[dailydriver]

Is the Yamuna Expressway turning out to be a killing field? TOI carries this report:

German woman, Indian hubby killed in Yamuna e-way crash


A 19-year-old German woman and her Indian husband, Abhijit Soni, 23, died in an accident on the Yamuna Expressway on Thursday night.
Louisa Joan Rose, who worked with Mercedes-Benz and had got married just six months ago, and Soni, who were on a motorbike, collided with a potato-laden tractortrolley on the expressway at milestone 131 near the Mathura-Agra border at around 11pm on Thursday..

Praveen Kumar, station officer of Baldeo police station, said, “The two, who were on a motorbike with only Soni wearing a helmet, initially survived the impact, but vehicles coming from Delhi ran Soni over as he was thrown onto the middle of the expressway after colliding with the tractor-trolley. Louisa died on her way to the S N Medical College in Agra.“

Louisa worked as car designer with Mercedes-Benz, while Soni was employed with a private shoe company in Kanpur. The two met through Facebook seven years ago and had got married just six months back in Kanpur...

According to a recent RTI reply , the Yamuna Expressway saw 1,193 accidents in 2016, killing 128 persons. In 2015, 142 persons lost their lives in 919 accidents on the “killer“ stretch. In the four and a half years since its opening, the expressway has seen the death of 548 people in 4,076 accidents, with 2016 reporting the highest number of accidents in a year.

Full article available at http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/A...11032017015030

[sourabhzen]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Is the Yamuna Expressway turning out to be a killing field?

No.

Total disregards to traffic rules, over speeding, ill maintained cars and arrogance is turning YEW to killing fields. There is absolutely no flaw in the design and execution of the expressway.

TOI should focus on awareness among drivers on dos and don'ts on expessway to avoid accidents.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by sourabhzen

No.

Total disregards to traffic rules, over speeding, ill maintained cars and arrogance is turning YEW to killing fields. There is absolutely no flaw in the design and execution of the expressway.

TOI should focus on awareness among drivers on dos and don'ts on expessway to avoid accidents.

Agree on what TOI should/shouldn't do.

Increased highway patrolling, speed guns/traps, infractions on repeat violators, adequate lighting of roads, warning boards at entry points and publicising of accident statistics are some of the measures that the YEW authorities can initiate aggressively. Such a nice road and such tragic deaths shouldn't go together.

[sourabhzen]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Agree on what TOI should/shouldn't do.

Increased highway patrolling, speed guns/traps, infractions on repeat violators, adequate lighting of roads, warning boards at entry points and publicising of accident statistics are some of the measures that the YEW authorities can initiate aggressively. Such a nice road and such tragic deaths shouldn't go together.

They have all these in place but I think they are not authorised to penalise on traffic rules as power law. UP police is as good as anybody's guess.
Actually that is the story of our country. We terms to break laws when nobody is watching. Issue is self discipline. Unless we are self disciplined, we will continue to see these numbers.

[binand]

Originally Posted by sourabhzen

TOI should focus on awareness among drivers on dos and don'ts on expessway to avoid accidents.

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Increased highway patrolling, speed guns/traps, infractions on repeat violators, adequate lighting of roads, warning boards at entry points and publicising of accident statistics are some of the measures that the YEW authorities can initiate aggressively.

This "awareness" thingy does not really work, due to a cognitive bias called Optimism Bias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias

That goes for publishing of accident statistics, putting up of warning boards etc. as well. Ever since I remember, my hometown (Calicut) had a big board mentioning the number of people who died in vehicle accidents within the city limits in front of the police commissioner's office; despite this year after year the number increased monotonously.

On the other hand, the rest of it - increased patrolling & speed traps, heavy monetary fines etc. will possibly make a difference. Always assuming they are done in the right spirit and at the right diligence.

Edit: To be clear, what I mean is that awareness needs to be done right. Focusing on the positives of sticking to speed limits and lanes, and not on the negatives of not doing so.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by sourabhzen

We terms to break laws when nobody is watching. Issue is self discipline. Unless we are self disciplined, we will continue to see these numbers.

Accidents, traffic violations, road rage and a host of divisive isms can be lessened by Self discipline. The best way is to start young. Once you convince the children of the rights and wrongs of the road, they will nilly pass it on to their peers and parents.

I live in a small town. The Superintendent of Police of the district is a very strict and forthright officer. Still, underage and helmetless riding is rampant here. Not long ago, I saw a teenaged boy squatting on a Honda Dio with a mobile phone in his left hand. Earphones connected, he was watching something on the mobile and riding away without caring a hoot about other road users or policemen. Pity, not anger was what I felt for that moron.

Power (of machines) without responsibility is turning many beautiful roads into death traps. Consequently, most highway/expressway deaths are not accidental. They can only be called suicidal or homicidal .

Sad sate of affairs.

The optimism bias (also known as unrealistic or comparative optimism) is a cognitive bias that causes a person to believe that they are less at risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others. The optimism bias is quite common and transcends gender, race, nationality and age.

@ binand, we need to continuously put forth some negative reinforcements to wake up those ensconced in this secure feeling. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Warnings, statistics etc can accomplish this. Can't they?

[binand]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

@ binand, we need to continuously put forth some negative reinforcements to wake up those ensconced in this secure feeling. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Warnings, statistics etc can accomplish this. Can't they?

All the material I read say that negative reinforcements don't work due to the "It won't happen to me" syndrome. Numbers might prove useful in policy creation, but is irrelevant in shaping human behaviour. That is, both the below are non-starters:

- Campaigns with the message that overspeeding will result in accidents.
- Campaigns that go, NNN people died on YEW (say) in the last year, you could be the bext.

