Chip in Cyrus Mistry’s Mercedes Benz car holds many answers, being sent to Germany: Police

Palghar SP Balasaheb Patil said the two airbags in the front inflated fully while a third, located over the rear passenger seat occupied by Cyrus Mistry, appeared to have inflated partially

MUMBAI: A data chip in the Mercedes Benz GLC that met with an accident in Palghar on Sunday killing former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry and an acquaintance will help investigators get a clearer picture of the circumstances leading to the deadly accident.

The crashed Mercedes Benz car in which Cyrus Mistry died in a road accident on Sunday after his car crashed into a road divider on a river bridge in western India, police said. He was 54 (AP)

“The chip, which records all data about the vehicle at all times, will be taken to Germany for analysis. We are expecting a report of the same by the end of the week,” said Palghar district superintendent of police (SP) Balasaheb Patil said.

A team of Mercedes Benz officials visited Palghar on Monday and retrieved the electronic data chip from the mangled vehicle.

Cyrus Mistry, (54), who died in the car crash while returning from the Parsi pilgrim town, Udvada, on September 4, was travelling with well-known gynaecologist Dr Anahita Pandole (55), her husband Darius (60) and Jehangir Pandole (49) from Ahmedabad to Mumbai when the SUV met with an accident on Sunday afternoon on the bridge over Surya river. Jehangir also died in the accident.

Patil said the report that investigators expect from Mercedes Benz on the basis of the chip will be all-encompassing and that the investigating team will go through it and collect relevant information pertaining to the accident.

“We had some questions for the officials, which we wanted to submit to them and seek specific answers. However, they told us that they have default parameters for such analysis which would answer all of our questions and many more than that. It was mutually decided to wait for their report rather than limit the scope of the investigation to just a few questions, as a more detailed report will only benefit our probe,” Patil said.

The parameters include aspects like tyre pressure, speed, any malfunctions, condition of the steering wheel, speed of the vehicle, status of seat belts and functioning of airbags. The last point is of particular interest to the police, as they believe that only three of the seven airbags in the SUV inflated when the accident occurred.

“According to our visual observations, two airbags in the front inflated fully while a third, located over the rear passenger seat occupied by Mistry, inflated partially,” Patil said.

He said the airbags at the back of the front seats, which could have protected both the deceased, did not inflate and the police want to ascertain why this was the case.

To be sure, the car does not have front-facing airbags for rear passengers but has curtain airbags on the sides and the roof.

A six-member team from the Pune office of Mercedes Benz on Monday inspected the mangled vehicle thoroughly and the scene of the accident. The vehicle and the spot have already been examined by a team of experts from the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and a team of forensic experts from the Kalina forensic science laboratory and their reports, too, are awaited.

Police said that they will decide further course of action with regard to the investigation based on the chip analysis report, the reports of the RTO and the forensic experts, and the witness accounts recorded by the investigating team.