[YaeJay]

Excellent point Vina. A lot us overlook safety sometime.

What were the other differences that you noticed between your regular driver and the recent guy?

I suspect the recent guy to be older, having more responsibilities, if older must have come from a different driving background with plenty of incubation time.

Also suspect its his car, bought with saved money, his fuel.

Please share your observations. I can think of a lot more!

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Now a days, though the air horns are banned, private buses especially the limited stop ones, use air horns outside city limits indiscriminately to intimidate cars and bikes. The authorities concerned turn a deaf ear to this.

But I thought air horns are banned within city limits only!

Originally Posted by speedsatya

Looks like a Roadlink bus .Not sure though.The flag like logo is something I have seen on their buses.

Most of these bus drivers drive like this YouTube - ‪Volvo at its topspeed. Madurai to Bangalore.MP4‬‏

At these speeds ,the only way that these buses can stop suddenly is crashing into someone.

And idiots like the one who took this video say that they were enjoying it .He doesnt realise how this bus driver was endangering so many lives.Had the 2 trucks that he was overtaking veered to the right ,it would have easily been one more headline on our news channels!!

These buses which are manufactured in other countries have seat belts for all seats .Here ,I rarely see anything beyond the first row of seats !

And I thought the Volvos can do much higher speeds and be more stable at it. A lot of operators are running old Volvos with retread tyres (Only in India!)

Of course this is what happens when you put a clown on the drivers seat straight from his borrowed bicycle or a bullock cart.

I once had to go off road, while returning back from Nagarjuna sagar on two wheels. Mr.Volvo was decided to overtake a highly competitive State transport bus and he was right at us. Ofcourse, 2 mins of his valuable time and the VOLVO ego was way above the life of two guys following every damn rule.

This has to be the year of accidents!

P.S : One would not find seat belts in a bullock cart, even the recent 2011 models!

[AlphaKilo]

Regarding the Kallada driver, RIP. he may have been a pretty good driver, all said and done, speed kills no matter how experienced one be. He was speeding around 100 atleast, else with 80 or 70 odd kmph and with volvos huge disks with abs he would have surely stopped it pretty safely. I see a point why KaSRTC volvos and mercs dont cross 80-90 most of the time and thats the whole point of training and self control.

But one thing I see in the video that is in favour of the driver is that he inherently moved to the slower lane, which is what one should do after completing the overtaking, although he was little high on his speed for the lane which he had chosen.

@above-RIP poor souls. overloaded jeep + moronic speed! Is that a new thing? Thats what we always do dont we??

[vina]

Originally Posted by YaeJay

Excellent point Vina. A lot us overlook safety sometime.

What were the other differences that you noticed between your regular driver and the recent guy?

I suspect the recent guy to be older, having more responsibilities, if older must have come from a different driving background with plenty of incubation time.

Also suspect its his car, bought with saved money, his fuel.

Please share your observations. I can think of a lot more!

The newer, slower driver is older. All taxis are owned by the taxi stand owner - he is an old friend on my in-laws' family. All drivers are working at this stand for long time, and in general have very drive long experience. And they are paid more than the usual salary in Mysore (that's what they told me)

But make no mistakes - the other day I was slightly late and a little worried whether our man will make it in time to the airport. So I voiced my concern and he did as high as 80 on some stretches and saved a good 1 hour over his earlier timing (basically he did overtake a few vehicles and did brake closer to speedbrakers)

The other guy is old too (and he never does triple digits either) - both have had over two decades of experience.

In fact all drivers I have seen from this particular taxi stand drive very safe - very little use of brakes and pedal and still good speeds.




While we are at it I'll recount another experience - when I was in Noida my company employed a taxi company. the owner paid its drivers (over 50 of them) about 20% more than the prevailing salaries at the time, and after including late night driving charges each driver was making almost 50-60% more than the usual driver incomes at that time.

Now this taxi stand guy had a rule - if any car gets even a scratch then the driver driving it will have to spend the money to get it repaired.

The result - cars would go years in the notorious NCR traffic without a single scratch. Almost all of his drivers could do such "magic" (there is no other word to describe the achievement - every single car in the office parking had dents, and none of the taxis ever did) even when they drove pretty fast in non-power-steering, non-power-brake cars.

the other result - from time to time we did see some bad drivers, but they just wouldn't last at this stand

And of course in the years I spent, with hundreds of people using taxis every evening (almost 150 bookings per night) there never was any accident.

