[silversteed]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

BTW which road was this ? I am assuming it was charmadi

NH-7, between Vaikundom and Salem

[denver85]

Originally Posted by silversteed

NH-7, between Vaikundom and Salem

That was a scary one. Is he blind or what ?? Lucky that you saved yourself/that fool from a not-so-good situation.
A small correction NH 47 between Vaikundom and Salem

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by denver85

That was a scary one. Is he blind or what ?? Lucky that you saved yourself/that fool from a not-so-good situation.

Must be deaf, not blind. Scary nevertheless

A small correction NH 47 between Vaikundom and Salem

Aye aye sir

[ZedMae]

Was doing BLR-CHN in the six lane GQ (Hosur-Krishnagiri-Vellore) route. Was driving on the right most lane (near the divider) when an Innova zipped past me in the left lane next to me. Immediately after, saw a dog beginning to cross the road (it entered from the divider side). It crossed my lane and was entering the Innova's lane. I feared for the worst for the dog and starting slowing down. But the dog did a last second manoeuvre and came back to my lane. Applied the brakes, the car swerved slightly to the left but then maintained its composure to pass the dog which went back to the bushes in the divider.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Heights of stupidity:
....

Location: after Vaikundom, about 20km before Salem

The dumb guy crossing the road was looking at the traffic on the other lane, while he is walking across as though he's on a park...

Cmon guys, he was using the zebra crossing atleast! Can't imagine what you would have gone thru in the last 10 seconds. But seriously, have to admire his guts to do that.

The biker had his moments too and it's clearly seen that he wanted to blast this guy.

[josejoseph]

Here in San Jose, California, me & my wife had a near miss experience on Jan 1st after coming from church. We were taking a left on green and I see a lady in a Mazda coming from opposite direction without noticing that she has red signal. I honked couple of times and she stopped right in the middle of the junction few inches away from my car's rear.

That was scary and not a way to start the New Year.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by josejoseph

Here in San Jose, California, me & my wife had a near miss experience on Jan 1st after coming from church. We were taking a left on green and I see a lady in a Mazda coming from opposite direction without noticing that she has red signal. I honked couple of times and she stopped right in the middle of the junction few inches away from my car's rear.

That was scary and not a way to start the New Year.

That's not a good way to start the new year! I've had a similar close shave in Detroit, when a lady (on the phone) in a GMC Yukon (that too a Denali) came barging behind me while i was taking a left on a green, not noticing that it was red for straight traffic. Not a good thing to see a 2 ton SUV getting bigger in the RVM. Oh, she did stop a little ahead of the stop line, on seeing cross traffic. Else i may not have been alive to write this!

[audioholic]

A few years back the Bangalore-Mulbagal NH4 was getting widened which resulted in a lot of debris and piles of mud dumped in the edges of the road. We were returning from our native when my dad got a call and he pulled over to the side. A TATA 407 truck coming from the opposite side, less than a hundred meters away, didnt notice a pile of mud to the edge of the road and since the road was narrow, its front left wheel went over it at a high speed, causing the truck to land on its sides and block the entire road. Had my dad not pulled over, we would have gone head on to the wreck and there was no space across the road to avoid the mess. Since the whole road was blocked, we had to go off the road slightly and continue our journey. That was the closest miss we had.

[Ashkait Kapoor]

Originally Posted by audioholic

....A TATA 407 truck coming from the opposite side, less than a hundred meters away, didnt notice a pile of mud to the edge of the road and since the road was narrow, its front left wheel went over it at a high speed, causing the truck to land on its sides and block the entire road. Had my dad not pulled over, we would have gone head on to the wreck and there was no space across the road to avoid the mess....

Close call there my friend. Glad to hear nobody else was harmed.

My experience; last evening while I was on my way back home from class, less than a km away from my house, there was this altok10 in front of me who had to make a right turn and enter a small lane(probably his house was there) he gave his signal and slowed down while from the opposite side an 800 cab followed by a maximo pick up were approaching, the cab driver generously stopped for the k10 to pass. I was quite close behind the k10 and as soon as the k10 took the right turn the maximo from behind the cab shot out straight towards my car, there was hardly and space for him to fit through the gap and he scrapped my bumper from the front right and still carried on. I was so furious but all I could do was swear on that demented of a driver.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Scary! Looks like a suicide attempt.

Looked like that. Arun, I am posting my comment in the right thread so that your thread isn't threadjacked.

Originally Posted by audioholic

That was just scary. I wonder how he even missed your car. I guess he was severely drunk. Imagine how much guts it must take to cross a busy high way with vehicles, including a bus coming towards him. I dont think any sane man will have so much guts, and walking so calmly. Only C2H5OH can give that strength.

