[normally_crazy]

Driving to Mahableshwar, I was on Pune - Bangalore road. I had a tiff with wifey before we set out for this trip and there was deathly silence in the car. No music either !

I was feeling very bored and suddenly my hand slipped and I opened my eyes with a start only to see the car heading to the divider on the right. I corrected the situation and stopped the car a little ahead - washed my face and lectured wifey about almost causing an accident by not speaking to me !

The trip was absolute fun after that

[Arch-Angel]

Happened to me at times where i was extremely angry about something or sad. I tend to have those thoughts revolving around in my head and definitely became a little distracted and tended to make bad decisions while driving. I solved this by emptying everything and from then, i drive with a complete lack of emotion and have become a better driver.

[Akhilash95]

Going to this thread taught me to never be over confident or distracted no matter what happens when I am behind the wheel . I went through over 5-6 pages and go a lot of inputs . Simple things like not keeping anything on the dashboard and knowing our limits goes a long way in saving lifes . Thank you all fellow bhpians for this great thread . I am glued to this thread and will make sure I go through all older pages . May be we could compile a list of commonly made mistakes and remedies for them .

[ajayrec]

Once it happened to me when I nearly killed everyone onboard. I was driving Subaru Saloon fom Sydney to Goldcoast. Onboard - I was on wheels, my friend next to me, our wives on backseat. We started at 1 AM because our hotel checkin was at 2 PM. It takes abour 10-12 Hrs for this drive.

After driving about 8 Hrs with 30 min break, at around 9 AM, I was following a huge trunk. Trucks in Australia are monsters really. Out of two lanes, one lane was being repaired for some cables. Closed stretch was about 40 KMs. So I didnt had any choice but to follow the monster at snail pace. I was surprised to see that he was ok to pile on cars behind him rather than give some space where possible.

All three my travelmates were sleeping happily, and this pace was killing me. I was damn sleepy. We were approaching a town, I thought lets not stop here and cause more delays for cars behind. Planned to switch seats in that town.

15 KMs before that town, second lane was clear and I overtook the trunk and cruised ahead. I saw that town was just 5 KMs away, car went on to the last lane on my right and RVM brushed with the plants. Right infront it was end of that lane - so I am heading towards a divider head on. I almost stood on the brakes, tyres screamed through and just missed the divider. I was so lucky that no one was behind on the left. I was thanking myself for forcing all three of them to wear seat belts.

Moral - Dont (DONT) ever wait for any milestone if you are feeling sleepy. Pullover immediately. (Of course everyone one know it - I learnt it dangerous way).

[laurabeast]

I was moving house from NJ to PA back in 2005. My packing agent turned up late, very late (11:30pm on a sunday night).. After loading all furniture, we start off (him and his buddy in his truck and me in my car) towards PA. It is a 2hr drive thru a 2-lane highway. Some 1 hr into the drive, I come across a box truck (looked exactly like the truck transporting my furniture) on the left lane in front of me and a huge tractor trailer (18-wheeler) on the right lane. It was about 2 in the morning...

The box truck suddenly started swaying and brushed against the 18-wheeler and flipped on its side and fell on the road scraping the surface for about 100 ft.. I pull over my car on the right shoulder (the 18-wheeler didnt stop and kept going) and crossed the highway on foot to inspect the fallen box truck.. The driver emerged from the door and he was not my packing agent.. He seemed to be fine though.. I called 911 and as I was talking to the dispatcher, I hear a loud screech and turn around to see a car within meters from me.. I start moving towards the left fence in the highway (there was no shoulder on left) and car is also veering towards me (because of hard braking).. It must have been doing like 100mph and just noticed the fallen truck with me right behind it.. I jumped across the median in the last minute (into the lawn on the other side) and the car crashed against the median and came to a halt..

Lesson learnt.. NEVER CROSS A HIGHWAY ON FOOT, No matter what the circumstances..!

[vishalchaudhary]

Once we were traveling from Ujjain to Omkareshwar in a cab, and like it often happens we fell asleep, the cab driver was the only one awake, we don't know what exactly happened but we were almost crushed between two trucks, so much so, that the driver door was jammed after the accident.

I myself am guilty of driving once when I shouldn't have been because I had not slept in the last more than 24 hours because of college project report. So, I was returning back from Noida to my place in West Delhi, at one point, I just, for an instant felt, that I was so tired and sleepy that my eyes closed for a few seconds, I hit a parked Fiesta and broke off its driver side ORVM, and instantly regained consciousness, and stopped the car on the side. Luckily, the road was empty at that time, or I'm afraid to even imagine what could have happened. Needless to say, I walked upto the owner of the Fiesta, who at the time of the accident was relieving himself on the side of the road and duly apologized and gave him a 1000 bucks for the repairs and confirmed, if he had forgiven me.

