[Thad E Ginathom]

but how on earth he did not manage see such a huge trailer

The way not to see something, however big it is, is to be looking in the wrong place. This is no flippant comment on my part, because twice in my life I have had accidents because I was looking the wrong way, or concentrating on one hazard when I should have been aware of another. They were relatively trivial, low speed accidents --- but they still meant my car and another being in the workshop. Stupid? Guilty!

I wonder if this guy even saw the junction, let alone the truck. TXTing? Talking? CD players cause a lot of accidents.

That is probably the most horrible road video I've ever seen. A terrible, terrible warning to us all.

[driving_smartly]

Originally Posted by Jignesh

What a terrible manner to lose ones life. The roads here are becoming deadly everyday
Thanks,

Jignesh,

I agree with you but in my opinion the roads are at no fault in this case its a pretty straight lane with no blind spots.

It is the driving instinct now a days that is becoming deadly everyday.

Like AutoIndian said "Speed thrills, but kills"

Posted the link of DNA Navi Mumbai where i first read the news.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/repor...h-road_1781399

With such bad impact of accident and one person escaped unhurt, i would say its a case of miracle for him atleast.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I wonder if this guy even saw the junction, let alone the truck. TXTing? Talking? CD players cause a lot of accidents

As per the aforesaid article "They had come to Panvel for some business on Sunday evening. After finishing their work, they went for a drive in Vashi and then decided to head back to Pune through the Palm Beach Road"

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by driving_smartly

Palm Beach road accident captured in CCTV

Posting the link of video from IBN lokmat.

http://www.ibnlokmat.tv/showvideo.php?id=270842

Picture source: Navi Mumbai Tips (Facebook)

My heart felt sympathies for the souls in the car. The trailer's length would not have been easily calculated and thus this mishap I suppose. But the driver has braked in the last moment, as it is evident from the footage, but it was a little too late :(
May their souls rest in peace.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

The video shows the driver did not see the trailer till the last moment. The brake light is seen hardly few feet from impact! There was no way ANY vehicle would come to a halt from that speed in such short time!

Originally Posted by driving_smartly

The speed must be in high 1xx Kms, but how on earth he did not manage see such a huge trailer, sheer negligence on part of Figo driver.

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Spot on. Was the driver of that Figo dozing off at the wheel. Look at the left side of the Figo. There you can see a bike rider, who saw the container crossing the road & applied his brakes well in time & slowed down. The Figo driver didn't even notice that.

The video clearly shows that Figo had braked long back - notice the high mount stop lamp above the rear windscreen, which is on throughout the video. The lights that turn on just before the crash are the indicators. There is some feature in Figo where hazard lights are switched on in case of sudden deceleration.

I think the high speed of Figo might be the sole reason. When the speed increases, the braking distance needed increases exponentially (distance needed is proportional to square of the speed).This is school level Physics though 90% folks rarely realize/remember this. Poor headlights of Figo might have made things worse, though even the best headlight cannot illuminate an object that is beyond the braking distance when the speed is 100+.

As someone mentioned, having something on the side of the truck which would have provided resistance to the lower half of the car might have probably reduced the direct impact on the passenger cabin. Even if there were airbags, it wouldn't have been deployed in this case as the front is intact!

[VW2010]

As someone mentioned, having something on the side of the truck which would have provided resistance to the lower half of the car might have probably reduced the direct impact on the passenger cabin. Even if there were airbags, it wouldn't have been deployed in this case as the front is intact!

Idiots should stay of the wheel. The truck was visible from a long distance. The cross section is visible from a long distance. No clue on why the figo driver thought its good to cheat death.

If you think you can cheat common sense, you will be taught a tough lesson.

The other part is the driver does not seem to have been drunk or may be drunk,for he maintained a straight line. He could have tried to hit the tyres or steer on the sides to take a side wise impact.

Its strange everytime you see that video, there is ample time to react to atleast not go under the trailer.

All they needed was a second extra to hit the wheels. It was one second that killed 3 people. Now boasting driving at 180 in highways seems not scary but stupid.

I have already calmed down in city and my high way speed has gone down to 110 inspite of a Jetta where it feels like i am driving at 75

[Arunshek]

Originally Posted by driving_smartly

Umpteen number of times i have seen people jumping the signal on that junction when there are no cops. Nobody wants to wait for few secs / minutes, everyone is in hurry to reach the destination.

Sometimes this kind of recklessness leads them to uncalled destination.

I had a bad experience on the same road, though did not invove any accident.
I was waiting at the signal towards Thane near Palm Beach Galleria Mall and Jn which turns right to Blue Diamond Hotel (khoperkhairane). It's a big signal, as trucks use it for crossing into APMC
It was 11PM on last Saturday night, hence traffic was sparse on other lane which comes from APMC. Though a vehicle crossed every 5 secs.
A bus, carrying a marriage party I guess, came behind me and started honking. After honking for 2-3 minutes, an elderly person around 50 yrs of age bangs on my window asking me to go forward. I calming told it red signal and closed the window. That ignorant fool kept on banging my car's window. I was in no mood for to confront him.
Luckily for him, light turned green and I moved ahead

What can be done if someone encounter such a dumb*** on road?

[fiat_tarun]

The video of the Figo is indeed a scary sight. The Figo driver definitely was at fault there as at the start of the video you can see the headlights on the truck, so its not that he could not have seen it.

Secondly, I remember reading somewhere that the Figo has this feature where in the hazard lights start blinking on hard braking which did not happen right till the very end. Looking at the speed he was doing he definitely should have been braking harder.

Its really sad such incidents happen due to negligence and 4 lives have been lost :-(.