[kaushik_s]

In that video, yes the horn was irritating and that volvo was doing high and unsafe speed for a bus (high CG, so many people on board, the driver should have some responsibility). But what that Sumo or Omni doing on the high-speed lane? They are even bigger morons to drive slowly in the fast/overtaking lane and not even give way for a vehicle coming at higher speed.

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by YaeJay

But I thought air horns are banned within city limits only!

It is the long distance private buses which uses the air horns within city limits also.

Another trick is that many buses keep a single air horn unit so that the sound would be lesser.

[gurudutt]

Read this in TOI today.

BANGALORE: Fifteen people were killed on Monday when their tempo collided with a passenger bus on the Bangalore-Pune highway near Karnataka's Tumkur town.

"The tragic mishap occurred when the overcrowded tempo collided head-on with a state-run passenger bus while attempting to overtake another vehicle on Bangalore-Pune National Highway Number 4," Tumkur Deputy Commissioner C Somashekara said.

The accident took place near Tumkur, about 75 km from here, around 1 p.m.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by gurudutt

Read this in TOI today.

BANGALORE: Fifteen people were killed on Monday when their tempo collided with a passenger bus on the Bangalore-Pune highway near Karnataka's Tumkur town.

"The tragic mishap occurred when the overcrowded tempo collided head-on with a state-run passenger bus while attempting to overtake another vehicle on Bangalore-Pune National Highway Number 4," Tumkur Deputy Commissioner C Somashekara said.

The accident took place near Tumkur, about 75 km from here, around 1 p.m.

Its mentioned that it happened near a place called Heggere on NH4.
I read this also and it had stated that there were 23 people in the vehicle (which looked like a "toofan" from the photo) which is only a 12 seater.
Also one of the injured has told that the driver was driving at high speeds while talking on his mobile phone.
One person's mistake, has cost 16 lives

But I still don't understand one thing. How can a vehicle collide head-on while overtaking another vehicle when that whole road is a 4-lane road with wide medians.
There can be 2 possibilities.
It is some reporting error.
The bus was coming on the wrong side either intentionally or because of some diversion

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by Gooney

I do not know whether to thank my guardian angel or my cautious driving for each such miss. However, I always have the fear that sometime I may not be so lucky...

Defensive driving mate. Nothing can let you be prepared for any eventuality on our roads. And if you are driving above 90-100 kmph you raise your risk factor by the times your speed is. So at 120 kmph your risk(x) is x to the power of 120. No joking.

Originally Posted by vina

However passengers not complaining is not surprising.

Ahh!! the whole crux of the matter isnt it.

My wife takes a normal BMTC bus to work. She tells me she is the only one who complains about any drivers reckless driving. The others (educated,literate) employees of the Big Blue just don't bother.

The other day while taking a BMTC Volvo from Marathahalli to Iblur. The driver was horribly rash. There were about 100 odd people in that bus swaying around in glory.

I was right next to the driver and yelled at him to drive properly. He gave me some dirty looks but started driving sanely as I took out my mobile camera to record it.

While getting down one guy came up to me and said "Good Job". I replied "Yeah, but try and grow a spine yourself too." He didn't like it.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

But I still don't understand one thing.

If you have traveled on that road often and I have. This should barely surprise you. Every of this private carriers use the wrong side only. They have no semblance of right and wrong.

What surprises me is the small number of accidents reported on this stretch. By my observation at-least a dozen people should be getting killed everyday on this stretch because of the way the people drive here.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

If you have traveled on that road often and I have. This should barely surprise you. Every of this private carriers use the wrong side only. They have no semblance of right and wrong..

I have seen these "wrong-side-lovers" a lot but I assumed that he may not be overtaking a vehicle while on the wrong side.
Whatever it is, 16 lives have gone a waste. may all the souls RIP

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

But one thing I see in the video that is in favour of the driver is that he inherently moved to the slower lane, which is what one should do after completing the overtaking, although he was little high on his speed for the lane which he had chosen.

It could also be called "minimal lane changes". You change lane to overtake and stick to that lane till you're forced to change lane again.

[kaushik_s]

What you've done to voice against the bus driver is really good and appreciable and I do agree that other commuters also should've also voiced against the driver. But you've probably made another person who would've followed what you've done, to go back to his shell. He appreciated your work and most probably started doing like you do (people at times need someone to show the way) but with your rude answer to he might never probably want to be in your shoes. Please don't mind for the seemingly harsh words but that's what came to my mind.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

While getting down one guy came up to me and said "Good Job". I replied "Yeah, but try and grow a spine yourself too." He didn't like it.

