[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by smnrock

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!

This stretch has recorded speakers on the road side asking people to go slow and be on the lower gears. Earlier they had kept these speakers at the toll booth as well which is 1-2Kms before this stretch. Apart from this there are lot of warning boards/signs too. But still the frequency of accidents on this spot has not reduced.

In my opinion, authorities involved have taken lot of efforts in this stretch. A year back, they even widened the roads on the turns to make it easier for the loaded trucks and trailers to turn.

On top of all this, some cars make it difficult for these truckers by cutting across them dangerously.

[SCORPION]

Originally Posted by 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.

As per reports in the newspapers this morning, there was another accident a little further ahead a while before this accident. That resulted in a bottle neck which the cops were trying to ease off. Then this happened. The truck driver apparently escaped from the spot. I hope he gets crucified some day.

[smnrock]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

This stretch has recorded speakers on the road side asking people to go slow and be on the lower gears. Earlier they had kept these speakers at the toll booth as well which is 1-2Kms before this stretch. Apart from this there are lot of warning boards/signs too. But still the frequency of accidents on this spot has not reduced.

In my opinion, authorities involved have taken lot of efforts in this stretch. A year back, they even widened the roads on the turns to make it easier for the loaded trucks and trailers to turn.

On top of all this, some cars make it difficult for these truckers by cutting across them dangerously.

yes they do broadcast these messages, but that happens only in that particular curved stretch. What i meant was, yesterday the traffic pile up was due to another accident and officials were clearing up that. During that time, NHAI should have placed some people before this stretch and warned the vehicles to slow down.

[Moto$apien]

Absolutely horrible! such a waste of lives..

No car less than a tank could have survived the impact.

More videos on the accident. Look at the end part for the rubbished line-up. I really feel sorry for those involved :(

Gaadiwaadi report

TV news. Please excercise restraint

https://youtu.be/Fxum0CrXDNg

That's a 1month old SONET GTX+

[Nalin1]

The more pictures and videos I see, the more devastating it looks!. What a shocker!.

What on earth can one do if a truck comes hurtling down and rams from behind while waiting at a traffic pileup?

Brake failure or brain failure? Wish that guy lands up in the hands of BHPians for us to display muscle power rather than just keyboard power.

On a side note, whenever I have a BMTC or a truck following me and traffic halts, I apply brakes a few more times so that the brake lights get into their faces!. Even when they halt, I can almost hear the abysmal noise the brakes make.

[Durango Dude]

Here's the video footage of the accident ...

https://youtu.be/KvLamyRxqQE

[jkrishnakj]

Oh my god. That’s such a gory incident. Just imagine the plight of the poor souls having a quiet conversation with the family and suddenly , it all abruptly ends like this. What ever got into the truck or the truck driver. I feel so aghast watching the cctv footage. Gosh !

[airbus]

Absolutely horrible accident. May the departed souls rest in peace.

Did the truck driver try to save some fuel by putting the vehicle on neutral gear leading to uncontrolled downward movement? - news.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, manager of the Thoppur Toll Plaza, Naresh, who was at Thoppur when the accident occurred said, "the accident was caused due to the negligence of the truck driver. The ghat road from Dharmapuri is at a steep descent and the toll plaza has set up multiple audio-visual warning systems to alert drivers. However, this warning was ignored by the driver."

"Further it is common for drivers to put their vehicle in neutral in order to save fuel. This causes trucks to drive in an uncontrolled free flow and finally when they want to stop the vehicle, the overheating of break leads to a system failure where drivers lose complete control of their vehicle," he added.

[Godzilla]

Horrible accident.

Feel really bad for the families involved, they had to face this for no fault of theirs.

The key take away for me is that, when there is a pile up in a fast road/highway and the traffic did not move for more than 5-10 seconds. It is better to move our vehicle to the side of the road as much as possible. If we are at the rear of the pile up then there are chances that the vehicle behind us may not see us due to blind corners/fog/heavy rain or due to attention deficiency these days due to phone usage.

