The Expressway to Hell

[tsk1979]

Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.
Every petrolhead(even dieselheads) knows about this 27kms of 6 laned highway.
Imagine a well lit highway(when there is no powecut), 6 lanes.
Now imagine that you see 10 vehicles on that entire stretch 3 of them patrol vans, rest all empty.
Its like an invitation to speed, an invitation which has claimed so many lives.
If you compare traffic density to number of accidents, this may be the most dangerous stretch of Tarmac in India.
Overspeeding, Racing, Fog, parked trucks, the reasons may be many, but that does not change the statistics.
It is an expressway to hell, and on our last drive there, I saw something that refuses to go out of my mind.

I have seen a lot of accidents. Been in a couple too, thankfully nothing major. when you do lots of highway driving you see lots of accidents, and sometimes odds catch up with you.
I have seen overturned trucks, smashed up cars, crushed bikes on my highway trips.
But I had never seen something like this.
Empty road, not a vehicle in sight, streetlights blazing in full glory, torrential rain and lightning, and a honda NHC(was it a corolla? or a skoda..? to smashed up to notice, but think it was an NHC) lying on its side, with parking lights glowing. The car must have rolled multiple times as the entire body shell looked crushed, and even in the rain the metal skid on the road was visible.
The most disturbing part was the silence all around, no vehicle in sight and the glowing parking lights, and that strange smell of burnt oil, burning rubber and maybe something else.
I slowed down as I passed the wreck, and suddenly realization dawned that there may be somebody inside the car. I backed up, and we were too stunned on what to do.
Thankfully heard sirens, as the expressway patrol came in along with ambulances, looks like there was somebody in that car, but we didn't have the stomach to watch, or even take a picture.

Drive safe guys, esp on this expressway. If you want to speed and push your car to the limits, do it, but not on a rainy night, and certainly not when you are drunk. We get lots of bright sunny days in Noida, and you can always satisfy your urge then. No need to tempt fate on foggy stormy nights.
This road claims multiple victims every month, and tells a lot about a stretch of road which hardly sees any vehicles.

[mobike008]

Very well written caution note. It just reinforced my recent thoughts of curbing the urge to pedal the metal.

Nothing more important than life, speed thrills can be had provided your "Alive"

[ntomer]

Righto, Tanveer. Today morning only I was coming from that express-way (from my home town Bulandshahar to Delhi), and made a conscious effort not to cross 100 kmph. The road is too inviting, but with all those dumpers parked on the road, villagers with their cattle crossing the road at will, anything above 100 kmph isn't safe.

\N

[hellspawn]

the mother of all accidents happened on the 27th jan 2007 on the greater noida expressway.the accident involved 12 vehicles.thats right,its not a typo....12 vehicles.27th was a foggy night and and a truck was parked in the extreme left lane with no lights,blinkers to warn other drivers on the road.
now as most of you know,when visibility is very low,people prefer to drive their cars one behind the other.so now there was a trail of 11 cars moving in the same lane and that too in the extreme left lane as they had kept the guard rail as the reference line.the 3 vehicles in the front were trucks and were followed by 8 other cars all doing 60km/h.and that was a recipe for disaster.the lead truck collided with the parked truck and i lead to series of collisions behind it as the rest of the 10 vehicles crashed into each other.
dont know about the status of the people involved in the accident.got to know about this incident from the cops in greater noida as my college is there.

also lost an acquaintance in the same week.they were in a tata indica and hit a parked truck.the drivers side hit the truck first and at that speed it split the car into two.there were 4 people on board out of which 3 died on the spot.

[aZa]

yep helli it was on the day of our delhi meet!!! 2 days of rain and i saw huge potholes on the expressway today.

[Samurai]

Well, I would say the same thing about Bangalore Mysore 4-lane highway. It has more blind curves than a ghat section.

[vid6639]

Samurai very true and that too not slow blind curves these are all high speed corners.

Even the Bangalore chennai 4 lane is becoming bad. No rules and regulations. you see bullock carts and bicycles coming on opp side on the right lane.

