Mercedes-Benz’s ‘Safe Roads’ expo travels to Hyderabad

Mercedes-Benz’s ‘Safe Roads’ exhibition that educates about traffic safety through physical demonstrations, visual aids and research reports, is now open in Hyderabad. A month ago, it was held in Kochi and will travel to Kolkata later this year.   

The roadshow was held at the Forum Sujana Mall on October 1-2 for public participation and will be at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University on October 5-6 to orient students on road safety awareness. 

In Hyderabad (from 2015 up to May 2016), there have been around 3,488 reported accident cases and around 553 fatalities. A major stake of these casualties could be accounted to the careless stance that motorists take on the roads. 

Safe Roads, a multi-city awareness road-show that started in New Delhi in 2015, is hosted by Mercedes-Benz and its group companies Mercedes-Benz India (MBIL), Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India (MBRDI) and Daimler Financial Services India (DFS). The German carmaker is renowned worldwide for developing highly sophisticated safety systems. However, implementation of effective safety systems remains a challenge, as road users often do not comply with traffic rules or do not use the safety systems onboard their vehicles.

The most popular exhibit remains the belt-slide which enables visitors to experience the impact of seatbelts in a simulated crash environment at low speed. The aim is to increase the percentage of seatbelts usage for front row passengers including driver. 

On Indian roads, approximately 140,000 people die every year of road accidents, largely caused due to ignorance of safety norms and rules. ‘Safe Roads’ was hence conceptualised by Mercedes-Benz, in an effort to reduce this startling fatality rate on Indian roads, by creating more awareness on road safety. Over 70 percent of the fatalities can be reduced in the next decade through education and enforcement of safety rules and by creating awareness.

NEW EXHIBITS

The crashed Mercedes-Benz GLC: Visitors can witness an actual crashed vehicle. The passenger compartment of the GLC remained stable in the frontal offset barrier test. The car scored maximum points for its protection of the front passenger dummy, with good protection of all critical body areas. Dummy readings indicated good protection of the knees and femurs of both the driver and passenger. Also, GLC scored maximum points for its protection of the none-and-a-half-year-old child dummy in the frontal offset tests.

The Mercedes-Benz Pre-Safe Seat system: This enables visitors to experience the Pre-Safe features of the seat. Using a network of sensors, the Pre-Safe system can detect certain conditions that suggest an accident is about to occur. The Pre-Safe seat system then pre-tensions the front seatbelts, adjusts the front head restraints and passenger seat to better prepare the occupants for more effective results from the restraint systems.

An absolute highlight is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class S500. The S-class is on display to showcase a glimpse of future of safety and illustrates some trailblazing innovations in the field of active and passive safety.  

There are also airbags on display (driver and passenger airbags, curtain airbags, knee bags). A ‘Body in White’ (BiW) passenger car exhibit highlights some of the core elements of a car structure which have high-tensile strength that can absorb most of the energy during a crash and minimise passenger car intrusions.

Alcohol goggles: Wearing these special types of glasses simulates the common ‘walk-the-line’ activity which causes loss of balance and delayed reaction times. Visitors will feel their susceptibility to impairments and realise the potential severe consequences due to alcohol consumption.  

Commenting on the Safe Roads initiative, Manu Saale, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India, said: “Technology, innovation and research go hand-in-hand in improving vehicle safety. With the Safe Roads initiative, we have brought in a new era of safety awareness keeping the Indian road scenario in focus. Accidents and resulting fatalities can not only be greatly reduced through innovative technologies but also through responsible driver and passenger behavior. Mercedes-Benz has developed state-of-the-art safety features that have proven to be effective. In MBRDI alone, there are over 100 engineers contributing to these technologies in active and passive safety of Mercedes-Benz vehicles with 54 patents filed on automotive safety. While there are some policy and regulatory hurdles that exist in order to apply them in India, we hope that the Safe Roads initiative will enhance the road user’s awareness of such technologies and will help persuading the legislators to ease these norms for the greater good of society.”

Recommended: Complete state-wise list of road accidents in 2015