[rajivkamani]

Originally Posted by akas_chauhan

You never know what will happen in next few minutes on highway. BTW i think no injuries. This happened on which highway?

Yes, no injuries to anyone - there were a total of 5 people in the car. This happened on the notorious Ahmedabad-Rajkot Highway in Gujarat. Notorious because it has a very high % of accidents. We were saved by a whisker (as you can see by the two big holes on the windscreen). There were two thick iron protrusions at the back of the truck. Because I was able to brake in time (not really, but well, almost!), our heads were saved by few inches. Seatbelts really saved our lives. Otherwise, it would have been much more serious.

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by (Alok)

Seems the truck toppled over a standby alto. Hope no casualties.

Very strange event. Cop arrested biker!! It is good luck of 800 driver. Actually all these happens because this law (written or unwritten, I do not know) that the big vehicle driver will be considered on fault. These type of biker can only learn from doctors and hospitals are the correct driving (riding) schools for them.

Not strange if this happened in Chennai. Bikers blocking buses, trucks in front and arguing, getting engaged in fist-fights with car drivers, is common here. At least there 1 biker alone hit the Maruti driver. Here a few more passers-by bikers would also stop and join him in beating up. I have seen myself such incidents.

[skilanjar]

We were on our first long trip to Alibaug in my shiney newly modified Palio 1.2 Sport. All excitement and refuelled totally. On our way to CBD belapur flyover (known accident spot as said by many), wanted to take the flyover, but due to lack of experience and new to driving, ended up crashing onto the reflector on the flyover. Driving on 5th gear..

Then came in Tavera ..screeching brakes and took away my taillamps and rear wheel fully tilted and so was the front wheel. This was a horror story April 18th, my friend's birthday. That was the most terrible day.

I used to always wonder when I used to see accidents where the car dashes just between the wall of the flyover and used to wonder how foolish it is, but I myself turned out to be a fool.

Worst part is if you look at the picture, it says 'Follow Traffic Rules', this picture deserves an award for Safe Driving.

[RajaTaurus]

And I am looking for a Red triangle behind the car and I dont find one. That spot is still dangerous, as if some else tried to do the same as you,and thinking that your car is just there and moving, it could lead to more disaster. IMO, you should have arranged few things behind he car, or Kept the Boot Open, to alert the oncoming vehicles

[Sudan_NFS]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

Not strange if this happened in Chennai. Bikers blocking buses, trucks in front and arguing, getting engaged in fist-fights with car drivers, is common here. At least there 1 biker alone hit the Maruti driver. Here a few more passers-by bikers would also stop and join him in beating up. I have seen myself such incidents.

One biker broke my bumper while turning right and this biker turnded in such a way that his crash guard came in between the wheel and bumper resulting breakage of the bumper . But he didn't beat me and this biker left the scene and I was not able to catch him due to traffic in the road

This type of driving is very common in chennai and that too in slow moving traffic.

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by skilanjar

....but I myself turned out to be a fool.,,

How much speed were you driving at?

If you are new to driving, why didnt you put a "L" sticker on both your windscreens?

[tanwaramit]

Originally Posted by skilanjar

We were on our first long trip to Alibaug in my shiney newly modified Palio 1.2 Sport. All excitement and refuelled totally. On our way to CBD belapur flyover (known accident spot as said by many), wanted to take the flyover, but due to lack of experience and new to driving, ended up crashing onto the reflector on the flyover. Driving on 5th gear..

Then came in Tavera ..screeching brakes and took away my taillamps and rear wheel fully tilted and so was the front wheel. This was a horror story April 18th, my friend's birthday. That was the most terrible day.

I used to always wonder when I used to see accidents where the car dashes just between the wall of the flyover and used to wonder how foolish it is, but I myself turned out to be a fool.

Worst part is if you look at the picture, it says 'Follow Traffic Rules', this picture deserves an award for Safe Driving.

thats some nasty crash on your palio, how was the traffic ? I wonder why the tavera guy didnt keep distance and ended up rear ending you. How much were the expenses ?

[rjvora_2000]

Originally Posted by skilanjar

We were on our first long trip to Alibaug in my shiney newly modified Palio 1.2 Sport. All excitement and refuelled totally.

