Team-BHP - TNRTC Busses - A Devil with 4 wheels and headlights on! : Street Exp.

I was on a road trip to pondycherry. I would like to share an experience i had on the road with fellow BHPians.

On road from Chengannur (Kerala) to Pondycherry.
The roads in Tamil Nadu is brilliant, work of art compared to kerala. I had my good times pushing my little santro zing to about 130 kms/hr in L&T By-pass but all that experience went bitter after a small crash in the route from selam.

Scenario
Wide standard 2 lane road. The road was elivated as in on the 2 sides it was uncultivated crop fields. I was in the back of a set of 3 Lorries. They where going in a descent speed of 70-80 kmph. As usual, i overtaked the 3rd and 2nd easily in a single stretch. And saw a gap/distance more than wide to overtake so i pushed it and roared myself leaving behind the lorry a safe distance.

Incident.
One minute after overtaking a bus driver (TNRTC) started to overtake a lorry which was comming in the opposite direction, the bus had its light on (It was about 4 PM). I flashed my headlights, honked and slowed from 90-30 drastically judging that the bus would not pass. The driver dint quit the overtaking attempt. He went for it. I stoped the car over the edge of the road holding my breaks tight. I could hear my rubber burn.

The bus went past me centimeteres in front. 5 of us in the car hold our breaths. The 3 in the back closed their eyes. All of us where silent for about a minute. Yes we saved ourself, i braked at the right time.

Thanks to the breaking efficiency of my santro and to the guy who invented diskbreakes.

The story is not yet over people.

Just a about 1.5 mintues of our recovery we herd a sound. The truck driver behind me hit me! ****!

The smart guy instead of breaking tried to cruse aside me. Bad judgement i tell you. Since my foot was still on breakes the impact was hard.

The damage.
My Right trunk door was heavily damaged. The locking mechanism damaged, the skirts damaged. The bumper got uncliped a few places. My quarter plate got dented due to the pressure. The speaker pad broke. Phew!

The estimate:

16,000 worth damage!!

Lesson learned:

Quote:

There is an oncoming vehicle at a far distance but someone is overtaking it: you see there is a oncoming vehicle but think that you have more than sufficient time/distance to overtake the vehicle ahead of you. But there is another vehicle overtaking this oncoming vehicle which is hidden by the vehicle in front of you and he will be in a hurry to complete the overtaking and sqeeze back on to the lane.

Dont do it !!

Well I have stayed in Tamilnadu for 3 years and I perfectly understand what you are talking about. I was a student at that time and therefore didn't drive, however we used to be extremely cautious at nights walking on the highway on which our college was situated, because TNRTC buses that ply on the highways would easily put Volvos to shame. I haven't seen worse driving, I mean not following the rules is one thing(as in hyderabad) but rash driving at those speeds is extremely dangerous. Another unforgetteble thing about TN is the supr-over loaded trucks, crawling with bulging sides which appear only at night time.

First thing is forget the damage. The fact that nobody is seriously injured is the best outcome of any incident.

Its not your fault here. I would like to tell you one small experience that I had in TN around 10 years ago.
We were traveling in a bus and there was a truck behind. Truck was not fully loaded ( I was surprised to see a truck that was not overloaded ). Suddenly on one really smooth stretch of road, both the driver of our bus and the truck lost their sense. They were racing. And let me tell you that these guys can give Michael Schumacher and other F1 driver ionferiority complex for late braking. The drive was very dangerous and it was extended to ghat sections also. Very scary.

The only thing we can do is to stay aware and nothing else.

Did you take any action against that truck driver.

Yesterday a similar routine was pulled on me. While overtaking the bus, an oncoming driver just ignored my presence. There was not enough space for 3 of us to be in parallel on the road. I had to pull over to the side to accommodate the mad speeding driver and avoid an accident.

I was in the GV and the mad driver was in a Maruti 800!

If I had not budged, there would have been an accident and I would have been blamed despite me being on the correct side and innocent. Why, I have more horse power, that's according to the high court, no less.:Frustrati

It is not vehicle, it is driver that should be blamed.

lucky that no one is hurt , the damages to the vehicle can be rectified , in such scenarios i never ring my car to a full stop instead i slow down to a crawl so that i can move away at short notice if required.

Stop the car and you are a sitting duck to teh vehicle behind you and any vehicle that might be follwing behind the offeding overtaker. I also feel that its is not to yield completely to these morons as if you yeild they would take advantage to the full and push you off the tarmac. But again correct judgement is the key word.

You will find a lot of these guys between the Dharmapuri, Salem , coimbatores streches , they tone down a lot once inside kerala / karnataka territory for good reason.But the locat RTC guy take over from there ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by hellstar (Post 1116086)

in such scenarios i never ring my car to a full stop instead i slow down to a crawl so that i can move away at short notice if required.

I had no option other than to stop my car. We where all shivering after the incident. It took a second for me to get my breath right. The buss missed me by just an inch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaggoswami (Post 1115905)

Did you take any action against that truck driver.

I couldn't they said the truck belongs to some rich industrialist in that area, even threatened us to come to their lorry depo near by to settle the issue, so that they have more support!

Quote:

Originally Posted by petrohead (Post 1116144)

I couldn't they said the truck belongs to some rich industrialist in that area, even threatened us to come to their lorry depo near by to settle the issue, so that they have more support!

OK, for a moment or two I forgot its India, so those who are rich and influential can get away with anything. Mera Bharat Mahan.
I would have beaten that guy very badly on the spot and fled away then reported the incidence to police.
I think one should not grant mercy to these people.

@Samurai :
I agree with you that its the driver, but sometimes ( I am not sure about this incidence ) what happens is the trucks are rarely maintained, and chances of mechanical error are present. Brakes not responding is very common. But the driver cannot get away with this.

I am from TN and I have faced the same situation myself.Me and my friends were travelling from Pondicherry to Chidambaram and the roads are just average 2-laned highways. we were travelling on our lane and there was a lorry on the opposite lane cruising around 60-70 KMPH. Suddenly a TNSRTC bus was trying to overtake the lorry and we are hardly a few metres away from the lorry and my friend who was driving the car was very sensible and braked hard and took the car to the edge of the roads.The bus driver had no sense and completed the overtaking and he just missed our car by a few centimetres. We all panicked and froze.We stopped the car for some time till we were normal and proceeded with our journey.

I am not sure what these drivers think. Their driving skills are turning ruthless day-by-day.:Frustrati

I live in Tamil Nadu for the last two years. These TN buses are fatter and wider (atleast one feet wider than the ones seen in Kerala) than the normal ones. It takes longer to overtake and from the look of it, they float on the road like boats. I have been in situations like these before. The best defense is to attack. I do squeeze the lane in and would not show any intention of slowing down for the bus to pass. It works in most cases, they withdraw from the overtaking attempt. But make sure you see a provision for a last minute manoevre in case the bus driver goes ahead with his plan. At any cost save your life and vehicle.