[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

The Viji, Padikkal, Parveen contest shows just how little safety margins these Volvo night services keep. They are driving at 100+ km/hr speeds in a heavy rear-engined bus on 2 lane unlit roads with 50 km/hr trucks to overtake!

Even the slightest miscalculation will result in an accident with fatal consequences. I have made it a practice to immediately give way to these morons when they come up in my rear view mirror.

You are right!. A couple of years back when the old Mumbai-Nasik highway was a 2 lane undivided road (unlike the toll expressway today), I witnessed a MSRTC bus hit badly when he attempted to overtake a 40feet container truck. The bus couldn't overtake in time and hit an oncoming truck and was sandwiched between the oncoming truck and the overtaken container. The body was ripped apart like a tin can and couple of bodies had fallen out onto the roads.

[AlphaKilo]

The road shown in the video is a four laned NH-45/47 highway(I don't know the number). I believe its a urgent need of the hour for us to relearn our driving skills. For govt. should introduce better licencing regulations, impart training and etiquettes for driving on city, state, national and expressways and mandate them to be part of licence tests. Unless this is done, we would continue to see every other driver(baring few) use the roads to their wish and will and make their own rules.

[ant_vas]

I was at the receiving end of the driving skills of these private bus drivers last week. i was on the way to my native with my dad and granny on 16th. was some 70KM from hospet on NH13 (which is a single road for traffic in either directions).

I was over taking a truck when i see a private bus approaching in the opposite direction. i flashed my cars headlights to indicate to him that i am overtaking and will pass. but the dude at the steering of that bus didn't slow down. he kept coming straight at the same speed (guess he was doing around 60-70).

As i had already crossed half the truck i was overtaking, i didn't have an option of breaking or turning left. With the bus approaching fast to avoid colliding with it, i turned the car to right as there was some empty space assuming that the car would stop there.

To my dismay the car skidded and fell in to a 4 ft deep ditch. the driver side door took a nasty beating, window glass shattered. I was able to crawl out from the broken window to find that the bus is no where to be seen. Pulled out dad and granny. As all of us were wearing seat belts we got out of this incident without a scratch. The near by villagers were kind enough to lift the car and put it back on the road. with just the damage to the body of the car i was able to continue my journey.

From then on i decided never to do overtaking on single lane highways especially even if the private bus in the opposite direction is a KM away!

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by ant_vas

I was at the receiving end of the driving skills of these private bus drivers last week. i was on the way to my native with my dad and granny on 16th. was some 70KM from hospet on NH13 (which is a single road for traffic in either directions).

Good to hear that you and your family are safe. Thanks to seat belts. I guess even if you had braked real hard and tried to back off, I don't think the bus would have cared enough to brake or even slow down to let you merge back. You avoided a head-on collision by turing off road. Shows how much courtesy we(in general, includes the bus driver) have for other human beings!
Did you not see the bus approaching beforehand?

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Did you not see the bus approaching beforehand?

This must be the first question to be asked. These days, all buses can cruise at substantial speeds, so no use in trying to judge the vehicle and it's oncoming speed.

Even tractors do higher speeds in the highway.

[harshaguduru]

Mod team note: Please use proper punctuations and use spell check!

Last week i saw an accident reminiscent of a comedy scene but with a rather tragic outcome. It started when a rather plump lady tried to get off a running mini bus (setwin) that plies in hyderabad. This led to her falling on her behinds first onto the road and just due her luck that her head did not smash into the road. The crowd whipped into a frenzy within seconds and the bus driver applied sudden brakes upon their yelling.. promptly another setwin bus smashed into this one at a tangent. It was a very fortunate moment for all involved that no one injured.

All due to this lady's urgency to get down 200 mts ahead of her stop.

When will people ever learn.
regards
Harsha

[prmd_cochin]

Johnys Thrissur Kozhikode Limitied Stop Fast Passenger private bus captured by me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2msB69XeIEk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Rn-INA4IU

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by prmd_cochin

Johnys Thrissur Kozhikode Limitied Stop Fast Passenger private bus captured by me.

The infamous Thrissur - Kunnamkulam stretch, I have done this route umpteen times. The rule I follow here is, 'always give way to these morons'.

[thoma]

Guess this guy was inspired by the James Bond rickshaw commercial for a credit card?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

PS: Please ignore if shared earlier.

