By Nava Thakuria*
Guwahati: The death of former Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry in a car accident emphasises the need for automobile manufacturers to install speed data recorders in speedy vehicles.
Cyrus Mistry, 54, was killed in a recent road accident in Palghar. His car was reportedly running at around 140 kmph (which was above the permissible limit) when the accident took place during the post-midnight hours on September 4, 2022.
According to the All Assam Engineer’s Association (AAEA), which now bats for more advanced safety features in vehicles, particularly those run with 80 (or above) kilometre per hour speed, the accident reconstruction experts would be able to reveal the actual speed of the vehicle just before the accident. AAEA president Kailash Sarma, in a statement, argued that modern automobile manufacturers should think of installing speed data recorders (similar to the flight data recorder) in speedy vehicles.
Mistry, along with well-known gynaecologist Dr Anahita Pandole, her husband Darius and his brother Jehangir, was travelling in a Mercedes Benz SUV from Ahmedabad to Mumbai when it crashed into a concrete barricade during the post-midnight hours on September 4, 2022. Dr Pandole was driving the car. Mistry and Jehangir, who were in the rear seat, lost their lives in the accident, while the Pandole couple got injured. Darius suffered a spine injury, and fractured his rib and jaw, while Dr Pandole fractured her ribs, collar bone, and shoulder, while her femur bone got crushed and stuck in the pelvic bone.
In view of the concern of millions of automobile users in India following Mistry’s death, the engineer’s forum today urged the concerned company – Mercedes Benz, to clarify if the inbuilt safety measures like crash sensors, airbags (both frontal and side), side-curtain bags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, electronic stability control, lane-keeping assist, forward-collision warning, brake assist, automatic emergency braking, tire-pressure monitor, etc were installed in the car and all those measures functioned properly. Reportedly, after the accident, a team from Mercedes-Benz retrieved an electronic chip installed in the SUV, which records all its data, and took it to Germany for analysis.
While the issue of seatbelts in the rear seat of a vehicle has been discussed aggressively following Mistry’s death, the forum of graduate engineers emphasised installing speed data recorders in the vehicles designed to move faster on the highways.
*Senior journalist
