[Guite]

Originally Posted by djs

As pointed earlier, there seems to be an issue with highway construction.

Splitting a three lane road on a highway like that is just bad design. Contiguous three lanes should be available all throughout the highway. The outer road on the upper side of the image seems to be the original road. They should have built a proper three lane bridge and decommissioned the original bridge. One official might have thought that it was a bright idea to save money by keeping the original bridge for the outer lane. At what human cost?

We build expressways and still talk about very low speed limits. If the purpose of building smooth and wide expressways is not to save time why build at all? Developed countries have speed limits in excess of 100kmph on their highways. Are they being reckless or what?

[Nilesh5417]

This accident is a wake up call for all of us - even a luxury sedan can't save us if we aren't going to follow basic safety etiquettes.

I really don't want to get into discussing what the government thinks about ways to reduce road fatalities. It never feels really convincing.

So best is we learn the lessons and put things in practice for our own safety.

RIP Cyrus!

[Gummybear]

Now we are focusing on rear seat belts and highway lane merging and signages. But I think our country is not yet ready for high speed driving. Honestly, except for handful corporate executives where road safety training are given or those who have driven in developed countries, most are not even aware of basic driving rules. How many of those who have valid driver's license know about solid and broken, yellow and white lines? Wrong lane and wrong side driving, trucks driving in right most lane on highways, tailgating even at high speeds and list is quite long that are making high speed roads a death trap. Without stringent driving license test, we cannot make our roads safer.

[shauryadabas]

Rest in peace Cyrus Mistry and Jahangir Pandole.

I wear seatbelts without fail whenever I am seated in the front seats but I want to confess that I seldom wear seatbelts whenever I sit in the rear, and neither see my family and friends (both in India and US) wear them.
From now on, however, I will strictly wear seatbelts at the rear and also advise my family and friends to do so.

Shockingly, I still know and see some people in India who don't even wear a front seatbelt, forget about the rear ones !!!
I want to question everyone why these people, in general, prefer to not wear a seatbelt. What's the root cause? Is it psychologically so deeply embedded in their mindset that wearing seatbelts will make them look weak? Why?? Or is it related to the convenience and comfort of not having a belt over your chest?

Anyways, I wish we will see some good changes in road safety education soon. Till then, I want to request all my Team-BHP friends to wear rear seatbelts, and spread this practice among your family and friends !

[Osteon206]

While on the topic I’d like to shed light on another road that I find challenging to drive in. By now I’ve driven to and fro over 10 times, so I know where the danger spots are, but the first time it came as an utter shock.

This is the road between Salem and Ulundurpet in Tamil Nadu. I used to travel in this stretch when travelling from Pondicherry to Bangalore in my Post graduate days. The highway switches between 4 lane dual carriageway to 2 lane single carriageway in so many stretches with just a mere telltale signage which if you miss when another vehicle is being overtaken, you will not realise at all. The first time I took this road was at night time (which I agree was not the best thing to do, had to due to time and leave constraints). I saw myself on the wrong side of the road - I was very very lucky that day since there was no traffic on the opposite lane and I was doing speeds less than 80kmph.

Those days I used to drive our preworshipped CRV which did not have car play/android auto. Nowadays on the Taigun I keep navigation on whether I know the route or not, just for knowing the handedness of the turn ahead, lane info, this is especially helpful in ghat sections to plan overtakes IMO.

The particular route in question is Salem - Vazhapadi - Attur - Chinnasalem - Virudachalam bypass - Ulundurpet

[donlealdie]

The passing of one the business leaders Cyrus Mistry is both shocking and devastating. It just brings us back to the grim reality that no matter who you are, the roads don't treat you that way. I think we also ought to introspect on our driving habits, one for all passengers being belted up (very very difficult to implement). We don't know when the worst can happen.

[acquillew]

Mr Gadkari has now come forward and said that seat belts will be mandatory for ALL passengers in a car.

"Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that from now on wearing seat belts would be mandatory for all passengers in a car, including those on rear seats, and flouting the rule will attract penalty. The announcement was made only two days after former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died in a car accident near Mumbai, and police probe later revealed that he was not wearing a seat belt."

[SnS_12]

The seven-member forensic team investigating the crash that killed leading businessman Cyrus Mistry has concluded that the Mercedes-Benz SUV met with an accident due to “faulty design” of the bridge, while the deaths occurred as the rear seat occupants were not wearing seat belts.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/94037597.cms

[V.Narayan]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/94036223.cms
https://www.rediff.com/news/report/n...l/20220906.htm

The only tweet so far has been from N. Chandrasekharan, Chairman of the Tata Group. There is been no public condolence so far from Mr Ratan Tata or other senior doyens of the Tata Group. No Tata Group member attended the funeral of the man who was for 4 years their Chairman. Only Simone Tata, Ratan Tata's 92-year old step mother attended the funeral.

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Originally Posted by acquillew

Mr Gadkari has now come forward and said that seat belts will be mandatory for ALL passengers in a car.

I more than welcome this move. Of course some may cynically say how will the enforce it, the police themselves are corrupt, see how everyone in the West follows the rules blah, blah & blah. To this my take is that every journey begins with one step. When seat belts were made a rule for front passengers/drivers in Delhi-NCR in 1998 everyone laughed and the same hackneyed arguments were given. People resisted, all or relatives did. Men considered it an affront to their masculinity, women said it crumpled their dresses/sarees and what not. Yet today it is followed by and large. Same way with the rear seat belts. It will take time starting with the big cities and permeating to the smaller ones. It may never settle into the rural areas till past a generation. So be it. In a sub-continent larger, in population, than North and South America put together things will take time. As for the West, yes they follow the rules. Yes they all wear seat belts. But till the 1960s and even into the 1970s that was not the case universally. The right beginning IMHO.

So that we have the data points. Rear pax seat belt wearing being made compulsory in law came into force in the EU in 2006, the UK 2006, Japan 2008, Singapore 2008, USA - not yet.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by acquillew

Mr Gadkari has now come forward and said that seat belts will be mandatory for ALL passengers in a car.

Welcome move, gives us a reason to reason with the folks who refuse to wear it.

I wish such regulations like the 6 airbags and rear seatbelt fines didn't need high profile fatalities to trigger a decision.
We need to be much more proactive but an applaudable move and I hope this gets all the people of influence(celebrities/politicians/tycoons) buckling up and sharing the same on social media to spread the message.
Good for us and finally some good use of social media

[d2krish]

It was a very unfortunate accident claiming important lives untimely. RIP all who passed away and wish speedy recovery to those who were injured. It is an welcome decision from Nitin ji to enforce rear seat belts as well. It saddens me that this had to come so late, despite so much road infrastructures developed and we built such safe cars in domestic market. Nevertheless, it is a very wise and timely move. Thanks to him.
Apart from that, road signage is a very crucial thing while driving on highways. It gives drivers split-second understanding of the situation, thereby, saving lives.
Lastly, speed has recently become a way of expressing our rush to achieve. Achieving speed casually and achieving speed in control are two things apart. Composed driving not only make self and the passengers safe, rather it makes fellow drivers comfortable on road, keeping all vehicles and passersby around in a harmony. A lower speed might be the cheapest solution to avoid loss of lives.
Futuristically, with 5G knocking at door, we might think of gps maps being more integrated with location based road information such as lane merge, speed limits etc., the information feed being pushed from the authority than collected solely from vehicle statistics.

[acquillew]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I more than welcome this move. Of course some may cynically say how will the enforce it, the police themselves are corrupt, see how everyone in the West follows the rules blah, blah & blah.

So that we have the data points. Rear pax seat belt wearing being made compulsory in law came into force in the EU in 2006, the UK 2006, Japan 2008, Singapore 2008, USA - not yet.

