Safety has always been a priority in cars and I’d always known that the Cruze was the best at this.
BHPian nikusebu recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Hi Team BHPians.
Well, this is my first post here! Just found my time now to post and share one of the life-endangering experiences that I had just 4 days after my wedding.
Since childhood, I’ve been a fan of the Chevy Cruze aka the diesel rocket and always wanted to own one. And after 12 long years on 1st September 2022, I finally bought a pre-owned 2010 Cruze AT which was in absolute mint condition and looked like a beast. The car had clocked close to 1.1 lakh kms. Now, the whole reason for me to buy this car was also to surprise my wife with our wedding as a gift to her.
11th September 2022 was our wedding and all my family members were really astonished to see a 12-year-old car in such a brilliant condition. Everything went on well, my wife just loved the car and couldn’t stop talking about it. And that’s when we decided to drive to her hometown, Kerala. A day before the journey had a quick check on the car by the mechanic and everything was just perfect.
15th September 2022, we start off at 5 am from Bangalore and we’ve decided to take the Bangalore – Salem – Dindigul – Cumbum – Kumily – Ranni – Pathanamthitta route. Just for the heads up the previous night we happened to sleep very early as we were busy all day and the morning we woke up we never felt sleep deprived. So, as we were driving through the route, we were just enjoying our time talking, and listening to music and of course, I was even able to unleash the beast within the diesel rocket.
Around 9 – 9.30 am, we finished Dindigul and were traveling through Rasipuram. And not to forget, the Tamil Nadu highways had barricades every 5-10 km stretch. Just as we were driving through Rasipuram we were on the right lane behind a minibus and were making our way to overtake from the left lane. As I came to the left lane trying to overtake I happened to see a water tanker ahead of me but at a reasonable distance to overtake the minibus on my right.
But here’s where things changed, as I was overtaking the minibus on the left, there was a barricade on the right lane which was ahead of the minibus. As I almost finished overtaking the minibus, the minibus was nearing the barricade and he happened to jump to the left lane which led him to hit my right quarter panel he kept coming on me, which made me steer to the left and got me out of the road and I was approaching the water tanker that was parked.
Boom!!!!! That’s all I heard! We hit the water tanker on our left, and literally flipped it over, our car went around 360 degrees and ended up on the divider. The airbags were out and my wife was in a really big shock. The villagers and passersby came in and pulled us out of the car because our seat belts were jammed and wouldn’t release.
The minibus just vanished, we were left with the villagers and the cops came in a while. To my amazement, my wife was uninjured without a single scratch though the entire impact was on the left side and I ended up with a few scratches on my right forearm as my window was broken.
I called my parents and informed them about the situation in a calming way, but they were really worried and drove themselves down from Bangalore after a few formalities we returned back to Bangalore leaving the car back at a garage and my dad convinced me to scrap the car rather than fixing it. It was tough but ended up going with my dad’s decision of scrapping it.
Trust me, Cruze is a rock-solid car, a 12-year-old car withstanding and leaving us uninjured on such a huge impact is just amazing. To me, safety has always been a priority in cars and I’d always known that the Cruze was the best at this. The entire family was shocked about this and were praising the Cruze for its ruggedness.
Remember safety should always be a priority. Seat belts, airbags and a strong car must be in our minds when we think of a car.
Adios
A few pics of the incident.
Here’s what BHPian raptor_diwan had to say on the matter:
I’m so relieved to hear that you were able to walk away with just a scratch and that you weren’t hurt more seriously. It’s always scary when things like this happen on the road. It’s also impressive to hear that the Chevy sustained a good impact and that the left-side passenger remained unscathed. You must have been quite shaken up, but thankfully everyone involved was okay in the end.
I understand how frustrating it can be to deal with inconsiderate drivers who refuse to move over, even though they’re driving slowly in the right lane. However, it’s important to be aware of the situation and take precautions when overtaking on the left. One should stay alert and use the horn and pass light to signal the mini-bus driver. This can help prevent accidents that might occur due to small miscalculations or misunderstandings, such as the mini-bus driver assuming you would cross within a certain timeframe or maybe he hasn’t seen you in his mirror where the pass light would have made you aware of the situation.
Here’s what BHPian rajathv8 had to say on the matter:
What is one supposed to do in such a situation?
While I know overtaking from the left should be avoided, on Indian roads, it is wishful thinking to expect people to move over and let you overtake.
While overtaking from the left, the barricade on the right lane will not be visible till one has committed and is already partially executed the overtake. The visibility of the barricade reduces as the distance between the barricade and the vehicle reduces and this also increases the chance of the vehicle on the left swerving to the right.
The situation is not much better when overtaking from the right either since there could be a barricade on the left that would compel the vehicle on the left lane to swerve to the right.
I have been in this situation at times and it can leave the nerves frayed.
Keyword: How a 12-year-old Chevrolet Cruze helped me survive a bad accident