[MX6]

Only time I had a concentration lapse while driving was, when I was driving from Roanoke to Blacksburg. Around 3 in the morning, I was urging my cousin not to sleep in the front passenger seat and she blissfully snored to glory.
I was bleary eyed and could notice a board stating rest area around 2 odd miles away. I wanted to pull in to the rest area and take a break. Don't realise what happened next and I woke up hearing my tire on the lane separating reflectors. I found myself next to an 18 wheeler dangerously close, and was shocked. I put my warning lights and noticed another board stating rest area was around 750 odd feet, so hit the brakes, as luckily there was nothing behind me and moved in to the exit ramp to pull in to the rest area. My cousin was oblivious to what happened and was peacefully sleeping.
I nudged her saying don't sleep. She woke up and retorted, I'm not sleeping.
I asked her, "Then why didn't you scream".
I sat there for over an hour contemplating what could have happened. Made a resolve never to push myself even if the next rest area is a few miles ahead. Plan the trip in such a way that it becomes a breeze. 8 years hence, I think of this incident and laugh it off. But it's a grim reminder that a couple of minutes at high speeds can make man and metal mangled!

[prince_pervez]

^^Thats close and dangerous man! Thank fully nothing happened. Yeah the roads are plain and boring specially the Freeways, interstates etc. Except towards Pittsberrg where there are many ups and downs and the cops don't bother anyone much because of the slopes.

Anyway, this happened to me day before. I was driving since my other colleagues did not have a license, and I happened go through a turnpike/toll road. It was a boring drive with not too much activity in the car. I pulled near the booth and stretched my hand for the ticket. I could not reach it. I don't remember when I slotted in 'P' but I shifted myself a far as towards the window, but still could not reach it. I opened the door and put one leg out w/o realising that the other was on the accelerator. And I revved the engine flooring the accerator. I realised that and pulled my foot of the gas pedal. I was shocked and so were my colleagues. One guy in the car behind said, "You have no Idea how many times people have flown and wrecked this way". I am thankful to God that unknowingly I slotted into 'P'. It is a lesson for a lifetime.

[mayurpalav]

BHPian's - Had this encounter a few months back, wanted to confirm with you guys if anybody of you have had his experience. I was travelling towards Vailankanni from Bangalore, and this was the second consecutive day of driving fro me since I was driving from Mumbai. I was the lone driver and was driving after a good night's sleep at Chitradurga.
The road conditions were good and the weather was cloudy, visibility near perfect. I was overtaking a bus from the right hand side and was doing so with proper cauiton as I didn't notice any vehicle heading towards our direaction. I was halfway through when I see headlights and there was this this silver grey Santro heading from the opposite direction. I absolutely did not see it before the attempt to overtake the bus. Since the Santro wasn't too close to the bus, I could overtake easily however I shudder to think of it if he hadn't blinked the headlights.

Has this ever happenend with any of you ?
I COULD not see the silver/grey santro at all...
Is it because the colour gels with the road and the surrounding shadows of trees ?

Lapse of concentration.......Maybe Maybe not.......

Your views....

[airguitar]

This was during my newbie driver days, on my first long drive, I parked the car a good 2-3 feet outside the stop line trying to beat the amber ( but couldn't ) near horamavu junction. Traffic started from the other direction ( perpendicular to the car ), one of those private buses ( not the travel kind, but the local transport for rural areas type ) zipped past my car, with the urchin manning the bus at the rear whistling the bus away. There were just a few seconds to decide to reverse my car ( there was a bus behind me ), but I failed to judge it in time and the bus merrily ripped my bumper and the fender. I was told by the traffic police that it was my fault for stopping outside the line ( signal jump he said ) and would not take any more discussion on that. Baptism by fire. Lesson well remembered till today.

[wanderernomad]

Around 15 days back was driving behind an Alto about 20 meters separating us. It was a small side lane and hence the speed was around 30kmph. I was trying to adjust something on the stereo and suddenly out of the corner of my eye saw a shadow looming on the windscreen. By instinct slammed the brakes even before I looked up and saw me almost on the rear bumper of the Alto who had come to a halt in the middle of the road. The tyres screeched and then saw the horrified looks on their faces. Hopefully they wont be stopping in the middle of the roads anymore. But lesson learnt never ever take your eyes off the road no matter what, even if it is just for a second, cos things change rapidly on our roads.

