[Swaraj!!]

Happened to me back in 2006. I was on I-20 near the Georgia-Alabama border moving west. This stretch is often free and a notorious haunt for speedsters. I wonder if things have changed recently.

I was in the middle lane (3 lane interstate) doing close to 90 MPH. around 30 odd yards ahead of me there was another SUV doing about the same speed. We came up to a 16-wheeler (tractor-trailer) truck doing 80+ (!!!!) in the middle lane and overtook it one after the other, returning back to the middle lane. Suddenly, another SUV came up from behind doing well over a 100 MPH, overtook both of us and swerved and braked rapidly in the middle lane. Both I and the middle car infront of me also braked evently stopping hardly a foot from each other. The I (and my friends in the car) recalled the truck behind us and turned around in horror. I think some of us were also screaming.

The truck didnt brake, which would have been useless anyway. But the driver, thankfully, had enough skill to swerve into the right lane and just about avoid hitting us by a matter of inches. We watched it swerve around half a dozen times ahead of us and then only heaved a sigh of relief.

We watched the driver ahead of us exit and move towards the speeding car (probably for blasting him off) but thought better of joining him and drove off. I probably never have been that scared ever, even during an actual crash.

[vineethvazhayil]

Happened to me in May this year. I was driving back from Connecticut to Rhode Island one evening on Interstate 95 and had pulled out to a stop with a scenic lookout near Mystic, CT. Now it is on an uphill section of the road and I had stopped when the traffic was a little light. After a 15 minute stop we pulled back on to the road to an empty right lane (with a giant semi a distance away). I floored the Subaru but it wont go fast enough on an uphill and I see the semi pull up closer and closer. I thought he wouldn't be able to slow down in time nor would I accelerate fast enough. Somehow he came real close and I had a near miss experience. He flashed his headlights. Was a scary experience.
Another time, about 2 years back, in Dallas - one late evening in summer when the Sun is at a very low angle behind me, I was waiting at a traffic light and the traffic lights were barely visible due to the bright sun. I had to take a left turn and as soon as the light turned green (which I could barely see), as normal practice, I thought the left turn lights come on. However, only the straight going traffic had green and I turned into traffic that was already moving. Every one honked and braked and I somehow weaved around traffic and saved myself!

[Santoshbhat]

I've survived one near miss experience, which happened about six or seven years ago.

We were driving back from Udupi to Bangalore. The sun had fully set and it was an unusually dark night. The time was something like 9 pm or so. We were about 100 kms from Bangalore and yet to join the TUmkur road. THe road was a two lane road with no streetlights or those reflector thingies. I was following a slow moving lorry for quite a while as there was a continuous stream of oncoming traffic and could not get a safe overtaking opportunity. The road was pretty straight and not curvy. I waited patiently till what I thought was a window of opportunity. A vehicle coming from the opposite side seemed to be some distance away and moving slowly. So I stepped out from behind the lorry to pass it. The slow moving vehicle from opposite side was actually not coming from the opposite side of the main road, but from a side road that branched off from the main road . THe main road infact curved left. I realised this by the time I had fully committed to the overtaking manoeuvre and was about 2/3 past the truck. THen I got the shock of my life when I saw the headlights of a truck coming from out of the curve and straight on to me.

I panicked and braked as hard as I could. I still can't remember what happened for the next two seconds. My car skidded and swerved and miraculously the next thing I know I am in front of the truck I intended to overtake and had avoided the head on collision with the oncoming truck. THe passnegers in my car ( my parents and aunt) had dozed off and woke up on hearing the skid. They just did not realize what had happened and went back to sleep. I was still shaking.

I have a policy where I never overtake in curves and never overtake unless I have full vision of a clear road ahead. THe slow moving vehicle coming from the small road misled me into thinking that the hgihway was straight. I was actually almost past the lorry in front of me and if had not panicked , and acclerated, I would have easily completed the overtaking. But the shock of realising the it was a curved road and seeing the headlights of the lorry coming at me made me jam the brakes. The car I was in was a 2003 Corolla without ABS and the brakes locked up and the car skidded a long way. I don't know how my subconscious brain was able to steer the car from the right lane to the left without even touching either vehicle. Sometimes I wonder if the car was equipped with ABS what would have happened? The road was not wet and nor was it slippery. If the ABS kicked in and helped to stop the vehicle in its tracks, I don't think I would be alive to write this post today. Someone up there wanted to me live I guess.

