[trrk]

Hi,

OT here:

Originally Posted by vinaydas

The people there are rather stubborn for any progress to happen.

Well, they want the four lanes in the already acquired 30 mts wide land. They do want the four lanes of road.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by trrk

Well, they want the four lanes in the already acquired 30 mts wide land. They do want the four lanes of road.

In how many sections have land been "already acquired"? There are many places along NH17 where the government has not been able to go ahead with even surveys - thanks to local resistance.

The public also do not want PPP - because they are not ready to pay usage fees. I drive about 33+33 kms daily on NH17, and each day presents a head-ache. The road is hardly wide enough for two vehicles to run through safely, and then you have Private buses rushing through at 80s and 90s. Land has been reportedly acquired for road widening (infact, the new alignment is completely different from the old alignment) - but road work isn't happening because public have resisted.

Kerala is one state where people want everything, but cannot sacrifice anything. We want roads, but are not ready to let go land. We want trains, but are not ready to let the railways build tracks. We want everything, but we can't let go anything!

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by asr245

Coming to you point, what if it's an elephant on the road? Or a stupid moron talking on the cellphone and deciding to cross the road without looking? I guess you will try your best to save yourself and the elephant/person.

Usually the animals or human beings for that matter, have enough sense to keep going and finally cross the road. The trouble is sometimes dogs (and I have seen this happen only with a dog so far) will just park themselves on the road, focussed on some distant object and not paying any attention to your car.

The difference between a human (or an elephant for that matter) and an animal is a dog can appear in front of your car out of nowhere, while a human being can be spotted by an alert driver much before. I am amazed at seeing some pretty impressive sprints pulled off by street-smart dogs.

Twelve people were killed in an accident near Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, yesterday according to this report in today's The Hindu:

Today's The Hindu reported an accident near Karur, Tamil Nadu, involving an ambulance and government bus, in which the three occupants of the ambulance were killed.

The photograph of the mangled remains of the ill-fated ambulance in the accident reported above, as published in today's Dinamalar:

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Usually the animals or human beings for that matter, have enough sense to keep going and finally cross the road. The trouble is sometimes dogs (and I have seen this happen only with a dog so far) will just park themselves on the road, focussed on some distant object and not paying any attention to your car.

The difference between a human (or an elephant for that matter) and an animal is a dog can appear in front of your car out of nowhere, while a human being can be spotted by an alert driver much before. I am amazed at seeing some pretty impressive sprints pulled off by street-smart dogs.

. I had several incidents especially in night, with cats in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. They appear from nowhere in no time, even the best alert driver would have no chance of saving it from hitting or run-over. And like elephants, cows or goats here, we have camels in Saudi Arabia. Camels when they decide to run, they can run real fast and come on the middle of the road in seconds, from a few hundred meters away.
There, drivers are always advised to slow down <80 speed, when they see camels even at a distance, until its all clear. There have been many accidents involving camels running on to the highways.

[jeeva]

The second accident involving the ambualance..strenghtens my belief in this thing called "fate".
People are out of an accident and on their way to the hospital, meet with another one and end up life. Scary!

[Prancing Horse]

Originally Posted by jigbarai

So what creature should you eventually stop for if not a snake ?
A small kitten ? A puppy ? A dog ? A horse ? Humans ?
Beg hopefully - for elephants ?

What if it was a kid instead of that reptile ?

Originally Posted by agspins

Even i dont understand whats the reason for stopping when you spot a snake, probably its the fear for snake"Baap re Saanp" thing which made the driver psyche out

In addition to this discussion and many other i would like to bring the following incident to every ones notice.

This happened by 2005 Feb in Gandhipuram, Coimbatore. It was around 5.30 PM and there was a brief shower for 20 to 30 minutes. I was about to join the cross cut road signal, there is a free left (curvey) which you can take to reach RV hotel. Between the free left and the straight road there is a road side park kind of thing with waist size bush in its exterior perimeter. Ahead of me was around five to six two wheelers also taking the free left (just 50 ft ahead of me). First one in that lot was a guy in old suzuki samurai he was in the center of the road he was 2 - 3 feet in side the free left section,second was a lady with a scooty,when she was about to enter the free left section, all of a sudden there came around 3 small pups from the road side park.These young fellas where having their own time chasing one another without caring for the traffic,i couldn't see their mother any where near by.The first guy in the samurai almost took one but he narrowly missed and managed to recover without falling down.Lady in the scooty ,freaked out seeing this,she stopped in the middle of the road,took hands off here handlebar and closed her eyes.Guy in a splendor behind her was an elderly chap who couldn't control the short distance braking went for a skid and ended in the bush and breaking his collar bone.Next was a guy in TVS 50,he managed to stop just inches from her, after him was a guy in bullet who literally didn't stop (or couldn't) took with him the lady & the TVS 50 guy when he went down.The TVS 50 guy was wearing glasses from which the frame broke and pierced his left eye . I was the next and i manged to stop just couple of feets from the mess.Luckily for me there was no one behind me immediately.Took the TVS 50 guy and splendor fella to the near by hospital.Lady & the bullet guy had only small scratches