What could work are campaigns that highlight the positive outcomes of compliance. Our anti-smoking campaign is proof for this assertion. Look at the ad where a man quits smoking and starts enjoying his time with his daughter. Low production values, simple message, highly effective. That is the way to overcome this Optimism Bias.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Is the Yamuna Expressway turning out to be a killing

More than blaming the highways, people behind the wheels or riding bikes should be aware of their and the vehicle's limitation. With more and more high end vehicles entering the indian market, speed has become the norm of the day. One needs to drive fast but not rash. Anything in excess is always lethal be it speed.
How many people actually monitor their vehicles tyre condition. Overloading the car, under inflated tyres and rash driving. What do you expect from the combination of these 3 points. DEATH
Let us be practical. Nothing can be done to change the mindset of the current generation. Let us educate the next generation about these safety aspects of driving. There will be change for sure but we may not be there to witness the change.
Till then we have to keep reading such stuff from the media

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Is the Yamuna Expressway turning out to be a killing field? TOI carries this report:

Full article available at http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/A...11032017015030

So the girl belonged to a race that is known to be quite strict when it comes to following the law. But in our country she didn't even bother to wear a helmet? That too she was employed in the automobile industry. Quite a sad state of affairs!

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

So the girl belonged to a race that is known to be quite strict when it comes to following the law. But in our country she didn't even bother to wear a helmet? That too she was employed in the automobile industry. Quite a sad state of affairs!

Yes.

Also, look at their ages. Were it not for the fact that they were a married couple, they could easily have been a pair of college going youth out on a thrill ride. Wish they were that because the girl could then have worn a helmet just to mask her face .

The fairy tale love story, tender age and the brutal manner of their death (the boy being thrown over and crushed under speeding vehicles) are too disturbing.

On the other hand, think of what might be passing through the mind of the person under whose wheels the boy was crushed to death. He will now be caught in the clutches of red tape for a long while - for no fault of his.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

About driving "the wrong way" on service roads, though, I think that we often have little choice. It seems that the designers of roads have used about the same amount of brain as the bikers mentioned above. Whilst the idea of a service road on either side of a road such as Chennai's OMR might be one-way, there seems to be little option, in some places, but to use it as two-way. Thus we, the drivers, have made it so, and we understand that it is so.

That is true in some places. The next U turn may be quite a long way off, if it is a highway. I too have been guilty of going on the wrong side on a few occassions, when I was on my bike.

But what I will do is ride slowly with headlight on, on the service road or on the shoulder for about a hundred metres beyond the U turn, then carefully merge in to the traffic, move gradually to the right with the blinker on, come back to the designated spot and take a proper U turn. Sadly some people have no patience to do that.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

So the girl belonged to a race that is known to be quite strict when it comes to following the law. But in our country she didn't even bother to wear a helmet? That too she was employed in the automobile industry. Quite a sad state of affairs!

Think of the background. Its vacation for her. So they will be in fully adventurous mode. India is where they feel they have the freedom to do what they want. Most of them would have read about the law and the state of enforcement here so they would want to try something 'adventurous' since all this cant be done in their country. What they don't understand is the pathetic driving manners of our people including her partner or whoever that guy was.

This is a not a surprise for me since I have hosted quite a lot of visitors from Germany and they come here with such a feeling. In fact I have got requests to drive car, if thats not all drive two wheeler, and believe it or not, drive an autorickshaw The moment they sit in our car as a passenger they realise drivng is not so orderly here and some loose confidence of driving. This would have been a similar case but things went totally wrong. Poor soul. In such a situation the partner should have been more responsible and should have taken care.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Think of the background. Its vacation for her. So they will be in fully adventurous mode. India is where they feel they have the freedom to do what they want. Most of them would have read about the law and the state of enforcement here so they would want to try something 'adventurous' since all this cant be done in their country.

Thin line between adventure and foolishness. Even we Indians drive abroad. The local road laws have to be followed. And wearing a helmet is not even something that should be a legal requirement but more of a common sense thing, atleast I had hoped it was true for western countries where the society inculcates these habits into your everyday life. But what can we say. Probably she trusted her Indian husband and his lack of regard for driving more than anything else.

On the other hand everyday people lose their lives to these badly maintained tin boxes called dumpers/tractors. With no lights, reflectors, number plates and a complete lack of driving knowledge. Still they continue to play in every corner of our country. God knows when will we wake up and do something about basic road sense.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Thin line between adventure and foolishness. Even we Indians drive abroad. The local road laws have to be followed. And wearing a helmet is not even something that should be a legal requirement but more of a common sense thing, atleast I had hoped it was true for western countries where the society inculcates these habits into your everyday life. But what can we say. Probably she trusted her Indian husband and his lack of regard for driving more than anything else.
.

I fully agree with you. When we drive in foreign countries we follow local road laws. Some want to actually do it while others do it being scared about the enforcement methods. This categorization can be done to foreigners driving in India as well. While one set of people might respect and follow the law, there is another set of people who are not so respectful and follow the law only if there is strict enforcement method. Thats what happened here.

I doubt the story about the age and the profession of the girl. At that age they usualy finish a short internship and then head on a long trip abroad. This is where they get to do crazy things. Same would have happened here.

[E = mc²]

This just happened right in front of me . Fortunately, I was driving sedately and the bikers didn't fall and roll down into me.

Pardon me for the inferior video quality. That's a adventure cam being used as a dashcam for the moment

https://youtu.be/XYuUahTN_s4