[Thad E Ginathom]

Sounds like a good cop to me!

I grew up in UK, and my experience, albeit coming home from college, (Hmmm... maybe I was 16: whatever, it's too long ago for a year to matter!) was getting off a public bus. If I ever go to US, I'll look out for those flashing lights! It was a small town: we know the bus drivers, they knew us.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

Just shocking.

That's terrible. Probably, the bus driver had not seen the lady dart across the bus, since she was walking really close, or he miscalculated her speed of walking and assumed she would clear his path which unfortunately she could not. By the looks of the surroundings, I think it's Kochi, Kerala.

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

You should always cross behind a large vehicle. Always.

Unless you're walking right in front of the stopped vehicle and in the driver's blindspot, isn't it safer to cross the road in front of the stopped vehicle on an undivided road? IMHO, the pedestrian can be seen by the driver of the stopped vehicle as well as vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

[Horizon81]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Unless you're walking right in front of the stopped vehicle and in the driver's blindspot, isn't it safer to cross the road in front of the stopped vehicle on an undivided road? IMHO, the pedestrian can be seen by the driver of the stopped vehicle as well as vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

I think the best way for pedestrians in India is to wait till a big vehicle has passed them before they attempt to cross. Even if you cross in front at a distance, you always have the risk of landing in front of an overtaking vehicle. Bus drivers, especially the private ones' main goal is to compete with other buses. They give very little attention to the road.

Earlier last week, I was in my car at Hosa Road junction, on the right hand side service road waiting to cross the junction towards electronic city. From the opposite direction, I see a stopped private bus at the bus stop towards silk board and just as the signal turned green for the bus, a middle aged guy darted across the front of the bus. The driver started moving, looking back and talking to the conductor. The pedestrian was in some hurry to catch another bus in the opposite side of the road. I had exactly this expression -> seeing all this from my car, and the bus narrowly missed the guy.

The most incredible thing was that neither the pedestrian, nor the bus driver noticed each other, even after the incident happened! And I had the worst cringe to start my day.

[searchingheaven]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Unless you're walking right in front of the stopped vehicle and in the driver's blind spot, isn't it safer to cross the road in front of the stopped vehicle on an undivided road? IMHO, the pedestrian can be seen by the driver of the stopped vehicle as well as vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

If you cross the road in front of a bus, i.e at point B, there is a chance that the car behind the bus will move out to pass the bus while it has stopped. And that is a potentially dangerous situation.

Instead, if you cross the road behind the bus at point A, you will be able to look for any vehicles behind the bus. As far as the opposite lane is concerned, you can stop at the median, and then cross the opposite lane as and when feasible.

Originally Posted by Horizon81

I think the best way for pedestrians in India is to wait till a big vehicle has passed them before they attempt to cross. Even if you cross in front at a distance, you always have the risk of landing in front of an overtaking vehicle.

This is why we always have a retractable school bus crossing arm installed in school buses. Children who need to cross the road will be forced to walk several feet forward of the front of the bus itself before they can begin to cross the road, thus avoiding a common blind spot immediately in front of the bus.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

This is why we always have a retractable school bus crossing arm installed in school buses.

The problem here in our country is that the moment you stop your vehicle leaving such gap ahead of you, expect a car to sneak in or couple of 2 wheeler riders make their way to go to the other side of the road.

[printh]

I think the place is Kerala (just a guess )based on the roads and how quick the bus accelerates after stop. Nevertheless, one of the most important piece of advice I got from my dad is to slow down well & honk a lot if I am going to pass by a heavy vehicle (usually a bus) halted in a stop. There are 99% chances of people hurrying to cross the road in front of the bus, more so in the back of the bus if you come head on.
Initially, I have not given due attention to this vital advice but experienced his words in reality and mended my ways after that.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by Horizon81

I think the best way for pedestrians in India is to wait till a big vehicle has passed them before they attempt to cross. Even if you cross in front at a distance, you always have the risk of landing in front of an overtaking vehicle. Bus drivers, especially the private ones' main goal is to compete with other buses. They give very little attention to the road.

Agree. However, there are times when the bus stops at a bus stop for minutes together, waiting to pick up passengers (case in point is the Silk Board bus stop on the ORR service road, towards Agara side). And that's when crossing a stopped bus becomes necessary.

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

If you cross the road in front of a bus, i.e at point B, there is a chance that the car behind the bus will move out to pass the bus while it has stopped. And that is a potentially dangerous situation.

Agree that it's a potentially dangerous situation, but AFAIK, we're not supposed to pass a stopped school bus if it has the amber or red lights on. Traffic on the opposite lane also has to stop at least 20ft (IIRC) away from the school bus, even on a divided road.

But in our Indian conditions, you're right, there's always the danger of a passing vehicle not able to see the pedestrian. However, the driver of the stopped vehicle can signal the overtaking vehicle - which I've seen happening. If the road has a bus-bay sort of area where the bus can stop without affecting the traffic flow, it's better to cross the road from behind the stopped vehicle as the pedestrian can be seen by the trailing vehicles. If the road is narrow, like the lanes in a residential layout, then the traffic behind the stopped vehicle cannot pass if there are oncoming vehicles.