I am attaching a small sketch to show the relative position of vehicles that night. Pardon my drawing skills.

[gupta_chd]

It happened to me during my college days. I was going back to home from college on friday as Sat-Sun were holidays. My college was around 8 km off the main highway and those 8 kms were 7-8 ft wide village road only. I was coming through local bus on that road and sitting at window seat. Bus was barely doing 30-40 KMPH.

Dont know what strikes me, there is a big flower bush outside the window and i decide to pluck one. I was on the rear side of bus. Suddenly bus driver screams, who is that fool. I immediately pull my arm back which was fully outside (around 2 ft) fearing just embarassement and sensing nothing else. As soon as I pulled in back, an electric pole passes barely 3-4 inches from the bus. If there was even a split second of delay, my arm would have gone. That incident still sends shivers down my spine although it was good 11 years back.

[carzone]

This was some 6 months back. Clock was ticking around 5:30PM and I was driving at a sedate speed of around 60kph on a two lane road(without divider) somewhere near Boisar. There is no one in front of me. I am approaching a turn when I see a truck coming from the opposite direction is overtaking another truck and all this happening on a blind turn. As soon as I see the truck, my hands press the horn, my press the brake, and I turn left and go below the road and come to a halt. The truck passes so close to me that if I had not gone off the road completely, the right part of my car would have been smashed. Stopped the car and waited for some time for that effect to swell in.

It was around 2008 when we had visited Rajasthan in a hired Qualis. It was some highway and was well paved with two lanes on either side of the divider. The driver is driving sedately on the left lane. There is a truck on the left lane, and the driver takes it to the right lane to overtake the truck. As he takes the right lane, he sees another car speeding at us in the wrong direction in that lane. The driver gets the car back in the lane just in time so as to avoid the crash. We all were left wondering that what a car is doing in the right most lane opposite to the flow of traffic. Going a little ahead, we see a board mentioning a diversion, even though there was no work being carried on on the other side. It was one close shave and the reflexes of the driver saved us that day.

This was something about 9-10 years back. I might be around 9-10 years at that time. Me, mom and dad had been to Udaipur for a trip. While returning, the tickets of our train journey did not get confirmed or something of that sort, which forced us to get home by a taxi. We met a person who was traveling to Mumbai and he offered us a lift. It was night time, don't recollect the time, we were traveling on some state highway, when the lights of oncoming traffic blinded the driver and our car went off the road. The car would have overturned if it was not for a tree. The car was lying turned towards the left with the support of the tree. Mom and dad were asleep then, but I was awake. I did see the lights of the oncoming traffic in my eyes and that was the reason the driver lost the control of the car. A passerby omni and a truck helped us to get the car out and back on the road. There were no injuries to any of us, and the car was also in condition. The same driver dropped us to Mumbai and refused to accept any money as well. Years have passed by, but the scene is still fresh in my mind.

[anjan_c2007]

Today's shocking incident on a Nagpur road prompted me to start such a thread. It was almost an accident but somehow it was not!
I had taken out my 1987 Maruti 800 for the daily driver's job, parking my Scorpio at home for the past two days. As I was driving home for lunch, on a narrow stretch of the city road, I found something strange happening. An overloaded Bajaj three wheeler was climbing uphill (Seminary Hills Road), while I was descending down. Three bikers perhaps tired of following the 3 wheeler, were overtaking it. A Maruti Ritz (with the windows rolled up) attempted to overtake all the four (one three wheeler and three bikes). In the process the speeding Ritz went almost to the extreme right corner of the road.I was descending on my 800. It was luckily not a blind corner, but the view from more than 100 metres was clear. I put on my car headlights and braked to a full stop.The Ritz was approaching and a man in his early 20's was at the wheel. Seeing the windows rolled up, I signaled to the idiot and expressed to him in sign language as to whether there was any brain within his head. He saw me but moved on.
Usually with my Scorpio, I take liberties to move to the right of the road in case of extreme emergencies and the oncoming traffic gives way. But with the 800 I am extremely defensive as it is a frail car.
I would like my fellow members to share their experiences of how they have averted accidents from taking place.
Such idiots are aplenty and I am sure we read through such threads, posts and literature on traffic safety and also share experiences.But such idiots, I am sure keep miles away from adding to their knowledge about safety and regulations (doubt if they have any such knowledge at all? ).

