[jaspal singh]

Hi BHPians,

Fatal road accidents due to trucks parked on roads specially highways, are increasing day by day. The root cause is non-functioning tailights/brakelights. According to Motor vehicle Act of India, a vehicle must have its tailights/brakelights(& Headlights obviously!) in working condition. But the traffic police in our country, seems to be turning a blind eye to the above problem. The situation becomes even more dangerous during fog/ heavy rain.
team bhpians please give your views and suggestions on what can be done to get rid of this problem, so that senseless loss of life can be prevented.

Thanks

[SRK]

1st of all if everyone follows the rules, things can be controlled. But the way our system works it would take some time.

Also usually things like tail-lamps,etc are ignored as people think that it does not affect them.

One possible thing that can be done is to get the whole rear area of the truck fitted with reflectors (the ones similar on tail-lamps).So that even if the lights are off the vehicle approaching them can be warned.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by SRK

One possible thing that can be done is to get the whole rear area of the truck fitted with reflectors (the ones similar on tail-lamps).So that even if the lights are off the vehicle approaching them can be warned.

I believe there already exists a rule which says all 4 sides of trucks must have reflectors (reflective tapes all around the vehicle).

[raul]

This is one of the biggest problems on Indian highways at night, and on city expressways and has caused countless accidents and scares. And has been discussed multiple times on this forum itself, the administration's response to a glaring safety hazard is as good as nonexistent.

There are obviously many problems but this IMHO is one of the easy ones to solve simply by enforcing current rules, I remember in other countries cops frequently check the tyre condition and lights of cars and trucks. If cops launch a campaign it can be brought in control in less than 3 months.

[ViMo]

Many times during my night drives it has come to my mind why a good number of trucks and buses don’t have functioning tale lamps, in spite of them being on the road for almost all the time. The funnier part of it is that these trucks will have hundreds of blinking lights inside the cabin but none at the back where it is needed. I feel Most of the OEM tail lamps are of poor quality and don’t last long. I believe strict enforcements can bring positive changes.

[benbsb29]

The easiest and cheapest solution is to have fluorescent vinyl / tape stuck along the rear as well as sides of trucks. Even if the lights arent functioning, these do stand out, thereby alerting other motorists.

[Rehaan]

See this related thread that came up just today : Soon, all cars will need a periodic health checkup - compulsorily

cya
R

[arin_12]

I believe it should not be restricted to only truck. All kind of vehicle should be mandatory for having proper Stop/Indicator light. In addition to that Reflector also should be must...
We can reduce lots of fatal accident.

[pradipk]

Very important aspect but neglected very easily by the authority.

I have experienced nice/niche business of "accessory on rent"! Actually RTO (at least I knew in Gujarat) has standard rules of having reflectors at multiple places on the back of heavy vehicles along with the strips (just like the yellow one on the head light mentioned in many other threads). now there are those accessory shops who will fix all necessary safety reflectors in the truck/bus and once it comes out of RTO premises after the inspection, they will remove all of them which will be used for another inspection.
And this is like the shops of florists outside of the temple. Really sad, but it's the fact.

[SS-Traveller]

I have this habit of counting trucks on my night drives, and classifying them into those that have working tail-lights & visible number plates, and those that don't!

The number of trucks on highways without functional tail-lights in Northern & Eastern India varies between 50% to 70%.

And the number of trucks with illegible rear number plates can vary between 20% to 30%. By illegible, I do not include those that are mud-caked during the rains but prominently displayed and can still be barely read - I count missing, rusted, invisible, shiny and partly stripped off plates as illegible.

I hope the cops read this and start a drive on the highways to check for lights and number plates. There's a pot of gold waiting out there!

[jaspal singh]

Originally Posted by ViMo

Many times during my night drives it has come to my mind why a good number of trucks and buses don’t have functioning tale lamps, in spite of them being on the road for almost all the time. The funnier part of it is that these trucks will have hundreds of blinking lights inside the cabin but none at the back where it is needed. I feel Most of the OEM tail lamps are of poor quality and don’t last long. I believe strict enforcements can bring positive changes.

Yes these truck drivers make sure that the headlights are working(not always though!), because its definitely related to their safety, but they are least bothered about the tail lights/brake lights.
and i totally agree with you that OEM lights in case of commercial vehicles are of shockingly cheap quality:so the goverment must enforce stringent norms regarding the quality of OEM lights, so that manufactures also pull up their socks!
Finally apart from strict enforcements,awareness campaign for commercial vehicle drivers might also help.

[2cents]

I think this crass attitude increases with size of the vehicle. Truckers know that in the event of a hit from behind the damage will be more on the other vehicle. Besides, in the event of a case being filed they are in a strong wicket as it has been hit from behind.

[gthang]

Originally Posted by ViMo

Many times during my night drives it has come to my mind why a good number of trucks and buses don’t have functioning tale lamps, in spite of them being on the road for almost all the time. The funnier part of it is that these trucks will have hundreds of blinking lights inside the cabin but none at the back where it is needed. I feel Most of the OEM tail lamps are of poor quality and don’t last long. I believe strict enforcements can bring positive changes.

Hello and welcome ViMO. Uncanny sense of someone reading my mind.

This is a topic of great interest to me.

TBhp has a lot of influential/wealthy/industrious/extraordinarily talented/knowledgeable/average joe type members. Can this be put to good use?

Many trucks that come with OEM or "body shop" fitted tail lamps, come with normal bulbs and the wiring is usually as intoxicated as the drivers, resulting in voltage fluctuations and burnouts.

But the little holy lamps adorning the Lord keeps going. Why? because they are LED. Usually have a very rudimentary protection diode of some sort.

So, why cannot some good Samaritan TBhpian/s who has the resources/capability make some Truck/Bus/LCV tail lamps with some cheap LEDs in a large enough scale to make it cost only marginally more, and start a word of mouth campaign to switch over? Imagine the number of lives that would be saved.

[ece2k2]

I agree. This is a real hazard in our highways. In my opinion, our government should strictly enforce the rule that the trucks should not be parked on the highways - especially at nights.

Even if the tail/brake lights are working in the trucks, I am not sure whether the truck drivers will care to leave them "ON" when parked in the highways. But almost all the truck drivers are making sure to place big stones around the parked truck - atleast in my area. I am not sure how this is going to help.

To make things worse, some truck drivers park their trucks with all the wheels well inside the road - this leaves just one usable lane in case of two lane highways as the truck will easily take one full lane.

I faced this problem once and I swerved to the opposite lane at the right moment - luckily did not have any oncoming vehicle at that time.

[ghodlur]

Trucks/tailers/tankers without any indicator lights have been a perenial problem for major road accidents and give the racing "spirits" embedded deep in these drivers its not for long when a major disaster waits to happen. I have seen many a trucks being pulled on the side by the traffic cops who not for the non working indicator lights but for whole lot of other reasons.
The other day I say this truck loaded with U shaped Corrugated rods (Saliyas) and having a small red indicator (Of course not working) attached to one of the rods and the indicator itself was bobbing up and down along with the rods. One great jerk and no suprise the indicator would land on the vehicle behind the truck.