Following the results of a series of shocking crash tests earlier this year and some whose findings were released on Monday, it has become apparent that entry and mid-level variants of virtually every small car sold in India are dangerously unsafe.
In a country where over 1,50,000 people die on the roads every year, safety on Indian roads ought to be a priority task. If the automakers steadfastly refuse to add safety features like airbags to their cars, the Government should mandate them to do so.
Across these tests conducted by the Global New Car Assessment Program (Global NCAP) it was found that due to a lack of front airbags as standard fitment, the driver and front passenger would suffer serious and likely fatal injuries in the case of an offset frontal impact at 64 km/h.
Shockingly, other than Volkswagen India, the Indian automotive industry seems to have shrugged off the report by claiming to adhere to Indian safety standards. Sadly, Indian car safety standards are virtually non-existent and while every other part of the world has independent bodies, Euro NCAP in Europe and the NHTSA in the USA, that conduct car safety tests, thanks in no small part to industry lobbying, the Indian automotive industry has managed to avoid such crucial tests for years.
The industry has also claimed that the test at 64 km/h with a 60 per cent offset, that is the collision is not a head-on collision but offset slightly to one side, is not a fair representation. However, 64 km/h is well below the highway speed limit in India and while urban speed limits are lower, 64 km/h is a reasonable speed.
The industry has claimed that airbags would add unnecessary expense to cars and in a highly competitive market where consumers are apparently lured by lower prices, adding ‘expensive’ airbags would make products uncompetitive. There are a couple of arguments that shatter this fallacy of the stand taken by the Indian automotive industry.
The first is that airbags are not terribly expensive. Volkswagen India, whose executives were shocked into action after the first test, added front airbags as standard fitment into all variants of their small car the Polo without a discernible impact on prices. As a result of adding airbags, the star rating of the Polo went from zero stars without airbags to four stars (out of five) with airbags.
Airbag units cost between Rs 3,500 to Rs 12,000 depending on the car and type of unit. Those for small cars cost around Rs 5,000 per unit. In fact, carmakers who add airbags to top variants of cars often couple them with some other cosmetic features to make airbags and other safety systems such as Anti-lock Brakes into a greedy profit centre.
The second is that the ecosystem to add airbags already exists with all Indian carmakers, who are quick to add features such as Bluetooth telephony to cars but scrounge on safety. For example, Maruti-Suzuki’s factory in Manesar mandatorily adds airbags to the Swift cars it builds for export to latin America, but does not add airbags to the same car sold in the Indian market despite the Swift being the best-selling model here.
It is true that airbags are not perfect as in very high-speed accidents their effectiveness is limited. The rapid explosion of an airbag inside a millisecond can cause slight injuries as well (a small price to pay to save your life).
Also, airbag deployments can be fatal in case a child is sitting on the front seat when the airbag deploys as its force can snap the child’s neck or suffocate the child. This is why most developed countries have made it illegal for children to sit in the front seat.
However, airbags have been known to save lives and most cars sold in Europe and America now come equipped with six or more airbags. Cars like the new Mercedes S-Class even feature airbags built into the rear seat belts to minimize injuries.
It is imperative for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to look into this crucial safety issue as the Winter Session of Parliament will debate the long-delayed Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act. In addition, the Government must make crash-tests of all vehicles sold in the Indian market mandatory with results like in Europe and America being open to the public.