[sparameswaran]

Report in The Hindu (09/06/2016) about the enormity of the problem of road accidents in India:
http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/...cle8710699.ece

Editorial in The Hindu based on the report (10/06/2016):
http://m.thehindu.com/opinion/editor...cle8714927.ece

Thought this might be relevant in this forum.

[TD_GHY]

Another accident due to tendency of saving time and fuel.

In India, people will drive on the wrong side instead of driving a little on the correct side to take a U-turn to get to the other side. No amount of abuse, request seems to work. One such incident happened yesterday involving a Mahindra Pik up and a Bajaj Pulsar.

This happened at NH-31 near Amingaon (approx 5km from Guwahati).
The Mahindra Pik up, to avoid driving up a km to the U-turn, decides to drive on the wrong side at not-so-slow-speed-as-he-should-have and hits a Pulsar head on, seriously injuring the rider and the pillion.

Aftermath:
1. The bike riders struggling for their breaths in the hospital
2. The Mahindra driver beaten black and blue by locals
3. The Mahindra van overturned by mob and vandalised.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by TD_GHY

The Mahindra Pik up, to avoid driving up a km to the U-turn, decides to drive on the wrong side at not-so-slow-speed-as-he-should-have and hits a Pulsar head on, seriously injuring the rider and the pillion.

Cost of diesel there is Rs 55 per litre. Mileage of unloaded pickup is around10 Km per litre. Cost of traveling 2 Km was just Rs 11.

[ZinFluent]

Got these pics through Whatsapp forward of an accident involving a Verna and an Audi R8 in Nashik couple of days back. Have no idea how this happened or who was at fault but it sure seems to be nasty looking at the pics.

[createrkid]

The above pictures have already been posted and discussed in the 'supercar crashes' thread for anybody who wants more information. Please refer to that thread.

[Sheel]

Ok, let me ask a question. I am at a traffic signal or at a road jam and I see a vehicle approaching fast and instincts say, it won't be able to brake in time, I can't go straight [of course], what would one do? Abandoning the car & running is one thing that I can do, but what else?

[Doylthippo]

This is an accident which occurred 4 years ago and forced our family into a shock and it took more than a couple of years for us to recover from. My father (55) works as a Head Master in a Government High School in Andhra Pradesh. He has been commuting daily from home to school on a two wheeler from the last 25 years.

One evening (27th Feb 2012) at 4 PM, My father was on his commute from school to home through his regular road. He saw a truck coming towards him at high speed in a Zig-Zag way. He expected an accident; he stopped on the roadside close to a old abandoned building (at green oval position in the pic) to let the truck go on it's way.

As he expected, the truck came and hit the building at full speed (at red circle spot), missing my father by just a couple of feet. My father was shocked and expected that he has escaped the accident. But within no time, before he could react, the major part of the building collapsed towards him. A huge concrete beam collapsed on my father, who is just standing there on his bike. He was completely filled with the debris of the building.

The locals came to his rescue immediately and removed the lot of debris which has fallen on him. Then they found that huge beam on my father’s right hand and 6 people tried to lift the beam, but they could not. Almost a dozen people together lifted the beam and moved him out of it. He was then rushed to the hospital.

Doctors after taking some time, confirmed that, he had multiple fractures in one leg, dislocation of second leg at hip and they directly said that they cannot save the right hand as it was damaged beyond the treatment. They wanted to amputate the right hand till the elbow and they want to do it as soon as possible to avoid it going septic.

He has recovered from multiple fractures, joint dislocation within three months and he was using an artificial limb in place of the right hand now. The artificial limb has given him some support, so he is driving an Activa with the help of it and has started commuting on the same road.

Coming to the truck: Both the driver and his assistant were drunk and the assistant was driving the truck at the time of accident. No one bothered about them till half an hour of the accident and everyone is worried about my father under the debris. Both the driver and his assistant were taken out of the cabin by breaking it and they suffered from some major injuries as well, but not to the extent of attracting any disability. They were taken to the hospital by the police and and a case was registered. The truck owner was not eligible to claim the insurance as the assistant who was driving has no valid heavy vehicle driving license.

In this way, my father has become differently abled without his fault in any way. We were lucky enough that the huge concrete beam has not collapsed on his head or any other critical parts of the body.

[rohanak1]

Originally Posted by TD_GHY

tendency of saving time and fuel.

In India, people will drive on the wrong side instead of driving a little on the correct side to take a U-turn to get to the other side. No amount of abuse, request seems to work.

Another thing is villagers dig up the median illegally to allow bikes to go through. This is completely invisible in the night. People dart across the highway to turn at these illegal breaks in the median to save couple of minutes.

[maddy42]

The folks who build the highways are to be blamed too, no designated u turn area near places where you know the traffic is high, no feeder road to get traffic to join seamlessly.

