[Turrrb0]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

The barricade had been put up by Dindigul police. To ask for any official to take note itself will be a monumental task. To get them to acknowledge their error is never going to happen let alone making sure that they don't spring another murderously negligent barricade again.

I don't know but usually when you see that flashing amber light and 40km/h speed limit on the median it means there is a break in the divider and almost 100% of the time barricades are placed there. No offense, but IMO you should have been anticipating that and should have slowed down immediately after spotting the flashing light at the least.

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

The truck was lining up to overtake a slow moving tanker. I intuitively nudged slightly closer to be in a position to observe and act better. My plan was to follow through if the road ahead is clear after the truck had overtaken the tanker.

The shock came when the truck ducked in to the other lane in front of the tanker in a jiffy to avoid a single barricade ahead. I quickly glanced at the IRVM and the ORVM. I saw that the tanker guy was giving way but I couldn't trust his maneuver and decided to brake hard. By pure miracle, the car came to a halt from 70kmph in such a short stretch of rain washed road. I usually try to duck in behind the tanker under normal circumstances.
What I have learnt is that even when we are doing the right thing, we need God's pure grace to stay alive on our roads.

I would term this as a "near miss" at best. Without a doubt in my mind, the fault was yours, sorry. You had already encountered a barricade at the beginning of the video. So, one should expect more such. There is a 40kmph speed marker before the next barricade and there is a flashing warning light as well. You should have slowed down.

As a safe driving practice, NEVER follow another vehicle during an overtaking maneuver unless you have clear vision in front. Even then, it is not preferred. Let the vehicle in front of you complete the overtaking before you make your move.

[the_skyliner]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

What I have learnt is that even when we are doing the right thing, we need God's pure grace to stay alive on our roads.

Looks like you were not paying enough attention. Amber light, tanker applying brakes and the truck too applying brakes were all signs of obstruction ahead and you ended up increasing the speed.

It is a pure stroke of luck that got you out of it without any incident.

Drive safe, mate.

[Nalin1]

Yes! All the posts in reaction to the video have covered all aspects. You did not go on the defensive when the truck indicated. All the more defensive since you never had a full view ahead.

"The lesser the view ahead, the more defensive we need to be" is the mantra.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

I saw that the tanker guy was giving way but I couldn't trust his maneuver and decided to brake hard. By pure miracle, the car came to a halt from 70kmph in such a short stretch of rain washed road. I usually try to duck in behind the tanker under normal circumstances. But the tanker driver to anticipated and took to shoulder while braking. This clammed me in the path with the barricade ahead and increasing the risk of colliding with the tanker If I were to swing to the left to avoid that barricade.

You were too close to the truck ahead. The tanker driver was sharp and had moved to the shoulder to give you space the way most decent long distance commercial drivers do. Your action could have been dangerous for the motorcyclist following the tanker.


Rahul

[COMMUTER]

Thank you all for pitching in. The objective of my post is served. I want others to be wary of something that caught me off-guard after having driven 80,000 km. I have put almost all my mileage in all night drives.

I agree that this had been sloppy on my part and that this is not a freak incident.

I have a few takeaways from this discussion too. Slower speed is always the better safety option. Distance between the vehicle in the front must not have been infringed upon either, that is something that I will pay more attention to in the following years to come. I must have grown too trusty of the truck drivers in not expecting them to spring surprises. That 40 Kmph sign, I must have missed it in the oncoming glare. For a road that is supposed to handle 120 kmph, it must be made a bit more conspicuous but that is a discussion for the next decade. To allow the vehicle to complete the overtake is something I follow with faster and smaller vehicles. I will start considering the lorry in the same category from now on. I used to avoid nosing through the gap by letting the general car traffic flow past me. I maintain 80 kmph for this purpose. I must be a bit more wary of these break dancing trucks too in future.

My driving pattern, a few months back, was doing 800km(36hours)800kms trip every two weeks. During this time, I used to make it a point not to fight even a slightest hint of drowsiness. I used to immediately pull over and doze off. I used to focus a lot on the siesta before the trip too. My pattern had changed to 200km+200km trip every week now. This must have made me push on unnecessarily thinking that pulling over to doze off will be too tedious for these shorter trip. The siesta had suffered too.

It is usually minor things that align themselves with unimaginable coincidence to foment a disaster.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

I agree that this had been sloppy on my part and that this is not a freak incident.

I have a few takeaways from this discussion too.

Your willingness to listen and take points from others is really great. A good reminder to us all not to think we have stopped learning or can't improve.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

That was a typical 2+2 lane Tollway. The truck was lining up to overtake a slow moving tanker. I intuitively nudged slightly closer to be in a position to observe and act better.

The shock came when the truck ducked in to the other lane in front of the tanker in a jiffy to avoid a single barricade ahead..

The barricade had been put up by Dindigul police.

That was close - real close. I could sense your angst as you repeated a hundred times 'thanks to the God' in Tamil (Nanri Nanri)
Mercifully you escaped unscathed. I checked the footage many times as others here have done. Looks like you leaned on your Guardian Angel way above than necessary.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

Thank you all for pitching in. The objective of my post is served. I want others to be wary of something that caught me off-guard after having driven 80,000 km. I have put almost all my mileage in all night drives.

