[shubhodeepdas@g]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

but is there a restriction in overtaking from left on divided lanes ?

Overtaking from left limits the cone of vision for the driver in a Right Hand Drive vehicle.

Originally Posted by Turbohead

A foot over bridge for pedestrians. Hmm that sounds nice!

Absolutely right. They are there at many places in Bangalore, and have seen one for most of my life in Kolkata, lake town-VIP road crossing. Unfortunately people prefer to run across.

[sanjaykk]

Crossing an expressway with cars zipping around, not at a pedestrian crossing, that too with a 63-year old lady, to go to a mall! How much more careless can you get!

[carrerastrax]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

...Bad driving or bad pedestrian.

Bad pedestrians by the book. Bad both, by the realities of our cities.

Bad pedestrian to risk their lives crossing an expressway.

Bad driver, because if you pause and see, the pedestrians were already in the lane of the killer car and there was no reaction from the driver. I feel there was some scope to reduce the speed thereby increasing the possibility of survival of the victim.

It's possible that the driver was caught unawares and his reactions froze. Or maybe the driver wasn't paying attention. But if we zipped through every open gap and bit of road in our congested cities...

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

Pedestrian.

The place where this accident took place has been frequented by me

Also, note that when the pedestrians ventured out to cross the road, Wagon R itself was not very far. It was a wrong move to step out when a car is so near, and at the cost of sounding a bit rude considering what has been the outcome, the decision to cross the road was illogical.

Don't agree with that. Was there a fault of pedestrian - Yes, but what about the driver? He is speeding and overtaking from left when his visibility is bad. I believe the term is moral hazard. When you are driving - it is you who needs to take care of the users of the road. Also look at his speed, its relatively higher by a considerable margin than all the vehicles around him.

We can give all kind of theories that the stretch is dangerous, should not have crossed etc, but the simple fact is when you do not have visibility you do not drive like that. And a lady lost her life because of this? That is just not on.

[deathwalkr]

Faster than cars around him does not necessarily mean high speeds. If the video could show scenes from ahead of the rime the accident it might help gauge his actual speed better. But without actual data we can only speculate he was speeding above limits.

That said, the pedestrians had no business there! I keep saying this, the lower on the food chain you are on the road, more care has to be taken by you since ultimately if things go wrong you might bear the brunt of the damage.

Keep seeing such instances and i can only imagine that we are now at a stage where convenience has started taking priority over rules.

[Mohan Mathew A]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

it is you who needs to take care of the users of the road.

While i agree with you on the princinple i don't think in this case it is applicable as the pedestrians had no business to be on the road and hence can't be considered a user of the road. It was neither a footpath nor a zebra crossing. When you are on highway you don't expect to see a person standing in front of you. If that happens you try the best under the circumstances, and that varies from person to person.

I also don't think he changed lanes to overtake, he was driving in his lane and the cars on the left and right were relatively slower. I don't think he has done anything wrong as long as he was within the speed limit

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Faster than cars around him does not necessarily mean high speeds.

Never said that - I used the word relative speed.

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

That said, the pedestrians had no business there! I keep saying this, the lower on the food chain you are on the road, more care has to be taken by you since ultimately if things go wrong you might bear the brunt of the damage..

I agree with that - but it is not an excuse to kill and maim people (and I am exaggerating over here)

Originally Posted by Mohan Mathew A

When you are on highway you don't expect to see a person standing in front of you.
I don't think he has done anything wrong as long as he was within the speed limit

Again agree - but here was a guy, who was overtaking from the left - No one can figure out from the video that he changed lanes or not, and is considerably faster than others.
Honestly, to me its common sense that when the guy in front of me is driving slowly - more often than not there is a reason for that and not everyone is an idiot on the road.
What about brake lights? The guy on the right has halted - his lights must have lit - any decent driver would react to that. And everyone has driven in cities where you face the exact same situation, why would you not remember it? I am sorry to say this is negligence and bad driving that caused the death of a lady.

And remember not for a minute I condone what the ladies were attempting, it is dangerous and should not be done - but don't we see this day in and day out? Bikers drive up the wrong way, heck cars drive on tolls the wrong way, you have to be prepared for this, when you have a car - a machine which is capable of killing and maiming others.

I can give you an example that the exact same thing had happened in front of me. A bus stopped on the right most lane for a girl to cross while an Indicab overtook the bus from the left and ran over her foot. Thankfully the injuries were not bad, and I had a first aid kit in my car and a hospital nearby to where my friends and I shifted here rather quickly. She was fine after some minor treatment.

You just have to be alert all the times on the road - this is just not on and to say, the lady has no business to be there, simply does not cut it for me.

[deathwalkr]

Crossing the road is not a game of jumping frog. Why pedestrians risk it is beyond me. Because like i said, they are the ones facing the higher risk.

We could go and on about it but purely blaming the car driver like all the news channel is not cutting it for me either.

Which is the point. We could go on and on about it but the road is not a place to be taken lightly especially in our country. Now for wanting to save a few minutes a life is lost and others have to live with guilt.

