[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by hserus

27 year old woman dies in an accident just before her marriage.

Apparently a bus rear ended a santro on the road to the bangalore airport, late at night with rain further impairing visibility. Both of them parked their vehicles in the middle of the road and got down to fight it out. A meru cab coming along at 120 kmph didn't see either vehicle and slammed into them. The driver - who was wearing a seatbelt - survived. Passenger and her mom didn't - they weren't wearing seatbelts.

Santro driver, bus driver and cabbie have been booked.

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/banga...w/47668560.cms

Utter lack of common sense on the part of the santro and bus drivers. On friday i was driving back home from my son's skating class. The road I was driving split into a left and right when a bike rider in front of me stopped in the middle of the road to check the message in his mobile.
I was furious and honked (my car is fitted with dual windtone horns loud enough to scare a BMTC bus). This guy looks behind casually as if to say the road belongs to him.
He then got going and parked his vehicle on the road side. I was driving very much on the slower side. What if some one was driving fast and he rams into the bike from behind.
When will people learn road ethics????

[ajaypjayaraj]

Got as whatsapp forward this morning. Have no info. on when and where.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by hserus

27 year old woman dies in an accident just before her marriage

Feel sorry for the victims. But...

Both of them parked their vehicles in the middle of the road and got down to fight it out

It's basic common sense that the middle of a highway is not the place to stop and have a discussion. But alas, common sense is not so common these days.

A meru cab coming along at 120 kmph didn't see either vehicle and slammed into them

Wow! The omnipresent, know-it-all guy who measures speed accurately. Of course the cab was speeding, the deceased and her mother were to catch a 2 o'clock flight, and it was already about midnight when they were yet to reach the airport check-in counter - so it can be assumed that the cab was rushing to the airport.

The driver - who was wearing a seatbelt - survived. Passenger and her mom didn't - they weren't wearing seatbelts.

Shows the importance of seat belts.

[Aiel]

A school bus got into an accident today morning on Bannerghatta Road, just after Decathlon. The bus ran into an electric pole. The pic below shows the scene, just after the accident. The maids can be seen moving the kids to a safe spot.

An initial look showed that the maids/teachers were rushing the kids off the bus and to a safe spot. The public were crowding around the driver. After about 15 minutes, a couple of ambulances and police were at the spot. There was a jam towards Meenakshi temple, as most people were stopping/ slowing down to see the crash.

Also, the current in my place went down, after the accident. Hope it comes back soon.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by ajaypjayaraj

Got as whatsapp forward this morning. Have no info. on when and where.

Mentioned here Ajay - link 1 & link 2.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

I wrote a complaint to Meru to which they said they'll look into it. Now I make it a point to check seatbelts or else report to them. I just got a sprain in my wrist as I had caught hold of front seat when I heard screeching of tyres.

I make it a point and apply what i call near gynacological skill to dig deep into the rear seats and retrieve the seat belt latches which have been pushed down.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Regarding the Audi accident, what surprises me is that she seems to have driven around in Mumbai quite a lot (Marine Drive, Chembur, etc) at midnight, but was not stopped by any police patrol. Don't they have this police checks at nakas like they used to have earlier ? I remember being stopped for checks at night while riding to work - sometime in the mid-nineties.

Given the stringent check on DUI and general patrolling in place in Chennai today, she would have been intercepted much before she could do damage.

Interestingly, the cops at the check points primarily only stop male drivers, irrespective of the car they are driving. In fact, I have been stopped more often in a German than in the Etios (probably the taxi image coming to save me )
Unless there is a female officer at the naka bandi (check post), females are never stopped. Have heard that from my female friends, as well as seen several incidents where just before the check post, a drunk male opens his door to stagger out and switch seats with his female accomplice.

Regarding this case, there is typically only one check post that she would have come across, which she would have gotten around by driving the wrong way (which she was doing).
Mumbai police have tried to change the game by having the odd check points at random locations to throw people off, but even then - as a person who loves his night drives (sober!), and lives close to where she was having drinks - there has never been a check point (even the random ones!) at that part of Marine Drive, or from there till the Eastern Freeway. There exists one just before the eastern freeway - and as a regular commuter, she would be aware of the same.

