Careless Thar Attempting Overtake Hits Mini Truck, Wheel Comes Off! (Video)
Accident counts are on the rise in India. In many cases, the reason for the crash is rash and negligent driving. CCTV footage has now exposed one such case from Kerala. In it, we see a Mahindra Thar attempting an unsafe (read ‘aggressive’) overtaking manoeuver and eventually crashing into an oncoming Ashok Leyland Dost mini truck, and then colliding with a wall nearby. Both the mini-truck and the SUV were severely damaged in the incident. The impact even made the front right wheel of the Thar come off.
It starts by showing a single-lane road with decent traffic. Soon, a Red Mahindra Thar appears on the screen, following a truck. It is trying to overtake a truck. The road here isn’t too wide. Probably a part of its attempt to overtake the truck, the Thar soon starts driving in the middle of the road. Now, we see a fully-loaded Ashok Leyland Mini Dost coming from the opposite direction, towards the Thar. Its driver foresees the danger and swerves to the left to avoid colliding with the SUV.
It is, however, too late, and the two vehicles rub their front right bumpers. The Thar seems to be carrying a good speed at this time. The impact is thus sizeable. It damages the mini truck and pushes it further to the left. The SUV takes even more damage. The front right wheel detaches from it and rolls off.
This makes the Thar lose control completely. It runs into a compound wall and thus comes to a complete stop. The SUV had two occupants at the time of this incident. Both escaped unhurt. The video also shows them getting out of the vehicle and checking damage to the two vehicles.
The SUV in this case is a three-door Thar. It comes with two standard airbags. Interestingly, in this case, none of these were allegedly deployed- as can be seen in the video- despite both front seats being occupied at the time of the event. When the clip surfaced on social media, many people pointed this out in comments.
The video doesn’t clearly show if the two occupants were wearing their seat belts at the time of the incident. If seat belts are not in use, it is unlikely that a vehicle’s airbags would deploy in the event of a crash.
Another interesting bit- soon after the impact, the SUV’s wipers were turned on. The driver’s hand probably turned these on by mistake. The wipers that continued to work even after the SUV crashed into the wall sparked interesting comments and satirical remarks on social media.
In this case, the Thar driver’s bad judgment led to the mishap. He shouldn’t have attempted the manoeuver in the first place. The Thar has a ground clearance of 226mm. This SUV may not top the dynamics or stability charts in its stock form. The Stability tests conducted by Global NCAP revealed how it would behave if sudden steering inputs were applied in high-speed driving scenarios.
Another crash video from Kerala’s Manjeri shows how a different Mahindra Thar (again, finished in Red) collided head-on with a private bus, after being driven recklessly on the wrong lane. Even in this case, the SUV’s tough build quality kept its occupants safe. The front fascia took significant damage and the right-side A-pillar was deformed. The Thar in this case was registered in Thrissur and was going from Valluvambram towards Manjeri.
Incidents of reckless Thar drivers causing havoc on the streets have been on the rise. These have tarnished the reputation of the SUV to some extent, at least among netizens. On most social media platforms, we can see users finding out certain patterns in the crashes caused by Thar drivers and making fun of them. In this case, for example, the comments are hilarious.
‘Somehow the occupants of the Thar look and are attired exactly like my mental approximation of the occupants of any given Thar anywhere.’- commented a Redditer. ‘Looks like THAR owners pawn their brains also while purchasing the vehicle.’ said another. ‘Why always Thar?’ asked a user on Instagram.