Well that was the one and only incident of its kind in my driving experience so far and from that day onwards I had promised to myself I will never drive in a state when I'm not fully conscious or there is a chance that I might not feel fully conscious for even a second on the journey, be it tiredness or any other reason.

[sinharishi]

One night in the capital city when i was returning home due to my haste my car got a signature from a truck, like an autograph! A die hard fan getting a signature on his heart.

My Signature-Edition Wagon R


Headed towards vikaspuri in the west ,returning from dilshad garden in the east! Near Inderlok, i was caught in the traffic jam which was full of trucks. It was 10:30 PM. Since i was new to the city, i had no clue about trucks who were transiting would be using the same route as mine. Just after coming out from the under pass i started to loose my patience ,and tried to squeeze in wherever i spotted a gap.

This truck who was right ahead of me on the slope rolled back a feet before moving forward. I thought there is enough space between my car and the truck.I zoomed home ,went off to sleep and the next morning being a sunday went down to clean the car and noticed this dent along with some marks of brushing the rear of some vehicle on the bumper!

Dad and me wondering how and where possibly this could have happened? I honestly told dad it must have been the truck yesterday night. Next 2 hours we debated what part of the truck would have left a dent like this?

[luvDriving]

Two incidents come to mind - one is a concerntration lapse and the other is pure stupidity.

First one - travelling from Ratanagiri to Pune via Kolhapur with a friend in my trusted Indica. My friend got car-sickness due to the winding ghats and was sleeping for half an hour. We were descending on the amba ghat section before Kolhapur. We approached a sharp turn to the left, dead ahead was a steep drop and I dont know what I was thinking or did I just doze off for a second - my brain registered the turn but my body did not react in time and we were headed straight for the drop ! But I reacted just in time to steer the car to the left and bring it to a screeching halt. Luckily there was no vehicle approaching on the other side nor was anyone following us.
A old cyclist was shocked seeing this and my friend had a rude awakening. I stopped then for some time, splashed some water on my face and after gathering my wits, moved on.
Maybe it was due to lack of sleep or fatigue since I was the only driver both ways (Pune to Ratnagiri and back).

Second one - Travelling to Lonavala with wife again in Indica. A comparatively short drive. We were going to attend a course by Manashakti Kendra and were first going to check-in at the Sai Hotel. This is located at the other end on the old Pune-Bombay highway. This part has no dividers and the hotel is on the right side while travelling from Pune to Mumbai.
Well we were looking for the hotel entrance and upon finding it I had stopped to let oncoming traffic pass by before I turned into the entrance. Since it was a highway, traffic speed was fast. I was there with my right indicator.

Now there is a sharp turn just before where I was standing in the middle of the road to turn into the hotel and I was checking my RVM to look for any traffic following me. Suddenly I see a ACE coming at full speed out of the turn and it is obvious that he has not anticipated or seen me further ahead. I now ease on the brake and put the car in second and start rolling very slowly. Now the Ace suddenly sees me and in panic, stands on his brakes. The Ace does a complete 90 degrees turn just behind my car. All of us are shocked imagining what would have happened had he not braked. I saw that he was carrying his family in the cabin.

This was my mistake but I am not sure what alternative was there other than go ahead, take a u - turn safely and come back and turn into the hotel. But thanks to god's grace and the Ace driver, no one was hurt and we both came out shocked but in one piece.

[praful]

This happened about 4 years back. I was riding my bike back from Shivanasamudram falls and I was taking the connecting route between Kanakpura road and Mysore road and it was pretty bumpy as it was pockmarked. I also had sound sleep the previous night and a not so heavy breakfast in the morning.

Don't know how and why but I dozed off for maybe a second or two despite the bad roads and full night's rest. Next moment when I open my eyes my bike has gone off the road and I'm riding on dirt next to the road and heading straight into a village woman carrying a pot of water on her head.

Managed to avoid collision in the nick of time, luckily I was behind the lady so she did not see me coming and thus did not panic and react in an unknown manner.

Even today I don't know why I fell asleep on a bad road after a full nights sleep and not very heavy breakfast!!

