Team-BHP - My experience with an accident, and what I learnt
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-   -   My experience with an accident, and what I learnt (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/138117-my-experience-accident-what-i-learnt.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr (Post 3020444)
I have a horrible accident in nanjangud on way to mysore. Car smashed totally. Please help with the number of the Maruti helpline.

Hello Team-BHPians,
I have finally gathered enough courage to share the details of an accident that happened to me on 21st Jan 2013. In the hope that finally I get a closure on the incident and start leading a normal 'automotive' life again. More importantly, to request fellow T-BHPians not to repeat the mistakes that I did. It might save ones life.

Before I start, let me confess what I feel is the truth: I consider myself responsible for this accident. Please read on.

Background : Nov-Dec 2012 was very hectic in my professional and personal life. My office made me work more than a month without a break, work related stress was high. In the last week of Dec-2012, my mom fell ill and was admitted to Manipal Hospital ICU for 6 days. I was not getting enough sleep for a long period of time. The pressure of professional and personal life took its toll on my health too. By mid-Jan 2013, I was over-worked, over-stressed and was on the verge of a breakdown. I couldn't take it anymore. Decided what anyone would decide at this point: to take a break from the grind. 19-th Jan 2013, started for Bandipur, with my wife and a friend couple.

The holiday was great. I really enjoyed spending time with family and friends in the middle of nature. With only 'one' glitch. I didn't get good sleep here too; the world I left behind in my office cubicle was pricking my sub-conscious.

The accident : On 21-st Jan 2013, a beautiful sunny Monday morning, I started return journey from Bandipur. By 10:00 am, we reached Gundulpet town and decided to have a breakfast stop. During my holiday, I didn't get a chance to check emails, as there was no Vodafone mobile signal inside the jungle. After 2 days, when I was checking pending emails, I received a shocking email sent to me from an acquaintance. Although personal in subject, the email conveyed a bad news for me: I have suffered some heavy personal financial losses during my holiday due to a friend of mine. This made me very angry. I wanted to reach Bangalore as soon as possible. I was not thinking logically ; a blind fury was circling inside my head. After breakfast, when I started driving, I was pushing 100+. This was my first mistake.
The Gundulpet-Nanjangud-Mysore road is undivided National highway with village crowd coming on the roads. Slow moving bullock carts, 2 wheelers and pedestrians merging to the main road from small village roads. One should be very careful while driving on this stretch. Which unfortunately I was not. At the outskirts of Nanjangud town, I was passing an area where there was paddy fields on both sides of the road. The fields were around 5ft below the level of road surface. A bike was slowly moving along the shoulder of the road on my left. Another bike was coming slowly from the opposite direction.
When I was about to cross the bike on my left, that guy abruptly decided to come on the road from the shoulder. there was no indicator or hand-signal. I was cruising between 80-100 and was taken aback. Even if I apply panic braking, I knew I was going to hit the bike. There was no space to overtake, as I had another bike incoming. I took my car on the shoulder on the right side of the road.
mistake #2: Should have slowed down and go to left shoulder

The shoulder of the road was a good 4 inches below tarred surface. From the shoulder on the right, I again tried to get up up to the main road.
mistake #3: Should have slowed down or stopped on the shoulder
As soon as I got back on the tarred surface, I realized I don't have control on the car. The car veered to the left alarmingly. I tried to correct steering by turning right; to my horror, it over-steered to extreme right. I tried to brake. The whole world seemed like a movie playing in front of me; the screen being the windshield. Time froze. Everything was hapenning in slow motion. The car fell on the paddy field 5 ft below and rolled over 3 times, finally landing turtle. Villagers nearby rushed in, rolled the car back on its wheels. To my surprise, both the left tyres were burst. Till this date, I am not sure what is the exact sequence of events. Did the 2 tyres burst while getting up from the shoulder? There were some very sharp rock edges protruding where the tarred surface ended and shoulder started. This I noticed later. May be that's why I lost control (this is what I believe). Or maybe, the tyres burst when the car fell on the paddy field.

some photos taken just after the accident:

the Aftermath :
By the grace of god, nobody was seriously injured. My wife had a cut in her hand caused by glass shards. Other than that, no big injury save some minor bruises.
SEATBELTS SAVE LIVES. Believe me, now I know. Please wear seat-belts whenever you drive.
A local gentleman helped me take my wife & friend to a nearby medical center for medical attention. Here I met Dr.Rajasekaran of Gouri Medical Clinic, Nanjangudu. Not only he took good medical care of us, but he helped me lodge a police complaint too for insurance purpose. I cannot thank you enough, Doctor. You became an angel for us that day. Nanjangudu rural police station was not accepting my written description of the accident on the pretext that its in English. "Kannada only, sir." After waiting for 2 hrs in the P.S., I phoned Dr. Rajasekaran pleading for help. The good doc called up the district Additional SP, and police proceedings was over in the next 30 mins. The OIC even got hold of a peanut-vendor and told him to sign as eye-witness! And he signed, without reading or inquiring what the police application is about.
while my family was undergoing medical care, I posted in Team BHP for Maruti helpline number. My heartfelt thanks to Warwithwheels, Autoindian and Mpksuhas for their prompt help.I called Maruti roadside assistance number.My car was towed to Mandovi Motors, Hunsur Road, Mysore. We hired a private cab from Nanjangud and reached bangalore at 10-30 PM.

