The charge sheet against Dr. Anahita Pandole, the driver of the Mercedes Benz luxury SUV that crashed on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, resulting in the tragic deaths of business tycoon Cyrus Mistry and Jehangir Pandole, is revealing new details. Both Dr. Anahita Pandole and her husband, Darius Pandole, were sitting in the front seats of the SUV when it crashed. Police officials insisted in the days after the incident that the only reason Dr. Anahita and Mr. Darius Pandole survived with injuries was because they were both wearing seatbelts. However, police officers have a new perspective on the situation. Superintendent of Palghar Police Balasaheb Patil claims that Dr. Anahita Pandole “was not wearing the seatbelt properly” when the accident occurred.
Doctor Anahita, who was at the wheel of her Mercedes, had not fastened the pelvic belt properly. She had just fastened the back shoulder straps and not the lap belt. The police will submit these results as part of the charge sheet in court. Currently, we are awaiting Dr. Anahita’s release from the hospital so that we may question her.
As with other cars sold in India, the Mercedes Benz GLC luxury SUV includes three point seatbelts for the driver, front passenger, and three back passengers. The seatbelt only requires being buckled in and cannot be altered in any way. The shoulder harness height adjustment on the seatbelt has nothing to do with the lap belt’s height adjustment. As a matter of fact, a three point seatbelt is just one belt attached to three anchors, therefore the lap belt isn’t even necessary (hence the name three point seatbelt).
The charge record states that the offender was not wearing a lap/pelvic belt, however it is not clear what this entails. Put on your seatbelt or don’t put it on; it’s your choice. As an added safety measure, the shoulder harness and lap belt are integral components that cannot be utilised separately.
This is how the Mercedes Benz GLC’s seatbelt mechanism appears.
The illustration makes it abundantly evident that the shoulder harness and lap belt of the 3 point seatbelt are one seamless unit secured by a single buckle. See here for visual evidence that all three rear-seat passengers in this Mercedes-Benz GLC are secured in place by individual three-point seatbelts.
The Mumbai police revealed Wednesday that well-known Mumbai gynaecologist Dr. Anahita Pandole was a repeat traffic offender with at least 11 speeding citations on her record. It’s not unusual for residents of a city like Mumbai to rack up a number of speeding penalties due to the prevalence of speed cameras along the city’s broad roadways and high-speed portions. People using the Bandra-Worli speed connection, where the speed limit is 80 Kph, will find this to be especially true. Many drivers regularly incur fines for exceeding this speed. Right now, it’s not clear where exactly Dr. Pandole was when he recorded the speeding citations.