[nishantdlv]

It was some 2 months back when me and my friend had visited a small tribal village of Mokhada in the Thane district for some project work.
On our way back home, we took the NH-8 and there was a huge truck traffic after Manor! We were on the second lane from the left. A Honda Civic in front of me turned to the left and started overtaking a truck. I decided to quickly follow him as it was really annoying! The Civic zoomed and turned right to be in the front of the truck! So, even I revved hard and..Oh Shit! Sandbags! Squeezed the brakes!! I had missed a couple of beats!! Cooled myself quickly and quitely got into the traffic. It would have been a really bad accident!

Lesson learned: Be Calm. Never overtake BLINDLY!

[saket77]

Originally Posted by nishantdlv

The Civic zoomed and turned right to be in the front of the truck! So, even I revved hard and..Oh Shit! Sandbags! Squeezed the brakes!! I had missed a couple of beats!! Cooled myself quickly and quitely got into the traffic. It would have been a really bad accident!

Lesson learned: Be Calm. Never overtake BLINDLY!

A lot of highway head-on collisions happen this way. I have seen many times how some cars follow a car while overtaking another vehicle. The thing is that the first car has calculated the time & distance required to overtake only for himself and not for the ones behind him; hence if the situation is tight, the first car will just move back in the left lane after overtaking to allow incoming traffic go past him, but the ones who were following may be on for a rude shock!
Good for you that it was just few sandbags and stationary. It could have been much more dangerous if that was an oncoming vehicle.

Although you have learnt the lesson, but I re-iterate- Trust only your eyes, not the judgement of the guy ahead.

Drive Safe folks!

Regards,
Saket

[nishantdlv]

Originally Posted by saket77

Good for you that it was just few sandbags and stationary. It could have been much more dangerous if that was an oncoming vehicle.

Although you have learnt the lesson, but I re-iterate- Trust only your eyes, not the judgement of the guy ahead.

Drive Safe folks!

Regards,
Saket

Very true Saket! It could have been much more dangerous! And I would have been responsible for anything wrong happening to my friend or anyone else!
I felt very disgusted on my irresponsible driving after that! I used to curse such reckless drivers and I did the same! Promised myself never to do such things again!

[saket77]

Originally Posted by nishantdlv

I felt very disgusted on my irresponsible driving after that! I used to curse such reckless drivers and I did the same! Promised myself never to do such things again!

Thumbs up Nishant!

IMO, a perfect driver does not exist, but still we need to keep polishing & honing our driving skills to become a safer driver than what we were yesterday. I am glad that nobody was hurt and more so that many people who are reading these posts will refrain from doing it.

& by the way, a warm welcome to the forum.

Regards,
Saket

[pratyush6]

Happened to me yesterday. It was raining cats dogs and buffaloes in Bangalore with very less visibility. My mind was already stressed out trying to navigate potholes through out my 25 km journey back to home. The stretch near the Lalbagh Westgate was unusually busy. As I had to take a right for my way towards Bull Temple Road, I followed the vehicle in front. Just then an old lady comes right in between the vehicle in the front and me with her arms outstretched, I brake and let her go. Now as I am already halfway on the opposite road, I need to get a move on. An Innova then comes right from the opposite direction and blocks my way. There is no way I can manage the cut.

We both try to somehow get this sorted and it works. As I move ahead taking a sharp left in order to avoid hitting the Innova, an old man on his Activa who is overtaking the Innova comes out of the blue and I simply could not notice him. I realize this too late, brake hard while the Acitva brakes but still we have a collision. The result : Old man on his haunches on the road.

I move ahead, park my car slightly ahead while the crowd is still cursing me, come back to check on the old man. He is shaken but no signs of any injuries. Hell, I am shaken.
I say sorry and check if everything's all right with him and then move on.

Lesson Learnt: Keep your calm and be on the lookout for anomalies on the road.

[D'Artagnan]

I was returning from the hospital early morning at 6am. My sister was having her baby and we had admitted her the last night. That night I was doing round trips from the hospital to our home many times added with the anxiety I couldn't sleep the entire night, at 6am my parents and I decide to go back home freshen up and return. It was during this drive back home that I lost my concentration. I was sleepy and feeling light headed, since it was the early hours I thought to cut short the trip by going through the back road, that's when I just dropped my head for a second. My father who was alert and was looking at me called my name, I woke up and saw an old lady crossing the road, she had her back on to us and just shoved in trying to cross the road oblivious that there was a car behind her and I had too shut my eye for a sec. I woke up quickly and saw the oncoming danger, honked then braked and swerved to the left allowing her to cross the road thanked my stars and looked at the lady who went into another lane quickly. Thank god nothing happened.