[BlackBerry]

Originally Posted by evilshantanu

honking was the wrong choice, how can you expect an animal to react to honking the way you want to?
...

What else could have been done than honking to have the dog's attention and so the accident could be avoided? slowing down could be an option but I am looking for other alternatives.
Also, unlike cows/pigs dogs are more intelligent but I am not sure if they can guage the speed of oncoming vehicle before taking the decision of crossing. Any oobservations/insights on animal behaviors on road? I am aware of cows'.

[evilshantanu]

Originally Posted by BlackBerry

What else could have been done than honking to have the dog's attention and so the accident could be avoided? slowing down could be an option but I am looking for other alternatives.
Also, unlike cows/pigs dogs are more intelligent but I am not sure if they can guage the speed of oncoming vehicle before taking the decision of crossing. Any oobservations/insights on animal behaviors on road? I am aware of cows'.

Atleast I always brake and slow down. You can't trust men these days, these are still animals!

I agree if your speed is way too high then I think rather than risking the car / safety of the inmates of car, its better to slow down a little and rest leave it on God.

However from my experience on the highways in the last 16 years I have found that no matter what, one should never turn the steering at high speeds in such scenarios

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by BlackBerry

slowing down could be an option but I am looking for other alternatives.

I am afraid there is no other 'alternative'. Any alternative will scare the animals and either they will run or stand affixed, both with equal probability.

Also, unlike cows/pigs dogs are more intelligent

When you say intelligence, you mean in the context of road sense. Not sure dogs are any better. Else there would less dog carcass on road.

[junkishya]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

This is horrible. These fool villagers and others who live by the roadside have not learned that cars travelling at high speeds on the highways can kill.
Ys, it is certainly the responsibility of NHAI to ensure that the locals don't mess up the dividers.
The only solution is proper fencing along the entire length of the roads.

On my last trip from Hyderabad to Bangalore couple of months ago, I encountered 2 instances where the locals took U turns at proper U-turns places but without waiting for the highway traffic to pass and cutting across 2 lanes while turning .. I was around 100 when an Alto coming from opposite direction took a sudden U turn without waiting for me to pass. U tested the Verna ABS for the 1st time and was able to manouver and stop the car just in time !!

The 3rd incident happened when someone suddenly appeared on the road 11:30pm in the night as a place I was least expecting it since there were no houses nearby !! This time too Verna's ABS saved my family !!

[shankar.balan]

Absolutely right. I should not have made that generalization about the poor villagers. However, in general, one only encounters village dwellers on the highways and those blokes do tend to take shortcuts like the one described.
Lets not forget that as well.
Cheers!

Originally Posted by vikram_d

Oh come on. City slickers are no better. How many times have you had to take avoiding action to stop your car from running over a moronic two wheeled educ
So let's not blame only the foolish villager.

I absolutely agree with this. Fencing off the highways too, would help a lot.

Originally Posted by Mnjdnght

I wish they had liberally used elevated bypasses in places of moderate to high rural density.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by BlackBerry

What else could have been done than honking to have the dog's attention and so the accident could be avoided? slowing down could be an option but I am looking for other alternatives.
Also, unlike cows/pigs dogs are more intelligent but I am not sure if they can guage the speed of oncoming vehicle before taking the decision of crossing. Any oobservations/insights on animal behaviors on road? I am aware of cows'.

Slowing down is the safest option. Never assume that any animal stranded on the road would clear off by the time you reach there. There is always the probability that it might be injured and unable to move. Same goes with humans. If it is a deaf or mentally challenged person who is on your path, there is no guarantee that he/she would respond to the horn in the way you expect but that does not give you the justification to take that life. There is no way you can know the mental state of a person from a distance.

There could be days when even we might be behaving in an absent minded fashion and not being fully aware of the surroundings. In such a situation, we are just as good as a mentally unstable person, since we are unlikely to react to any noise even if we hear it technically.

[Shiv_1984]

Originally Posted by 500ContyCruiser

They had painted with white stripes, but its erased. Ideally one should put reflectors around speed breakers to get noticed. Unfortunately we are in India and we dont believe in any safety

As mentioned those guys were drunk, so, even the indicators wouldnt have made sense to them.

I can tell you one thing and that is even if those guys weren't drunk, someone might have made a story as it doesn't cost anything. I don't disagree that they might be drunk but I have seen that as a common practice here.
You have an accident and a bunch of morons will start throwing the ball at you saying its a case of Drink and Drive whereas you might haven't tasted alcohol ever.
Nevertheless, hope the guys recover soon and learn the lesson.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Shiv_1984

I can tell you one thing and that is even if those guys weren't drunk, someone might have made a story as it doesn't cost anything.

