[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

skid marks are coming from the "wrong" side. Long, too: that bus must have been traveling fast.

Originally Posted by KL01BE

Hi Speedsatya,
See how the skid marks made by the two wheeler tyre begins (at the begining of the skid mark) on the correct side of the white line. The bus has traveled some distance and again, to the left after the impact bringing the bus more to the correct side of the road. May be the bus had just begun to over take the other vehicle. But, the continuous white line means vehicles should not cross it. Right?

Oh yeah ! I missed the white line . I thought these are tire marks from some other vehicle .

Like we all know , all accidents are avoidable . Even someone says mechanical fault was the cause , we can always counter that by saying this could have been avoided if only service intervals were followed .

In accidents like the one above , I have seen drivers/riders flash their lights whenever they see a vehicle ( like this bus ) overtaking in a dangerous way . very few people slow down or swerve to the side .

I have seen accidents right in front of me where these riders would try to flash their lights and end up under the other vehicle. BTW I am not saying this rider here would have done something like this. Just my observation.

I am sure this KeSRTC driver would be transferred or would have paid a fine of 5k INR and would be driving on the same route once again

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by Ketan

May be the first fatal involving an XUV here. Posting it from XUV thread.
TN: PMK leader dies in midnight accident - The New Indian Express

Looks like the side curtain airbags have deployed and just by the impact nothing else could have save the person's life. RIP human soul.

I am hearing this incident/road rage quite often these days. I have been advocating a defensive driving style since a long time, but it has always been me, who has been on the receiving end, even for no fault of mine, every single time because, I dont shout back at anybody. :( sad but we should quickly curb this menace before things get out of hand in our country.

Little OT: But good to read:

If you are Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving advice of a good friend. Someone who's being honest with you and wants nothing from you.
Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand, much less Western Europe or America. And I covered fully two thirds of the country during my visit. There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no traffic laws to speak of, and if there are, they are rarely obeyed, much less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if not older. Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that. But remember, I've been there. I've done it. And I've seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia, have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does. And the bottom line is, I don't think India really cares. Too complacent and too conservative.

http://open.salon.com/blog/sean_paul...tions_on_india

[Trojan]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Why are people so angry all the time.

Hi Sandeep,

Totally understand and agree with what you mentioned, people generally have become very angry and upset, I feel this has happened gradually as times have changed, we spend more and more time in office and commuting and then we have little or no time left to go over the days happenings whether good or bad.

Adding to this is the chaotic traffic conditions and the helplessness that you feel seeing things going wrong.

I was also one such individual a few years back, I was riding a friends bike and returning from NIBM (locality in Pune) onto Camp, suddenly a Maruti 800 did a u-turn bang without giving any indication or having any consideration for people coming that way, my way was totally blocked, hit the brakes but it was too late, I skid but managed to avoid getting hurt too bad, banged my knees on the road and scratched my palms. I lost it, I got up and removed my helmet and was all ready to pull the guy out and give him a sound thrashing, but he was travelling with his family and there were women in the car as well, I had to hold on but I was seething in anger and was bellowing at him.
All this while the guy was apologising, his family had also come out, my friend who was on another bike, asked me what I intended to do as he is already very sorry for this incident.
I was like 'How can he just be sorry after nearly causing a major accident' but then I thought over here I was looking like the fool and finally had nothing to say.
I realised that day, had I to hit the guy maybe I would have been satisfied and moved ahead, but since that did not happen I had to release the stress in some manner and that I did by way of shouting. By gods grace I was ok with just 2 swollen knees.
Its not about getting even with someone, plain stupidity can cause serious accidents, and then people lose it.
What is required is some serious anger management, that incident made me change the way I think, now I usually keep my cool, pull over and then talk, but the frustration remains because there are still quiet a few fools driving to make other peoples life miserable and in danger.

I live in PCMC, near to a college, and we see rash driving day in and day out, all rules being flouted recklessly, cops are there but they prefer to stand at a distance only to catch these guys for DL and PUC but nobody is there to correct and punish these youngsters. I slow down and let them move ahead, as theres no point they will fall and hurt themselves and we land in trouble as we are driving a 'car' and it has to be our mistake.

The funniest thing is whenever this happens, there is no cop around at all, and if there is they try to make a field day by asking you for your documents before anything else.

[KL01BE]

This happened on 24th June at night around 10.30 pm, at Vallikeezhu, Kollam, Kerala. The swift, while trying to over take another vehicle rammed into a Mahindra Pick Up head on. All three in the swift died. The driver of the swift was reportedly under the influence of alcohol. Also it seems that no one in the swift was wearing the seat belts. One among the dead had returned from gulf just 4 days ago. The driver of the Mahindra Pick up tried his best to avoid the collision by taking his vehicle to the extreme left side of the road.

[ajmat]

Wow look at the irony

The safest car is useless without seatbelts. Also look how the load had damaged the cab

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by KL01BE

This happened on 24th June at night around 10.30 pm, at Vallikeezhu, Kollam, Kerala. The swift, while trying to over take another vehicle rammed into a Mahindra Pick Up head on. All three in the swift died. The driver of the swift was reportedly under the influence of alcohol. Also it seems that no one in the swift was wearing the seat belts. One among the dead had returned from gulf just 4 days ago.

