The crashed Maruti Baleno is damaged beyond recognition which raised questions on the structural safety of the car, even though front airbags and ABS are offered as standard.
In an extremely unfortunate event, a customer driven Maruti Baleno (top-end Alpha variant) met with an accident on National Highway-1 last week killing four out of six of its occupants instantly, while seriously injuring the other two. Owned by Sanjay Sehgal, the 52 year old along with his family were on their way to Faridabad when a collision at high speeds with a truck caused a massive impact leading the car to overturn, jump the divider and roll on to the other side of the highway.
The accident occurred at 2.30 AM when Sanjay was attempting to overtake a truck in his Maruti Baleno at high speeds. After the overtake, he lost control of the vehicle which caused the same truck to collide with the hatchback from behind. The collision caused the Baleno to overturn and jump over the divider and the car was hit by an oncoming speeding truck from the other side. The impact was so severe that Sanjay, Anshul and Parul died on the spot whereas Kiran succumbed to her injuries at the hospital.
In retrospect, the accident could have been averted in many ways, but this also opens up a new debate on the structural safety of the new Maruti Suzuki Baleno. Time and again made-in-India vehicles have been criticised for not having the right structural rigidity that can help avert even the most deadliest of accidents. Maruti’s decision to add dual front airbags and ABS as standard on all variants of the Baleno was certainly praiseworthy but incidents like these urge you to question, is that enough?
India is the first market to get the new Baleno worldwide and the Global or Euro NCAP crash tests are yet to be conducted on the premium hatchback to determine its structural safety. That said, the safety rating will only help the European market in deciding the safety of the vehicle. India is yet to form its own safety standards under the proposed Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Programme (BNVSAP), with the implementation still a good 2-3 years away. The Baleno is 100 kgs lighter than the Swift in the interest of performance and efficiency while Maruti states that the body is 10% stronger.
The newly launched Maruti Baleno was purchased by the Sehgal family on the eve of Diwali last month and the family was enroute to their daughter’s house in Faridabad from Jalandhar as a surprise. The truck driver fled the scene leaving his over turned truck at the accident site and has been absconding since. While a case under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence) and 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) has been registered against him, it can do little to bring back the deceased.
Source – HindustanTimes.com
