Cattle the real menace in Indian highways…
Seems like a joke for someone who never driven in highways…but it’s one of the most serious nightmares for a high way commuter. You may be peacefully driving your car at a high speed…suddenly a nonsense creature pops out from the adjacent bush in the median or from sideways (Thanks for greening up the highways) which can ruin your whole life.
The critical problem is that in most of the cases, the driver can do little at highway speeds (i.e. more than 80kmph). Irrespective of whether you drive an M800 or an Outlander (other than driving a truck), even a minor touch may cause serious fatalities and may cause death to the travelers.
If we analyze these freak accidents, we can understand that the accidents may be classified to two.
- Direct Impact
- Secondary Impact
Direct Impact
Direct impact is an accident caused by hitting an animal and the primary cause of fatalities is caused by the animal. While hitting an animal nobody can predict, how things will go, but generally the outcome may be one of the following three scenarios.
Scenario 1: Car hits, but the animal is thrown away to the side:
I say this is the best case, no doubt the vehicle will get damaged, but most probably the passengers get saved (unless there is a secondary impact). This usually happens when the vehicle hits the animal from one of the sides and the force is sufficient to throw it out of the vehicle trajectory / path.
Scenario 2: Car hits, animal gets raised in air and fall back to the bonnet / windshield.
This is a much more critical and a deadly scenario. While hitting at this speed there is a possibility that the animal may get raised in air and fall back to the bonnet or the windshield of the vehicle. The front of the vehicle will get totally damaged, but sometimes the front passenger(s) may get jammed between the car and this one ton creature. There are many cases where the horns can penetrate through the windshield to the cabin and caused injuries.
Scenario 3: Car hits and runs over the animal and get overturn.
Finally the most catastrophic one is car may get overturned. While hitting the cattle, if the animal falls in front of the car, but car may still be at a forward momentum (even if the brakes are applied) at this short distance. Thereby the car will hit it again and may run over the animal (depends on the size of the animal). If the car runs over this animal there is a possibility to get it overturn.
Secondary Impact:
Secondary impact is an accident caused by an animal, not directly, but by an event or a series of events followed the initial incident. While driving, it is a reflex action for any driver to avoid an accident, either by quickly turning it to a side or by applying brakes. These quick actions can cause more serious accidents than the direct impact accidents. Here also we can depict two scenarios.
Scenario 1: Accidents by quick turning
All of us know, in highway speed, as slight change in drive angle can cause serious accidents. It may be a static object (like fencing, posts or even parked vehicle) or a dynamic object (other vehicles in next track). In either case you can expect a similar level of catastrophe.
Scenario 2: Accidents by quick braking
No doubt, the best way to avoid an accident is breaking, but this sudden action may cause bigger accidents in highway speeds. The main causes of accidents are:
- Hitting from behind by a following speeding vehicle
- Skidding of the vehicle due to sudden deceleration.
My experience:
In these years I had seen at least ten accidents by animals in our highways. But one particular incident was recently was a real eye opener and that’s why I am adding this thread.
Recently I was traveling in NH45 near Thindivanam along with my family. Car is around 90kmph and going through the fast track. That area, the high way got good greenery at the median and suddenly a cow jumped from the bushes, which is hardly 10-15 meters in my front. Somehow I turned the car to left and by God’s grace I don’t even touched the creature. I feel it’s an amazing and it’s a miraculous escape.
On the same day, I saw a similar incident at Kallakkuchi in Ulundurpet highway where an Indica hit a cow. The carcass is lying in the road, also the car (which was parked within 150m after the spot), the front of the car is totally damaged and local folks were surrounding the vehicle.
But one sad thing in India I heard of is, people near highways do this purposefully to make money. They take some old cows / bull to the highway bushes and drive them to the speeding vehicles. I don’t know it’s reality. Readers please comment.
This is not an isolated issue for our country, many western countries have the same problems – but one major difference, and here most of the accidents are caused by domestic animals (Cow, ox, dog etc), but in other countries by wild animals (deer, moose etc).
What we can do?
Even though we got very mature cars by international giants, our highways are not enough to handle these situations. Government and NHAI is not much doing for these types of issues. One good move is from Goa government, banned the stray animals in highways.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...als-stray-cows
Even though fresh laws may be made or NHAI decided the whole highways are covered by fences, it may take years to get it implemented, but what we can do for a safe commutation?
- Move from the Cow's rear: If approaching a cow perpendicular to you, always drive past its rear. In nearly all situations, the cow will usually move forward (and not backward).
- Drive at a moderate speed: As NHAI says – “Speed is a thriller, but killer”. Our highways are only equipped for 80-100kmph but we all proudly say I drive my new car at 160kmph. What I suggest is drive at a moderate highway speed where you can perfectly control the vehicle.
- Never do a Race: I have seen many people do racing or indirectly invite for a racing, seems like there is a gold cup at the end of the way. But mostly it’s pure immaturity, especially if I drive a smaller vehicle (like alto, nano or 800) and overtake a bigger / powerful car – the attitude is that “how can a nano or alto can overtake my 7L car?” This may cause loss of focus in driving., especially for these situations.
- Equip the vehicle with best possible safety equipment – Even though these may not assure a 100% safety, ABS, Airbags bigger crumple zones may help a lot…at least to save the life
A request to all animal lovers – It’s a real cruelty to these poor creatures – killing them in this horrible way. The owners of these creatures should have some sense so that they will be kept away from speeding vehicles. Start a campaign against this – at least through internet.
Final word – Every time I come back from a highway commuting I believe that its is not my credit or the strengths of my vehicle which bought me back – "only God’s protection".