[hemanth.anand]

Today saw one more of those classic accidents that we get to see on Bengaluru roads.
Under the Bommasandra Flyover on the service road, Truck sitting bang on the middle of those 2 feet high concrete median. No reflectors, probably dim lights, overtaking, and bang! the vehicle is on the median.

[Dhawal20]

My cousin brother lost his life tragically in a road accident in Lucknow today when his bike was hit by a roadways bus on Kanpur Road near Lucknow ISBT.

A recent practice of parking cars along the median has come up in Lucknow after metro construction work began. The ridiculous reasoning of people being that because of the broken road, the central lane is not usable anyways.

The picture tries to show what happened. He was crossing the road after getting re-fueled at a filling station. His view was blocked due to to the pillar and he didn't see the car parked behind it. After turning, to avoid hitting the car, he took a sharp left and was run over by the bus coming from behind.

Probably his mistake of not being slow enough at the turn, but cannot say. All this has been derived from accounts of people who were there or knew more about the accident. He was wearing a helmet but it flew off his head on impact, might not have been strapped. The pillion (his friend) escaped with minor scratches.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Sorry for your loss, but

Originally Posted by Dhawal20

Probably his mistake of not being slow enough at the turn, but cannot say.

My guess is that it was his mistake, of not looking first when joining the traffic.

I've had two accidents because I didn't look in the right place, or was looking in the wrong place. Thankfully, they only cost bodywork.

[Dhawal20]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Sorry for your loss, but



My guess is that it was his mistake, of not looking first when joining the traffic.

I've had two accidents because I didn't look in the right place, or was looking in the wrong place. Thankfully, they only cost bodywork.

Probably would have ignored, even if looked, as he didn't plan to join that lane. As I said, I don't know much, all this is derived from what I heard.

But such instances are big reminders of the fact that it can all go wrong in a split second. Being that extra bit careful is the only sensible way.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Sorry for your loss, but

My guess is that it was his mistake, of not looking first when joining the traffic.

I've had two accidents because I didn't look in the right place, or was looking in the wrong place. Thankfully, they only cost bodywork.

Not to argue over a lost life, but I had a similar incident yesterday. After a free stretch of road the cars on the right lane stopped to take a U turn and I was on the middle lane. There was a bike trailing these cars and at the last moment he realised he couldnt stop and he just swapped lanes into mine. I had to brake so hard to avoid running over them and was lucky enough not to get rear ended. And as usual got greeted by a Symphony of horns unsure if it was dedicated to me or the bike.

People should be aware that in any emergency it's safer to first brake and rear-end someone rather than making a sudden steer and get into bigger trouble. I held my steering straight because there was moving traffic to my left and had i steered, I would have caused greater trouble by cascading the foolishness.

I had a funny experience when we were testing evasive steering assist in a proving ground. My foreign colleagues were not able to get a good steering maneuver while braking to avoid a pedestrian. When I took the wheel, it was cakewalk for me. The reason - we are Indians and this skill comes in our genes. The foreigners just trust their brakes and stomp it, and they are never misjudge the brakes of their car and hence steering away doesnt occur to them.

[Thad E Ginathom]

How big an idiot does a person have to be to cross a road on foot without even looking?

So why do people do it on wheels?

Whilst I feel that many bikers have some sort of locking mechanism in the neck that kicks in as soon as they sit on the bike, completely preventing them from moving the head right or left at any time, this behaviour is not at all limited to 2-wheelers.

It is not that these people expect the traffic to give way: they don't even look.

[vijayvelprakash]

Saw this today near Madiwala Traffic Police Station. Not sure where the accident happened and the rental company. But the car was completely damaged in the front and rear.

[aspire]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

How big an idiot does a person have to be to cross a road on foot without even looking?

So why do people do it on wheels?

Whilst I feel that many bikers have some sort of locking mechanism in the neck that kicks in as soon as they sit on the bike, completely preventing them from moving the head right or left at any time, this behaviour is not at all limited to 2-wheelers.

It is not that these people expect the traffic to give way: they don't even look.

Bikers in my experience have a plethora of signals

1. Indicators if functional, depends on the drivers gender also. There is the hazard of indicators not being switched off too!
2. Bend their head slightly towards the place they want to turn to
3. Replace head with Shoulder above.
4. Hand wave
5. Telepathy with the driver behind, at-least thats what they believe I think.
6. The driver behind should have anticipated that the "biker" was going to turn.
7. Mirrors are mostly for admiring oneself, or that pretty girlfriend!

