Four members of a family were killed and five seriously injured in a gruesome accident involving their yellow-boarded vehicle and a KSRTC bus near Tiptur on NH 206, reports today's Deccan Herald [NH 206 was wrongly mentioned as NH 203 in the report].

[BusyBoyKK]

Originally Posted by kadri007

The dangerous route is between Mangalore and Udupi where every minute one express bus leaves.

I have that experience on our annual trip to Udupi every year. Also, these buses are so cramped and noisy that the entire experience makes it 'The Death Race'. Ofcourse they drive with utmost precision but still sacres the wits out of everyone. But in a way, due to the adrenaline in me, I enjoy these drives.
Remember the old saying - 'Speed thrills but kills'.

APSRTC Garudas: I have another impression about them (though I am from AP). In CHN-VJA I have been on Garudas twice, each time I ended begging myself to beg the driver to put his foot on the pedal. It took a mightly 9.5 hours to reach VJA from CHN. Adding to this the lousy attender played the first part of one movie and second part of another movie (that forced me to a prolonged sleep).

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

I have seen them and personally think that the Kerala private bus drivers are much better off. They generally don't bully other vehicles as much as the drivers in Coastal Karnataka.

What!! I had couple of scary face to face with Kannur-Calicut LS buses few weeks back. I had to go out of asphalted surface to save myself, I was in an Alto. Another scary vehicles on Kerala roads are tippers!!!

How about Town-to-Town services KeSRTC used to do? (I am not sure they exist now or not). They used to fly low!!!

Last time I travelled in Mangalore-Udupi route was in 2005, may be things have changed a lot!!!

[teamveevee]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

there is only one rule on this road....if you see a oncoming bus with headlights on...give way ...or stop wherever you are ...the bus driver will do the rest ...and you are safe...try switching on your headlights as well ...and then only God can save you

I think the same applicable for most of NHs where private buses are allowed, what about Coimbatore-Erode, Karur-Salem roads? Whoever turn on the head light first got the right of way.

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Another scary vehicles on Kerala roads are tippers!!!

+1, They are more dangerous in internal roads. Unlike the old Tata 1210 SE, the new tippers are quite large and very powerful (10 wheels) (powerful brakes too). They drive so fast through the narrow internal roads, and brakes suddenly and frequently. I have seen in my village, the autorikshaws, bikes and small cars give way to these monster tippers when they come from the other side. The problem is, the guys who manage such large and powerful vehicles are not trained in how to use them. Most of them are started as loading/unloading and graduated as drivers. Off topic, still....

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by teamveevee

+1, They are more dangerous in internal roads. Unlike the old Tata 1210 SE, the new tippers are quite large and very powerful (10 wheels) (powerful brakes too). They drive so fast through the narrow internal roads, and brakes suddenly and frequently. I have seen in my village, the autorikshaws, bikes and small cars give way to these monster tippers when they come from the other side. The problem is, the guys who manage such large and powerful vehicles are not trained in how to use them. Most of them are started as loading/unloading and graduated as drivers. Off topic, still....

I think we should create another thread, or rather rename this thread as Rashly driven CVs on Indian roads.

Tipper lorries are a class of absolute reckless driving. I would like to quote a line from Spiderman - "With great power comes great responsibility". And these tipper drivers are given great power under the hood (and an additional 4 tyres) but don't realize the responsibility they have.

Like tipper lorries are those tractor-trailer contraptions. When loaded, they're on the road, and when empty, they're flying low. And I've seen quite a few lose roadgrip and topple over, due to the excess speed. Those blokes don't realize that the Mahindra tractors have brakes only on the rear wheels

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by BusyBoyKK

Ofcourse they drive with utmost precision but still sacres the wits out of everyone. But in a way, due to the adrenaline in me, I enjoy these drives.

How is the safety record of these 'millimeter precise' drivers on this route?

[smashnerd]

I guess it's quite obvious private buses are rashly driven in India (other drivers are no exception either). So this begs the obvious question - " How do we correct this major problem concerning the safety of our roads?".

I guess most of you would say speed limiters (the working kind) or stricter punishments blah blah blah. But don't you think these would be just a short term measure? I mean even with stricter laws and all, the situation hasn't improved that greatly.

I guess the problem lies in our driver training. I personally had to drive a distance of about 25 meters for the RTO tester to be convinced that I knew how to drive (really, that was all I did on the test). Aren't you supposed to display turning, negotiation of blocks on the path, changing gears, reverse etc?

An even bigger problem is what they teach in all the private driving schools (don't know how things are done at Maruti driving schools though). There is no training for handling emergency situations (in Finland, they supposedly teach you how to do controlled slides like rally cars and you get the full license only after 3 years of training). The teachers in these schools never let you go past 40 kph and the amount of time driving per course is too low to ensure enough practice. God knows what kind of worthless training is given to truck/bus drivers.

Hence, the best way IMHO is to begin at the driving school itself. Proper training, proper knowledge to drivers and proper enforcement of laws will together result in safer roads.

[pypkmsrikanth]

I think if we are to talk of tipper trucks the cake has to be taken by the ones which used to ply transporting sand from Chengalpattu palar river basin to Chennai a few years back, possibly the only set of vehicles even the ST buses were sacred of.

