[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Well, ok, I hadn't imagined it being that close to the road --- but the fact remains that, whatever he drove into, the driver drove off the road.

Very well put. The reality is in our country most people have a habit of driving at speeds well over what is appropriate for the road in question. This means not factoring unexpected developments (of which we have no dearth, size of road, visibility, road curvatures, oncoming traffic etc etc.

The fact is that he was driving at a speed where he went OFF the road.

I am routinely amazed when during monsoons in peak fog people drive at fast speeds on the road to aamby / other similar roads where visibility is barely a few meters ahead.

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by honeybee

The drivers too are human. When designing roads, allowances must be made for human errors.

Villagers, dogs and cows are prone to error too; and that's why they construct speed breakers on entry and exit of every village.

[GladRagu]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

So, it was a pond. It might have been a tree or a pole. Or a mountain valley.

There was someone with their hands on a car steering wheel. They drove off the road.

That's my line of thought as well

This country is in dire need of common sense and I've no hope here.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by honeybee

The way you expect the drivers to be perfect all the time, we might as well have all roads chiselled on both sides with 100 foot gorges, with no shoulder and, obviously, no room for error....

I have no expectation of perfection. Ever, let alone all the time. I don't even expect perfection of myself: I have had two accidents that were totally stupid and totally my fault

What I expect is that we accept our own fault. What I fight against is the blame everything else culture which is well established and seen even here.

There are stupid road designs, stupid places to put ponds, grow trees, stop trucks... But it is a driver that hits them.

No, not every accident we have will be our fault. But we should get into the car with an assumption of responsibility. It would change the world.

That's what I care about and what I try (imperfectly, of course) to do.

Makes life harder. It's much easier to blame everything else.

[honeybee]

It's not a "Blame everything else" culture as you have stated, but an effort to find out what (all) went wrong and assign responsibility for the same.

The car driver paid with his life, along with the passengers, which is perhaps the biggest punishment that can be meted out to someone (it's a separate debate whether it was unduly harsh). But if there were other factors which contributed to the accident, they must be determined and dealt with.

Let the driver not be the sole victim in each accident, please.

[BenjiRoss]

Unfortunately, driving on public roads does mean you need to be close to perfection. Add to that anticipation and defensive driving. It's not an easy task and a very high responsibility. Did the pond cause the accident? The pond merely changed the damage caused by the accident. This is assuming that it was within legal limits.

If human error causes one to jump a median due to a misjudgement when overtaking and ram into a car on the opposite side should we just say that this is human error and the median was the main culprit. The median would have been at fault if it was invisible or in a place it shouldn't be there.

What if it was a natural pond in that location?

[locusjag]

I once saw a 2 wheeler rear-ending an Indicab because the cab had braked to avoid hitting someone else in the front. There was a couple on the 2 wheeler and they took the fall badly. They had flesh wounds which caused some of their blood to be shed. The entire mini-universe around the scene conspired to blame the cab driver and I was left aghast - why in the world do people think they can drive into other objects/vehicles and then shift all the blame to the other side?

But then again - maybe it is a case of mobocracy and not just about driving into things and blaming those things. Remember how our people tried to blame the train driver for running over people on the tracks in Punjab recently? It has to be mobocracy - a mobocracy to have strength by numbers, so that if enough people clamor to prove that 1+1=11, it gets accepted as the truth, so that the fine people of this country can reserve their right to drive into things and keep blaming those objects for it.

[longhorn]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Let's just say in the design of the road, if there was no allowance for a pond to exist at that location, and if that pond subsequently came to be at that location, and if that pond came to exist because of human effort, then the human expending that effort has interfered with the design of the road and should face consequences of the same.

Just out of curiosity, would you hold the same opinion if it were a pedestrian standing in the exact same place the pond happened to be? Or would you have a different opinion ?

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by longhorn

Just out of curiosity, would you hold the same opinion if it were a pedestrian standing in the exact same place the pond happened to be? Or would you have a different opinion ?

Fact is there was a pond. So it must be probed if the land was supposed to be a shoulder or not. I think I have already mentioned this earlier, but repetition should still get the point across.

The same line of thought also applies to pothole related deaths. The agency responsible for the upkeep of the roads must also be held accountable for such deaths, at least for contributory negligence.