It is never ever the bikers fault, one idiot on a bullet, which he neither had the physique nor the acumen to ride, rear ended my car, just at the start of the e-city flyover in Bangalore, his reasoning being "I braked suddenly" It is entirely fiction that the vehicle behind is supposed to maintain distance, as he then started with his drama " You should be glad that I didn't fall "

Regards
Shailesh

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by aspire

Bikers in my experience have a plethora of signals

It is very important to watch out for any body language or other clues, whether proper signals are given, not given or misused. Even in UK, one instructor told me never to cross the path of a vehicle indicating left until I see the wheels turn. They might be turning into the next street!

[audioholic]

Biker of the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyKst1RQTw0

Not even sure what happened there. Came home and watched video again and again to understand why the biker crashed into the TT. He had space to the right of the TT and there was no approaching vehicle. For those who dont understand kannada, here is what the conversation was about:

Me: Why are you in such an urgency sir?
Biker: ??
Me: Repeat
Biker: Nothing urgent, I tried to do something and this happened

Not sure what that something is. Thanked god he did not do that 'something' behind my car.

[haria]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Biker of the day:

Biker: Nothing urgent, I tried to do something and this happened

Not sure what that something is. Thanked god he did not do that 'something' behind my car.

Ha... most likely he was not paying attention and thinking about something else. He was lucky, it stopped with this.

Maybe it is my perception or the way the video was going, That TT - was it going too fast in that narrow roads ?

Good to see that you maintained a healthy gap b/w the TT . Generally, I don't do this as the gap will be mostly filled by errant two wheelers/Autos. No excuse, but driving in Bangalore has probably made me a more aggressive driver than I care to be. Time I changed that.

[hserus]

The one thing you learn about TTs especially the ones used as office cabs and unlicensed mofussil buses in bangalore is that they will inevitably be driven rashly and at high speed so need to be given a wide berth. When a rash and unwary motorcyclist comes into contact with one, the consequences are obvious.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by haria

Ha... most likely he was not paying attention and thinking about something else. He was lucky, it stopped with this.

Maybe it is my perception or the way the video was going, That TT - was it going too fast in that narrow roads ?

Good to see that you maintained a healthy gap b/w the TT . Generally, I don't do this as the gap will be mostly filled by errant two wheelers/Autos. No excuse, but driving in Bangalore has probably made me a more aggressive driver than I care to be. Time I changed that.

He wasnt that fast. Its the wide angle lens that makes it look so. Since the road is narrow the sides of the frame appear to move faster. However the gap was purposely left by me. Since the road is narrow, there are places where only one vehicle can pass at a time and if at all there is an obstacle course with multiple crossings, I prefer to have clear sight ahead and move instead of getting stuck blindly following an overconfident cab driver.

. I usually don't allow anyone to jutt in between me and the vehicle ahead when we are in a queue. Not even the famed company cabs have stood a chance with that. In this case it was totally necessary to leave plenty of space and I was making least use of accelerator and brake while the TT was gunning it between humps and stops.

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Biker of the day:

I tried to do something and this happened

Not sure what that something is. Thanked god he did not do that 'something' behind my car.

Probably, "something" is, he tried to topple the tempo traveler and make it fall !! but instead of that, he only fell !

Jokes apart, the cause is clearly absence of his alertness here. I can see he slowed down the vehicle and again raised the speed. Not sure why ! ! He should have slowed down the vehicle knowing there is a hump and maintained. But, he just raised the speed assuming TT will take off. This wrong calculation made him fall

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Biker of the day:

Me: Why are you in such an urgency sir?
Biker: ??
Me: Repeat
Biker: Nothing urgent, I tried to do something and this happened

Not sure what that something is. Thanked god he did not do that 'something' behind my car.

I would still appreciate this man, for admitting his mistake and not creating a scene. When I was on my office bus in Ahmedabad, a moron motorcyclist had a very similar situation. I was watching the entire episode from my window, on how he came with an absent mind and bumped into a slow moving bus. But out of ego, he started shouting at the bus driver. People immediately blocked the bus ( the famous bigger vehicle logic ) and this motorcyclist pulled our bus driver and slapped him and started abusing him. I din't know Hindi (or maybe it was Gujarati) then, but I stood with the bus driver till he was taken to the police station, and I told the police inspector that the mistake was not on the bus driver. But sadly, that angry biker only walked off, after getting 500 rupees from the bus driver.

PS: worst part was when all my colleagues (who also knew Gujarati / Hindi) got down from the bus and walked away - while the poor driver was being harassed by a mean motorcyclist!