[pgsagar]

Oh my God! What is this? Never seen anything like this before. And I thought AP bus drivers are the worst. Now they look like school kids to me. Do these Kerala private bus drivers put brick on go pedal and sit on horn? And flying through narrow roads? It's like God has given them assurance that nothing would happen. It is indeed God's own country.

AP drivers are no angels but they are definitely not this rash, plus roads in AP are wide and population density once you exit city limits is very sparse. So on higways cars can peacefully co-exist with buses. Good thing here is there are no private buses (except overnighter Volvos to Hyd ) and APSRTC buses have speed governors restricting speed to 60 kmph.

[Zed]

Originally Posted by prmd_cochin

Johnys Thrissur Kozhikode Limitied Stop Fast Passenger private bus captured by me.

My browser is not opening the first video for some reason. My comments are only based on the second.
Brings back memories of white knuckle drives on this route. Its surprising that there arent more accidents on this and other such streches in Kerala. As a foot note - the vehicle from which this video has been shot will not win any contests for safe driving either.

[the_flying_B]

Mangalore private buses too are very rashly driven . Since, my workplace location requires me to take the private buses of Mangalore, i've had some scary experiences. The Cochin bus video is very reminiscent of the Mlore style of bus driving.

And, the peculiar thing is that in the rains , the drivers get some additional high, where they drive at unbelievable speeds!

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by xjosephjacob

I'd say nothing beats the Private Buses plying in Kochi City limits, and the private buses running in Thrissur-Calicut route, when it comes to ‘rudeness’ factor. They run at dangerously high speeds in those ridiculously narrow roads in Kerala and they just don't give a damn about the others. I for one respect the KSRTC buses when I compare them with the Private counterparts. Like Tata advertised for Sierra, when Kerala Private Buses change lanes, it's usually to define a new one.

Originally Posted by motorsan

I agree. My personal experience with KeSRTC buses has been that they are driven with no rash moves. Folks in Malappuram district actually prefer to travel in KSRTC buses compared to the rashly driven and overspeeding private buses. Thing may be different in Trivandrum, where I think private buses are not that common.

When I commented to a post in the other thread, I meant exactly what the two of you said - the private buses are a myriad times worse than KSRTC buses. During my college days, the way some of the private buses in Chengannur-Mavelikkara route were driven on those narrow roads almost always left me terrified to no extent. The Palakkad-Thrissur route, though a highway, was also infested with these private monsters. The only vehicles they respected would probably be those heavy construction equipment - graders, road-rollers, cranes etc.

Speed governor or no speed governor, the private buses continue to terrorize the other motorists. A speed limiting device cannot curtail the acceleration, so with more powerful engines they accelerate to the set limit faster. Since power-steering is made mandatory, these 16 tonne monsters are all the more nimble. Though the KSRTC buses are also technically equally capable, they are seldom driven as rash as the private buses.

[MSC]

The rash driving by private bus operating agencies is neither new nor limited to any specific state or region.
Anyone from Punjab,Haryana,Chandigarh,Himachal know very well how "nicely" these private buses are being driven. Most of the bus owners are high and mighty of states and hence police too keeps away from them. Now with onslaught of the monstrous size of Volvos and Mercedes Benz and Scania buses, they use the size to full benefits and make poor hatches run for cover.
Things take a worse turn during the tourist season and make traveling on narrow hill roads a nightmare. The only saving grace is that most Volvos operate in nights or else they would regularly feature in accidents.

[ajaypjayaraj]

Originally Posted by silversteed

A speed limiting device cannot curtail the acceleration, so with more powerful engines they accelerate to the set limit faster. Since power-steering is made mandatory, these 16 tonne monsters are all the more nimble.

Spot on! The rapid acceleration and braking is what makes them most rash. Till few metres from their stop, they would floor and then brake immediately when they reach the stop. With such huge brakes, they can stop very effectively but that is really dangerous for other motorists. Next is overtaking and driving on wrong side of the road expecting everyone else to move out of their way even if that means diving to the trench on the road side. Then bullying their way through even when the road is jam packed. Mad men!! Really really mad men.. Owner or driver or whoever supports it or whoever does not take action against it are all mad.. The last category could even be termed as vegetable! If you don't react to these broad day light killers, you are not worthy of being in law enforcement.