High on "spirits", yea, that's a possibility

...I think it would be overly ideal to stop the car in the middle of a highway at night with traffic moving around you, given that:

1. There was already a bus in the left lane which would block the view of a person wanting to cross the road.
2. Least expect a person to cross a road in that manner. I usually slow down if I see a man on the divider or on the side of the road wanting to cross. But this is insane.
3. Since its on the right lane, we will have a decent number of vehicles tailing us, causing a pile up if we brake suddenly. The idiot will walk away as in Aruns case and we will have to deal with a lot of damages. Again, it is wrong in the ideal world, but our roads are far away from being ideal and hence we cant argue with a group of cars questioning us why we stopped in the middle of a road. If we were to answer, I let a man cross a road safely, I cant imagine where the situation would head to.

I sincerely stop my two wheeler to let pedestrains pass, and I like to see the smile on elders when you stop and let them cross when they expect you to run across them. But in such cases, I have no mercy

You took the words right out of my mind!

If at all I stop for such a "pedestrian" on that highway, and get rear-ended by another vehicle (which is quite possible), I would be blamed and the mob might even take over the 'case'. While I uphold righteousness and being a law-abiding citizen (not this kind though ), I also value the safety of my family.

Originally Posted by lapsi

...I am surprised that you did not notice the zebra crossing even before posting the video. Or possibly you were not aware of the Law regarding zebra crossings.

Thank you for your condescending "enlightenment".

[ashkamath]

I was riding my Duke 390 from Mangalore to my home at Goa on 16th January.i.e. 2 days ago. While I was about 20 or so Kms from Karwar at around 8:45 PM, there is this blind left hand curve and a Maruti omni comes from opposite (for them it is blind right hand curve), the maruti then cuts the road opposite me and goes in a mud road (on my left side) parallel to the highway. I was about 10 meters from the curve as this omni cuts across my path and to my horror I see a bus at high speed behind the Omni also following the Omni towards the mud road ( ploughing me right in the middle) apparently he thought that is the actual road ( as he just came from the blind curve and may be fixated on the Omni tail lamps) and I had to blare the horn continuously and screech the brake and in the last minute he realises his mistake and corrects himself and swerves to his left and passes me full speed about a feet on my right. Even if the driver delayed one sec more, it just would be a fatal mishap involving me. I realised how dangerous tail gating and fixating on the tail lamp of vehicle in front is and brain starts to relax. damn scary stuff. I had to stop the bike, drink some water and move on.

A pictorial depiction of the same below.

[gsurya]

Few months back, on Powai-Kanjurmarg JVLR segment, I was speeding along at about 70-80 kmph on my Chevy Aveo & tried to zip over a 30 degree turn on the road... and my wheels locked.

I felt the car skidding towards the divider but I pulled hard left.. avoided a car narrowly then skidded back right.. then left.. narrowly missed a bus.. but managed to come to a halt about 50-75 meters after the skid began.

Fortunately I was alone, but was truly shaken. Never took turns at that speed ever again. And decided that my next car will surely have ABS, airbags & EBD.

[dean5545]

Have had a couple of near misses.
Event 1 :
Aarey colony road Goregaon East Mumbai
Time:8.00pm
Now for those who don't know this route it's a very badly lit private road with a lot of craters.
I was coming home with my dad. I never use high beams when there is oncoming traffic so I had the low beams on. I noticed a two wheeler coming straight towards me in my lane had a close shave with this guy,I ignored the event and kept driving. After a kilometre or so again one biker does the same thing. Now that sets me thinking what's wrong with the people today.
Then I remembered it's not the people but my car,My right side head light was not functioning so people mistook me for a bike and kept coming closer to me!:o

Event 2
Mumbai-Nashik Expressway
Time 11.30am
I am driving with my family to Nashik. My parents sitting behind and my cousin brother sitting on the front passenger seat. We are all relaxed,I am cruising at 120 onthe right most lane and suddenly I notice a big buffalo jumping out of the bushes and into my lane. I swerve to the left and avoid it.
If there was any vehicle on the adjoining lane I would have to surely hit the buffalo.
After a few kilometres again a dog jumps out of the bushes.I manage to dodge the dog too.

[sarathlal]

Most of the near misses we see here are chilling, and leave us baffled on how close it was each time. But it is very sad to note that most major traffic awareness initiatives somehow miss driving these points to the masses, on the importance of road respect and some common sense.

What can be done to get these messages to the masses?

If we ask any normal road user a question on how many lives that one person has risked till date, might be a awkward.