[SHANKY11]

I can recall an incident back in 2006, when I was on a trip to Rishikesh from Delhi. We were four guys on two bikes. On our return journey, my friends on the other bike, were a bit ahead of us. It was a two-lane highway with no dividers. My friend tried to overtake a scorpio from the right. The scorpio driver, maybe got aggravated seeing a bike overtaking him, and he increased his speed. In the meanwhile, my friend was riding full throttle at about 107 kmph and there was no way he could overtake the scorpio. There was a car right behind his bike, so he could not slow down and return to his lane. A UP roadways bus was nearing them (though it was too far when they started overtaking) from the opposite side. he was really pushing the bike hard but I guess thats the best a pulsar 150 with pillion can do. Miraculously, the scorpio slowed a bit and my friend got the opportunity to overtake it within 2-3 seconds of the bus crossing them.

My friends stopped a little ahead, in a totally shocked condition, while narrating the incident. To this day, my friend, who was riding pillion says that he saw the scorpio driver take his foot off the accelerator.

Now, when I look back, I try to understand that whose fault was it, was it my friend, who took a bad judgement call, or the scorpio driver, who was full of ego that he decided to not let the bike pass in the first place, or the car behind them, who ideally should have waited for the first vehicle to overtake and then change lanes to overtake. Its actually hard to understand.

[deathwalkr]

A smidgen of fault on every party in that scenario but onus falls on self since in case something goes wrong no harm would come to the other 2 parties in the picture. In an ideal world, the scorpio would have let your friend overtake, the car behind would have kept ample distance in case your friend wanted to get back into lane and more significantly everyone would have been driving at the speed limit and no harm would have happened.

[balajird]

This happened ten years back, when me and two of my friends decided to go for a short trip to a temple that was about 100 Kms away from my home. Me and one of my friend were in my splendor while the third person was on his boxer, we started early (around 5:30 AM) to beat the heat and traffic. At around 7 AM, I see that the boxer guy started moving from left to right towards the opposite lane (this is a single lane road) and a truck was approaching on the opposite lane, we were like and were shouting at him but due to the distance, he wasn't hearing us. At the last moment, he suddenly swerved to left and missed the truck by a second or two, immediately after this incident, we stopped by a nearby tea stall to have tea and refresh ourselves. Got to know that he dozed off as the cool breeze was playing lullaby for him. Phew, that one was one just-miss experience i will never forget.

[GTO]

Had taken my folks out last night. I'm driving, Dad's in the front seat and Mom at the back.

We're driving north toward Cadell Road and just pass Siddhi Vinayak Temple (on our right). If you are familiar with the area, you'll know that the road is wide enough, but there isn't a divider.

Being late at night, traffic is light and flowing smoothly. Suddenly, and for no understandable reason, a Maruti Eeco cab from the opposite side jumps into my lane. We're driving face to face with hardly a couple of meters between us. In a split second, I swerved hard & sharp to the left to avoid him. God bless the new 225 rubber that kept the car in control. I doubt the well-worn OEM rubber would have been able to hold such severe weight transfer. Luckily, there wasn't any car or bike to my left.

Whoever was driving the Eeco was 100% drunk. There wasn't any reason for him to move right into the face of oncoming traffic, and without even his headlamps on!!

While we got away without incident, Mom & Dad (both, Senior Citizens) were quite shaken up by the nasty + unavoidable swerve.