Agree 100%. There are people who wear seta belts only because the law requires them to. Then there is a set of people who will wear belts only in cities as on the highways, there is hardly any checking for seat belts. I have friends who stop wearing seat belts as soon as they cross city limits.

IMO, Road Safety (including civic sense) as a subject should be taught to students at the age of about 12-14. Road safety and civic sense questions should be mandated in the Driver License test. Start with educating folks on what can go wrong, and enforce laws.

Also, how about a law where a contractor is no longer allowed to build roads, if his previous work is found to be 'not up-to-the-mark'? We have laws for the tax paying citizens, but rarely any accountability for the high profile contractors and companies that make such unsafe highways.

[sgmuser]

Originally Posted by shramik

Come on guys, we are TEAM BHP !! All of us are assumed to know the difference between [/b]fast driving[b] & dangerous driving.....I would assume that this highway is within the NHAI's ambit and therefore see no reason why they or the building contractor of this section should not be held accountable.

GLC or even Bentley can not protect if I do not follow the prescription by the manufacturer. I would like to think, NHAI should be held responsible for allowing the road to be open without checking the issues there. What NHAI inspector was doing or I will blame the design team/architect of the road infrastructure. How did they approve this stretch with the flawed design or or the build? Contractor can make mistakes (lack of ethics) but the signature to open the road for public comes from NHAI design/inspection authority.

Not just here in this road stretch, there are millions of such stretches, blind spots, uneven surfaces (on toll roads, many times right next to tolls), improperly angled bends (e.g. 80 KMPH speed limit requires certain angle to do a smooth turn), proper speed limits, unnecessary, unmarked speed bumps, I can go on and on. The country I am in, many road/highway projects were completed by L&T from India! So, there is no dearth of skills or technology. But lots of bureaucracy in India, regardless of parties.

As a citizen, we pay absurd road taxes when we buy vehicles, then we pay tolls, then we pay Income Tax and then we pay tax on fuels and then we pay cess and what not. What did we get in return? Half a billion worth has similar fate as anyone else on the road. What a great leveler this land of taxes!

The place where I am a temporary resident, did not have one toll road in their entire country. The roads are excellent (here and there few flaws but right up there in top 10 road infrastructure in the world when it comes to the cost to ply on these roads against the quality of the road). 25 KMs from the center of the city takes around 20 minutes plus or minus 10 minutes most of the time. I can drop my kid in a place 25 KMS away and come back home relax and go and pick him up again after an hour and half or so, still I do not see that as a pain. In India this is not simply possible. 10kms stretch itself is taxing physically and mentally. Places like Mumbai/Bengaluru is worse. Why we have to accept this as normal? What is the strategy of this government on transport? The roads are the backbone of any good economy. Countries like US, spent billions and billions on road when they were in recession, to move the money around and at the same time, improve the infrastructure.

How this is possible (in Oman) without collecting a penny as toll? I am more than happy to pay toll for these types of roads if it is available in India and makes our life safer, saves time and do not impact the mental and physical health of the common road users.

Feel better now!

Finally, 130 KMPH in this stretch in a Merc is still acceptable and this car can easily handle this but the passengers can not handle especially without seat belts and then abrupt stopping of momentum in this velocity is something our body is not designed for.

[BhayanaV]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

And what are you going to do when you succeed? Watch more people die because they take bigger risks and drive faster on the new, wonderful roads?

Exactly sir. Last year 2 of my known riders died on Yamuna expressway, were doing around 180+ KPH on Hayabusa and BMW 1000. Better infrastructure was infact the reason they could achieve these speeds.

[AROO7]

Since our Union Transport Minister has already taken the cue from the accident to enforce more stringently the rule of all passengers buckling up inside the car, I would like to point out that this is also an opportune moment for the government to enforce all carmakers to provide 3-point seatbelts on all seats. In this way at least those who buckle up when in the rear won't be at the mercy of a lap belt which has been proven decades back to be not as effective as a 3-point seatbelt.