Four youngsters die in a high speed Honda City crash

Four out of five youngsters traveling in a Honda City, on South City road, off Ludhiana, Punjab, crashed, and died. A young man, Akshit Grover, said to be riding on the rear seat, is in critical condition, and has been admitted to a private hospital in Ludhiana. Sanyam Arora, 20, Gaurish Verma, 21, Rishika Bassi, 19, and Ishani Jindal, 19 – all students – lost their lives in the crash.

What went wrong?

Eye-witness reports indicate that the car was at very high speed, of up to 150 Kph, before the driver, Gaurish Verma, lost control and hit a kerb stone.

The impact was such that the kerb stone was uprooted, with the car flying in the air for about 8 feet before hitting a Eucalyptus tree head on.

A report on Bhaskar adds that the youngsters were drunk, and that elders at a roadside tea shop had cautioned them against driving fast.

A social media picture of the youngsters, said to be uploaded minutes before the accident.

Perils of high speed driving

A lot can go wrong at high speeds. The safest way to drive is to stick to the speed limit that’s prominently displayed on most highways.

At high speed, the chances of tyres bursting is quite high. In fact, most high speed crashes in modern cars are preceded by one or more tyres bursting. It’s very easy to lose control in a car whose tyres have burst, and the odds are stacked against the driver when the car’s at high speed.

Another big danger of high speed is that even small inputs from the driver is amplified, and such driver inputs can easily unsettle the car, causing loss of control.

Alcohol and high speed is a deadly mix. Alcohol is a depressant. It numbs the senses. Very high speeds begin to appear normal. Steering inputs become large, when they ought to be minute, fatigue sets in, and in general, it just greatly increases the chances of an accident. And at speed, all these come together to form a deadly mix.

Via Bhaskar