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-   -   Happy to be alive & this is my story! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/171628-happy-alive-my-story.html)

Hello all,

India is indeed a place where when you drive, inspite of following all rules and regulations and being utterly cautious, you suffer because of the mistake made by the opposite person. There had been many times when I just cursed them and carried on, but on the night of Sep 19th, it was something different.

All of this happened in Bhuj, where me and my friends had gone on a business trip. We were travelling in an Innova provided to us by the hotel and were returning to the hotel at about 9pm. The roads were good and were 4 lane with dividers and we were doing a decent 55-60 kmph.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a truck came right in front of us with High beam. Our driver tried to avoid it but the car screeched and hit the truck from the right side. I was sitting on the last row and towards the right side. There was a huge bang and everything became silent.

I was rushed to the hospital and had a fracture in the neck. Sadly, the driver and one of my friend who sat behind the driver suffered fatal injuries. My other 5 friends were fine and walked out. Now the fun part, the truck driver on seeing this acted very smartly and mingled with the crowd, and to this date he is untraceable. However, the owner of the truck has been traced.

The impact of the accident was such that the entire right side of the Innova was cut open like a cake and the only damage to the truck was a broken headlamp.

After recovering in the hospital for almost 2 months, I thought I should share all this with fellow Bhpians. And what makes me sad is all this was because of the fact that the wrong side saved the truck driver some 200m for a U-turn - was it worth it?

Stay safe and Drive safe!!

***IMAGES ARE SLIGHTLY GRAPHIC***

Gosh anish29 that is quite disturbing and I am really glad that you are safe and back to living your life buddy :thumbs up

Really sorry to read about the injuries and loss of lives. Hope the family of the deceased have the courage & strength to pull through the turmoil.

Indian roads are by themselves some of the most unsafe parts of country and such jerk truck drivers only make it a death-trap sorts. :Frustrati

Oh man. It's always sad to read about personal experiences involving fatalities. That image of the innova is just scary.

Our highways at night are death traps, plain and simple. Scant lighting, blatant ignorance of rules which coupled with the low visibility compounds the risk factor.

Thanks for taking the time to share

This is saddening. A vehicle like Innova ripped open like a cardboard box, it is difficult to imagine the plight of a hatchback or sedan. 60kmph is not a speed for such a loss, might be the truck was also speeding. Very sad.

Indian roads are fast becoming suicidal. Even if you are using the road sanely, somebody is out there to get you.

Drive safe guys.

Glad that you are safe & recovered. God bless you for ample strength and getting-back to normalcy!

We have a terrible mix of population and enforcement alone can't crack on uneducated drivers. Even educated folks do short-cuts instead of making U-turn at some distance away. What to say? Unless we change our mind-set that "making a short-cut" is smart, our road safety is not going to improve.

Indeed, I had considered Innova as a well designed and engineered vehicle, but this makes me think otherwise. Also, in such cases even those 6+ airbags won't help.

And thank you all for those motivating words.

Hi anish29,

Firstly, thank the lord that you are fine after the 2 months of recovery. Extremely sorry to hear about the driver and your colleague who succumbed to their injuries.

The implementation of the laws are so slack that people tend to disregard them completely. If this happened in say the US, the Owner would be sued and the authorities would find the driver and arrest him. The police have written guidelines to determine who is at fault.

If you want, you can force the cops to take necessary action as per the Motor Claims Tribunal, however the process is very time consuming and it involves the seizure of both vehicles involved in the accident, appointing lawyers and frequent visits to courts.

Most people involved in accidents scream and shout and eventually walk away fully knowing that appropriate action is nowhere in sight. Sad but true.

I agree with you completely. People here do not want to go through the ordeal of visiting courts and this long judicial procedure. But I am planning to do it, no matter how time consuming it is. Currently in touch with a lawyer who handles such cases and I am also doing research on my own. Last known, both the vehicles are confiscated as it involved loss of lives.

If you think of it, who suffered more from all this act of saving 200 mts, its a poor car driver rather than the truck driver and THAT is the main reason why Bus and Truck drivers care two hoots while breaking the rules. Now as no one would like to go through the legal procedure therefore how the police could act proactively considering the freedom of speech in our country, yes they will act proactively while settling the matter with the owner in the light of such circumstances.

I am extremely happy that you are pursuing this case.

IMHO most people who drive have become totally impervious to the rules of the road. Chalta hai, kuch hooga to dekha jaayega, kuch jugaad karengee :Frustrati

Even educated people now have this attitude which is very scary. Unless and until the enforcement is strict this attitude will permeate even further. On may occasions I have got off from my car and stood in front of a cab who has broken a signal and have forced the cab to reverse. The various gaalis' I have been subjected to is clap:

Good luck & best wishes. May justice be delivered soonest.

With the Innova cut open in this fashion, it is easy to imagine the gruesome fate of your driver and co-passenger. It is indeed providence that you are safe though injured. It is inspiring to note that you would be pursuing the case. If possible do keep this thread updated. All would probably depend on the truck driver being ever found. Thanks for sharing your ordeal.

This is truly horrific. Glad that you are fine, and truly sorry at the loss of lives.

These days I see more and more cases of people driving on the wrong side of the road. As soon as people spot a slight jam in the front, they immediately move to the other side of the road. And soon you have a stream of vehicles on the wrong side of the road. This whole scenario is very disturbing. I have seen two wheelers with two adults and two kids driving on the wrong side and that too at speed. How can people be so silly? :Frustrati

I too experienced something similar couple of weeks back while coming from Madurai to Bangalore. I was really lucky to escape, It was night and for overtaking a truck on the left lane I moved to the right lane with good speed and there I was greeted with 2 high beams on the fast lane with barely a gap visible between the truck on my left and the on-coming one, took a fraction of second to judge what to do and went ahead with the overtake in the gap visible as I did not know if any other vehicle was at my rear. I just missed the truck by few inches may be. My Mom was sitting on the passenger seat and was in real shock for sometime as to what would have happened. :mad:

Really horrific and sad. May the departed souls rest in peace.

Waseembhai/Others,
Just like we had PIL on tints/sunfilms, can we not file a PIL against the Transport Authority/Traffic Police for allowing wrong side driving.

We have had discussed on the various reasons behind this crazy desi antic.
While in India, the drivers are let go with a simple fine, in other developed countries, it is a criminal offence and accused are thrown behind bars.
Even if our PIL helps in the changing the law, it would save the lives of hundreds.

Any ideas/suggestions?

You all were very unlucky because the truck stuck the Innova at the right hand corner. The crumple zones of Innova (or any other car for that matter) are useless in these circumstances. The truck sliced through sheet metal on the right hand side of Innova - with crumple zones absorbing very little impact force.