So whom to blame here?
1. Pupy that came running in
2. Lady riding scooty
3. Coimbatore corporation for not maintaining the stretch

I would first blame the CBE corporation first and then the lady next. If she had negotiated the curve with the pup running in with caution without stopping, the accident could have been avoided. Because no one following here didn't expect her to stop.
Irony here was the lady was yelling at the TVS guy for not stoping and taking her down.But the place where she fell was a slush and she had a mouth full of the slush.

[BurningHeart]

Near Electronic City, Bangalore, this morning at about 10:00 am I saw this Safari in this ditch. The insurance surveyor was there at site taking picture.

It is 90-degree turn, to the right and it could be that some one came from the opposite direction too much in to the center/or to their right forcing the Safari to dump itself off the road. Or it can also be a case of drowsy driving.

No skid marks except for some last minute braking visible on the (wet then?) grass patches on the shoulder. It is VX, so may be there couldnt have been any skid marks. From the impact, it seems that the SUV hit the electric post at a much lower velocity, as the damage seems to be minimal. it is a 3.0 Dicor.

The first time in 15 years, I have seen a Safari in an accident.

BH.

[Prancing Horse]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

Today's The Hindu has reported about the same accident.
Attachment 344684

The owner of the lorry is a local business man from my native place.We were sharing the same garage till a year ago.As per his input out of the three cars i10 was the last and was almost 1 or 2 kilometer behind and was trying to catch other two cars.When the accident happened i10 was over taking a tempo traveler and when he saw the lorry he moved more towards the right extreme of the road (i suppose he was trying to reach other end of the road) without braking and took the left side of the lorry.Which is clear when you see the pic,right side (driver side) is relatively less damaged and left side of the i10 is more damaged.Other two cars traveled back to the accidents when they couldn't reach the guys in the i10 on the phone.In spite of the i10 drivers mistake the lorry driver is arrested now.

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by Prancing Horse

In spite of the i10 drivers mistake the lorry driver is arrested now.

If the lorry driver's version is true, it can be corroborated by circumstantial evidence, such as the damage that has occurred to the i10. The police will detain the driver as a suspect, but again the process of law rules here. Please keep in mind, the job of deciding who is guilty is not with the police, it's with the courts. So one can always move the court and prove the arrested driver is innocent.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by Prancing Horse

In spite of the i10 drivers mistake the lorry driver is arrested now.

Thats the way our Law works - the bigger vehicle is always at fault, no matter what.

Originally Posted by honeybee

Please keep in mind, the job of deciding who is guilty is not with the police, it's with the courts. So one can always move the court and prove the arrested driver is innocent.

Not really possible. There has been incidences when the court ruled that "the bigger vehicle being more powerful had more chances of causing more damage - the driver of the bigger vehicle could have braked in time to save the smaller vehicle". That is, if you are driving a bigger vehicle, and a 'smaller' vehicle decides to jump on to the wrong side and hits you, the court would still say you are faulty - because, why did you not brake in time?

[sidindica]

I10 parking fail.
The truck had its front axle torn apart. Spotted at mathura road.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by Prancing Horse

In spite of the i10 drivers mistake the lorry driver is arrested now.

That seems very possible. The exact thing happened to be about 2-3 years back. It was a M800 he is overtaking a vehicle and bang in my lane but goes down my left side head on. I was thinking this guy is getting to some place on the left hand side so he is driving on the left most shoulder of the road on the wrong side. I watched him get back on the road and go down straight in my rear view mirror.

Even then I thought it was something he missed and never in my wildest dreams imagined that was an overtaking manuver which was beyond bizarre. Now I know better.

What are such people expecting? They will pay the ultimate price like this i10 driver did someday.

Unbelievable, really unbelievable. Is it really so impotant to save a few minutes?

When will people learn? The incident happened in Kerala.

[rajeev k]

[quote=vinaydas;1877009]i was talking about the stretch from Avinashi to Coimbatore Bypass.
Kerala 4 laning will take some time . The people there are rather stubborn for any progress to happen.

Kerala is a land where still folks believe that good roads would increase the rate of accidents.

Someone gave a solution make four or six lane roads and make bumps every 4 or 6 meters apart.

[Arkin evoisrevo]

The Safari hasn't been totalled thankfully!
The owner is probably happy that he spent that wee bit of dough extra, and went in for a 'VX'. The airbags must hasve prevented a lot of damage!