[audioholic]

Seeing the realtime run of the video, and comparing the speed of the bike and car, we can observe that the car is very fast compared to the bike. Also, the figo slowed down at a point when the bike had nearly stopped. That was about three seconds before impact. How could a car stop at that instant? Moreover, as said in my previous post, the trailer dis not have underrun protection.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by audioholic

People, those who own or drive trucks like these, really do not understand why the government has imposed a mandatory under-run protection system for such trucks. Little do they know that two thick Iron bars hanging down from the side and rear could have at least saved a few more lives, if not all.

Quite true about the under-run protection. The trailer did not have any amber lights on it sides either.
All the trucks here in US are usually lit up like a christmas tree which makes it hard for someone not to notice them. People still dont see them some times but then at least the trucks would have covered all of its bases.

Originally Posted by zenren

The video clearly shows that Figo had braked long back - notice the high mount stop lamp above the rear windscreen, which is on throughout the video.

Yes the high mount stop lamp was on all the way. Also notice that the road was wet, judging by the reflection of taillghts the road. Probably the driver had no control of the car once he hit the brakes.

Anyway, tragic accident. Definitely not the way to end a life.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by VW2010

Idiots should stay of the wheel. The truck was visible from a long distance. The cross section is visible from a long distance. No clue on why the figo driver thought its good to cheat death.

The other part is the driver does not seem to have been drunk or may be drunk,for he maintained a straight line. He could have tried to hit the tyres or steer on the sides to take a side wise impact.

Its strange everytime you see that video, there is ample time to react to atleast not go under the trailer.

All they needed was a second extra to hit the wheels. It was one second that killed 3 people.

I showed this clip to one of my friends & he put forth a theory. The driver of the Figo must have been a big fan of Bollywood movies & highly influenced by the such scenes, where you can see a car easily passes underneath, between the wheels of a trailer/container. Now that the Figo is one of the most low slung hatches in the country, his confidence would have been boosted & he gave it a try to pass underneath the container. Hence he went straight underneath it, instead of serving/steering the car either to left or right. Any takers?

[Vid6639]

Guys if you see the hazard lamp comes on at the last minute just before impact.

As per the Figo manual, the hazard lamp start flashing only when brakes are applied at speeds greater than 96KMPH and the rate of deceleration is higher than some preset value.

This means that the guy did not brake hard enough and he was doing 100kmph + approaching the intersection.

I have a feeling he thought that the truck would pass by and did not slow down enough thinking that he can avoid coming to a dead stop. This is one of the most common reasons of accident. People relying on other vehicles to move out of their way and anticipating the other guy to take care.

Big mistake.

[Raj_d]

Palm Beach road accident - 25th Dec.2012 CCTV footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak69pwTTofI

DON'T DRINK & DRIVE. LOVE YOUR FAMILY/FRIENDS & YOUR CAR AS WELL. BE SMART, DRIVE SAFE!

Tc,
Raj

[srishiva]

Yesterday, just before entering Shiradi Ghat from Mangalore side, a Qualis going down on one of the curves to the left hit a oil tanker. The driver of the Qualis who was the only one driving I think was carried away in an Ambulance. Looks like he was not able to steer clearly to the left and might have been going fast also.

[DRIVE_ADDICT]

OMG! thats a horrible video Figo ramming to the Truck. RIP the souls.

It seems the driver applied the break way before, it is evident from the break light. May be he was at a very high speed. You can also notice smoke coming out of tires after the car passes the zebra line, seems he applied hand break (hazards also lit up) or he might pump the break with a slam when he went too close to the Trailer.

Wet condition of the road, high speed and poor visibility leads the accident it seems. I think the driver have no space to steer left or right. In that panic braking we can't expect a smart move from the driver.

Don't know whether its just me, The car enters into the CCTV footage with break lights on, so it seems the driver applied the break way before, but i feel the car doesn't slowed down considerably, break issue??.

[Added_flavor]

Originally Posted by zenren

The video clearly shows that Figo had braked long back - notice the high mount stop lamp above the rear windscreen, which is on throughout the video. The lights that turn on just before the crash are the indicators. There is some feature in Figo where hazard lights are switched on in case of sudden deceleration.

I think the high speed of Figo might be the sole reason. When the speed increases, the braking distance needed increases exponentially (distance needed is proportional to square of the speed).This is school level Physics though 90% folks rarely realize/remember this. Poor headlights of Figo might have made things worse, though even the best headlight cannot illuminate an object that is beyond the braking distance when the speed is 100+.

I agree, the brake was applied from a distance.

Here's my theory. The figo is definitely at high speeds. The driver, as he approaches the intersection, realizes he might have to brake, so he keeps his foot on the brake (brake lamp turned on).

Why doesn't he brake hard? He could see the road in front, thanks to the height of the trailer. As he comes nearer, he realizes there's a damn trailer crossing and he can see the rear wheels also. Alas it's too late!

He brakes hard and that's when the hazard lights come on and rams into the trailer. Notice that, to warrant this, he was on low beam too! There's no reflector, or under run protection on the trailer.

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

I showed this clip to one of my friends & he put forth a theory. The driver of the Figo must have been a big fan of Bollywood movies & highly influenced by the such scenes, where you can see a car easily passes underneath, between the wheels of a trailer/container. Now that the Figo is one of the most low slung hatches in the country, his confidence would have been boosted & he gave it a try to pass underneath the container. Hence he went straight underneath it, instead of serving/steering the car either to left or right. Any takers?

I don't think he would've tried to pull off such a stunt, nobody can be that stupid.

Although, at the last moment he might have tried to sneak the car under the trailer as a last resort and that's why he moves a little to the right, away from the wheels.