Majority accidents can result in lesser fatalities if the drivers and passengers are belted and two wheeler riders really care for their head!

Doylthipo hope your dad be strong and sorry about that accident!

Maddy

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Doylthippo

This is an accident which occured 4 years ago and forced our family into a shock and it took more than a couple of years for us to recover from. ... ... ...

What a terrible story, but also inspiring that your father has recovered as he has done.

Best wishes for the future

[Rahul_]

Originally Posted by TD_GHY

Another accident due to tendency of saving time and fuel.

In India, people will drive on the wrong side instead of driving a little on the correct side to take a U-turn to get to the other side. No amount of abuse, request seems to work.

This tendency of people cracks me up the most. I really feel we strongly need this law very soon wherein the DLs should be cancelled on spot for wrong sided driving as well as insurance for their vehicles should be made multifold. I something strong about this is being included in the new road safety law that is being drafted.

This is an unpardonable, intentional crime and leads to loss of time and in extreme cases loss of life of innocent, law-abiding citizens !

In a metro-city like Bangalore, this trend is just picking up crazily. What was once something done by uneducated and uncouth masses is now being picked up by the well-educated, youths !

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by Rahul_

In a metro-city like Bangalore, this trend is just picking up crazily. What was once something done by uneducated and uncouth masses is now being picked up by the well-educated, youths !

Youths have always been impressionable. What about fathers? Men in their 50s? Mothers with their kids standing in front on their scooters? These are the most atrocious IMO followed by cars that take up loads of space and then have the audacity to blind you with high-beam while coming on the wrong side.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by Rahul_

This tendency of people cracks me up the most. I really feel we strongly need this law very soon wherein the DLs should be cancelled on spot for wrong sided driving as well as insurance for their vehicles should be made multifold. I something strong about this is being included in the new road safety law that is being drafted.

Those steps are not enough. Driving on the wrong side, especially on a highway, should be treated as attempted murder. It is no different than firing shots on the road and seeing if you hit someone or not. If I were to take some giant stones and roll them on the road and leave it up to the people to evade them or be crushed, I would be charged for attempted murder. Driving on the wrong side is no different. At the very least, there should be mandatory detention on the spot followed by at the minimum a month of jail time and confiscation of the vehicle. Only strong deterrence would change these bad habits. Unfortunately, we keep putting off deterrence and then it gets too late as bad habits have set in and these grossly illegal acts seem normal and harmless.

[Rahul_]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Those steps are not enough. Driving on the wrong side, especially on a highway, should be treated as attempted murder. It is no different than firing shots on the road and seeing if you hit someone or not. If I were to take some giant stones and roll them on the road and leave it up to the people to evade them or be crushed, I would be charged for attempted murder. Driving on the wrong side is no different. At the very least, there should be mandatory detention on the spot followed by at the minimum a month of jail time and confiscation of the vehicle. Only strong deterrence would change these bad habits. Unfortunately, we keep putting off deterrence and then it gets too late as bad habits have set in and these grossly illegal acts seem normal and harmless.

I fully gel to your line of thoughts. I believe what you say makes perfect sense and should be done. I meant more of a minimum thing. We talk so much here about how and what over here. I would be more than interested if anyone here is holding any actual drive on the ground against this. I would love to give my time if I can help against this in any way.

I have made couple of videos in areas where such incidents happen regularly and posted them to Bangalore traffic police pages, No response to that unfortunately.

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Youths have always been impressionable. What about fathers? Men in their 50s? Mothers with their kids standing in front on their scooters? These are the most atrocious IMO followed by cars that take up loads of space and then have the audacity to blind you with high-beam while coming on the wrong side.

No absolutely, that implies to everyone ! the point which I was trying to make here was that this was done mostly by the uneducated masses.Might be out of ignorance at times. But educated people (referred to as educated youths) knowing fully well that they are breaking rules, have the audacity to argue when challenged. In worst cases, I have had stone being thrown at my car while questioning a wrong-side driving driver (Managed to accelerate like crazy and save car from dent luckily). This guy looked fully educated elite class of person driving a Skoda. Also, no exchange of words to trigger him so much, just a "why" hand gesture pissed him off so much.

Talking about educated people, I see so many people inside my company (which is known for hiring really smart people) parking premises driving in the opposite way. Wrote to the concerned authorities, but I think it has become such normal here that no one took heed.
Everyday I pray I don't become a victim to wrong sided driving driver.

[ALTIMAed]

On tyre bursts - the company I used to work for at Oman, provided all its employees company vehicles. One of the clauses was tyres were to be replaced every 60,000 kms or 2 years whichever is earlier, irrespective of the condition of the tyres. In Middle East, due to high ambient temperatures, tyre blow out are pretty common