Pics: Accidents in India

[purohitanuj]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bangalore

another accident in delhi sonipat highway

Can anyone guess the speed of Swift? I regularly drive on this highway and make sure I stay between 80KM/h to 90KM/h; and would like to relate my speed with this sort of event.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by anvara

Bone chilling accident at Chennai on ECR.
Viewer discretion recommended

Similar accident, where the bus driver is innocent. Looks like drunk riding, the biker was riding on the wrong lane in this incident as well.

Viewer discretion advised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7rna_th8dM

[Chetan_Rao]

The Swift chap is very lucky he didn't catch the pole head on, though a rollover isn't exactly comfortable to be in.

The two ladies on foot are fortunate the pole was where it was, and deflected the toppling car away from them.

The biker that got run over, well, let me just stop at saying people like him shouldn't be allowed to operate motorized equipment of any kind.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bangalore

another accident in delhi sonipat highway

Originally Posted by Axe77

Mostly the bikers fault.

All the biker's fault. Why cross that road when there is no clear space to do so. Would he have done such a stupid thing on foot? One reservation, though: perhaps it is one of those places where there is never a gap in the traffic?

Another miscellaneous piece of idiocy, right at the start of that video: reversing out onto the highway from the car park.

Originally Posted by anvara

Bone chilling accident at Chennai on ECR.

Head-on collision. Are they blind?

But, even though the deceased is driving on the wrong side of the road, the one who crosses his path, to me, is absolutely guilty of causing his death.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by purohitanuj

Can anyone guess the speed of Swift? I regularly drive on this highway and make sure I stay between 80KM/h to 90KM/h; and would like to relate my speed with this sort of event.

Triple digit for sure. Apart from that I cant give an accurate estimate which the so called eye witnesses give to newspapers. If you consider the average traffic moving at 60kmph, this guy is doing at least double.

There is a fundamental mistake the Swift driver did. He tried to race ahead of the two wheeler in order to avoid the accident. Thats plain stupidity. Had he just continued driving straight, going a little to the right, he could have saved the car, all the fuss with the restaurant owner and the other cars. Instead, he thought he could pass ahead of the two wheeler and instead ended up almost intersecting his path with that of the two wheeler.

I had told earlier in this thread, in such a situation I would prefer aiming at the tail, ie steer the car towards the back of the object, be it a bike, car, pedestrian or whatever moving comes in your way suddenly. There are high chances of that object just continuing forward instead of turning back. If a person suddenly jumps into the road and is crossing the road to your left, once he spots your car he will be startled, but will not be in a state of mind to get back to the median. Either they will stop there, or continue the sprint.

In such a situation, I would always prefer to attack their back than doing a heroic move of going left, which means it will be onto the footpath which is a bad place to ram your car into.

[Rahul Rao]

I have driven over 11 Lakh km on Indian roads in the last 25 years, this is total of 12 cars that I have owned from purchase date to the date I hand them on to my staff.

In the whole period I have seen numerous accidents, experienced one very recently while driving when my tierod end failed after going over a object fallen on the road, and another seven years ago sitting next to the driver when a tractor took a U turn in front of us on the highway when we were at highway cruising speed.

My observation is that the bigger vehicles are rarely at fault, it is bikers, followed by small cars who do not estimate the limitations and speed of bigger vehicles, who cut across them, drive on the wrong way etc who cause accidents.

Among trucks the local trucks delivering sand bricks etc have morons for drivers, long distance drivers usually drive well.

I used to blame truckers for not shifting to the slow lane but later observed that if a truck doing 60 overtakes another doing 40 or so, he moves ahead about 50M before indicating he wants to change to left lane, but most car drivers without patience have already started overtaking him from left side.

On Sundays and holidays when traffic is heavy they stick to RHS lane, but most other days they move left and let cars overtake.

Rahul

[Hickstead]

Originally Posted by audioholic

There is a fundamental mistake the Swift driver did. He tried to race ahead of the two wheeler in order to avoid the accident. Thats plain stupidity. Had he just continued driving straight, going a little to the right, he could have saved the car, all the fuss with the restaurant owner and the other cars.

+1. Yes, the Swift driver could have escaped this accident with some presence of mind. There was some decent gap to escape for the Swift. It looks like he was panicked and over steered the car to his left and he also might forgot to at least apply brakes gently.
In fact experiencing that moment is far horrible than writing a comment or critic here .

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I had told earlier in this thread, in such a situation I would prefer aiming at the tail, ie steer the car towards the back of the object, be it a bike, car, pedestrian or whatever moving comes in your way suddenly. There are high chances of that object just continuing forward instead of turning back. If a person suddenly jumps into the road and is crossing the road to your left, once he spots your car he will be startled, but will not be in a state of mind to get back to the median. Either they will stop there, or continue the sprint.

In such a situation, I would always prefer to attack their back than doing a heroic move of going left, which means it will be onto the footpath which is a bad place to ram your car into.

Honestly audioholic, though your explanation sounds logical, it is almost impossible to think this is a safer option buddy.

