It is in accidents like these when we really realize the importance of safety features like we can see with the Fiat Punto and Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza here.
Safety in cars in highly underrated in India and when you consider the sheer number of road accidents in the country, it really comes as a surprise how we still have such poor standards of safety. But this story does not highlight the poor safety standards in our cars. Instead, here we have an example of how live saving well built cars can be and the importance of advanced safety features. Pictured below is the aftermath of a Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza ramming into Fiat Punto at speeds of 80 km/hr.
Fiat is extremely well known for its solid build quality and the Punto was no exemption. This Punto was hit head on by the Vitara Brezza on its sides at speeds of 80 km/hr. It’s really remarkable how the Punto just has some body panel damages but no structural damages at all. You can see from the images that the A-pillar and B-pillar are completely intact and even the rear passenger window has not shattered. That really goes a long way to show the solid build quality and structural rigidity of the Punto. And this hatchback is from a time when safety standards were even worse than now.
Now looking at the Vitara Brezza, although it looks very badly damaged, it has actually fared very well in the accident too. The frontal section of a car is designed to be a crumble zone so that in case of an accident, the force of the impact can be distributed more evenly and efficiently. And that’s exactly what has happened here. The front bumper, fenders and even the bonnet have crumbled in the impact but the A-pillars and even the windshield of the Vitara Brezza are perfectly fine.
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The passenger compartment essentially starts from the A-pillar and if your A-pillar does not suffer any structural failure in case of a frontal impact, you will be relatively safe in your car. Also, as you can see from the images, this Vitara Brezza came equipped with dual front airbags and that is what really saved the occupants of the Brezza. Air bags are a life saving feature and no buyer should opt it out to save some money. It will perhaps save your life in such similar circumstances.
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The Vitara Brezza gets a 4-star safety rating by Global NCAP and that speaks for itself in the image above. But you’d be surprised to know that the Punto received a 0 safety rating from Euro NCAP when it was last tested in 2017. You’d be even more surprised to know that the Punto was one of the first cars to receive a 5-star rating from Euro NCAP when it was launched in 2005. Unfortunately, the Punto was an ageing car and crash test standards themselves have come a long way since 2005. Nevertheless, the solid build quality did hold its ground in this accident pictured above. Occupants of both cars were safe after the incident.
