Indian cars crashed during safety tests

Indian car Tata Nano during an independent crash test in India.

FIVE top selling cars in India including Daddy Nano — billed as the world's cheapest car — failed its first independent crash tests, sparking new safety concerns in a country with the highest road death rate in the world.

Nano, Figo Ford, Hyundai i10, Volkswagen Polo and Maruti Suzuki scored zero out of five in a test conducted by the New Car Assessment Program. The tests, which simulated a frontal collision at a speed of 64 km / h, showed that the drivers of each of the cars would receive life-threatening injuries.

The report says the Nano, which starts at Rs 145,000 ($2650), has proven to be particularly unsafe. “It is disturbing to see levels of safety that are 20 years behind the five-star standards that are now prevalent in Europe and North America,” said Max Mosley, head of NCAP Global.

The five models account for 20 percent of the more than 2.7 million new cars sold each year in India, where 133,938 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2011, about 10 percent of the world's total. The number of deaths has increased from 118,000 to 2008.

Ford and VW equip their new vehicles with airbags and other safety equipment in Europe, the US and other markets where they are required to do so, but not in India where they are not legally required and where customer demand prices are kept to a minimum. level. maybe.

“Indian cars are not safe and they are often poorly maintained,” said Harman Singh Sadhu, president of the Chandigarh road safety campaign group Arrive Safely. Chaotic and poorly designed roads, poor driver training and the growing problem of drunk driving are to blame for the rising death toll. Only 27% of Indian drivers wear seat belts.