Walking on a car’s roof is not a good idea: Demonstrated on a Tata Punch

Usually, the strength and safety levels of a car are decided by the torsional rigidity of its frame. However, a majority of people, usually laymen, think that the more is the thickness of the sheet metal of the body panels of the car is, the stronger they are during an impact. Some people also “test” the safety of a vehicle by applying force on the body panels to check whether it suffers from a dent or not. One such test has been done here by a Tata Punch owner.

In a YouTube video uploaded by “BroVinti Vlogs”, the owner of a Tata Punch tests the maximum weight which its roof can take till it is not deformed. The car owner climbs on the roof panel to showcase the roof’s strength. While doing this test, a couple of dents did occur on the roof panel due to the owner’s weight. However, as soon as he gets down the roof, it retains its original form with no dents.

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Testing strength of a car like this?

At the end of the video, the owner of the Tata Punch claims that the build quality of the car is strong as the deformation occurred to his weight goes off in a quick time. However, here, the car owner has told only half the truth. While this process shows that the sheet metal of the car is strong enough, it is not the only parameter to test its safety levels.

The roof of a car is made of a thick sheet of metal, which is used to cover the solid metal cross members of the car’s whole skeleton. In a collision, it is not the sheet metal but those cross members of the car’s frame, which absorb the impact. These cross members are designed to absorb those impacts depending on the magnitude of the impact – if it is big enough, the roof will deform and lose its original shape.

The method of climbing on the roof of a car to check its strength is an incorrect practice. It is because there is no assurance or warranty given by the carmaker in retaining the original shape of the roof, once the weight is taken off from it. Carrying on such tests can be useless even for cars like Tata Punch, which have scored a 5-star rating in the Global NCAP crash tests. This idea can permanently deform the shape of the roof. It is just that the Tata Punch owner here was lucky enough that such a mishap did not take place with him.

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