But to make it easy, lets note down some factors, assign the numbers, and then add up;

• Number of times, the vehicle was stopped abruptly, while on the move, to attend a phone call = a
• Number of times, the vehicle was turned abruptly, while on the move, into a by road from main traffic= b
• Number of times, the vehicle was driven at ridiculously slow speed without giving way to others, just because you wanted to go slow(no, dont call this safe) = c
• Number of times, the vehicle was driven in the opposite lane to jump queue of vehicles waiting for traffic= d
• Number of times, the vehicle was driven through the footpath to jump queue of vehicles waiting for traffic = e
• Number of times red light was breached = f
• Number of times, the vehicle merged into main road from a by road, abruptly= g
• Number of times, jumped across traffic to cross road, while walking = h
• Number of times, footpath was never used for commuting while walking = i
• Number of times, we swayed the bike 'back into position', as soon as we cover half of the vehicle being overtaken = j
• Number of times, the 'no turn' or 'donot enter' was ignored = k

Can we leave some common misconceptions from the calculator like;
1. Bigger vehicle is always wrong - If you jump in front of a trailer moving at 40kmph, there is no way that thing is going to stop without hitting you.
2. That car was traveling 'fast' - It is absolutely ridiculous to take for granted that a car has to be traveling at the same speed of a snailing passenger-less auto. Albeit, speaking of sane speeds here. Slow is safe, but ridiculously slow is not.

Plain addition itself makes the number looks scary.
Now, if we analyze, most of the factors described above are considered 'best practice' for one self and hence widely practiced, even though each such action might kill couple of others.
(Except for the point 'j', where if one does this, and the poor driver of the overtaken vehicle doesn't do some magic, the bike will be under that vehicle within seconds, and then the public can perform some 'actions' on that driver and the vehicle)

Some examples;
One recent accident claimed two lives, both men, in their 20's, riding a bike. The driver of the jeep which was involved in the accident is given a criminal case for causing the deaths. Three lives done with, in a moment, not due to any one of them.
Cause: The car which was going in front of the bike suddenly turned. The bike did an evasive turn and hit the Jeep, the impact turning fatal.
The car driver who might have initiated all this has reached home 'safe', after taking three lives with him/her, maybe without even realizing what he/she had done.
Different papers carry different versions of the story though, so one will never know what happened in real. But many a 'near misses' visible throughout on the roads, points to the indirect cause.

Second eg; being a couple being run over by a lorry.
This happened almost inside the city. There is a downhill road which merge into a junction, where right turn is prohibited. The person riding the bike, slowed and took the prohibited right as short cut, when the signal to go straight was still green.
The lorry never anticipated this and the momentum caused the flick; Two lives were lost there, with the third one of the lorry driver into an unknown entity.

Third eg;
Take any divided highway, and every now and then, can see a fully packed passenger bus traveling at full speed on the opposite side of the allowed traffic. Had seen this on numerous occasions in the NH 7, where you can see a rusty overflowing passenger bus, screaming full speed through the right lane towards you, heads on! Given the road structure, it takes some time to realize that, that thing is indeed on your side, and not on the other side of the road.

We see a lot of awareness activities going on, as how speed could kill, alcohol could kill etc. At the same time, there are some other actions, that each one of us do, thinking that, it is either ok to do so, or is the safest one for 'us'.

How to change these? It looks impossible, but attempting to see if some sort of awareness can be instilled, as, there need to be some media through which, we have to spread the word. That one law we break however trivial it might sound, could kill some one else. And then go on to live the life, without even knowing the number of children who became orphaned due to that one selfish act on road.

If you are not in a hurry, lets not stop the rest of the world.
Plan slightly ahead for the variations in your journey. Use indicators to warn others of your variations.
Follow lane discipline and make yourselves visible on the road.

Finally, please be considerate while on road, and think not only about us, but also for the safety of others.

[joybhowmik]

The most recent experience of a near-miss was on Yamuna Expressway (YEW) on December 25, 2013 at around 7:30 AM
Traffic was very sparse i.e. about 1 vehicle per 2 km.
I was cruising at 100 kmph , when I saw a truck ahead of me doing perhaps 60 kmph. I turned on my right indicator, and after a brief sideways glance at the right ORVM, started to move to the passing lane without checking my blind spot.
Next thing I hear is a yell of a horn as something blue flashes by on my right. It was a porsche being driven at least at 150+ kmph.
I swerved to the left immediately, avoiding a near collision.
I am told most accidents are caused. In this case, a combination of factors were at play.
Vehicle density being low, I 'assumed' there was plenty of space for me to easily move to the right lane,and did not really need to check blind spot.
Secondly visibility that day was not perfect, so I must have missed seeing the fast approaching porsche.
Had I been a fraction of a second quicker to move into the right lane, it could have been disaster.