Otherwise let's not crib about potholes, pits dug up and left unattended and unmarked, and several other manmade road hazards which take lives every year on the Indian roads. The driver is a very convenient scapegoat in all such cases.

[GladRagu]

Poor road infrastructure related accidents shouldn't be compared with accidents caused by driving into private properties. In the former, government is solely responsible and in both cases, it's in the hands of the driver to save his and others life. Government can be blamed, private properties can be blamed but it's our life ultimately. There's very little room for error when one's behind the wheels and we got to pay the price.

If you're driving in India and particularly in highways, always look out for slow moving Ghost trucks with no lights, reflectors.. watch out for parked vehicles on all the lanes of the road sans any hazard lights, slow down and expect some vehicle out of nowhere on intersections, be extra cautious on new areas, watch out for flying vehicles, tyres from opposite side of the road, and don't ignore that reckless driver behind your car and let him pass.

Also, when overtaking despite many signals given by you to the vehicle in front, don't expect him to stay on his lane and hence be prepared to handle such scenerio. And, most importantly, don't drive with sleep deprivation - all these are non-practical tasks for average Indian drivers and will say- he had no lights and not even a single piece of reflector, he had parked on right most lane, the bike came out of nowhere suddenly, bad road design, there shouldn't be an intersection here, and I'm a Superman who can overcome sleep deprivation, etc...

Instead of pond, if he had built a strong wall, the victim would have met similar fate. Even a strong tree is enough!

There's a pond near a road bend in Kanyakumari and it's there for more than 150 years AFAIK. It wasn't causing any accidents until the reckless drivers decided to take a dip and the pond has gulped all types of road transport vehicles except bicycles and Bullock carts. The victims- racers, drunkards, outsiders driving through that narrow road at high speed and the vehicles driven by sleep deprived drivers . There's a rumour that the pond is haunted and that's true it seems!

[longhorn]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Fact is there was a pond. So it must be probed if the land was supposed to be a shoulder or not. ...

Fact is the driver drove into the pond. There is no way you can blame the pond for that. It could have been anything, a tree, a wall, or anything else. You are supposed to drive on the road. While trespassing into private property, you do so at your own risk.

Originally Posted by honeybee

The same line of thought also applies to pothole related deaths....

The same line of thought does not apply to pothole deaths because potholes are not supposed to be there on the roads. So if there is a pothole on the road, the government should be held responsible for any mishap caused due to that pothole. When you can collect an insane amount as fine, that should work both ways.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Otherwise let's not crib about potholes, pits dug up and left unattended and unmarked, and several other manmade road hazards which take lives every year on the Indian roads. The driver is a very convenient scapegoat in all such cases.

That's key, isn't it?
Not off-the-road-slughtly-to-the-left hazards. Or else my house might also be prosecuted.

[samaspire]

Received these on WhatsApp. Happened on NH66 in Udupi (Karavali bypass) at the north end of a flyover.

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

So, while I was out on my routine morning jog today, I saw a Wagon R being driven on the wrong side coming straight at me (I was jogging on the edge of the road as the footpath was dug up, I know that is a whole new discussion!). I stopped him, he looked well educated and driver

As good practice, it's best to walk on the right hand side of the road. This way, you would (most often) be facing the flow of traffic. Yes, you would have moron traffic behind you, however, at least, you would not be at fault. Also, it's preferable to jog in a place closed for traffic, such as a park.

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by longhorn

Fact is the driver drove into the pond. There is no way you can blame the pond for that.
...


The same line of thought does not apply to pothole deaths because potholes are not supposed to be there on the roads. So if there is a pothole on the road, the government should be held responsible for any mishap caused due to that pothole. When you can collect an insane amount as fine, that should work both ways.

The pond in the photo appears to be right next to the road, without any margin or shoulder. We don't know if the owner of the pond encroached upon the shoulder of the road. And that needs to be investigated.

Originally Posted by mayankk

That's key, isn't it?
Not off-the-road-slughtly-to-the-left hazards. Or else my house might also be prosecuted.

Why not just stop complaining about everything but the driver then? Bridges without railings, trees or poles in the middle of the roads, sharp bends without banking or signages, blind turns et all?

Just blame the driver in all cases. Simple