Sorry to see what happend with you on holiday mood. If you need any help on claiming insurance please feel free to post on my thread.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ce-ask-me.html

[SRK]

@skilanjar: Could you explain how did this happen?
The road looks wide enough for you to move on the flyover.
Were you trying to overtake someone?

By the way if you knew that you are a new driver, you should have taken more car. Hope no one suffered any serious injuries.

[skilanjar]

The real story: Well it happened so, there were four of us, a couple in the back seat and a common friend on the front seat. The friend on the passenger seat firstly doesnt have a 4 wheeler license and has a 2 wheeler license only. The bad one here is that he has the habit to intrude while driving and as the term goes 'back seat driving' , he is best at it.

Throughout the journey he would interrupt why am I in high gears or low gears and then tell me 'hey why is the left indicator on', initially I didnt pay any heed as I knew about this and thought I will ignore as we were in a holiday mood and I didnt want to spoil it by getting into an argument. . He crossed the limit when during driving he brought down the sunvisor above the steering wheel and I said politely, buddy I dont need them. When Im driving I know what I need and what I dont. And we had several arguments on him doing backseat driving when driving on the streets of mumbai.

Coming to the point, we were near the CBD Belapur Highway and the flyover and the road below end on the same place, only difference is there is a big circle that cars need to maneuver. We were supposed to take the flyover (as usual as this was the 5th trip but first time in my car , other wise it would always be my friends Santro) I am against changing lanes suddenly coz it causes distraction to the driver behind as well...and its not safe driving.

I was way too on the right side and the flyover was on extreme left. We were doing 5th gear and guess 80 kmh. This guy sitting next to me screamed and scared the hell out of me "TAKE THE FLYOVERRRRRRRRRRR!" I got distracted and within seconds I decided to take extreme left. Now I remember there was a huge bus going on the flyover a little space and then the flyover wall. As we were 30 ft away I understood that we wont be able to make it within that small space between the bus and flyover. I just pushed the breaks haaaard as possible , there was some mud as you can see in the pictures. And the presence of my mind told me "You cant hit this head-on, you do it and your car is damaged forever" I tilted the steering a little left and my right tyre took all the pressure and just knocked off that big pole. Due to which the Tavera behind did a great job by just taking my taillamps and my left rear wheel, had it been a head on ...back on my cars boot.. we would have had injuries.

The tavera guys stopped few feet away they came to us to check if no one is hurt and they left.. it was a private vehicle and I dont know why they left as soon as they saw a traffic cop (there is a traffic police station nearby).

Now my car is damaged from the rear and the front as well. It cannot be towed to let other cars pass.. so we had to drag it. This happened at 8 am, as the front wheel was tilted, we had to get a new part so that the car can be towed from rear, my friend went on bike along with the repair man and searched everywhere.. (Palio...NO PARTS)..they even checked in Tata Service Centre near by.. the answer..NO. Then my friend made me stand there to monitor the vehicle , we dragged it in the centre with the towing vehicle. My friend went all the way to Chor Bazaar and got a part ..which we finally fit by 6 pm and got the vehicle towed back home.

Now, we thought if we go back home we will all be sad for not being able to make it for our holiday. Hence we took all the stuff out from the boot and we took a bus and continued for our holiday. (It was a good decision) As we felt relaxed after those 10hrs of horror.

My car is still is now almost ready April-December.. the expenses went upto 30,000 +. Im happy that my car didnt give up. The engine was safe (thanks to my presense of mind). We have third party insurance..so no good. The best part is that this car ..I have gr8 respect for it, it saved the lives of its occupants. The damage could have been much more, but due to its weight there was gr8 control on the car. Even cars like Skoda Fabia (the recent mumbai bandra worli sealink accident) give up.

Im happy that we the occupants in Palio and Tavera both survived, made it to the holiday and now the Car is ready too. It still feels the same, nothing changed except for the right front wheel is 2 inches outside, wheel alignment done too.

This is how it looks like now.(Oct*09) (Dusshera pic). The accident damage is not even noticeable now.. so thats good job done. Some pics how it looked like in its hay-days(feb-apr09). My car was fern Green before the mod job, the 'SOLD' board, means its all mine (Jan-09). Im uploading some more accident photos, the Grande Punto which was my inspiration for this good mod job. Abarth is a Fiat sister brand which modifies Fiat cars (as per my knowledge). From Inspiration to Modification to its hay days to the Accident and now its back to Pavilion or say back to 'Palion'

I didnt spare that so called 'friend', I always hate backseat drivers They can cause a lot of damage if not avoided. I wont let him sit next to me ever and I made him pay a quarter of the expenses.