[jhaji]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Faster than cars around him does not necessarily mean high speeds. If the video could show scenes from ahead of the rime the accident it might help gauge his actual speed better. But without actual data we can only speculate he was speeding above limits.

His actual speed is not so important. That is just a number which does not tell you much. But the fact of the matter is that an alert and better driver would have been able to avoid the accident, or at least mitigate the impact reducing injuries.

Indeed, one can overtake from left on such roads, provided one does so safely.

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Honestly, to me its common sense that when the guy in front of me is driving slowly - more often than not there is a reason for that and not everyone is an idiot on the road.

This is the crux of the matter. This was the mistake the driver made which resulted in fatal injury. Many of us tend to make this mistake on occasion.

[printh]

I feel it's the pedestrians who are to be blamed. Jumping and running around a 6 laned speedway wasn't to the best of their common sense.
And we can't really blame the car unless we know the exact speed and the limit in that stretch.

We can jump to blame with theoretical reasons like left overtaking, apparent speeding etc., but can't think of almost any single highway where you can overtake only from right. Blatantly sticking to the theory does more harm than good in a world filled with idiots. If we decide to follow the slow vehicle in the right lane till he moves on, the one behind will get impatient and try suicidal antics to get past.

I break quite a few theoretical rules during my daily 150 km commute, since following them will increase the risks to myself and other users.
Maybe one blanket solution to minimise such problems can be reducing our cruise speeds to less than 70 to 80% of the speed limit.

[mayankk]

The guy "may" have been speeding.
The guy "may" have been attempting an overtake rather than passing in his lane which he had been driving on.
The guy "may" have been rash.
But its not the pedestrian's fault ever who "shouldn't" have been in the middle of a 6(is it?) lane highway.
No no.Nevarr!

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by kiku007

Bad pedestrian. One needs a huge load of luck to cross EIGHT lanes (considering both directions) without getting hit. Towards the end, it seems both the pedestrians and the car moved in the same direction to avoid each other.

I would go against the pedestrian here.
That is no place to cross the road, especially a 8 lane one.
If not this car, the next one would have got them for sure.

And, overtaking for left in this case is not a crime. We all do that when a slower moving car sits on the right lane

[jhaji]

Originally Posted by mayankk

The guy "may" have been speeding.
The guy "may" have been attempting an overtake rather than passing in his lane which he had been driving on.
The guy "may" have been rash.
But its not the pedestrian's fault ever who "shouldn't" have been in the middle of a 6(is it?) lane highway.
No no.Nevarr!

Originally Posted by FORTified

I would go against the pedestrian here.
That is no place to cross the road, especially a 8 lane one.
If not this car, the next one would have got them for sure.

I don't know why are we so obsessed here to decide which one was at fault. It is not necessary that the fault lies with a single party. We are here to understand the factors that go into making an accident, and more often than not there are multiple factors.

We as drivers drive on roads, in conditions, among people, none of which are of our own making. We have to do the best that we can. It is true that the pedestrian's awareness is as much in need of education as the motorists'. But what do you do till such time that awareness is developed. You just drive the best you can.

It makes sense to focus on the driving error behind an accident. All of us become aware of possibilities. Even if every one here declares that the pedestrian was at fault, I don't see much will be gained.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Honestly, to me its common sense that when the guy in front of me is driving slowly - more often than not there is a reason for that and not everyone is an idiot on the road.
What about brake lights? The guy on the right has halted - his lights must have lit - any decent driver would react to that. And everyone has driven in cities where you face the exact same situation, why would you not remember it? I am sorry to say this is negligence and bad driving that caused the death of a lady.

First off - the video just shows the couple of seconds before the impact. There is no way to judge how he & others were driving.

Having said that, I disagree with the first point of yours: One of the main reasons we overtake from the left is because the person in the right is too busy hogging the lane and cruising; and our first reaction (which is more often than not true IMO) is that he is just a slow driver. This is very common on any highway, where the right most lane is more often than not in better condition than the others!

Secondly, I am not sure if the driver was able to see the other vehicle's brake lights in time to notice why he was slowing down.

At the same time though, the fault is with the driver (and obviously with the lady too). Some basic rules I highly recommend others to follow from common sense:
- If the driver on the right-most lane is going below the speed limit, I always try to glance at the road/traffic conditions ahead of him before making an overtaking manoeuvre to see if he is a genuinely slow driver, or if other conditions are making him slow.
- If before overtaking, I notice him braking and reducing his speed - it is best to do the same as well until you are sure there is no danger.

[pratyush6]

I find it slightly disturbing that in a similar scenario if there was a cabbie, most of us would have immediately found fault with him, but in this case we don't.

What I have said and most people say is that a highway is no place for trying such a stunt by the ladies - everyone understand it. But to have the incident that eventually happened, there has to be another party who was at fault too - she did not drop off the sky in the middle of the road.

And for anyone suggesting, that he was perfectly fine in overtaking from the left without taking any precaution whatsoever, I just don't know what to say. I rest my case, I just hope next time you do so on a highway you don't act like the fellow in question.

Drive Safe and keep others safe too.