[binand]

Originally Posted by Electric

The bus that hit the cars was at 70+kmph whereas the cars were at 50s. The impact was so severe due to the bus ramming at the rear, that the Figo was catapulted towards the median and tossed in the air.

Does a 20 kmph relative speed impact cause such an effect that a car could be catapulted? The bus must have been doing much higher speeds.

Hopefully you and your passengers (not to mention those in the other car) are all fine.

[sajid33]

The pic below, my dear friends,is of a Toyota Qualis which met with an accident in 2007. It was a head on collision with a Tata 10 wheeler
truck.
Of the seven on-board passengers of the car,six died on the spot and seventh went into coma as he was hospitalized.The boot of the car
had 2 full crates of liquor, the police said they were under the influence of liquor so it was not sure whose fault resulted in the accident as it happened on a two lane road without dividers.The truck driver fled away from the scene.
I saw the wreckage the same day while coming out of my office and my driver fed me with the details.Days passed and the seventh victim was still in coma, his relatives took him to their city in Haryana.

Come 2009, and that man was still in coma, then one day, after around two years, he came out of coma, his relatives told him about the whole incident, hearing this, the man got worried and asked about his car( this person was the owner of the car).
He then told everyone that he was carrying more than 2 million rupees wrapped in plastic,in a secret pocket under the rear seat of his car, and only
one of his friends and his driver knew about it. He then contacted Haryana police and returned to Muzaffarnagar with them. The Muzaffarnagar
police was informed about the matter and they checked the car for the money.

To everybody's surprise, the money was still there! packed well in plastic.The man went back thanking his stars and yes, the police was also gifted handsome money. The car is still here, and whenever i pass it on my way to my office, i still feel for the policemen who stand on duty on the checkpost which is just meters away from that car!

[D'Artagnan]

Originally Posted by binand

Does a 20 kmph relative speed impact cause such an effect that a car could be catapulted? The bus must have been doing much higher speeds. Hopefully you and your passengers (not to mention those in the other car) are all fine.

A bus doing only 20kmph more will be dangerous, simply because it weighs more than a car. At 70 kmph a bus is extremely dangerous, take a train at 70 and it will be unstoppable ram.

[Dieseldunk]

Originally Posted by Electric

Not exactly what you are thinking it to be. Dint you get a chance to spot the bus parked 100m further? It is not essentially them who are always at fault. Please do show some restraint if you are not sure about the incident.

Hi Electric
hope you folks are ok and nothing too much serious. Take care.

Originally Posted by binand

Does a 20 kmph relative speed impact cause such an effect that a car could be catapulted? The bus must have been doing much higher speeds.
Hopefully you and your passengers (not to mention those in the other car) are all fine.

The laws of physics will take over speed here. The relative speed is overidden by the relative mass of the object since force= mass * accelaration.

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan

A bus doing only 20kmph more will be dangerous, simply because it weighs more than a car. At 70 kmph a bus is extremely dangerous, take a train at 70 and it will be unstoppable ram.

+1 to that. seriously hope that trains do not travel on roads.

[Electric]

Thanks D'Artagnan and Dieseldunk, yes passengers in both the cars are safe. It was the seatbelts that saved us all - in both the cars. The car bore all the brunt and the seatbelts held us stuck to our seats, in what could have otherwise been a gory incident. The bus driver abandoned the vehicle and ran away in the confusion, when he understood the gravity of the situation. Roads were never safer, even if you were a safe driver - this being a testimony that I had to experience first hand.

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by Electric

Thanks D'Artagnan and Dieseldunk, yes passengers in both the cars are safe. It was the seatbelts that saved us all - in both the cars. The car bore all the brunt and the seatbelts held us stuck to our seats, in what could have otherwise been a gory incident. The bus driver abandoned the vehicle and ran away in the confusion, when he understood the gravity of the situation. Roads were never safer, even if you were a safe driver - this being a testimony that I had to experience first hand.

Thank god you and other passengers are safe, that portion of the outer ring road is always a menace, when I used to work in whitefield everyday some or the other close saves used to happen. Have you registered a complaint with the bus company or something?

[saket77]

Feel sorry for the people who lost their lives. BTW, crates of liquor, 2 million rupees in cash, possibility of the car's occupants being under the influence of alcohol...sounds insane & suspicious to me.
However, with the money was still intact, the owner must have had some relief, but of course, lives were lost and 2 precious years of the guy who survived were also lost.

[WindRide]

Originally Posted by Electric

...Better not blame the drivers who are in the middle of the accident or bear the brunt...

First, glad to know all involved in the accident are safe and in good health. The way your figo looked, i was fearing the worst.

Secondly, my apologies to you if the query (it wasn't a crass statement, mind you) appeared insensitive.

I experience that stretch twice daily to and from work. I admit i shake like a leaf on the left most lane on my bike everytime a volvo/assorted 4-wheelers start zooming, once past the Karthik Nagar/ISRO Jn. and heading down the underpass. It essentially is a F1 straight section there. And without fail, i see cops stopping a few of them for overspeeding up ahead on the crest near the petrol pump en route to Doddanekundi, near to where your car was hit. So my query was based on long and hard experience of witnessing dangerous driving on that stretch.

And yes the most frightful ones are the multi-coloured behemoths heading to Kolar and further on that stretch.

[amrisharm]

An interesting read. The hospital bill from being in coma for 2 years probably crossed the 2 million Rs mark.

The circumstance seems very very suspicious. With a boot full of Alcohol and with 2 million in hard cash, the cops dont investigate why one was carrying so much money?

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Dieseldunk

The laws of physics will take over speed here. The relative speed is overidden by the relative mass of the object since force= mass * accelaration.

Slightly but the more relevant equation here is: momentum= mass * velocity. Even if the bus hadn't been accelerating at the point of impact it possesses significantly higher momentum which would get transferred to the lower-mass Figo and catapult it over the divider (law of conservation of momentum).

Sorry to hear that a member was involved in the accident and glad to know everyone is safe.

[Dieseldunk]

Noopster. +1 to that .

Me and my physics gyaan, will never try that again

cheers
prasad

[sajid33]

i do agree that its not an everyday incident, that guy was reportedly proceeding to haridwar with the money, and had plans to proceed to a hill station with his friends, heard he was used to carrying money frequently and had some close connections with some politicians of haryana, friends, its a six year old incident, so finding someone with rock solid details is very difficult. my uncle told me that news was in papers in 2007, tried to check the websites of popular newspapers here, but didn't find anything, will try to find and post here if i find something useful.

[black_rider]

Originally Posted by Electric

.... The private bus had rammed into the Figo on the rightmost lane and then the Skoda that was on the leftmost lane....

Attaching a picture of the figo, as captured around ten thirty AM that day

[poloman]

Looks like there is a speed breaker just ahead. The Figo might have slowed down for that, but the bus driver failed to notice and made a high speed hit.

[black_rider]

Originally Posted by poloman

Looks like there is a speed breaker just ahead. The Figo might have slowed down for that, but the bus driver failed to notice and made a high speed hit.

Figo was coming down the road on other side of the median. There is no speed breaker on that side.