In this incident, who would benefit by making up such a story?

[Shiv_1984]

Originally Posted by msdivy

In this incident, who would benefit by making up such a story?

Sir, I guess you are not aware of such activities. I will tell you a small incident which I witnessed.

Last month, near my house , there was couple who were on a scooter(were in party wears) and an Indicab coming from the other side. I don't know what happened but the scooterists fell down after a minor dash with the cab. Onlookers came and the cab guy said the first thing as they are drunk. After a good 15 mins of face off in Kannada (which unfortunately I don't understand), the traffic cop came and said no one is drunk is settled off the matter.

As i said, this was just an experience and not way tantamounts to any conclusion whether OP actors were drunk or not. I hope you got my point.

Now coming to your question on benefits. In India, ppl have plenty of time to time pass doing nothing and enjoy seeing someone getting victimised.

Thanks!

[500ContyCruiser]

Originally Posted by Shiv_1984

I can tell you one thing and that is even if those guys weren't drunk, someone might have made a story as it doesn't cost anything. I don't disagree that they might be drunk but I have seen that as a common practice here.
You have an accident and a bunch of morons will start throwing the ball at you saying its a case of Drink and Drive whereas you might haven't tasted alcohol ever.
Nevertheless, hope the guys recover soon and learn the lesson.

After seeing the way those guys were riding, I would not argue much.

Luckily they had narrow escape on the previous speed breaker as it is on curvy road (you will know if you traveled from Kormangala towards Domlur, on Intermediate Ring Road.)

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by msdivy

When you say intelligence, you mean in the context of road sense. Not sure dogs are any better. Else there would less dog carcass on road.

We usually have dogs or cows on the road in Chennai - not many pigs or other animals. And what I have noticed is that the dogs are more intuitive when it comes to road-sense. There have been a few instances when I have seen stray dogs stand alongside humans waiting to cross the road, after looking for a break in traffic. In one case the dog even seemed to be doing a look-left look-right look-left routine, though it could have been a coincidental turn of the head too. Cows on the other hand usually do not change their mind once made and keep crossing the road. You should thus try to pass them at their tail-end, not the head-end.

The craziest stuff I saw involved a dog that ran across the road in front of my car, crossed over to the other side and went under a bus coming from opposite side, got frightened, did some running around under the bus and again came back to the centre of the road, avoiding being run over by the bus. It was a crazy few quick seconds for it under the fast moving bus and it was very lucky to come out alive.

[Ragul]

Originally Posted by BlackBerry

What else could have been done than honking to have the dog's attention and so the accident could be avoided? slowing down could be an option but I am looking for other alternatives.
Also, unlike cows/pigs dogs are more intelligent but I am not sure if they can guage the speed of oncoming vehicle before taking the decision of crossing. Any oobservations/insights on animal behaviors on road? I am aware of cows'.

Try flashing your headlights. It has always worked for me even in day time, more than honking at times. These poor critters are sometimes hard of hearing due to various illness and infections that go untreated. Sometiems they are half blind too in which case honking helps more. I always use both - first flash then honk.

--R

[BlackBerry]

Originally Posted by Ragul

Try flashing your headlights. It has always worked for me even in day time, more than honking at times. These poor critters are sometimes hard of hearing due to various illness and infections that go untreated. Sometiems they are half blind too in which case honking helps more. I always use both - first flash then honk.

--R

Thanks mate. In the last 10 plus years of my experience on the highways I have covered all terrains far and wide but realise that there is so little I know. It was a costly mistake on my part but I guess it will set me up for a better trip next time. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
BTW, is there a thread on highway safety, especially w.r.t. animals like, dogs, pigs et al?

[binand]

There is a report in Deshabhimani (Malayalam) of an accident on NH7 this morning in which three students of Christ College died. I cannot see any report in the English MSM (Google News). Anyone with any information?

http://www.deshabhimani.com/newscontent.php?id=285658

[poloman]

Local channels have covered this extensively. As usual a pleasure trip gone horribly wrong as per the reports. Two boys from Kerala and two girls, one the daughter of a local politician and another from WB all aged 20. Only one boy survived. Happened some where near Narayana Hrudayalaya on Hosur road at around 1AM. The car crossed the median and banged a truck head on.The Scorpio in which they were travelling was turned in to a heap of metal. It is a miracle that one boy (who was driving as per the reports) survived this gruesome accident.