Unfortunate that we share the road with such idiots. Drive safe guys.

[Added_flavor]

Originally Posted by SHANKY11

Now, when I look back, I try to understand that whose fault was it, was it my friend, who took a bad judgement call, or the scorpio driver, who was full of ego that he decided to not let the bike pass in the first place, or the car behind them, who ideally should have waited for the first vehicle to overtake and then change lanes to overtake. Its actually hard to understand.

The rule is to give way to the faster vehicle overtaking you, irrespective of the size of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the Scorpio driver's ego is to be blamed here! Also the other car who was tailgating your friend's bike is at fault!

However, did the tailgating car pull out of the maneuver? Or was he also able to complete it?

[no_boundaries]

This happened 4 years ago near the Kogilu Cross on Devanhalli Road, Bangalore.
At about 9p.m when I was driving to drop off a friend at the airport, the signal turned green near kogillu cross while I was a short distance from the signal. In order to not get stuck I decided not to decelerate and cruise through. Just when I was crossing the intersection a TATA Sumo decided to cut me off from the opposite side taking a sharp right turn to cross my path. Normally when I reach any signal I'm cautious to look all sides all though I have the right of way but this guy with one headlamp working and no blinkers scared the hell out of me and caught me by surprise. I panicked and slammed the brakes and poor Swifty could not handle it and decided to slide on the road with a locked steering missing the monster green sumo by inches before coming to a halt. I pulled over to regain my nerve and the Sumo had disappeared into those crowded by lanes. Thanked God and Moved on and swore never to take any signal for granted again.

[speedsatya]

Way back in 2001 . My first highway drive in the Zen to Shirdi . I had like an idiot polished even the rubber beadings on the front windshield !! 3 am in the morning and it was drizzling lightly, I turn on the wipers and polish smudges my windscreen . The wipers actually blur my vision so much that I can hardly see anything in the rain . I still continue to drive ,when I realise that I cannot . I stop the car and see what :O ...a dug up section of the road about 3-4 car lengths ahead of me with a diversion signboard !!!
This can easily qualify as a near death experience .

Another incident I remember was me overtaking a bus on a curve on the NH63 only to see a speeding dumper truck ahead of me. My SVM hit the edge of the dumper trucls front bumper but somehow avoided a 3 vehicle crash .

I also as a rule never overtake on curves even if the driveer ahead of me waves me ahead . I pass the vehicle only when I can see the road clearly ahead . Sometimes , a zero accident record makes way for over confidence and we get into close calls like this .

[carfreak77]

Today witnessed a very near miss. I was driving at 4pm on the road connecting Mehboob studio to Lilavati, and there was this Mumbai Darshan bus who decided to take a U-turn right after Mehboob studio. Everybody waited in my lane. There was some space on the left through which a Dzire squeezed through and then floored the throttle. He sped past the bus (who was still in the middle of the U-turn) and suddenly slammed the brakes and swerved. I saw there was this man casually walking from left to right behind the bus. He was guaranteed drunk. The stupid Dzire driver almost ran over the drunkard.
As traffic started to move again, this drunkard even tried to open the door of another car in front of me.
It was extremely scary to see the Dzire come within a centimeter of the guy. Guys, please remember to lock all doors of your car at all times and proceed with caution when overtaking a bus or big vehicle as you never know who can pop out from nowhere!

[amitwiz1]

This happened in 2008 on NH4. We had to drive down to Chennai from Bangalore in a hurry at night. Since we didn't want to drive ourselves we hired a chauffeur to drive our Chevy Optra. The time was around 2.30AM. A large car-transporter truck was taking a U-turn from the opposite direction into the direction I was travelling. The truck was halfway into the turn and hence we could see no headlights! The driver slammed on the brakes when he noticed, and also avoided the wheels from locking. Thanks to his technique the car halted a mere millimeters from the truck and had all of us scared to death from the shock. Needless to say, I kept my eyes wide open the rest of the way and the speed was restricted to 80km/h too.

Phew!