[DRIV3R]

My God, the tractor trailer must have been doing some insane speeds on that decline, and finally jackknifed. Brake failure would just be an excuse. The tractor and the trailer have different air-brake reservoirs, I believe. Good that there was no loss of life.

[KiloAlpha]

There is a very fine line drivers of these big trucks need to tread while descending a slope.
Unlike a car, these trucks are very heavy (and overloaded), so momentum builds up very quickly. So, in order to keep that much momentum in check, they brake. However, brakes will fade. So they can't use their brakes too much. The supplement to regular brakes is engine compression braking. If they use that in excess, the engine overheats.
All this means maintaining the right balance between engine compression braking and regular braking.
Obviously, some do it better than others.

[Miyer]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

My God, the tractor trailer must have been doing some insane speeds on that decline, and finally jackknifed. Brake failure would just be an excuse. The tractor and the trailer have different air-brake reservoirs, I believe. Good that there was no loss of life.

The sequence of events in my observation looked like what follows:
The trailer is already laden with weight in excess of 60 tonnes. It is carrying a very heavy barge. The barge is so heavy that it is not tied to the bed and just supported with wedges between the hull and bed.

The trailer begins to catch speed in the winding curves, there are nasty road humps that he would have some how managed to slow but one or more of the wedges have jumped off the heaving pounding of the bumps and the heavy barge begins to sway.

The rear of the barge hits the rear of the bus on the curve and the driver is trying his best to brake.He is rapidly gaining momentum because of the steep incline while the unbalance (over)load is swaing the trailer from side to side.

Some braking applied the 1st truck hits the rear of the steel barge and a steering correction again snaps off the rear of a 2nd truck carrying lead plates for making batteries.

A 800 some how gets stuck in between and the trailer actually spins it in the opposite direction. The carnage continues and it scoops a swift from this side of the road and puts it across a very high median.

Finally the driver has not been able to slow down since he has been hitting all these vehicles and he has not been able to down shift to run use engine breaking and run the engine-air compressor faster to keep the air feed to the tanks. (One set of tanks on the tractor and a accumulator on the trailer)

Loss in tank pressure perhaps the trailer line cut he finally runs it up the median to stop it. He gets off the truck and flees.We saw the cleaner of the truck speaking in Tamil and telling his owner this happened and that the driver fled.

The cleaner was barely standing on his feet and trembling.The passengers in the car seen OK with the lady outside the ambulance unscratched only shaken and the driver receiving treatment for some cuts on his toes and elbows.

Couldn't see the swift driver.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by Miyer

This happened a couple of minutes (10 mins) before we arrived at the spot.Was driving back from Kerala and at around 10AM last 2 weeks back we saw this. The notorious Toppur –NH7 (Dharmapuri) steep descend and road humps was a scene of a pile up.

Was this on May 15, 2011? I drove from Bangalore to Kerala on that day, and was held up in the traffic snarl due to this accident.

The bus was heading to Kerala from what I could see at the spot (based on the location of the bus). If that is correct, there is very little chance that the accident occured around 10AM, since there are no day buses on the route (to Kerala).

When I saw, 7 AM on May 15, 2011, only the bus and the truck (the one with the dislodged front axle) were around. The barge, trucks or the cars weren't anywhere around. Here are a couple of shots I took (I was driving, so just a couple of snaps).

[torquecurve]

Similar accident happened near Pune a couple of days ago. It is in today's Mirror. Will try to get the pictures soon. No loss of life reported here as well

Quoting from the mirror -

"Two people were injured in a freak accident involving seven vehicles which took place on the new Bangalore-Pune highway on Saturday.The vehicles a goods carrier truck,State Transport (ST) bus,Indica,Swift,Honda Accord,Tempo and a motorcycle were all heading towards Pune from Bangalore.The incident occured at around 1.45 pm.The Indica had stopped at the side of the road because of a puncture.A rapidly approaching Swift rammed into the stalled car from behind and spiralled out of control.The driver of an ST bus,which was on the heels of the Swift,slammed the brakes in an attempt to avoid a collision.An approaching truck rammed into the bus and the impact threw the bus into the wrong lane and further off the highway.Meanwhile,a Tempo,Honda and motorcycle were travelling in the lane adjacent to the truck.The impact of the collision with the bus caused the driver of the truck to lose control of the vehicle,which finally skid to a halt after veering off the road.All three vehicles in the other lane slammed into the truck,causing a pile up near Dari Pul,four km from the Katraj tunnel.The driver of the ST bus and a woman travelling in the Swift were injured.However,both were taken away before police arrived at the scene.The pile-up caused a massive traffic jam on the highway which lasted for an hour.Constable Balasahed Gavhane,of the Haveli police station said,We have made way for the traffic,but not completely.We have to move all damaged vehicles.ST staff and vehicle owners have been notified to collect their vehicles. "

The sequence of events reported was
"[SIZE=1]The Honda Accord (1) and the motorcycle (2) both rammed into the truck in the adjacent lane.The Swift(3) hit an Indica which was parked on the side of the road.The goods carrier truck (4) rammed into the ST bus (5) causing the former to switch lanes and the latter to veer off the road "[/SIZE]

Images below

[hemanth.anand]

This was on 1st of april 2011 on Mysore road.