[sterlingjames]

today morning as the traffic was crawling along near the SRP tools signal, saw a Pulsar rider with a girl tightly clinging to him making some heroic moves weaving in and out of traffic.
suddenly the guy lost control and rammed straight into a stationary Honda CityZXi. what was funny was the shocked expression on the rider's face just before the spill. reason was the girl had her mobile phone on vibrator mode and was holding it against his stomach when the phone had apparently rung!
as i watched the girl pick herself up and get a rotten look from the pulsar rider, the look on the Honda City guy's face was nowhere near funny(more of a surprised look), because the traffic was so tight and there was no way someone could come rushing and lose control. i am sure he gave the 2-wheeler jerk a good earfull!

[simplyself]

The one time I regret was when I was asleep at the wheel....the car hit the retainer wall of a culvert, the wall, about 15 feet long, was damaged entirely, and car toppled into the canal underneath. I was alone, was hurt slightly, car was damaged but repairable. I thank the stars for it was Amby and I didn't ram into oncoming vehicle.

Lessons learnt were :- not to fall asleep at wheel (which I still didnt learn well) and not to trust the quality of the public works!!!!

Apart from that, I never had any scratch.

[bkishore_77]

Originally Posted by mayurpalav

The road conditions were good and the weather was cloudy, visibility near perfect. I was overtaking a bus from the right hand side and was doing so with proper cauiton as I didn't notice any vehicle heading towards our direaction. I was halfway through when I see headlights and there was this this silver grey Santro heading from the opposite direction. I absolutely did not see it before the attempt to overtake the bus. Since the Santro wasn't too close to the bus, I could overtake easily however I shudder to think of it if he hadn't blinked the headlights.

Has this ever happenend with any of you ?
I COULD not see the silver/grey santro at all...
Is it because the colour gels with the road and the surrounding shadows of trees ?

I can relate this incident to the similar experience I had. It was 11'o clock on a cloudy morning and I was overtaking a slow moving truck in the Hasan - Belur(undivided) highway. I could see a KSRTC bus approaching approaching us in a safe distance with headlights on. Just as I was completing my overtaking manoeuvre I was bit surprised to see another KSRTC bus which was almost completing the overtaking of the KSRTC bus which had the headlights on. Though we both completed the overtaking comfortably, I was wondering what would have happened if the overtake was a close affair.

So my take of the incident is, I failed to observe the KSRTC bus which was overtaking the KSRTC bus which had headlights on since my attention was drawn towards the bus which had the headlights on. The fact that the bus which was overtaking did not have the headlights on where as the bus which was being overtaken had the headlights on dint help the matter.

It just goes onto show why headlights are mandatory even during day in some of the western countries.

BTW, Mayur, the color of the KSRTC bus in the front is pale yellow.

[mayurpalav]

Originally Posted by bkishore_77

BTW, Mayur, the color of the KSRTC bus in the front is pale yellow.

@BKishore - Agreed, Pale Yellow bus but in your case you never saw the bus (Correct me If I am wrong), since the said bus was overtaking another bus.

In my case, I couldn't see the car. It seemed to have mereged with the road itself, only when he flshed his headlights did I come to know of the car.

Cheers
MP

[GTO]

Originally Posted by simplyself

Lessons learnt were :- not to fall asleep at wheel

Everyone knows that . I think the lesson to be learnt would be, get proper rest before a drive. I hate hitting the road without having gotten good sleep the night before. Also, remember take a break every two hours, step outside and get a stretch / cuppa tea / whatever. This will greatly help you maintain concentration levels.

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by GTO

I think the lesson to be learnt would be, get proper rest before a drive. I hate hitting the road without having gotten good sleep the night before. Also, remember take a break every two hours, step outside and get a stretch / cuppa tea / whatever. This will greatly help you maintain concentration levels.

Couldn't agree more. If you are one of the guys who does last minute packing and vehicle checks then you are bound to sleep late and you can forget about waking up early and driving, unless you have a driver. Minimum 5.30 - 6 hours rest is a must. Apart from that regular breaks help a lot.

[rudradeep]

Originally Posted by simplyself

Lessons learnt were :- not to fall asleep at wheel

This happened to me when I was driving down from Norwalk to the JFK Airport to catch a flight back to India.

