body frames/structures.

Here's the damage to the City which was in front of the Nano.



As for the debate on crumple zones, IMO they are meant to absorb some of the impact by keeping their structural composure, but in this case they just moved aside till the front cross member;



which by the way stood it's ground. But if the impact was at highway speeds the front cross member would be left alone to take the blow.

I feel companies like Toyota and Honda are getting away using their past reputation . Off late, their cars are not good in terms of build quality as they are presumed to be. Although , looking at accident pictures is not the best way to judge built quality , but looking at Innova's and even few fortuner's getting crushed, its hard to think the other way.

Have you seen the new Amaze we have just got one in our family and its build is Maruti bad. :Frustrati

Mod Note - Please stick to the topic, I believe crumple zones have been discussed enough on this thread.

Here is a relevant thread.

Some time back there was a discussion in depth on a car falling into a river and subsequent discussions on whether the onlookers should swim or not to rescue..etc.

While that was a fatal accident, this incident seems to be fortunate and the occupants were lucky to survive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tszEll4eKbc

While the topography of that lake and this (this is a sea) might be different, the circumstances are more or less same. The crowd here had different attitude to jump in and do whatever they could. I am sure if the crowd at the other accident site had this attitude, that Merc passengers probably had a chance.

We don't have to again debate on this scenario as it has been done in depth on the other thread.

That thread: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...ually-die.html

The major difference i think is this is very close to the shore, and that was almost in midst of the lake. Here you can easily see that crowd trying to save the people can easily stand, and not needed to swim. Similarly would have been easier to get the occupants out compared to that particular case.