One very irritating thing is lane discipline faster car on the right. Never works on these roads and you are forced to pass form left.

[Deeps]

I remember that night Tsk. Used the toll bridge heading towards noida at around 6. as you enter it from the delhi side, there's a huge puddle on the right most lane. In my rush to be on time to noida, i used that lane to overtake a slower fiesta with the huge puddle well in mind. The way the car aquaplaned on the amount of water scared the **** out of me even though i was expecting it. Dont think i have ever held the steering wheel so tight before.

Then was heading back towards delhi on the NH-24 at around 11.30 in the night. This was when the thunder storm was in full force. Visibility was very low. Add to this, autorickshaws breaking down on all lanes of the road without any lights to make them visible. Did drive very cautiously (obviously had to) and never exceeded 40 in 3rd gear.

Guys, please do not ever attempt to push your luck. You never know when it may run out.

[Mpower]

What suggestions can we make to reduce speed and bring discipline. Obviously posting a speed limit is not going to work because nobody bothers to follow them.

[hellspawn]

Originally Posted by Mpower

What suggestions can we make to reduce speed and bring discipline. Obviously posting a speed limit is not going to work because nobody bothers to follow them.

well most of the accidents involve trucks.either they are parked on the side without any hazard lights or are being driven on the wrong side.and add to the fact that during winters,visibility goes for a toss...it becomes even more risky.so something has to be done about the trucks.
speed limit:well there are vans running on the expressway(greater noida expressway patrol).when these were launched,their job was to fine any truck /car parked on the side and follow any speeding vehicle or radio the cars registration to the next van ahead of it.these would then stop the speeding car.

sad to say this happened only for exactly a week.now the vans are parked nea the bus stops on the expressway with their drivers sleeping inside them.

[Zappo]

This stretch may be particularly notorious but many other expressways in this country are just as bad. There is a takeaway. Drive cautiously on the highways, period.

Typically, highways are desolate when compared to the city grind most of us face everyday. This brings out the hidden racers in most of us. The problem is because of this when something unexpected leaps out of nowhere there is that much lesser time to react. A surefire recipe for disaster.

Follow a general thumb rule. Try to avoid driving after sundown. In the day time drive at speeds 1/10th the visible distance + 10kmph at max. By this formula you should be able to have a good visibility upto 400 meters at least for a speed of 50kmph, and so on.

[rahul_intlad]

What do you guys suggest ,regarding the lane in which one should drive on 4 laned highways in India,should we stick on the left lane or the right.[Not talking from the rule point of basis since that says stick to the left lane]

[Zappo]

I prefer sticking to the rightmost lane. This is for the simple reasons that the chances of a vehicle parked on that lane or something jumping in front out of nowhere is the least there. Also, the way road discipline in india is people overtake you from every side (as opposed to the right). This causes enormous problems as at times there are two vehicles overtaking from both the sides. If you are on the rightmost lane you have to just keep a watch at your left side (considering that no one will try to overtake you riding the divider).

[tsk1979]

Rightmost lane is best unless somebody behind you wants way.
As for this expressway with 6 lanes I stick to the middle lane, moving to right while overtaking.
While the accident before this was due to illegally parked truck, the one I was on saturday night had no other vehicle involved.
That was the freaky part. Smashed up car in torrential rain lying on the side with lights on, and probably people inside. Before this accident spot there was lot of water in the right lane, I could feel aquaplaning even at 70kmph, guess this guy must be flooring it, lost control, hit the guardrail and flipped.

[tifosikrishna]

Originally Posted by Mpower

What suggestions can we make to reduce speed and bring discipline. Obviously posting a speed limit is not going to work because nobody bothers to follow them.

Problem should be tackled from both the ends...

On one side, we need to have speed guns at irregular intervals (with some dummy ones too) coupled with other law enforcement measures to curb speeding.

On the other side, we need awareness campaign on a national level about wearing seat belts, following lane discipline et al. Perhaps, automobiles companies can float a special purpose vehicle (SPV) kind of a thing where they can pool in their funds and use it for this purpose.

Regards
Tifosi.