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Old 12th February 2008, 20:52   #46
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Ouch it hurts no matter what, drive safe and get that part fixed during next service.
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Old 12th February 2008, 20:52   #47
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glad to hear that you and your wiffey are safe. But that incident might have proved fatal.I admit.safari is indeed a safe car. prayers brother.!!
peace
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Old 13th February 2008, 04:45   #48
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Thank God you are safe.

I dont think ABS would have helped much in this case, ABS prevents wheel lock up only.

Even on the truck drivers part, I think he made the move to the left hearing the horn. Might have thought, you wanted to pass him on the right, later realized the blunder he made and pulled back in line.

All in all, a freaky incident. But will serve the purpose of adding to experience.
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Old 13th February 2008, 10:20   #49
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It was the flat cab forward one. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while.

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Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR View Post
@dadu, were the trucks long nosed ones? Or "cab forward" national permit (they are painted choclate and white) ones? The long nosed are generally "local" trucks, and will have very bad road sense. But the national permit ones usually have very good drivers and are courteous.
It happenned so quickly that if I try to recollect now, I dont seem to remember the exact sequence and how the vehicle swerved. There was no time to think & react, everything was instinctive.

But yes it has taught me a lesson and as they say, once bitten twice shy, I will be extra careful going forward.

Hope others too learn from this. Trust me, you wouldnt want to get your own experience on this.

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Originally Posted by 1100D View Post
Thank God you are safe.

I dont think ABS would have helped much in this case, ABS prevents wheel lock up only.

Even on the truck drivers part, I think he made the move to the left hearing the horn. Might have thought, you wanted to pass him on the right, later realized the blunder he made and pulled back in line.

All in all, a freaky incident. But will serve the purpose of adding to experience.
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Old 13th February 2008, 11:26   #50
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Originally Posted by dadu View Post
There was no time to think & react, everything was instinctive.
Only driving experience helps you in such a situation and sure, you had that advantage to come out of the mess without any hurt.
Probably that is why they are called accidents, everything happens in fraction of a seconds and there would virtually no time to think. Reaction time would be too narrow to engage brain to help us.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Dadu.
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:08   #51
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR View Post
On this particular stretch of road, 120 is "normal". Visibility is 2 to 3 KM minimum, good roads, no sharp turns, no steep inclines and 3 lanes for yourself.
Apparently in this case the margins were not available. As I pointed out, it is not the absolute speed but the speed difference that counts. If the truckers were doing about 90 kmph, and if the same incident had happened at exactly the same point of time with the Safari at 120 kmph, it would have been a relatively minor emergency. But most likely they were doing about 70 kmph and overtaking them at 120 with little or no margin becomes a risky proposition.
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:15   #52
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Originally Posted by rks View Post
Apparently in this case the margins were not available. As I pointed out, it is not the absolute speed but the speed difference that counts. If the truckers were doing about 90 kmph, and if the same incident had happened at exactly the same point of time with the Safari at 120 kmph, it would have been a relatively minor emergency. But most likely they were doing about 70 kmph and overtaking them at 120 with little or no margin becomes a risky proposition.
I dont quite understand this logic. How come he has less of a margin when the truckers are doing 70 kmph than when they are doing 90 kmph? If the truck were going faster perhaps the chap who was trying to overtake wouldnt have been able to pull out of his manouvre, and dadu wouldnt have been able to scrape through.

I dont think the fact that he was driving a Safari has anything to do with him escaping with minor issues either - if he were driving a sedan he probably would've been able to slow down much faster.

