[sunil]

No doubt Mumbai-Pune Expressway reduces travelling time between 2 cities, but off late it has become notorius for claiming lives. Last week there were 5 casulities in Indigo & day before yesterday 3 within family in Maruti 800 (Hus-Wife, 2 yr old boy) and fourth one 6 yr old girl is in hospital.

There is no count of lives lost till today on the Expressway.

One of my relative had miraculous escape when his Skoda L&K climbed on dividers and ran 200-300 mtrs over it before coming to halt in a dug up pit for bushes after a rear right tyre burst while going to Pune in the morning.

What effective measures needs to be taken to avoid the accidents ? Comments ? Suggestions ?

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by sunil

No doubt Mumbai-Pune Expressway reduces travelling time between 2 cities, but off late it has become notorius for claiming lives. Last week there were 5 casulities in Indigo & day before yesterday 3 within family in Maruti 800 (Hus-Wife, 2 yr old boy) and fourth one 6 yr old girl is in hospital.

There is no count of lives lost till today on the Expressway.

One of my relative had miraculous escape when his Skoda L&K climbed on dividers and ran 200-300 mtrs over it before coming to halt in a dug up pit for bushes after a rear right tyre burst while going to Pune in the morning.

What effective measures needs to be taken to avoid the accidents ? Comments ? Suggestions ?

Its very sad to hear about the accidents. and good to hear that your relatives had an esacape. thank god !

but the car had a tyre burst ! so how do you blame the expressway ? was the tyre pressure checked before embarking on the expressway ? and if the car wasnt overtaking what was it doing in the right lane ? ( im assuming this as it went into the central dividers)

you havent told us the speeds the car was doing ! well as u know the official limit is 80 kmph but then does any car run below 120 kmph there ? IRRESPECTIVE OF THE CONDITION OF THE CAR !

i mean there are do's and dont's for your car when u are on the expressway !

correct tyre pressure , sticking to lanes , proper alertness during the drive etc ....lots of factors to consider


The expressway is built for us to reduce travelling time between 2 cities and not to abuse our cars there !

anyways - we cant everytime blame the roads for our misfortune.

your relatives got out safe......thats more important. next time be more careful !

[Rtech]

I always find it amusing when the newspapers call the Expressway a "deathtrap" or something similar. They quote the number of accidents and fatalities.

But, has anyone conducted a study between the number of accidents on the expressway and those on the old highway? I'm sure that will be a real eye opener. I can almost bet the house that the expressway is 100% safer than the old expressway ever was.

The thing is, on the expressway, most accident can be atributed to a problem with the vehicle itself or a driver not knowing his cars and his own limits. Yes, a tyre burst at 120kmph is going to be more dramatic than one bursting at 80 kmph. Or if a driver doses off and ends up ina ditch. How can you blame the expressway for this?

It is so much safer than travelling on the old 2/4 lane highway which has no centre divider and is open to all sorts of animals and people and three wheeler that dart across without any warning.

Yes, the are aspects of the expressway that need improvement - the way construction is carried out is downright dangerous. One minute you are rounding a blind corner at 100kmph and suddenly you see a barrel and sign right in front of you! They need to learn how to place signs at proper distances.

On the whole, the Mumbai - Pune expressway is one of the safest roads in India at the moment.

[manaa45]

i agree with Rtech abt expressway being safest roads, provided the ppl driving on it dont use it as a rally track. people should learn to drive more responsibly when you are using such a road whee the openess might get into the driver's head. it is ok if you maintain you level of speed and look out for the signs.

it is better to enjoy the scenic beauty at many places by driving slow. any ways you are saving as much as 2 hours from mumbai to pune by using this raod so why do you still want to hurry to reach ur destination.

all the important dos and donts should be kept in mind while using the expressway and save the agony or the consequensces of rash driving if it results into an accident.

as far as my experience ( which was in heavy rains ) in my M800 , i & my husband took turns driving, and kept a nominal speed in 2nd or 3rd lane where neccessary and specially looking out of other fast drivers on the turns etc.

shubbhi

[PsychoLyn]

lissen all i can say is that the expressway is a work of art...
the road simply to good to resist for maniacs who have never driven on roads..
like this....
if you have to blame any1 blame the stupid drivers..
trust me as the owner of ferrari says not every ferrari owner....
is a ferrari driver....
so not every driver on the expressway is definately gonna be a driver capable..of doing speeds of 120-140 countinously...
please try to understand this is a new concept for india...
firstly only foreign cars here have reported of no abuse on the expressway..
indian cars and tyres aint bulit to take the rotations of the tyre at such a fast rate on the expressway surface...
aniways peaceout...
drive safe on the expressway...
hate to hear if an bhpian gets sucked into this so called death trap....

