HomeCar NewsMaruti S-Cross accident - airbags did not deploy (Update)

Maruti S-Cross accident – airbags did not deploy (Update)

Original Story – 5th Dec 2015

A Maruti S-Cross suffered a shattered front fascia due to what appears to be a severe impact on the dead centre. The driver, a Team-bhp forum member, reports that he decelerated quickly from around 100 kmph but still couldn’t avoid an impact with a motorcycle which was attempting to cross the road perpendicular to the S-Cross’ path.

As seen, the impact had managed to bend the front cross member, and shoved the radiator deep into the engine bay. Due to the impact, bonnet and fenders crumpled, plastic parts shattered, and windshield cracked. However, the car’s structural members haven’t suffered any noteworthy damage.

Most cars will have their front airbag impact sensors near the edges, behind the bumper, mounted on structural members. This particular crash doesn’t appear to have damaged the sensor-mounted members with a force high enough to trigger airbag deployment. For comparison, please refer to the image of Maruti Ertiga in the image below. The MPV suffered an impact near the edge of the left bumper which resulted in deployment both the airbags though the overall visible damage to the vehicle is relatively less.

Airbags deployed on the Ertiga above after accident, but not on the S-Cross.

Coming back to the S-Cross case, fortunately, the driver escaped without any serious injuries and the passenger cabin is intact save for the cracked windshield. According to the owner, personnel from Maruti have collected the data of the accident and is studying it to determine whether the airbags should have been deployed in this case or not. The person who was involved in the accident certainly feels that the airbags ought to have gone off.

Also read – Maruti Baleno hatchback completely destroyed in an accident

Passive safety features such as airbags do go a long way in enhancing occupant safety but despite the advancements in technology, such features don’t have a 100% success ratio since accidents and resultant impacts are way too random for the engineers to formulate a fail-proof method to determine the location and calibration of impact sensors.

UPDATE – 22nd Dec 2015

Mr Naman Goyal, the owner of the S-Cross, has sent us details of what has happened post the accident. As per Mr Goyal, he had asked Maruti for answers to the following questions:

– Share the measurements of the damage which have been taken by the engineers.
– Share what are the physical damage parameters as per which the airbags function.
– What are the other parameters that are taken into account for their functioning.
– Which parameters were not met in the case at hand.
– Share the data on which these results are based.
– Share the calculations used to arrive at these results.
– Share the front part damage’s as recorded by your engineers.
– The speed of the vehicle at the time of the accident arrived at by your engineers.
– The speeds at which the airbags function.
– The complete investigation and examination reports of the vehicle.
– The results arrived at by comparing the current accident to that of the Ciaz (for which the airbags deployed and the pics were shared).

To this, Maruti has replied that the information sought is confidential and cannot be shared. Mr Goyal claims that he later attended a personal meeting with two Maruti officials, who were trying to convince him that the airbags should not have deployed. They also refused to give the above information, and said it was confidential and cannot be shared, adds Mr Goyal.

Photos

Via – Team-bhp.com

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