We're here. Dadu has come through relatively unscathed and three cheers to that.
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:20   #53
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Originally Posted by Steeroid View Post
We're here. Dadu has come through relatively unscathed and three cheers to that.
Amen! I wonder when we will ever get through a Street Experiences thread without someone doing a Perry Mason on it!
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:26   #54
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steeroid View Post
I dont quite understand this logic. How come he has less of a margin when the truckers are doing 70 kmph than when they are doing 90 kmph? If the truck were going faster perhaps the chap who was trying to overtake wouldnt have been able to pull out of his manouvre, and dadu wouldnt have been able to scrape through.
The physical margins remain the same regardless of the truckers' speed, i.e., dadu does not have much room for swerving. But if the trucker cut into the Safari's path while at 90 kmph rather than at 70 kmph, obviously that gives dadu more time to react because he is approaching the trucker at a relative speed of 30 kmph rather than 50 kmph. If the trucker could pull out at 90 kmph, he can pull back at the same speed, assuming that the trucker ahead of him is also at close to 90 kmph.
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:39   #55
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@rks, do u think its practically possible to slow down for every vehicle that we overtake for matching the safer overtaking speeds (i.e overtaking a vehicle moving at 70 kmph at 90 kmph).

While traveling at 120 kmph, one will try to maintain that speed until he/she is forced to slow down either by the road or by a vehicle traveling in their lane. So I guess its very difficult to follow this book rule (if its there)

Last edited by Surprise : 13th February 2008 at 12:44.
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:44   #56
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Originally Posted by Surprise View Post
@rks, do u think its practically possible to slow down for every vehicle that we overtake for matching the safer overtaking speeds (i.e overtaking a vehicle moving at 70 kmph at 90 kmph).
rks is a scientist. He goes by theoretical situations and computed values.

The rest of us drive by instinct - it is human to do so, and besides you cannot always compute what the other chap is going to do. The human mind makes decisions based on multiple, quantitative AND qualitative parameters. rks can never agree to something that requires what is called 'fuzzy logic' unless he has a computing model built for those parameters. His computing model will never be able to understand that the driver may be drunk, or sleepy or just plain eccentric - these are things that normal human minds will gauge based on perception.

Last edited by Steeroid : 13th February 2008 at 12:46.
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:46   #57
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After that nocturnal discourse on 'excess & surplus', Steer has got into the habit of feeling the excess and looking for surplus...!

In the next Delhi/NCR meet we shall surely & squarely detox him of this habit..

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Amen! I wonder when we will ever get through a Street Experiences thread without someone doing a Perry Mason on it!
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:48   #58
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Originally Posted by gd1418 View Post
After that nocturnal discourse on 'excess & surplus', Steer has got into the habit of feeling the excess and looking for surplus...!

In the next Delhi/NCR meet we shall surely & squarely detox him of this habit..
Its not Steer that I was referring to GD.....it is RKS lol!
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Old 13th February 2008, 12:52   #59
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Its not Steer that I was referring to GD.....it is RKS lol!
This is completely , but Suman please dont blame gd saab - rks will confuse anyone - even Guruji.

He is the Guru, after all. We must never show disrespect to the Guru, especially the Guru of Chakshu.

Out of interest, Guruji - do you compute the speed of the vehicle you are about to overtake before you overtake him in your mad Scorpio?
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Old 13th February 2008, 13:26   #60
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@Surprise and @Steeroid: I have stated a very elementary principle of safe driving and I am surprised you are having problems with this. We may violate this rule often, but that does not mean that it s wrong. When you approach an overtake at much higher speeds than the overtaken vehicle, you have committed yourself to the overtake a lot earlier than necessary, especially given our erratic traffic. Then you should have enough margins to swerve and a maneuverable vehicle that can swerve at those speeds. In the absence of either, you are taking a big risk.

I hit the highway every week and at good speeds too, and I know what I am talking about. I drive a small, highly maneuverable car and even then I seldom touch 120 kmph on the (supposedly 4-lane) Pune bypass road. There are simply no margins available for doing those speeds, except in small stretches. Doing those speeds in the bigger, heavier, less maneuverable Safari would become even more risky, which is why perhaps most SUV's do not hit such speeds on the Pune bypass road.

On the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, my *average* speed is close to 110 kmph, and top speed is 145-150 kmph. I have seen SUV's hit pretty high speeds and I do not have any complaints about that. So I hope you now get the picture.

Last edited by rks : 13th February 2008 at 13:31.
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