Accidents are quite common on Indian highways. Coming out safely from a high-speed accident is not so common though. Here is a high-speed crash between a Skoda Slavia and a truck on the road. The impact of the collision shows the body of the Slavia. However, according to the information, all the passengers travelling in the sedan were safe and escaped with minor injuries.
The accident happened between Sambalpur and Bargarh in Odisha. According to the information, the car was doing around 130 km/h when a truck suddenly slowed down due to mechanical failure. The Skoda Slavia driver could not avoid crashing into the truck.
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The sedan took the impact from the crash on its bonnet and the right-hand side A-Pillar. Since trucks have high ground clearance, cars with low heights like sedans often tend to slide under and take impact on the A-Pillars. The Skoda Slavia took the impact on the pillar too. However, due to solid build quality, the impact did not reach the occupants sitting in the cabin. According to the report, all the passengers came out safely with only a few minor injuries.
Due to the high ground clearance of the trucks, they have a wide exposed area. It is mandatory for them to install underrun bars in numerous countries around the world to save cars from such accidents.
These bars are mandatory in many countries but there is no such rule in India. Underrun bars ensure that the bumper of the car makes first contact with the truck in an accident. This triggers the airbags and also allows the car to absorb the impact by bringing the crumple zones into play. There is no such rule for Indian trucks.
Skoda Slavia is yet to be tested
Designed and engineered with the MQB A0-IN platform as the base, the new Skoda Slavia came in as a replacement for the popular Rapid. While Global NCAP is yet to test the Indian-spec Skoda Slavia, the crash test agency has tested the new Skoda Kushaq, which is also based on the same platform.
The new Skoda Kushaq and Volkswagen Taigun, which share the platforms have scored a perfect five-star rating according to the new test protocols, which have become much more stringent than before. While the Slavia is yet to be tested, such crashes indicate that the car might score high whenever it is tested by the crash test agency.
Since its arrival, the Slavia has shown its mettle as yet another popular selling model from Skoda. Launched as a petrol-only sedan, the new Skoda Slavia comes with two petrol engine options – a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged 115 PS engine and a 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine.
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