\nA legal officer of the Indian Army, Major Rahul Soni, served the notice to the company after his Swift Dzire ZDi met with an accident Dec 8 last year. The car is equipped with two airbags that are supposed to prevent injuries during an accident. The special feature makes the model `1.5 lakh costlier.
\nThe airbags were supposed to open at the time of a collision but Soni complained none of the two airbags in his car opened during an accident and the two people inside it were seriously injured.
\nSoni\u2019s younger brother, his friend and the driver were inside the car when an accident took place on National Highway 8, some 10 km away from Himmatnagar towards Rajasthan.
\nA roadways bus entered the highway from the side road and then suddenly stopped in the middle of the road. The driver of the car, who was blowing the horn to alert the bus applied brakes but failed to prevent the car from banging into the bus.
\nThe collision was very strong and the airbags failed to open, resulting in serious injuries to the driver and Surana, the friend of Soni\u2019s brother, who was sitting next to the driver\u2019s seat.
\nThe company said these conditions were clearly mentioned in the owners manual and service booklet supplied to the customer at the time of delivery of the new vehicle. \u201cThese have been clarified in the company\u2019s response dated 5th April to customer.\u201d
\nAccording to Soni, it was irresponsible engineering by Maruti Suzuki.
\nHe added that after the first legal notice was served Dec 10, 2010, the company replied that nothing could be done and if the air bags failed to open the company could not be held responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"