I came out of my Pajero after multiple rollovers with spatial disorientation and confused thoughts.
BHPian NomadSK recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Sad to know that a life was lost in an accident. However, I won’t be able to comment on this particular accident and whether there were airbags present in an SUV or not and why they weren’t deployed in the accident as it depends on multiple factors for the airbags to inflate during the incident. Let the investigation and law takes its due “correct” course and gets to a conclusive end. That’s the Least tax payers should expect.
Let me pen down my own story of a high-speed (within legal limits) multiple times rollover.
Preface
It was dark, I was on cruise control, set the cruise limits as per the road requirement and driving on the highway in the fast lane. Around 400 km of straight road. The highways here are so straight, designed properly to the books/standards and butter smooth, that If you don’t put a cruise control, you will tend to overspend, as the perception of the speed diminishes with no relative objects to refer to and will gather too many speed violations. Generally, we perceive the exact speed of a vehicle mainly by looking at the speedometer, but on long drives and with sparse traffic, doing so off and on causes the eyes to turn away from the road, which is a dangerous situation. Also, On my left, there was a paved shoulder space, which is generally sufficient for one vehicle to overtake but legally that space is not for overtaking and is only for emergency vehicles to pass/move. But impatient drivers use this space for overtaking in general. The highway had 4 lanes on each side and there was a prestressed steel wire fence 5 to 6 feet high in between the lanes, just to arrest the rouge vehicles crossing over into the oncoming traffic. The distance between the 2 lanes was probably 14-15 meters and these are access-controlled highways with fencing in between and on the sides.
Scenario
I’m belted inside my SUV and I can see a sedan at some extreme speed on the shoulder lane, about to overtake my vehicle my eyes were glued on this car in my left OVRM and slowly I just started to move to the centre lane to give him safe space to overtake while glancing in the right OVRM. And while he was in the process of overtaking me, he hit me just in front of the rear left wheel (I don’t know why though at that time). My car went out of control into a spin, I lost control of the steering and kind of oversteering phenomenon (lost my senses at that moment, and went blank). I went into a rollover, multiple times. Crossed over the median steel wire fence without even damaging it and I was on the other side of the shoulder lane of the oncoming traffic. I still don’t understand how that fence doesn’t stop me from going to the other opposite side lane, Was the rollover that high that it crossed the fence over it? Still don’t know. Luckily no traffic to deal with there in the opposite lane. And airbags weren’t deployed (Japanese Car), even though the tipping point for the rollover was right-hand side front near the headlights. I came out of the car safely with spatial disorientation and confused thoughts, since I was supposed to be in another lane.
In the picture, the white sedan with headlights on was the one that hit me.
The reason for telling my story is:
- Airbags don’t get deployed in all scenarios/conditions for which it’s not engineered.
- Seat belts keep you safe and sound in most scenarios. 4/4 in my case.
- Speed perception is affected by visual cues of the relative objects. That’s why, speeding at night makes it more dangerous.
- Accidents are rarely the fault of a single person. Responsibility is collectively spread amongst many people/systems.
- I am not suggesting that the immediate causes of an accident are any less important than the underlying causes. The other driver was underage and high on substance.
- Cruise control prevents you from overspeeding, especially on such long straight monotonous highways.
- Also, Rollover doesn’t always mean that the car is being driven out of the safe limits. Sometimes like this, you are at the receiving end for no fault of yours. Sh*t Happens on roads.
Be safe Guys.
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