Aquaplaning caused the Mahindra XUV500 to roll over but did not see the side airbags or any other safety systems come to rescue in order to avoid the accident.
The Mahindra XUV500 was the automaker’s first attempt at a global product and naturally so the SUV came with a host of bells and whistles along with a ton of safety aids including the lesser seen side airbags. However, in this particular case in Surathkal, Karnataka, the XUV500 aquaplaned causing it to roll over but did not see the side airbags deploy. In fact, the owner claims that most of the safety systems including ABS, EBD, ESP and roll over mitigation did not kick in. Luckily enough, all five occupants in the flagship Mahindra escaped with minor bruises with only one lady suffered a slipped disc.
As described, the Mahindra XUV500 aquaplaned at 90 km/hr causing it to spin out and roll over and move towards a ditch nearby, but the fall was stopped by a coconut tree. As seen in the images, the roll over has caused the entire roof to cave in. This particular example of the XUV500 was the range-topping W8 variant with all the safety goodies while the tyres too were new with just 8000 kms clocked on them.
The owner had escalated the issue to Mahindra, emailing all the details regarding the failure of the safety systems with the company responding about the safety systems working as needed. The automaker justified that nothing failed and explained the working of the safety systems –
Front Airbags – The front airbags only deploy when the sensors in front of the vehicle detect a collision or impact. In this case, the front of the XUV500 is very much intact and the major damage was due to the roll over, thereby causing the front airbags to not deploy.
Side Airbags – The side airbags work on a similar principle wherein the sensors need to detect contact imminent collision in order to deploy the same. However, in case of a roll over, energy is dissipated more slowly that would go undetected. For side airbags to deploy during a roll over, the vehicle needs to have a roll sensor that will determine if a roll over is imminent and will deploy the airbag even before the vehicle touches the surface and will also keep the airbags inflated for a longer period.
ABS/EBD – ABS and EBD kick in only when the brake pedal is depressed hard and in this case, the same would not have been pressed hard enough to make the systems work.
ESP – ESP works when the driver corrects the direction of the vehicle with steering inputs in order to move the vehicle in the direction the car is headed. Here, the driver may have panicked and may not have been able to provide the correct steering inputs for ESP to kick in and stabilise the vehicle. The other possibility is that the ESP system may have not worked due to aquaplaning that breaks the contact between the road and the tyres as the system relies on the wheels, working in cases of under or over steer.
Tyres – Mahindra concluded from the images that both the rear tyres are completely worn out and may have affected the dynamics of the vehicle. Worn out tyres or bald tyres easily lose traction on wet roads with the grooves not being deep enough to channel water from beneath the tread that would have eventually caused aquaplaning. The images also show that the original tyres have been replaced and the company is yet to determine the specifications of the new tyres.
Source – Team-BHP.com