I have a very funny feeling that the outcome of that video would have been similar even if it was a dog/cow crossing the road instead of that 2 wheeler

The biggest culprit here is speed IMO. I don't think the Swift (Dzire?) driver's vision was blocked in anyway for him not to see the 2 wheeler. In addition to this, the road appears to be at least 3 lanes wide, and there is almost no way the driver could not have spotted that person crossing. It really appears like a case or rash driving. This is also quite apparent in our daily chores when I see many motorist trying to pass any pedestrian crossing the road at junctions.

If its the 'Fantasy of Pace' one desires, it almost inevitable that the Life is going get ahead and leave you behind!!

I always ensure to stay towards the centre and within "Emergency Stop" possible speeds on 2 lane highways. On Indian highways, it is not possible to differentiate between buffalo & human sensible levels, as either can cut your path anytime and at anyplace.

Even with well laid tarmac and 3/4 lane highways, I ONLY hit "Insane" speeds if I can see well ahead and do not notice any possible 'Road Runners' waiting on the sidelines !!

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Honestly audioholic, though your explanation sounds logical, it is almost impossible to think this is a safer option buddy.

I have a very funny feeling that the outcome of that video would have been similar even if it was a dog/cow crossing the road instead of that 2 wheeler

Think of it, if the swift had hit the biker by going straight, it would have been one biker killed. But imagine there were people standing in the parking lot boarding the cars or just stretching out. Not just one, but more than one innocent soul might have got crushed under the car for no mistake of theirs. Thats why I meant turning left onto the pavement or whatever was there would be a very bad and unsafe thing to do.

It was pure luck that there werent much people in that parking lot. Typical restaurants on highways do have a fair amount of cars as well as people who just loiter around in these areas to stretch. That would have been a disaster. Hence I feel its rather unsafe to go left than right.

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by Hickstead

+1. Yes, the Swift driver could have escaped this accident with some presence of mind. There was some decent gap to escape for the Swift. It looks like he was panicked and over steered the car to his left and he also might forgot to at least apply brakes gently.
In fact experiencing that moment is far horrible than writing a comment or critic here .

I beg to disagree here with the statement that driver could have escaped with presence of mind. At that speed, it is almost impossible to gauge the situation and take action to avoid accident.
However, by looking at the density of the vehicles at this junction, I guess this is a slightly crowded highway. Hence, cruising at that speed is major risk. Hence, should have been avoided

But, As you rightly said in the second paragraph, predicting how the brain works at that fraction of second cannot be analyzed or explained. Every brain has its own logic to explain why it took that action. But, whether the decision was right or not ? only the outcome can answer. No one else

[anvara]

Originally Posted by gkveda

But, As you rightly said in the second paragraph, predicting how the brain works at that fraction of second cannot be analyzed or explained. Every brain has its own logic to explain why it took that action. But, whether the decision was right or not ? only the outcome can answer. No one else

Precisely the reason one ought to ensure every drive is done "within" ones own capacity (not to mention the vehicles as well). This was a case where the car driver had absolutely "no anticipation of things that could go wrong" despite the fact that he had a clear vision in front of him (see 00:12 on wards where he completes his overtaking). One reason could be a distraction inside the car which we can only presume.

In fact, I doubt he even touched his brakes (maybe I am wrong) which probably contributed to the car turning turtle as he depended only on the steering to "get out of the way" / avoid the biker rather than try to stop.

Of course, it was purely bad luck that he chose to steer left.

Too many things that have gone wrong there.

I write / type this at the risk of sounding like an armchair enthusiast. Could not resist this though since it is sad to see people take to the road without the most basic skill required for driving - Anticipation.

[Nonstop-driver]

Originally Posted by purohitanuj

I regularly drive on this highway and make sure I stay between 80KM/h to 90KM/h; and would like to relate my speed with this sort of event.

I use this NH quite often too and stick to 100kmph tops. There are way too many organized/ unorganized crossings on the NH that locals use erratically.

The Swift driver seems so confident the collision that he didn't even attempt braking.

[ajayclicks]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Similar accident, where the bus driver is innocent. Looks like drunk riding, the biker was riding on the wrong lane in this incident as well.

Find it difficult to believe that the bus driver did not notice him. Or maybe the bus driver assumed that the biker would get out of way in time.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by ajayclicks

Find it difficult to believe that the bus driver did not notice him. Or maybe the bus driver assumed that the biker would get out of way in time.

The bus driver had left space for the bike rider on his right. But the other bike hit the 1st rider and tipped him over to the path of the bus. Bus driver then had no chance to avoid running over.
Ideal case: Bus driver must have stopped in his path, as soon as he saw the rider coming in opposite direction.

[ajayclicks]

Originally Posted by msdivy

The bus driver had left space for the bike rider on his right. But the other bike hit the 1st rider and tipped him over to the path of the bus.

I was reacting to the KSRTC bus video. Not sure what the circumstances were, but feel that it could have been avoided.