[balenoed_]

It's caught in CCTV as well.

http://youtu.be/wCsodRbt6CM

[vw19d]

This is a horrendous crash. Look at the speed at which the lorry is going past the bus before running amok over the cars. 12 cars have bore the brunt for absolutely no fault of those drivers & 4 valuable lives lost.

[badboyscad]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

A major accident reported at Thoppur, near Dharmapuri in TN. More than 10 vehicles involved.

More videos of the accident have surfaced

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-HPpu_4Lqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuxAoPVRY-g

[venbas]

The Thoppur kalvai section is supposed to be amongst the most haunted roads in India. Looking at the way the heavily loaded multi-axle Truck speeds past that bus, it seems as if the driver is possessed with some vengeful spirit. No sane driver would have done those kind of speeds on that truck

Originally Posted by anandhsub

You meant "couldn't" right? Atleast in the video it is fairly clear the high beam was blinding. Should have atleast been able to see the outline of the goats if he was on low beam.

Seeing the outline of the animals hmmm...That is easier said than done at night on poorly lit roads. I once had an incident when a cow chose to stand in the middle of the road on my lane in a poorly lit stretch. Very similar to this situation. There was a biker happily on high beams who blinded my sight. I noticed the cow *after* I had hit it. Thankfully I was doing defensive speeds and the hit was in the far right side to the car and hence was I was able to safely maneuver the car. The Cow dusted itself off and went away. My Ritz however had extensive sheet damage since the Cows horns had gouged out the sheet metal badly

[lejhoom]

Folks, I have a doubt. Assuming the damaged vehicles have Comprehensive Insurance cover, will the insurer of that truck compensate the short fall in the cost of repairs/replacement of the damaged vehicles?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by venbas

The Thoppur kalvai section is supposed to be amongst the most haunted roads in India. Looking at the way the heavily loaded multi-axle Truck speeds past that bus, it seems as if the driver is possessed with some vengeful spirit. No sane driver would have done those kind of speeds on that truck

A blind curve and a downslope? Nothing at all to do with ghosts. The idiot overtook on that curve and expected to find fast moving traffic ahead of him.

He instead saw a large tailback of cars and trucks due to some reason, and plowed into all those vehicles.

[tharian]

Thoppur ghats is notorious for trucks losing brakes because of it's long stretch of down gradient which starts almost 2-3 kms before this spot. Heavily loaded trucks usually crawl down at some 20-30 kmph. I have seen varied loads crashed beside the road or lying on the road, from a fishing trawler to a locomotive lying on it's side in the middle of the road. This one looks the worst.

My assumption is that, the driver must have ridden the brakes upto this point instead of engine braking with a lower gear and most probably would have lost his brakes before this point which was why he was already in good speed. I don't think any truck driver with a loaded truck would come down Thoppur ghats at that speed otherwise.
Next time I pass by this stretch, i'll be tensed for sure.

[CarNerd]

Originally Posted by badboyscad

More videos of the accident have surfaced

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=c-HPpu_4Lqc

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=RuxAoPVRY-g

I can see a Kia completely mangled. In such accidents, I don't think NCAP or other ratings are useful. Only God can save us from such horrible things.

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by CarNerd

I can see a Kia completely mangled. In such accidents, I don't think NCAP or other ratings are useful. Only God can save us from such horrible things.

Any car will get mangled out of sight in such a pile up. NCAP ratings have zero relevance to end users in the real world. They exist, because in the absence of such exercises, manufacturers will push this aspect (structural rigidity) down to the bottom of their priority list or one fine day forget all about it. Now that such tests are conducted and ratings made public, enough pressure is on them to give equal importance.

Coming back to the accident, who ever allowed the truck driver to even to sit in the driver's seat .

[WhiteSierra]

Hyderabad: 5 killed in road accident at Gachibowli

Signal jumping by the driver of Swift car claimed 5 lives, the tipper lorry driver also appears to be over speeding in his green signal lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_fuHubJoa0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhqnKj4ZwD4

[sunishsamuel]

For those who travel regularly on this stretch such an accident isn't something new, sadly ! Have seen so many ghastly accidents in that stretch and I'd blame the drivers not the road. The road is a pretty decently laid stretch and you can see people "flying" whenever they can while going downhill.

To the experts; this may need another topic, but I am wondering why this "brake failures are so common" among trucks in India ? The trucks especially the modern ones have a much reliable Air Brake system coupled with all the latest safety assist systems like ABS etc. Is it not "idiot proof" under emergency braking situations ?

If this needs a standard operating procedure along with "idiot proofing the safety system" it needs to be prioritized. The loss of life, property etc is too much to handle every time !

And it also looks like Bharath Benz is too complicated for Indian situations. Few major accidents in the recent times had Bharat Benz involved.

I have seen much bigger trucks (the Kenworth, PACCAR, Actros) climbing up and down steep inclines with heavy load in areas like the Hunter Valley, California Highways etc and hardly noticed such "brake fails". Of course accidents do happen everywhere but its not the same reason all the time.

[virgopal]

9th Standard Car Driver Kills 3 of a Family
https://starofmysore.com/9th-standar...3-of-a-family/
Mysore/Mysuru: A minor boy, who was allegedly behind the wheels of a car, rammed the vehicle into a two-wheeler killing three persons of a family near Dandi Maramma Temple on Mysuru-Bengaluru Road yesterday night...
Read on:

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Yes, that's what the news article mentions.

Salient points...

• Four dead.
  
• Truck driver ran away.
  
• Road design blamed.

Whilst y'all know what I think of blaming road design, fog, etc, rather than drivers, it seems that many complaints have been made about this place, but corrections have not been made. I can't say that road design doesn't contribute to danger: it can certainly contribute to safety.

Anyone here with local knowledge of the spot?

edit: Crossposted. Somehow I missed a bunch of posts. edit 2: --- Thanks to all with local knowledge.

[smnrock]

Originally Posted by tharian

My assumption is that, the driver must have ridden the brakes upto this point instead of engine braking with a lower gear and most probably would have lost his brakes before this point which was why he was already in good speed. I don't think any truck driver with a loaded truck would come down Thoppur ghats at that speed otherwise.
Next time I pass by this stretch, i'll be tensed for sure.

Exactly my thought as well and adding to that, truck driver may be new to this section. Whenever i cross this section, i always had a worry especialy with the way some private buses driven :(

What i was wondering is, the traffic pile up was due to another minor accident and in that case why can't the NHAI or toll plaza people regularize/warn all the vehicles who cross the toll plaza or at least before the ghat section itself, saying there is accident further down and go slow!

[pgsagar]

The truck ploughing through stopped cars is very scary. The big question is why was the traffic stalled? There doesn't seem any intersection. The answer appears, if you look closely at the right side screen of the video. There is a truck facing the oncoming traffic. It is on the extreme right side of the left lane (on the right screen). That probably was the reason for stalled traffic.