I had gone to the US to complete a project and after three hectic months was finally coming back. As with all projects, there was a ton of work to be completed before the final delivery and it led to a late night. So after a 4 hour sleep, I was driving down to the JFK Airport (about a 70 Mile drive). After about an hour of driving, I reached the Merritt Parkway Turnpike to find a huge slow moving queue in the cash counters. After about 15 minutes in this queue, I somehow managed to fall asleep and and the car slowly moved forward and kissed the bumper of this huge SUV in front of me. I awoke with a startle and profusely apologized to the lady driving the SUV. She just took a look at her rear bumper and not finding even a single scratch, just waved me on.

This incident scared me sufficiently to keep me awake till I reached the airport without any further incident.

[silversteed]

A few years back, when I was back home after completing my course, we went to town for dining out. On the way, there's a busy intersection. There was a Sumo or something, with luggage on top, in front of us and a bus to the left. The last glimpse i got of the signal, was when it was green. But couldn't see the timer as my view was blocked. By the time we reached the middle of the intersection, it had turned amber, and when i crossed to the other side, it had gone red. No sooner than our car crossed the stop line at the other end that I heard some bikes whiz past behind us.

To add to it, a traffic cop asked me to pull over, whistling all along. He started off with a grumbling tone, but I apologized immediately, and told him that my view was blocked by the vehicles in front of me and hence missed the amber. Now he calmed down and said in Malayalam, "Mone, munnilulla vandiyum signalum, randum sraddhikkanam. Allengil ningalkku thanneyaa prasnam" (Dude, you should keep an eye on the vehicle in front as well as the signal. Otherwise it's you who's going to pay dearly). he didn't demand any bride nor take any effort to challan me even though it was the end of the month.

To this day, I haven't forgotten that man, and I check the signal myself before crossing the stop line.

[praful]

Well this is not about whilst I was driving, but this one time I was riding!

Me and a couple of biker buddies rode down to Muthati Forest and then Sivanasamudram falls one morning. On the return leg I was riding a bit ahead of everyone else, I suddenly dozed off for maybe 2-3 seconds. When my eyes opened next, my bike had just got off the road onto the shoulder and I was heading straight into a lady carrying wood on her head. Luckily for me, I had enough time to react. I avoided the lady and also had the presence of mind not to break hard on the mud.

Stopped to take a break, had some water, washed my face and thanked god for not making this turn ugly.

Surprising part is I had enough sleep the previous night, I was not a full stomach to make me sleepy and weirdest of all it was a bumpy broken road!

Never before have I dozed off in the saddle, despite being sleep deprived. I hope this never happens again.

[ashwin_seattle]

Hi All,

I know we have an Accidents in India section and I also know that while driving in India, most of us might have a situation where we narrowly escaped <worst> while driving.

Can we list down some instances from our past here...?

I will start with mine.

Year 2005, Month February
I got married in Jan 2005 and used to work in Chandigarh. My wife was in Delhi with my parents and i used to travel to Delhi on the weekends.
Cometh friday and i got in 3 colleagues in my car - a maruti zen 1999 model loaded with alloy wheels, apollo accelere tubeless tires.

I was travelling from Chd to Delhi on the highway and pass Ambala and on my way to reach Kurukshetra(pipli). just 4 kms before Pipli ,i looked to the side of road where a shepherd is running with his cows. I must be travelling at around 100 kmph with my seat belt on.
Suddenly, to my horror, one of the cows take a right and cross the road and is right infront of my car.
I apply the brakes and by the time the car could come to a halt, the cow has already hit the car face on, and i can see it flying in the air, taking 2 twists and landing on my car's bonett, and then falling off on the windscreen shattering it up, and then falls off the car on the road.
My collegue also has his seat belt on. All this happens on the middle of the road, and lukcily there was no vehicle coming behind me, else i would not have been writing this.

The car comes to a screeching halt. I come out to assess the damage and am horrified to see the entire front side crushed. The radiator is broken, so are the headlights, bumper, bonnett. windscreen. The car doesnt start but the only saving grace is that we come out unscathed.

The sight of the cow in the air and falling on the bonnett of the car is still live in my mind, and this was the closest accident that i can recall of.

Maybe other folks can list down their personal experiences as well?