[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

Wonder which car can take impact such as this one.

No car can. The best safety device is the driver. In this case, he/she was plain stupid.

I'm sure the occupants of an Merc S-Class or a Tesla Model S would have suffered the same fate. Between the 2 heavy masses moving at speed, any car would be crushed like a soda can.

Let's not continue the debate on which car would have taken impact better

[honeybee]

Wonder if the Alto was dragged by the truck into the intersection. Just a possibility.

[tanwaramit]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Wonder if the Alto was dragged by the truck into the intersection. Just a possibility.

This video doesn't show it that clearly but other videos do show the whole story, the alto started moving right and came in front of truck, the truck driver to avoid alto, moved right, alto hence got moved and turned sideways hence losing all control and became dependent on the push of the truck.

The opposite lane truck driver who must be cruising on highway speed, wasn't expecting any car or truck to drop in its lane all of a sudden and though he swerved left to avoid hitting them, but couldn't manage well.

I was an eyewitness to one similar move by an esteem once on a highway - night driving.

I was right behind an esteem which was behind a truck on slow lane. There was a truck on the fast lane who was picking up speed, seeing this truck I kept in my lane and didn't do any overtaking attempt. However, the esteem driver in front of me at the last moment when the truck was too close in the fast lane gave a right signal and took an overtaking attempt by coming in front of the accelerating truck in the fast lane. I could see that the truck is going to crush him, I shouted from my car, blew horn, but the esteem person was oblivious and (may be) thought he had right of way.

The truck being a huge vehicle didn't expect a car to move into its lane at last moment with less than a meter gap. The truck driver may not have even seen the rear turn indicators for the car. Since the car had moved just a few meters inside the fast lane, the truck in the fast moving lane pushed the car, the car getting a nudge from rear right corner turned right and came in a position like the alto in the video. All this while I was just behind the esteem and witnessing the whole episode in front of me. The truck kept on pushing the car for a short while and then car then started to get into a toppling position with two tyres in air, luckily the truck was in slow speed and truck driver managed to stop before the car could topple.

It all happened in just 5-7 seconds, I was the sole witness of all this and was seeing all this happening in front of my eyes just 5-10 meters ahead of me. I parked my car on the service lane and waited to see the car passengers, who came out and started fighting with the truck driver. Seeing that they were safe, I moved on my journey.

Seeing this video, I recollected that incident on the highway. I didn't had dashcam that time, which I have now.

Here all vehicles were in speed, if either of the trucks would have been in slow speed, the accident impact could have been lower in terms of lives. But highways are meant for speed so the other thing is to be aware of the surrounding vehicles and think before doing anything different, like changing lanes, stopping in your lane. Be sure even in your lanes.

As someone said here, if the first truck wouldn't have tried to move right, and concentrated on stopping in the same lane, may be these lives could have saved. Like the instance mentioned by me. However, the truck driver thought of moving to right as his best to avoid the crushing the car.

[schakravarthy]

Even if the Alto wasn't in that scene, it looks inevitable that the two trucks would've crashed. Shouldn't the trucks have slowed down at the intersection? It's one thing to talk about the right of way, and who's wrong, but quite another to go charging into an intersection, hoping the other person will stop. Wonder how those two failed to see a thing as big as a truck; both being high seaters!

[Tanveer_2558]

Originally Posted by 2500cc

The five deceased include 2 children and a woman, such a tragic ending for no fault of theirs.

And hence i always am very careful before keeping any chauffeur for me or for my family, It all depends on who's on the steering, I have known people who have had their brand new car totalled by newbie or over excited drivers.

[avingodb]

the alto accident intersection location seems to be the one of which there are multiple accident videos online. One thing that is common to all the accidents there?

lack of patience.

[Tanveer_2558]

Originally Posted by avingodb

lack of patience.

Specially in bikers on the highways at such intersections, They have no respect for rules or safety for their own life! I myself have had a couple of very close calls at such type of intersections, And even after the near miss, The biker's react as if,"What happened, What you looking at?"

[schakravarthy]

Originally Posted by Tanveer_2558

Specially in bikers on the highways at such intersections,

And, I'm sure we have car guys, auto fellows, cyclists, pedestrians, dogs, cows, donkeys etc do the same.
Let's refrain from stereotyping, shall we?

[khoj]

I am surprised, no I am Shocked by the sheer number of negative and crass comments blaming the driver of the truck that was on the same carriageway as the Alto.

A loaded truck cannot stop abruptly and that too in a straight line without the entire load in the back moving forward, breaking the driver cabin and crushing everyone who is riding within.

In nearly 3 decades of highway driving, I have come across innumerable instances where in truck drivers have been killed by their own loads while they were trying to save un deserving morons like the Alto's driver. Roads are littered with their remains along with ripped axles, crushed coach work and what not.

Further, if you guys think that this shifting of load happens only at high speeds, think again. The last instance that I saw was on the Bombay Poona expressway at the section where the Expressway passes under the old highway's culvert. Here a lorry crawling down the slope had to abruptly brake as an idiot overtook him and then for whatever reason only God knows braked very hard in front of this crawling lorry. The driver had no option but to literally stand on the brakes. The abrupt braking on a slope at those crawling speed, shifted the entire momentum read 'load' forward which in this case was lemons. 10 to 12 tons of lemons were moved forward and were on the road but only after crushing the cabin along with the driver and the cleaner who had absolutely no chance to save themselves.

Remember that the loaded lumbering vehicle cannot and will not stop in a straight line abruptly.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by khoj

Remember that the loaded lumbering vehicle cannot and will not stop in a straight line abruptly.

Precisely why these giants are not allowed to ply on the fast lane and precisely why it is all the more important for them slow down at intersections. The driver of the Alto may have been a little crazy but they were all foolish and irresponsible. The Alto displayed its agility in the most foolish manner possible and the trucks displayed their high level of inertia in the most foolish manner possible as well.

Honestly, I did not know there were so many complications to driving a truck but everything you said makes sense, so knowing all of that, if you were driving such a vehicle whose momentum can only be changed slowly, would you rocket down the fast lane at an intersection? I would have to be feeling suicidal to do something like that.

[honeybee]

Yes, if the truck was carrying a load heavy enough to break into the cabin upon heavy braking, it had no business plying in the fast lane. Why is he not at fault?

[Tanveer_2558]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Yes, if the truck was carrying a load heavy enough to break into the cabin upon heavy braking, it had no business plying in the fast lane. Why is he not at fault?

Exactly, And even if he was in the fast lane to take a right, He looks to be very fast, Isn't he supposed to slow down near the intersection and before taking a right turn, My guess would be both the trucker and the alto guy were in a road rage while taking a right and both did not pay attention to the truck coming from the opposite side.

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

...... When people carry their bad city driving habits to the highway, this is what happens.

I'm always alarmed to see people hand over their vehicle keys to an inexperienced driver among the travellers on a highway saying:
"let him/her drive since its just a highway and there is less traffic" and its a very common and disturbing trend unfortunately.

On the contrary, a lot more of one's experience, concentration, situational awareness, patience, skill and judgement would be put to the acid test on highways at higher speeds, with magnified consequences for any error. Better have the best driver among the group, behind the wheel on highways.

[honeybee]

Here is a link to a gory video where a BMW is crushed between two cement mixers:

https://youtu.be/jvboK09uN-4

So that should stop any debate on build quality of various cars. There are some things even a modern, safer car can't handle.

[arun_josie]

Some of the accidents in this link looks to be at the same spot as the alto accident reported above,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u27aT72Zc7k