Bajaj Freedom 125: CNG Nozzle Blows Off During Refueling Injuring Pump Attendant [Video]

Earlier in July of this year, Bajaj Auto Limited launched the world’s first CNG motorcycle, the Freedom 125, in India. This bike, although it has received a lot of praise globally, has also received a lot of criticism. Many people have raised questions about the safety of fitting a CNG tank in a motorcycle. Recently, proving these concerns right, an incident involving the new Bajaj Freedom 125 at a CNG filling station has been shared online.

Bajaj Freedom 125 CNG filling accident

A video showing a CNG fuel station employee getting injured while filling a Bajaj Freedom 125 has been shared on YouTube. It comes courtesy of Raghav 21 Technical on their channel. In this short video, the creator shows CCTV footage from a CNG filling station.

We can see that a Bajaj Freedom 125 owner takes his bike to the filling station, where an employee is seen bringing the CNG filling nozzle to the bike. What happens next is that he tries to attach the nozzle to the bike’s CNG filling point.

However, by mistake, the lid first closes. After this, he once again opens the lid and fits in the CNG nozzle. Following this, he goes to the CNG pump to press a button. During this time, we see that the owner of the bike, who was standing right next to the nozzle, moves away and goes to the right side.

Soon after this, the employee comes back in front of the bike, and in just a few moments, the nozzle gets violently ejected from the CNG filling hole of the bike and hits the employee on his head. Immediately after this, the employee can be seen lying unconscious on the floor.

Meanwhile, the CNG pipe can be seen waving recklessly. All the people, including other employees, the owner of the bike, and the auto drivers, run away from the CNG pump to avoid getting hit. However, they all come back and check on the employee on the floor.

Why did this happen?

At the moment, no reports on the incident have been shared online. However, many people have commented that the major fault behind this incident was due to the employee. They have stated that he did not attach the nozzle to the bike properly, which caused this violent reaction.

As for other speculations, some people have stated that there could also be an issue with the filling point of the Freedom 125. They have also added that CNG pump employees are currently not used to filling CNG in bikes, which can cause them to have incomplete knowledge of properly fitting CNG nozzles into the Freedom 125.

Company’s response

At the moment, Bajaj Auto Limited has not released any official statement regarding this accident. However, most likely, this case will be investigated to find out what caused the CNG nozzle to violently eject and hurt the employee of the CNG pump.

Bajaj Freedom CNG crash tests

As stated, Bajaj Auto Limited launched the Freedom 125, the world’s first CNG motorcycle in India, at a price of Rs 95,000. This unique motorcycle houses the CNG tank just underneath the driver seat. It comes with a 2 kg CNG tank, and there is also a 2-litre petrol tank.

At the time of its launch the company also shared an crash test video of this bike. In this video, the bike was crashed in a front end collision. The result of it was that despite a heavy impact the cylinder did not burst. Also taking the test a step further, the company even crushed the bike with a truck as well. However, it also could not crush the CNG tank.

The Freedom 125 comes equipped with a 125cc single-cylinder engine. It is capable of producing 9.4 bhp of power and 9.7 Nm of torque. Bajaj claims that the Freedom 125 offers a range of 330 km.