Insurance and Repair: Within 3 days, Mandovi motors (Mysore) managed to show the car to my insurance (New India) suveyor. I was given option of either calling it a total loss OR going for a repair. The quote for repair was 2.7L. My family has a lot of emotions associated with this car (after all, this car has saved our lives); we decided to go for full repair whatever it takes. After 70 days, finally on 31st March, 'Zulu' was reborn. Total cost of repair : 2.8L. Insurance covered 2.15L ; I have payed 65K. There are some behavioural changes after repair. Rattles, internal fit and finish; panel gaps etc are not like factory finish anymore. But I have learnt to live with these things and love my car even more. To check highway worthiness, I took my car on multiple trips to Mysore, Shivanaasamudram & Madikeri and it ran fine each time. A little decrease in FE was noticed. NVH levels are higher now.

Emotional effect of the accident still runs deep in my pshyche. I was unable to pull together myself and login to Team-BHP for the last 6 months. Finally logged in last week; still scared to open 'accidents in india' thread.

Lessons learnt : Never let your emotions get clouded with other thoughts while driving. I was very angry which made me push my car 100+. Drive safe, reach safe.
Road rage is a killer. Dont be a threat to yourself and others on the road.
Sealtbelt saves lives, again.

Zulu, now :

Finally, 2 photos from my holiday:

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Street Experiences Section. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing the experience. I take this road frequently on my Bangalore - Calicut trips. Remember seeing your post asking for Maruti service centre number, since there was no reply to the post or SMS was wondering what happened.

It is shocking to hear that a car equiped with ABS lost control on hard braking. However the important thing is that you and all passengers came out without any serious injuries. Left- Rear door seems to have taken a bad hit.

Man, you have got some real courage to accept your fault in all that happened. I can understand all that, believe me. And a BIG YES, SEAT-BELTS DO SAVE LIVES. I have experienced this.

My best regards to you & your family,
Drive Safe,
Saket

Post deleted by the Team-BHP Support : Please do NOT post messages that add little or no informational value to the thread. We need your co-operation to maintain the quality of this forum.

Please read our rules before proceeding any further. We request you to post ONLY when you have something substantial to add to a discussion.

Second lease of life man, make the most of it!

Personal reasons are an understandable cause of stress. Office work is never worth it. Probably easier said than done, but once you're outside the office, forget all about it. Believe me, no company would care about you as much as you care about it.

I understand the sentiment behind getting the car repaired, but after that much structural damage, will the car be safe, even after repairs? Can anyone shed some light on this please.

Take care man, was very glad to read that all in the car were safe.

It takes a big heart to "accept" the mistake and learn from it and you have done it. :thumbs up

The sole reason I am here replying to your post is because of "seat belts", I am not sure what would have happened if I havent had my seat belts on during an accident in May 2006 (I was a passenger in front seat) from 100 Kph to 0 in less than a second was the impact but I walked off without much damage.

Great to see you back in the forum in spite of your emotional battle, get over it and keep driving. Wishing you many more trouble free miles to munch. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr (Post 3159983)
I have finally gathered enough courage to share the details of an accident that happened to me on 21st Jan 2013. .

Hello Ankan.m.blr,

Thank God that all 4 of you were absolutely safe.

Rest all things (whose mistake it was?, you were in angry mood, loss of money, etc) are immaterial. I do not mean to say that one should drive in angry mood, but many time accidents happen & you have no control over the incident at that moment. I mean had the 1st biker not came on the main road, you would have reached home safely, but fate had some other choice. Most important thing is driver & passengers came out safely & you were surrounded by good people.

You reminded me of my accident on 25th January 2012 & it was only after 8 months that I gathered strength to make it public:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...rajasthan.html

One thing I have learnt from & after the accident that bad mood / anger drains most of your mental / physical energy. One should always try to be at peace inside, no matter what happens outside. As I said earlier, nothing is more important than life. If we are alive & safe, we can easily conquer mountains once again, even after making huge losses on personal or financial front.

Thanks,

Thanks for sharing your experience, Ankan.
I remember seeing your message and had been wondering what came of it.
Glad that everyone was safe.
Your objective analysis of the accident and acceptance of what could have been done to avoid it indicates that you have had a lot of time to think about this.
Now its time to put this behind you and not to continue to beat yourself up over this.
"We learn from failure, not from success"

Takes a lot of courage to accept your mistake and not to blame the situation in an accident. I am glad you have come out of this with minor injuries. What happened is history and thank God nothing worse happened.

Wishing you happy and safe driving..

Quote:

Originally Posted by am1m (Post 3160934)
Second lease of life man, make the most of it!

I understand the sentiment behind getting the car repaired, but after that much structural damage, will the car be safe, even after repairs? Can anyone shed some light on this please.

Mr. Munna (bodyshop manager, Mandovi motors, Mysore) personally assured me that the vehicle will be safe for long drives from a structural point of view. Although no MASS can replicate 100% factory fit & finish. So, NVH levels are high now. I have made a Coorg trip (to Madikeri) very recently and the car behaved fine. Niggles might come up now and then in future, I know. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I would say the Ritz has taken the impact very-well. Roof did not collapse even when the car over-turned. The belted passengers were given a safe coccoon in the passenger compartment.


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