The gulf-returnee (actually he had his business in the Gulf and shuttled between Gulf and Kerala frequently) was the owner of the car and was seated in front passenger seat. He stays one house away from my in-laws and is also related to them. I knew him pretty well and he came across as a very nice / informed gentleman, which made it all the more surprising to me that he wasn't wearing belts, especially given his long stay in Gulf where belts are mandatory. Irony is that he had bought a City-S along with this Swift-Vdi, with the former for him and Swift for his son. But after few months he sold off the City since he felt it cumbersome to drive around compared to the smaller Swift. Things would have possibly turned out different if he was in the City since it has airbags (ofcourse provided belts were worn).

And the driver was just 21 years old or so - I don't think he was under the influence, but I could be wrong.

@ajmat, it was the VDi - no airbags. At that time, there was no Zdi trim, which is a pity because if available, this guy would have bought it.

EDIT : Oops, I meant "no airbags" in VDi. Not seatbelts.

@KL01BE, where in Kollam are you at ?

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

@ajmat, it was the VDi - no seatbelts.

Even the LDi has seatbelts for all passengers.So there is no question of this car not having it .

About the rear , most people go for these useless seat covers which would would cover the seatbelt hook/clip .

Like Ajmat said , even a S Class may not save lives ,if seatbelts arent worn

[rohanjf]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

...@ajmat, it was the VDi - no seatbelts...

I think you meant airbags.

Even without ABS/airbags, I don't think this accident should have resulted in deaths, had seatbelts been worn. The cabin is seems pretty much intact. The dashboard might damage the legs/knees of front occupants, but the rear occupant should have walked out with bruises at the most.

The collision looks like a typical crash test.

[supremeBaleno]

Yes, I meant "no airbags". AFAIK he had injuries in the stomach.

BTW, the impact was quite bad as can be seen from the damage to the PickUp and car. If you noticed, the tyres of both cars are in contact.
And the guys in the PickUp were also quite seriously injured, was what I heard.

[ajmat]

Seat belts front and rear are required to be fitted by law on all vehicles. Whether used is another question

[vikram_d]

Look at how well the Swift's passenger cell has absorbed the impact. Had the occupants been wearing seatbelts they would have walked out of this crash.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

Look at how well the Swift's passenger cell has absorbed the impact. Had the occupants been wearing seatbelts they would have walked out of this crash.

Yes, the swift has absorbed the impact beautifully. As someone mentioned earlier ,this looks like a crash test demo on real roads.Look how mangled is the mahindra pickup truck even though its heavier and loaded!.While the cabin of the pickup is affected,the cabin of swift is intact.

I have faced this problem with people not wearing belts even after requesting them so much. But when people who are quite elderly to me are travelling and they dont want to wear belts then i cant convince them at all.

[carzone]

Saw a damaged S.T. bus at kasarvadavli police station in thane. The front of the bus was badly damaged. Don't know how it happened or any other details. The bus was towed to the police station. As the bottom part is damaged more, I think it was a collision with a smaller vehicle. Couldn't see any other damaged vehicle there.

Could not go for a closer pic as there were some policemen near it. Sorry for the unclear pic.



Can anyone from thane throw light on this?

Originally Posted by Samridh

Aim 1 - Next step is to attain flexibility. Planning to join a dance class in the coming days so as to infuse agility in the broken leg.

Aim 2 - Hit the gym n train on cycles to improve speed and strength.

Aim 3 - Get back into shape by hitting my weights again (no squatting for now).

Thanks for all your support and love!! If any of you have any questions I am always there to answer them for you!!

Great to hear that you are recovering. Home you get to the best of your health very very soon. All our best wishes are with you.

If it was not for you writing this, it was almost impossible to believe someone could have walked out of that crash!
All the best to you.

[S2!!!]

Originally Posted by crackparag

EDIT: more here.. 74-year-old dies after being hit by speeding car in Mumbai | NDTV.com

Personally I have seen several college students enthusiastically revving hard and over taking blindly on the CCI stretch without realising that cars keep coming out the gates of the residential buildings and the club gates. Also there are a minimum 15-20 people crossing near that circle from as early as 7am till 9pm and one really needs to be cautious at the circle there and it is evident the innocent pedestrian lost his life at that very spot while others were injured due to the thrills of this under-aged chap. Its quite sad that people still don't realise and still choose to ignore the law when it comes to their own/ family's happiness (allowing a 17 year old to drive)


@ Samridh

Just read your story and after seeing the crash pictures it is quite miraculous that you survived the crash. Hope you re-gain your health and fitness like before soon. I too had a crash a while ago and have come to realise that in case there is an accident on the streets, I must help rather than passing by.

[noopster]

Mod Note: Samridh's first-hand account of his Maruti 800 crash is moved to a new thread. (Linky) Wishing you a speedy recovery, Samridh!