Former Police Commissioner To Anand Mahindra: Please Investigate Bolero Safety

The recent death of a 26-year-old IPS Officer, Harsh Bardhan, has shocked the country. His death was caused by a tyre blowout of a Mahindra Bolero used by the police department, and the vehicle’s subsequent crash into a tree. Following this incident, a number of people have raised concerns about road safety and the cars used by police officials. One of them is the former Commissioner of Police, Bangalore, Mr. Bhaskar Rao, who recently shared a tweet requesting Anand Mahindra to investigate this matter. Mr. Rao is now a politician with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Police movements on road are always stressful . The tragic death of a young IPS Officer who was all set to start his career is last straw on camel’s back. Indian Police heavily relies on Mahindra Jeeps. Over the years, the Bolero has improved but terribly falls short of what an… pic.twitter.com/Y9Yo5OqXuL

— Bhaskar Rao (@Nimmabhaskar22) December 2, 2024

Rao, a former IPS and Commissioner of Police, Bangalore, has shared a post on X. In this post, Rao has highlighted that the police authorities, who rely heavily on older-generation vehicles like the Mahindra Bolero, lack safety features. He stated that these vehicles are more often used by junior officials and are not equipped with any safety features.

He added that the Mahindra vehicles currently in the police force are not offered with airbags, seat belt reminders, or any collision alert systems. He noted that they have poor legroom and do not even have basic amenities like air conditioning systems. Rao also stated that these vehicles have metal protrusions, which add a high risk of secondary injuries.

Rao requests Anand Mahindra to review safety levels of the Bolero

With his post, Rao has requested Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra to personally have the Karnataka Bolero accident investigated. He suggested that a team from the OEM should be given the responsibility to find out why this tragic accident took place, claiming the life of a young IPS officer.

The former Police Commissioner has also tagged the Home Ministry of India and the state of Karnataka in his post. He has requested them to review the status of police vehicles and safety standards to prevent such accidents in the future.

What actually happened?

We lost our 2023 batch IPS Probationer Harsha Vardhan to a road accident this evening near Hassan. After finishing training at KPA he was proceeding to Hassan for District training

Young & precious life lost

“#Road safety needs due attention at all levels”

Deeply saddened🙏 pic.twitter.com/EaNyY1JySK

— alok kumar (@alokkumar6994) December 1, 2024

For those who may not be aware, recently, a 26-year-old IPS Officer, Harsh Bardhan, who belonged to the 2023 batch of the Karnataka Cadre, was en route to join his first posting. He was appointed as the Assistant Superintendent of Police.

Unfortunately, while traveling to Hassan district in Karnataka, the tyre of his official vehicle—a Mahindra Bolero—burst while driving. Due to this, the driver of the vehicle lost control, and it went off the road, colliding with a tree and a house. As the impact was very strong, Harsh Bardhan suffered serious head injuries.

Despite being rushed to the hospital, the young IPS officer could not survive and was declared dead. The pictures of the Mahindra Bolero at the accident site were shared online. These images showed the vehicle was completely destroyed. The front end, roof, and other structural components of the vehicle were damaged.

Mahindra Bolero and its safety

As we all are aware, the Mahindra Bolero is used by a number of police departments in different states across India. The primary reason behind its use is that it is one of the most affordable, yet rugged and practical, vehicles, which has proved its reliability over the years. Unfortunately, the only thing it lacks is modern day safety.

The Mahindra Bolero was designed by the brand in the late 1990s and was introduced in India in 2001. At that time, the brand was struggling, and the Bolero managed to bring the company back from the brink. This SUV even helped Mahindra fund the development of their next most successful product, the Scorpio.

While creating a vehicle that offered ruggedness, reliability, and affordability for the masses, crash safety wasn’t the top priority. The blame cannot be pinned on Mahindra alone, as safety standards like NCAP crash tests and others were not prevalent at the time.

For this reason, many automakers, including Mahindra, did not add a ton of safety features to keep the price in check. The Mahindra Bolero is built on a ladder-on-frame chassis, which provides high durability. However, it lacks crumple zones, and its rigid frame also increases the risk of severe injuries.

The older Mahindra Boleros also did not come with airbags, seat belt reminders, or pre-tensioners. They also lacked modern-day safety features like ABS, EBD, traction control, stability control, and many others, which are now becoming part of standard offerings.

Older Mahindra Boleros have never even been crash-tested, and even the Bolero Neo, which has replaced the older-generation model, has managed to score a poor 1-star safety rating in the Global NCAP tests.

Now, it has to be noted that although Mahindra was not known for building 5 star crash safety rated cars in the 1990s and early 2000s, the company has improved significantly since then. It has now become a brand that creates some of the safest vehicles in the country. Today, its products like the Scorpio-N, Thar ROXX and XUV700 have scored perfect five-star safety ratings in GNCAP tests.

This is due to the fact that the company is now building these vehicles to global standards, for sale both in India and across export markets. All of this has been mentioned because blaming Mahindra alone for the death of the young IPS Officer would be wrong. The fault in the above incident has to be credited to the police department as well.

Police departments should change old cars

Presently, every state’s police department uses these old and obsolete vehicles in their fleet. And when an incident like the above takes place, the blame is pinned on the manufacturer. However, it has to be noted that the government and police departments only provide safer vehicles to the officials in higher positions.

So, if it comes to safety concerns raised by the former Commissioner of Police, the police department will themselves need to update the fleets to the latest and safer offerings from automakers.

Tyre burst was the primary reason

Also, it has to be noted that even though the vehicle involved in the above incident lacked safety features, the main reason behind this accident was the tyre burst at high speed. Generally, tyres burst mainly due to under-inflation.

Additionally, if old, worn-out tyres are used at high speeds, the risk of tyres bursting increases. So in order to avoid such incidents from taking place, we suggest every car owner to take proper care of their vehicles’ tyres and maintain them properly.