Recently I had a minor accident, it was raining and there was a pile up due an small accident ahead of us. I stopped my car for like 20 seconds and another car came and rear ended us at almost 40-50 kmph and I guess he braked at the last few meters (within the city). I am sure the driver either was not paying attention. Thank the universe, it was minor and we are safe. I did have some room to move to the left side of the pile up, so I learnt from that situation "Never be the last car in any pile up that lasts more than 10 seconds, always move to the sides as much as possible"

However, this is horrendous one even like the 5-6 cars at the front got involved.

[Funny]

Horrific accident, RIP to the departed souls.

Imagine if the truck driver had steered left and hit a couple of trees to slow down instead of ploughing through vehicles, so many innocent lives could've been saved. The truck could've also crashed into the last truck that was there in the middle/right lane but no, fate had something else in mind for all those involved. Sad.

[deetee]

Originally Posted by airbus

Absolutely horrible accident. May the departed souls rest in peace.

Did the truck driver try to save some fuel by putting the vehicle on neutral gear leading to uncontrolled downward movement? - news.

I suspect this may be the cause. Its so horrible that 4 lives were lost just because of the thought of saving a few bucks of fuel. If this is really the case, then similar accidents are waiting to happen in other ghats on Indian roads, where such neutral coasting is a rampant practice among truck drivers.

Edit: found this image online.
Just look at how badly the bolero was mangled infront of the truck

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by Funny

Horrific accident, RIP to the departed souls.

Imagine if the truck driver had steered left and hit a couple of trees to slow down instead of ploughing through vehicles, so many innocent lives could've been saved. The truck could've also crashed into the last truck that was there in the middle/right lane but no, fate had something else in mind for all those involved. Sad.

This was actually done by a bus a few months ago in Bangalore when the brakes failed. He deliberately took it off road and crashed into some trees, bringing the bus to a halt.

It is also very much possible that the cleaner had been assigned driving duties while the driver took a snooze. I have heard of this happening regularly in long distance trucks.

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by Moto$apien

Attachment 2092574
That's a 1month old SONET GTX+

Here is that Sonet few seconds before.



The speedily approaching killer truck also can be seen at the back. Poor one, took all the brunt.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by airbus

Did the truck driver try to save some fuel by putting the vehicle on neutral gear leading to uncontrolled downward movement?

I got around to picking that newspaper up quite late in the day and read that too. Reading your quote again, it seems to be an assumption of the "because many drivers do" kind but it certainly sounds reasonable. Such a criminally insane thing for any driver to do, let alone a heavily-laden truck, that I never even thought of it.

[RSR]

I did the Thoppur section in August in both directions when I drove down to Erode and back for my cousin's wedding.

This is a very, very deceptive ghat section that's a part of the Salem-Bengaluru highway.

The highway itself is a very good one throughout (but 4-lane, not 6-lane) and sees a lot of traffic - trucks of all kinds & sizes, cars, buses and also two-wheelers, yes plenty of highly vulnerable two-wheelers use this highway. The Salem airport is also located off this highway.

The ghat section is indeed a very, very deceptive one. It's just as wide as the rest of the highway, is fairly steep in stretches and if one is cruising in a car at 100 ~ 120 kmph, it's very easy to mistake it as a normal curved road instead of a ghat section when going uphill in a car (i.e. from Salem towards Bengaluru). Of course, one will notice the uphill section easily if one is driving an overloaded truck.

It's the downhill section that's very, very dangerous (i.e. from Bengaluru towards Salem) for the same reasons - it's just as wide as the rest of the highway, is fairly steep and curvy. Even heavily overloaded trucks tend to speed along this section taking advantage of the natural downhill gradient.

To be fair to the highway folks, this section has plenty, and I mean plenty of both, visual & audio warnings, asking you to slow down repeatedly, apart from rumble strips at intervals that make an unpleasant noise when you go over them at speed.

I have dashcam footage of the uphill section on my return journey, but I don't know how to upload it now. The downhill section with plenty of visual & audio warnings got overwritten as I use only a 64 GB card.

Despite all these warnings, if that moronic truck driver caused such a horrible, horrible accident, then it's all his fault. And no, I'm not buying the "brake failure" nonsense at all. Either the murderous moron was speeding uncontrollably in his monstrous tractor-trailer or he was "saving fuel" in the downhill section by coasting in neutral. Both are his fault, and his fault only! I hope he is caught.

Rest in peace to those poor souls who lost their lives, and wish all those injured a speedy recovery!