[khanak]

Not just people speeding also people driving too slowly should be blamed. I see trucks and Traxs going so slowly and in the middle of the road not causing lots of problems to people comming from the back. Also the people from the village often use the road in the wrong direction. There were small cuts made in the fence for them to enter. Dunno if its covered up now or not.

[RX135]

I think, we are missing one point here. No doubt, expressway is safer than old roads, but is it completely safe? I am not defending speed-morons here, but there are places on express highway, which are scary at the best. Mostly around lonavala.

e.g. All the vehicles on old highway have to travel a short distance over express highway near Lonavala. The merging is almost at 90 degree. Cars cruising happily at 80-100 suddenly meet this slow moving traffic. The ghat section has speed limit of 25 at some palces and have poor road banking at few corners, which definitely needs improvement.

It is the safest road, but can be made safer.

e.g. Most motor-ways have serrations on road shoulders. Any vehicle deviating from the road, gets a quick warning as soon as it lands on shoulder. Didn't see that much on our express highway. (Or did I miss it?) At least it can be done at accident prone zones.

[Shan2nu]

Firstly, what we need to find out is "What caused all those accidents to happen". See what type failure caused majority of those accidents and then work towards it.

If i was to drive on that road, i wouldn't be comfortable above 120kmph. Have you guys felt the crosswinds that blast the car from time to time? I could feel it when i drove Rehaans Accent at a constant 110kmph.

And to think of it, all these accident happened without the presence of 2 wheelers!!! You let 2 wheelers onto that road and the accident rate will increase by 3 times.

Frankly, India isn't ready for express highways.

Shan2nu

[Rtech]

Frankly, India isn't ready for express highways.

If they don't build them, how will "India" ever learn? It all falls into place over time.

If you notice, as soon as you enter the expressway with its clearly marked lanes and even width, drivers automatically adjust their usually aggressive style to suit the laid back nature of the expressway. Majority of the trucks keep to their lane and so do most of the private car owners.

Yes, you do still get the joker who does 60 kmph in the right lane and the crazy Volvo bus drivers, but on the whole, the situation improves drastically.

So contrary to what you said, I would infact say the opposite - these roads are long overdue for India.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by Rtech

If they don't build them, how will "India" ever learn? It all falls into place over time.

Classic chicken and egg here?

All other fallacies notwithstanding, I had decided to vote for BJP and Vajapayee Govt. for the single reason that they started this golden quadrilateral project.

Whenever a customer visits our office for the first time, first thing he talks about, is the slums near Sahar airport and second, terrible traffic and roads in India. Sure, for growing economy, good roads (and infrastructure) are long overdue.

[jesal]

its scary alright but there is a speed limit of 80 kmph max all over. how many people actually do not cross 80 i doubt anyone will. so for you safety obey the law but it just gets so tempting to floor it, so they all do. if u want safety first which we do drive on the left and dont cross 70. youll be there alright only a little late thats it. people actually boast as to how little time they can go from mumbai to lonavla/ pune.

[speedsatya]

sunil,
the fact that a heavy car like a skoda ran 200-300mtrs over the divider inspite of a tire burst tells that it had been going very fast.as the skoda comes with properly equipped tires,it must have been your relatives fault .maybe he had not maimtained the proper pressure or maybe he was driving to close to the divider because of which the tire burst.

so the only precaution that one can take is to drive sensibly and take proper care of your tires as well as the mechanicals.

Originally Posted by Rtech

. One minute you are rounding a blind corner at 100kmph and suddenly you see a barrel and sign right in front of you! They need to learn how to place signs at proper distances.