Also, safe to assume she was down 2 pegs and not 6 - given she had two friends with her. What I really do appreciate is the fact that the cops might book and trouble her friends for allowing her to drive in that state - if that does happen, and it is publicised, one can be sure that drinking and driving incidents will come down further.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by Aiel

A school bus got into an accident today morning on Bannerghatta Road, just after Decathlon. The bus ran into an electric pole.

I hope no kid was injured. Probably he would have tried overtaking other vehicles by going to the extreme left and hit the pole. Driving in this stretch during the peak hours is the most painful thing.

Any idea on which school bus is this?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by msdivy

The article says 'Freak'. There is nothing freak here. It is expected if you stop in the middle of expressway and more so if it is raining.

Lazy journalists. Man walks out into road without looking, and is hit by car: newspaper reports "freak accident." Just like "vehicle lost control," it has no meaning.

In a year or five, they will be spelling it freakaccident

[Aiel]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

I hope no kid was injured. Probably he would have tried overtaking other vehicles by going to the extreme left and hit the pole. Driving in this stretch during the peak hours is the most painful thing.

Any idea on which school bus is this?

Hi Arun, I do not have much idea as to what happened after that, as my son had missed his bus and I had to drop him.

There was no traffic for a change, this morning. Looking at the scene, I feel that the bus driver had to swerve to the left to avoid somebody who was overtaking from the opposite direction.

I could not make out the school name (either from the balcony) or from the road, as I had towards Gottigere.

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by lamborghini

Regarding this case, there is typically only one check post that she would have come across, which she would have gotten around by driving the wrong way (which she was doing).
Mumbai police have tried to change the game by having the odd check points at random locations to throw people off, but even then - as a person who loves his night drives (sober!), and lives close to where she was having drinks - there has never been a check point (even the random ones!) at that part of Marine Drive, or from there till the Eastern Freeway. There exists one just before the eastern freeway - and as a regular commuter, she would be aware of the same.

Also, safe to assume she was down 2 pegs and not 6 - given she had two friends with her. What I really do appreciate is the fact that the cops might book and trouble her friends for allowing her to drive in that state - if that does happen, and it is publicised, one can be sure that drinking and driving incidents will come down further.

A few days back when I returned from Mumbai home on the freeway, there was a nakabandi just outside the tunnel.

Also I heard that in DUI cases there is already a provision to book the copassenger for allowing DUI.

[TwentyDeewar]

Originally Posted by hserus

A meru cab coming along at 120 kmph didn't see either vehicle and slammed into them.

Originally Posted by silversteed

Of course the cab was speeding, the deceased and her mother were to catch a 2 o'clock flight, and it was already about midnight when they were yet to reach the airport check-in counter - so it can be assumed that the cab was rushing to the airport.

Meru and Mega airport taxis have a speed limit of 80 kmph post which a loud aural warning comes on and does not go till the vehicle slows down to within the prescribed speed limit. I have seen quite a few enterprising souls fiddle around with the device and continuously reboot it every few minutes while driving fast so that the warning stays off.

1. While the bus and the santro had no business parking in the middle of an expressway, I wonder if the speeding cabbie was trying to get the device to stop - and compounded by the rain - could not sight the "parked" vehicles.

2. Even if he wasn't fiddling, he was quite clearly speeding, which should have been recorded at Meru's back-end. While it would be too much to expect Meru to assure us of the "quality" of the driving, shouldn't they at the very least ensure that the speed warning does what it is intended to do - bring the speed down to below 80 - and heavily fine drivers who fail to do this simple thing? I am sure its simple enough to track and record the speeds and/or attempts to tamper with the system. They clearly do not do enough, which is why the taxi was speeding in the first place.

[hserus]

They don't ever install a speed governor on their vehicles to limit the maximum speed, eh?

That aural warning is as much a joke for the cabbies as, say, a red stop light on an empty looking road - simply a nuisance to be ignored.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by hserus

They don't ever install a speed governor on their vehicles to limit the maximum speed, eh?

That aural warning is as much a joke for the cabbies as, say, a red stop light on an empty looking road - simply a nuisance to be ignored.

Infact whenever the airport taxis like Meru cabs overspeed, a warning message is heard indicating that the driver is overspeeding. I heard this message when i was travelling back home from the airport in a Meru cab.
On listening to the message the driver dropped speed. Fortunately it was also raining.

[sudev]

I must share that in all Meru rides to and from airport the local speed limits are set for aural warning to go off. And in almost all cases the driver slowed down. Though we were not on expressways the ring road early morning is quite empty but still they slowed down.