Now after being in the garage for so long, the interiors have become a little too dirty..if you guys can recommend some value for money workshops that do good interior cleaning job would be helpful.

It was all because of my other friend who went all the way to chor bazaar on his bike and with all his efforts got the rarest part of the Palio and how we got it done within a day.. oh that just brings those memories..

[ranjitss]

Originally Posted by SRK

@skilanjar: Could you explain how did this happen?
The road looks wide enough for you to move on the flyover.
Were you trying to overtake someone?

The mentioned flyover is on the extreme left of the road. The approach road to this flyover is a down slope from a small hill. Most of the people come at high speed down the slope and the ones not familiar with location of the flyover tend to go straight on the right most lane. It's only when they coming close to the flyover do they realize that they had to keep left and try to move on to the left most lane at high speeds. This is the reason this spot is prone to such accidents. My brother too, once was about to hit the wall of the flyover at the entry like skilanjar did.

[james]

You are lucky that it didnt endup in a major crash! Back seat drivers can be a real pain. I have such friends and i politely ask them to shut their trap or find their way to the destination. The worst thing is when family members turn into back seat drivers because then you just have to keep quiet.

Originally Posted by skilanjar

Abarth is a Fiat sister brand which modifies Fiat cars (as per my knowledge). From Inspiration to Modification to its hay days to the Accident and now its back to Pavilion or say back to 'Palion'

And all this while i thought Abarth is your name!

[McLaren Rulez]

Sorry to hear of your accident skilanjar, but your ride is superb! Great looking Palio

[SLK]

Originally Posted by skilanjar

I was way too on the right side and the flyover was on extreme left. We were doing 5th gear and guess 80 kmh. This guy sitting next to me screamed and scared the hell out of me "TAKE THE FLYOVERRRRRRRRRRR!" I got distracted and within seconds I decided to take extreme left.

Sorry, that your 'common friend' was acting like a jerk. But you'll always come across people like that.

For people like me, who drive relatively fast, everybody has inputs and most of the times you can't make people shut up.

There can be people from your office whom you can't shut up, so basically it's up to you to get experienced to driving your way and no other way.

I miss so many turns, even if the co-driver shouts, my foot doesn't even go to the brake, and the steering doesn't turn a degree unless I want to really turn.

Lesson, you need to check/ assess whether you can make a turn and check and ensure that there is no one behind you AND all this takes time at least 5 secs (specially when your are not used to it). That should be your minimum reaction time to things like these!....

[khoj]

Originally Posted by ranjitss

The mentioned flyover is on the extreme left of the road. The approach road to this flyover is a down slope from a small hill. Most of the people come at high speed down the slope and the ones not familiar with location of the flyover tend to go straight on the right most lane. It's only when they coming close to the flyover do they realize that they had to keep left and try to move on to the left most lane at high speeds. This is the reason this spot is prone to such accidents. My brother too, once was about to hit the wall of the flyover at the entry like skilanjar did.

The traffic pattern coming down from the hill mentioned by ranjitss above is a scissor action. The lighter & faster vehicles are on the extreme right and the heavy traffic is on the extreme left. As they approach the flyover the faster cars start to bear left to go over the flyover and the buses bear right to go to the bus stop located below the fly over. Any one who is not used to this can get confused and end up getting into some trouble or the other.

The way to tackle this piece of road is to bear left as you come down the hill and take the middle lane as the left lane is almost always full of trucks or if you are stuck on the right side simply go parallel to and below the flyover. The round about below the flyover has relativelty very light to light traffic and you simply come out and rejoin at the other end of the flyover. There is hardly any loss of time and in fact it works out better as you rejoin in the fast lane on the road after the flyover and in a better position to take the sweeping left hand curve that starts from that point. The vehicles coming down from the flyover have no choice but to slow down as they get to face the same curve but at a a very sharp approach angle.

@skilanjar

Is your friend still with you after having been made to pay a quarter of the repair bill?