Another Volvo B7R accident on the Pune-Mumbai expressway

[Ram]

This morning, Tue. 14th Feb 2006, I rode a Metro-Link Volvo B7R, from Mumbai to Pune.
After leaving the rest area at Khalapur-Sajgaon and before we started to ascend the ghats around 08:20 am, we came upon the scene of an accident.

On the Pune-to-Mumbai side, a Tata 407 lay on its right side.
A huge number of tomatoes (from cargo it had carried) littered the expressway around it.

The galvanized steel divider separating the Mumbai-bound and Pune-bound traffic was smashed. The divider on the offside (Northside) of our Pune-bound lanes was smashed as well. At this point the expressway embankment is about 30 feet above the level of the fields. On the embankment, at right angles to the direction of traffic was a silver-grey Konduskar Volvo B7R.

We stopped and picked up four passengers with ripped, bloodstained clothing.

They told us that they had been on the silver-grey Konduskar Volvo B7R, bound for Mumbai from Kolhapur. In the early hours of the morning, their bus doing over 100 km/hr hit a Tata 407 ahead of them. The Tata 407 yawed 360-degrees 2 or 3 times and fell over on its side.

The Volvo driver lost control of the bus, smashed through the center divider, crossed three lanes of oncoming Pune bound traffic, went off the soft shoulder onto the sloping embankment and came to a rest at 90-degrees to the flow of traffic.

The 407 driver is believed to be seriously injured and in hospital. Bus passengers sustained injuries, smashing the bus windows to escape out of the bus.

Does anybody have pictures or know anymore about this?

[tsk1979]

Holy cow, this is scary. I hope not too many people got hurt.
In wrong hands these buses can be killers. I remeber being overtaken by a Volvo B7R bus while driving drom Hyderabad to Bangalore at night.
I was doing 100kmph so the volvo guy must be at 110+. And he did not wait for oncoming traffic, most were cars who went on to the shoulder to avoid getting crushed. I thought it would be a good Idea to use the volvo as pilot but his rash driving made it impossible!

[2L8uLoose]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Holy cow, this is scary. I hope not too many people got hurt.
In wrong hands these buses can be killers. I remeber being overtaken by a Volvo B7R bus while driving drom Hyderabad to Bangalore at night.

I was doing 100kmph so the volvo guy must be at 110+. And he did not wait for oncoming traffic, most were cars who went on to the shoulder to avoid getting crushed. I thought it would be a good Idea to use the volvo as pilot but his rash driving made it impossible!

Not a very smart move on your part is it tsk??

[tsk1979]

Well I did not use it as pilot and stuck to my 90-100kmph range. this guy was out of sight within minutes! So I acted smart then.
since I have been driving non stop from nagpur since 10am in the morning(It was 11pm then), I was very very careful as I was fatigued. Stopped at the excellent IOC guesthouse around 200km for hyderabad

[speedsatya]

have seen a head on collision between a B7r and a a 407 LCV on the ankola road where the lcv landed a few metres away from the bus ...both occupants in the lcv were killed :(

BTW the B7r has a true top speed of 104kph ...

[Mpower]

I think its high time we started fitting speed limiters on the Volvo buses. They really dont need to be going more than 80kph.

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by Mpower

I think its high time we started fitting speed limiters on the Volvo buses. They really dont need to be going more than 80kph.

I think the volvo buses do have speedlimiter at 110 km/hr (speedo).. Not too sure though .. Because a driver who drives the chennai-bangalore bus told me this ..

[normally_crazy]

saw 2 volvo's in a minor accident today ...the MSRTC volvo dint brake in time and rammed into a pvt volvo from behind...nothing much except the glass of the MSRTC bus was shattered...these guys sure drive like maniacs maan !

[turbofreak]

Are the volvo drivers slowly and steadily turning into those pea brained sumo cabbie drivers...

[Ram]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

saw 2 volvo's in a minor accident today ...the MSRTC volvo dint brake in time and rammed into a pvt volvo from behind...nothing much except the glass of the MSRTC bus was shattered...these guys sure drive like maniacs maan !

Where and when did this happen?

[Aditya]

I wonder if Mumbai guys remember the Volvo accident that took place on NH17 sometime in May or June 2005. A Mumbai bound Neeta Volvo had head-on collision with a State Transport bus near Sangameshwar. This happened at something like 2am. The Volvo passengers said that the driver was doing some crazy speed. The impact was so bad that the entire right side of the ST bus was torn up. The bus then went off the road and down a valley. Many of the ST bus passengers died, and many were seriously injured.

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by ram

Where and when did this happen?

in bombay , chembur

wonder if the engine at the rear aids to the accidents. the drivers can hardly hear the engine - so they mite not get an idea of what speeds they do actually ..the seedo is there but how many actually look the speedo ?

i mite be wrong but...what do u guys say ?

[sridhar24]

What's up with all these Volvo drivers, seems like they are getting reckless. They do not deserve such good buses to drive.

[speedsatya]

KSRTC volvo buses do have a speed limiter ...but whats the use of having buses with speed limiters when the main selling point of the B7r is faster travel along with comfort ... ...other ALL and Tata buses also have accidents ..but why isnt anyone saying anything about them ....

[Zappo]

Some Volvos even have all those tell-tale lights on the panel, a-la aircrafts. Apparently a yellow that comes on when the bus starts cruising at 80 and then a red one that keeps flashing once it crosses 90 which becomes constantly on with a high intensity at 100 and above.