I agree that this had been sloppy on my part and that this is not a freak incident.

I have a few takeaways from this discussion too. Slower speed is always the better safety option. Distance between the vehicle in the front must not have been infringed upon either, that is something that I will pay more attention to in the following years to come. I must have grown too trusty of the truck drivers in not expecting them to spring surprises.

I'm talking with 27 years of driving experience since 1992, of which 18 years 1997 to 2013 years (both included) and 2018 have been 60,000 km plus. Many days are like something between 120 to 350 km in one direction a meeting and a drive back.
Total usage of my cars from my purchase date to date I hand over to my marketing staff has exceeded 11 Lakh km. In all theses years I've had a total of 3 accidents.

1 I was on motorcycle in 2006, when I was approaching a highway junction with a signal, I was in middle lane at about 60, and RH signal turned red, a Honda city stopped for RH turn. I was passing it from left and a lady in Alto overtook me from LH moved to middle lane and braked hard. I had no space to go, moved to extreme RH, and tried to take the gap between stopped Honda City and divider. Hit the car's RH wing mirror with my left arm, and my crash guard scrapped the RH door and fender of the car.
2 Was on my way to Goa for a vacation, I was not driving but sitting next to my driver in my Innova. We just crossed Satara and were on a slope, with a KSRTC Volvo ahead of us. There was a Container trailer ahead doing about 60. he moved to LH and waved bus ahead. Bus happily overtook him, and the driver probably happy that a truck had changed lane and given him space to go ahead did the same. Overtook the trailer, achieving 80 or so in the process , used LH indicator to change lanes, and waved us ahead. We were in process of overtaking the bus, and suddenly a tractor with empty two trailers took a U turn in front of both of us. The tractor crossed, but we and bus parallel to us both braking at the maximum possible hit one trailer each.
3 Was driving my VW Polo, and the link rod between Rack ball joint and tie rod fractured.
I don't fully blame the car here. I had earlier run over a fallen tailgate, and it could have damaged the part, though the engine guard was not damaged.


Speed does not kill, lack of visibility and speeding when you do not have visibility kills, and lastly mechanical problems, your own or other vehicles do kill.


Look at your video again. At second 57 the truck ahead of you brakes for a fraction of a second, but the driver seeing the tanker also brake and start moving to the LH in his wing mirror, floors and cutting across the tanker moves ahead.
That's where your reflexes should have realized a approaching problem.


Rahul

[Chetan_Rao]

Take a look at this one.

I don't overtake the slow-moving Indica at the start of the clip as I have to turn left in ~100m, so I get behind him instead and turn on the left indicator. The left turn is sharp and uneven due to an elevation difference of ~2ft (drain culvert underneath) and there's potholes near the kerb due to recent digging activity so I need to leave a few feet of space from the kerb.

At 23:31:08, the Dzire cab that barges in on my left at considerable speed had inches to spare from the culvert, and if I was 10 meters further ahead and turning in, he could've very well flipped me over due to the gradient of the turn.

I hope he doesn't kill someone when his dumb luck finally runs out.

https://youtu.be/h9PWq2MbFJo

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

there's potholes near the kerb due to recent digging activity so I need to leave a few feet of space from the kerb.

If you let your car ride over the potholes, there wouldn't have been room enough for a car to squeeze through.

In any case, the Dzire was way too quick and rash to squeeze through like that.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by swissknife

If you let your car ride over the potholes, there wouldn't have been room enough for a car to squeeze through....

I was slow, indicating a turn from a 100m back and not making any sudden moves. He had the choice, and given how far back he came from, the space to swing to the other side if he wanted to.

That spot is dangerous also because the nearer edge of the left turn has the culvert sticking out (and a couple of unscientific bollard-like protrusions to protect that edge from idiots like these), and the far edge ends abruptly in the actual culvert which is about 4 feet high.

Even if I wasn't there at all, this guy was still inches from disaster, of course he probably got a kick out of showing me how it's done.

[Turrrb0]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

At 23:31:08, the Dzire cab that barges in on my left at considerable speed had inches to spare from the culvert, and if I was 10 meters further ahead and turning in, he could've very well flipped me over due to the gradient of the turn.

What a nutter! Looks like he's a rally driver out of a job and practicing his skills on the road.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

When two 'folks' meet on road face to face:

If it was me, I really really would not have wanted to stay alongside that bus. Would have dropped back. As for auto driver: not that he had any choice if he wanted to live, but it reminds me of what one of my driving instructors told me about not being the meat in the sandwich.

I was also thinking you could have got the bus licence plate, but I don't suppose Kerala bus drivers ever get prosecuted for their every-day stunts.

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I was also thinking you could have got the bus licence plate, but I don't suppose Kerala bus drivers ever get prosecuted for their every-day stunts.

Oh, my bad for not mentioning. Apologies.
The video is not mine.

It is from 'aana vandi fan' page. That's a group who follows the ksrtc buses.