On the whole, the Mumbai - Pune expressway is one of the safest roads in India at the moment.

arent u supposed to slow down around a blind corner?????i have travelled so many times along the expressway and i never felt anything dangerous about it.if u stick to the 80kph limit ,i dont see anything happening at all.

the M800 accident was becasue of a tire burst.so how can the expressway be blamed if one doesnt maintain his tires properly.even if the tires are not upto expressway standards,u can still control the car incase of a burst if u stick to the mentioned limit.


regarding warnings also,these are placed at sufficient distance to warn the driver..

[Gordon]

Expressways - I agree with speedsatya that you must take every precaution [for example slow down at a blind corner] and Rtech that people do learn a lot on the Expressway, but like jesal said - most don't observe speed limits.

Tires - Indian car companies do not provide tyres that would let you go to the top speeds of your car safely. The stock tires are not deisgned for it. If I'm not mistaken, they have a specified speed limit which you must NOT exceed.

M800 - I don't know, but the papers didn't say anything about a tire burst. One of the assumptions the investigation made was that the driver dozed off. And this is no laughing matter. Its a serious thing, it can happen to any one of us. For a long time, you may be sooo bored or tired, that you CAN go to sleep while driving.

[sunil]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

Its very sad to hear about the accidents. and good to hear that your relatives had an esacape. thank god !

but the car had a tyre burst ! so how do you blame the expressway ? was the tyre pressure checked before embarking on the expressway ? and if the car wasnt overtaking what was it doing in the right lane ? ( im assuming this as it went into the central dividers)
!

Yes, it went over the central dividers where all the flower pots are ket. Expressway authorities charge some money for uprooting the dividers & damaging the pots!! The driver was going @ speed of 100-120 on right lane, which should be OK as it was L&K with tubeless tyre. According to the driver the car vibrates little bit on the spot where the accident took place. He had experienced it in all the earlier cars (Ikon 1.6, Indigo). He feels there some bad evil over there as the spot had many accidents previously. According to me real reason the wind which is trapped in between that could be casuing the car vibrate little bit as there are hills on both the sides

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

you havent told us the speeds the car was doing ! well as u know the official limit is 80 kmph but then does any car run below 120 kmph there ? IRRESPECTIVE OF THE CONDITION OF THE CAR !

i mean there are do's and dont's for your car when u are on the expressway !

correct tyre pressure , sticking to lanes , proper alertness during the drive etc ....lots of factors to consider

This is what I want to highlight, Car checkup, driving habbits, signaling before lane cutting etc. But what can be done about road condition where in some parts its not good ?

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by sunil

According to the driver the car vibrates little bit on the spot where the accident took place. He had experienced it in all the earlier cars (Ikon 1.6, Indigo). He feels there some bad evil over there as the spot had many accidents previously. According to me real reason the wind which is trapped in between that could be casuing the car vibrate little bit as there are hills on both the sides.
This is what I want to highlight, Car checkup, driving habbits, signaling before lane cutting etc. But what can be done about road condition where in some parts its not good ?

Ever since this expressway was opened there have been many accidents on it, and a lot of them have been assigned to tyre-burst. A lot of these accidents have involved some of the higher-end cars available in India as well.

While it has become a habit to blame tyre pressures and lack of experience as well as driver aggression for these incidents, many of us tend to overlook the common factor here, which is tyre-bursts.

There are any number of bad drivers and cars with poorly maintained tyre pressures everywhere, but one does not see the kind of repetitive incidents that one sees on the Mumbai Pune highway. If these were the only factors, one should see the same number of incidents on the highways here where you have any number of old datsuns and toyotas being flogged by Pakistani drivers, many of them running 'illegal taxis' on vehicles that are clearly past their prime.

Which leads me to think - is there something about the composition of the road surface on this particular highway that causes disporportionate tyre damage? Its easy to get carried away by a 'fast' expressway and call it the best ever built, but somebody will obviously need to do a test on that surface and give a qualified opinion on the nature of the surface. Such a test would be worth its weight in gold, if only to assure ourselves that those lives were not lost in vain.