‘Hit to petrol tank may have led to fire’

“Nobody gets his car crushed between a tree and a wall in those countries. The international crash test conditions are completely different from those prevailing in India and we cannot assess a car’s safety in Indian driving conditions based on their performance at international crash tests,” Anand told DTNext.

He said the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) should develop crash test modules suitable for Indian conditions. “In Australia, there had been no accidents involving trucks for the past five years. But during the same period, TN witnessed the most number of fatal accidents in the country,” he pointed out, suggesting that crash test modules in other countries are developed in line with local conditions. 

Talking about the crash that claimed racer Ashwin Sundar and his wife, Anand said the petrol tank explosion could have been the trigger. “I am sure that something had hit the tank, which probably should have been full capacity. No electric short circuit can cause such a fire,” Anand added. 

He further said that in such cars, the petrol tank is kept insulated at the bottom portion of the chassis and in other countries fuel tank rarely get hit during accidents. “The theory about the car hitting a speed breaker at high speed is surely possible as this impact could have resulted in the explosion of the petrol tank which is placed under the body,” he added.