[rejoycjohn]

+1 to that after my 4 years stay at REC Calicut (Kozhikkode); I can very confidently say the most rash bus drivers in the world are driving these private buses.

very true , especially the buses to that Route from Palayam bus stand .
I used to choose these buses from the others usually due to the less time that they take to reach -probably to Kunnamangalam or Med college.

But to look at it from a drivers perspective , this rash driving happens in those routes where the time interval between two buses is hardly a minute. Yes you heard it correct its just a minute and so the drivers spend the maximum time at the bus stop and immediately when they see the next bus coming , they start off . They compensate the time spent at every bus stop by driving fast between the stops .
This definitely make their driving fast , and mating it with the road conditions in kerala they will have to drive without considering the other vehicles using the road .

These drivers get a commission too from the bus operators depending on the collection that they make , so they do everything and anything to earn that extra money even risking their life ( of course that of others too ).

Well I am not justifying to what they are doing . But I definitely want to put across that there are lots of other factors than just the drivers being rash / they flying the rules in air !

There were even strikes in Kerala as the RTO was giving permits for a route without considering the existing permits .

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by Mpower

How is the safety record of these 'millimeter precise' drivers on this route?

The safety record has definitely improved .These days i rarely hear of accidents involving these "express" buses on the NH17 ..I may be wrong ...maybe the locals can throw more light on this

Last month ,when i had taken one such bus from Udipi to Mangalore ,this maniac driver was driving on the wrong side of a 4 lane stretch in front of the Mangalore port!!!...when i asked him later on the reason behind this ...he said he had the lights on ...so no worries

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by Mpower

How is the safety record of these 'millimeter precise' drivers on this route?

Number of accidents caused by them are comparatively low.

[BusyBoyKK]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Number of accidents caused by them are comparatively low.

I think it's also to do with the maintenance (improved now-a-days) of their buses unlike those of any RTC. I remember, when I was a kid, in news papers I used to about many accidents. One such was with APSRTC, it was reported that the steering wheel unmounted and the driver was not able to control the vehicle. It plunged into Godavari river and all dead.

Another was on HYD-VJA NH, Saikor travels lost control and plunged into a pit next to the road. The poor attender guy jumped off the bus and the entire bus just landed on him, smashing him into pieces.

Originally Posted by Mpower

How is the safety record of these 'millimeter precise' drivers on this route?

Do not know, but at least whenever I was traveling I never came across any accident. There must be some stray incidents but relative to the scary feel we get the number of accidents must be less.

[coloneljasi]

Originally Posted by smashnerd

Hence, the best way IMHO is to begin at the driving school itself. Proper training, proper knowledge to drivers and proper enforcement of laws will together result in safer roads.

Couldn't agree more. I'm told that they teach new drivers to turn on their hazard lights when going straight at an intersection.

To quote my sister who passed her test with flying colours " Where's the headlight switch? Dimmer what? They never gave me driving lessons at night!"

I've had an Indian license for 14 years now and I've considered myself to be a real good driver.

That went out the window when I moved to the UK. Without sounding too brash, I personally didn't have much trouble getting a UK license after driving on my Indian one for a year. But the depth of the driving test showed how much theory and practice is expected from every new driver in the UK.

And mind you, they get to drive cars from 17+! Compared to them, or any country in the EU/Middle East or North America for that matter, our licensing system is a joke.

[Deep Blue]

Originally Posted by Mpower

How is the safety record of these 'millimeter precise' drivers on this route?

Originally Posted by speedsatya

The safety record has definitely improved .These days i rarely hear of accidents involving these "express" buses on the NH17 ..I may be wrong ...maybe the locals can throw more light on this

About 8-10yrs back, accidents were pretty high, but now it is less after the introduction of time keepers by the bus owner's association. I dont have authentic statistics, but atleast you dont see too many ghastly pictures in the morning newspapers. Having said that, I do hear a lot of two wheelers getting knocked off(and causing death)either by the buses or other bigger vehicles

Originally Posted by smashnerd

I guess the problem lies in our driver training. I personally had to drive a distance of about 25 meters for the RTO tester to be convinced that I knew how to drive (really, that was all I did on the test). Aren't you supposed to display turning, negotiation of blocks on the path, changing gears, reverse etc?

+ 1 to that. I had go round a tree in front of our RTO for my driving license and my instructor was shouting at me-put the indicator, put the indicator-

Who is going to bear the cost of driver training?



Aaha! my 50th post!

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by rejoycjohn

But to look at it from a drivers perspective , this rash driving happens in those routes where the time interval between two buses is hardly a minute. Yes you heard it correct its just a minute and so the drivers spend the maximum time at the bus stop and immediately when they see the next bus coming , they start off . They compensate the time spent at every bus stop by driving fast between the stops.

In a country known for corruption, slacking off and poor service, I find it hard to believe that drivers are "working extra hard" to ensure that their customers reach on time.

I always got the feeling that these drivers were doing it for the thrill, the ego boost or taking out some kind of frustration in their lives. I have even reached early on some routes.