Got this out today from TBHPian avinashsg's mobile gallery.

Seemed that the TT driver got fooled on april 1st!
he must have thought that the bus was moving and not stationary.
With so many toyota employees around, this seemed to be a cab for Toyota.
He has hit the BMTC bus from behind and turned his TT into a pile of crushed metal.


I don't have details of injuries, but I hope there were not many occupants and hope they all were lucky.

A similar case of a Toyota cab (again a TT) rear ending a truck had happened during the last weekend's TBHP night drive around midnight on mysore road.

Are all TT drivers reckless or are Toyota cab drivers any exception?

[Arkin evoisrevo]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

This was on 1st of april 2011 on Mysore road.



I don't have details of injuries, but I hope there were not many occupants and hope they all were lucky.

A similar case of a Toyota cab (again a TT) rear ending a truck had happened during the last weekend's TBHP night drive around midnight on mysore road.

Are all TT drivers reckless or are Toyota cab drivers any exception?

Did this happen near Bidadi(?) / Kengeri (?) ?. Because, on my way back from MYsore on Saturday, I saw a TT in a similar mangled pile, with only seats and mangled metal in that yard full of crashed cars.

About TT drivers, most of them seem rash. In the morning, a TT had slightly swiped a military gypsy on OA road in front of NAL. The driver would surely have regretted what he did.

[kannan666]

Originally Posted by Arkin evoisrevo

Did this happen near Bidadi(?) / Kengeri (?) ?. Because, on my way back from MYsore on Saturday, I saw a TT in a similar mangled pile, with only seats and mangled metal in that yard full of crashed cars.

About TT drivers, most of them seem rash. In the morning, a TT had slightly swiped a military gypsy on OA road in front of NAL. The driver would surely have regretted what he did.

The TT you saw at the Bidadi PS is an old accident, that TT has been there now for more than one and a half months from my observations traveling on that route.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by Arkin evoisrevo

Did this happen near Bidadi(?) / Kengeri (?) ?. Because, on my way back from MYsore on Saturday, I saw a TT in a similar mangled pile, with only seats and mangled metal in that yard full of crashed cars.

About TT drivers, most of them seem rash. In the morning, a TT had slightly swiped a military gypsy on OA road in front of NAL. The driver would surely have regretted what he did.

The photo that I have posted is from april. That happened between Bidadi and Kengeri

And the friday night accident was a small damage. while returning back from the meet, the vehicles were gone.

[kannan666]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

The photo that I have posted is from april. That happened between Bidadi and Kengeri

And the friday night accident was a small damage. while returning back from the meet, the vehicles were gone.

Then that might be the same TT that Arkin was referring too, sorry, I did'nt read your original post properly where you had clearly mentioned about the date being April 1st ! That dump yard near the Bidadi PS always has a lot of mangled vehicles lying about, scary, always get goose bumps while passing by there and seeing the carnage !

[Jai3033]

Read this unfortunate and sad news in the TOI paper today.

3-yr-old boy left inside car for three hours in city, dies - The Times of India

[KMohanan]

Originally Posted by Jai3033

Read this unfortunate and sad news in the TOI paper today.

3-yr-old boy left inside car for three hours in city, dies - The Times of India

Very difficult to believe. Nowadays parents are so careful about their children.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Each thought the other had the had the child. Yes, they are both responsible, but what is the point of adding blame to their grief? I wonder if they will ever be able to forgive each other.

[driveanddrive]

A trailer caught fire at Arya Motors, a Maruti dealership here in Nagpur. Total 9 cars and 35 two wheelers were destroyed completely. Number of cars inside the trailer was not disclosed though, I guess there would be 3-4? The trailer arrived from Maruti's Gurgaon plant and the cars were to be unloaded by evening. The reason of fire was, the driver cooked his meal inside the cabin with a kerosene stove!

Here is a Pic-



You can read the full report-
TOI

Hitavada

[vina]

Originally Posted by Jai3033

Read this unfortunate and sad news in the TOI paper today.

3-yr-old boy left inside car for three hours in city, dies - The Times of India

very tragic.

This is kind of a freak accident, 3hours can make a vehicle really hot in sun especially, but car will have enough oxygen. This is more likely a heat stroke death.