[vina]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

In that video, yes the horn was irritating and that volvo was doing high and unsafe speed for a bus (high CG, so many people on board, the driver should have some responsibility). But what that Sumo or Omni doing on the high-speed lane? They are even bigger morons to drive slowly in the fast/overtaking lane and not even give way for a vehicle coming at higher speed.

the bus's speedo has maxed out - the bus is probably doing way higher than 130 the speedo is showing.

I don't think the Sumo was going slower than your tastes, and the first omni had already started giving way before the bus approached (while the second omni towards the end of the video was on an open stretch and the bus safely passed from the left)

You are calling the wrong guys morons - on a two lane road where you can see village traffic if somebody is keeping speed under 100 how is he a moron?

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

He appreciated your work and most probably started doing like you do (people at times need someone to show the way) but with your rude answer to he might never probably want to be in your shoes.

Yes its arrogance and I am guilty as charged. But it is a grown distrust in fellow humans(?) that has made me act in that way.

Each silent person in that bus contributed to the drivers rashness. I don't blame the driver, his upbringing has been poor.

I have got into enough situations in this city to not trust the guy standing next to me. Each one acts selfish and wants to fire the gun from somebody else's shoulder. He for me was another one of them. For the whole 15 mins after I had the spate with the driver not one person joined in to condemn him. The whole bus was silent. And this individual waited till we got off the bus to voice his support. Does it matter to me then?

Please don't mind for the seemingly harsh words but that's what came to my mind.

Oh not at all. I look up to your posts on this forum. I am feeling guilty of doing what you rightly said was not correct. And on second thoughts I should have not being that rude. But at that moment and the rush, that came out in an instance.

Its my fear of being left standing alone to fight a common battle that is not mine, that makes me bitter. I don't want to be a martyr.

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by vina

the bus's speedo has maxed out - the bus is probably doing way higher than 130 the speedo is showing.

I don't think the Sumo was going slower than your tastes, and the first omni had already started giving way before the bus approached (while the second omni towards the end of the video was on an open stretch and the bus safely passed from the left)

You are calling the wrong guys morons - on a two lane road where you can see village traffic if somebody is keeping speed under 100 how is he a moron?

I think you got me wrong (or probably I was not clear enough), what I wanted to say that the right most lane is only for overtaking and when another vehicle coming at a higher speed then you are supposed to give him way. Overtaking from left is not exactly legal and people on our roads (like that Sumo) force one to overtake them from left side even though they've option to move to the left to let other vehicles pass. The only people who follows this rule are the (believe it or not) interstate Trucks, they'll always(90% of them) come to left hand side of the road to give you way. I'm sorry to say but the Sumo or the Second Omni ( was talking about the second omni only) are still not the ones on my good book. BTW, let me re-iterate that I'm trying to say that the Bus with loud horn and insane speed is the right one. But while prosecuting one law-breaker we shouldn't make the other law-breakers right.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

.

Its my fear of being left standing alone to fight a common battle that is not mine, that makes me bitter. I don't want to be a martyr.

Don't worry mate, you are not alone and there are people who thinks alike. It's really frustrating when you see people keeping mum even when they know they should raise their voice (atleast).

[IronH4WK]

my car almost ended being featured in this thread thanks to a nincompoop behind the wheel of a Eicher!

we were on our way back to Bangalore (about 400kms from Pune) and had just entered a lane at one of the tolls, behind a Mitsubishi Eicher. the Eicher was taking time so i put the car in neutral and put the handbrake. i asked my wife (left rear) to get the change for the toll (my brother-in-law was asleep in the front passenger seat). all of a sudden i see the reverse lights light up on the Eicher and its starts reversing slowly. i honk a few times, but the Eicher doesn't stop. i keep the horn pressed, but he still keeps coming.

the Eicher's back is just a few feet from my car and i realize he isn't going to stop. with change for the toll in my right hand, i release the handbrake with my left, slot the gear into reverse and pull back about 10ft just as the Eicher reaches the spot where my car was standing seconds ago. he still keeps coming and i've to repeat the maneuver once again! this time, i change lanes and come up alongside the Eicher, lower my window and yell at the driver! by now my brother-in-law is fully awake and lets out a stream of expletives at the driver! the driver just puts up his hands and says the security told me the back was clear to reverse, so i reversed!

if there had been another vehicle behind us, our car would have been crushed! oh btw, my brother-in-law didn't even wink the rest of the journey! this incident really shook him up