Conditions are slightly different when it's a divided road in India. Then it makes sense to cross the road from behind the stopped bus, as there's only traffic coming from one direction to watch out for, until the median.

I hope I've made my POV clear. The bottom line is, we must ensure our safety before we cross the road.

[searchingheaven]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Agree that it's a potentially dangerous situation, but AFAIK, we're not supposed to pass a stopped school bus if it has the amber or red lights on. Traffic on the opposite lane also has to stop at least 20ft (IIRC) away from the school bus, even on a divided road.

But in our Indian conditions, you're right, there's always the danger of a passing vehicle not able to see the pedestrian. Conditions are slightly different when it's a divided road in India. Then it makes sense to cross the road from behind the stopped bus, as there's only traffic coming from one direction to watch out for, until the median.

Specially for school buses, there are very strict rules for drivers. When a school bus is stopped on the road and is displaying flashing amber lamps and/or the red STOP signal, the drivers of vehicles approaching the school bus from the front or from the rear have to stop before passing the bus and remain stopped until the bus begins to move or no longer has the red stop lamps activated.

I was answering in the US context. I don't think that there are any laws in India which require drivers to stop when a school bus is unloading children. Even if there was a law, I am quite sure nobody would obey it.

The point to note is that even in the US, people can make mistakes. And it is for that reason that we are always taught to cross the road from behind a large vehicle, no matter where we are.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Actually, the biggest point of all is to look before crossing the road. And for drivers, to look for signs of people who may not be looking.

It is down to all of us all of the time to avoid causing or having accidents. Where children are concerned, there is an extra responsibility on drivers.

[Fullrevs]

The driver of this Maruti Omni didnt see that the ramp sides weren't barricaded and decided to go the lower level of the basement causing the vehicle to flip over. The driver was bruised but no fatalities. All those workers got the vehicle flipped back in an hour and the vehicle was on its way.

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Actually, the biggest point of all is to look before crossing the road. And for drivers, to look for signs of people who may not be looking.

It is down to all of us all of the time to avoid causing or having accidents. Where children are concerned, there is an extra responsibility on drivers.

And here in Bangalore, we don't even stop / slow down for school kids waiting to cross. Yes, that's us Bangalore.

-- Torqy

[rohansachar]

So this happened today:
http://localpress.co.in/2016/07/3-di...entry-blocked/
http://www.india.com/news/cities/mum...ected-1342707/

the driver of the Innova lost control of the vehicle and rammed into the Taxi. Following which, it toppled on the road the Dzire crashed into the Innova.

Speaking to the paper, Tukaram Thorat, Senior Police Inspector, Trombay traffic police said, “The driver of the taxi, Jaiswal, and the passenger, Vijay, died on the spot. We are still trying to identify the driver of the Innova, it was a Thane registered vehicle.”

Image from the article:

Resulting traffic:

This happens to be a daily route for me, so saw the cars in the evening. The cars were totalled, the Innova & the Taxi flattened. The roof of the taxi was cut to remove the bodies.

Pics taken by me:

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

And as a driver, I look out for people doing it. Fifty years later, I have not forgotten that lesson!

I keep it simple. When overtaking a bus from the right, or for that matter any vehicle close to the kerb I keep my horns pressed and blaring. Lot of times it has helped me save the human buffaloes which want to cross the road from ahead of a parked vehicle, right into my blind spot. I believe our human buffaloes can only hear sounds, they are quite blind and dumb otherwise.

[LoneRidder]

Originally Posted by rohansachar

So this happened today:

This is a very bad crash With Innova damaged that bad, and driver missing is a miracle. Unfortunate for the taxi driver and passenger.

The taxi seems to be a Santro, not Dzire!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by LoneRidder

This is a very bad crash With Innova damaged that bad, and driver missing is a miracle. Unfortunate for the taxi driver and passenger.

The taxi seems to be a Santro, not Dzire!

Well, there was a Dzire too that was involved in this accident. The Innova not only hit the Santro but also went ahead and hit another car (Dzire) behind this Santro:




Read the whole article here.

Three people were killed and two injured after a speeding car collided with two vehicles, including a cab, on the Eastern Freeway on Tuesday morning.The accident occurred near Jijamata Nagar Junction, Chembur, barely 80 metres from the spot where last June corporate lawyer Janhavi Gadkar, driving while drunk, hit a taxi, killing two.
The dead are the speeding car's driver Abdul Hamid Sirva (48), and the cab's driver Nandlal Jaiswal (46) and passenger Vijay Kelkar (48). Sirva ran his family business of a mechanical engineering workshop in Thane, and lived in Yasmin Apartments in Mazgaon. He is survived by wife, three sons and aged parents. “Jaiswal and Kelkar died on the spot, with severe head injuries. But Sirva was moving. He was writhing in pain,“ said a Anoop Singh, a cabbie. Tuesday's accident on the Freeway , in volving three vehi cles, occurred at 9.27am. A car, an Innova, was heading north at 140kmph, far above the speed limit of 60kmph, when its driver, Hamid Sirva, lost control and hit the divider. The impact caused it to rise one and a half feet, and in this airborne state it hit an electric pole, which caused it to rise higher--almost 12 feet.Within the fraction of a second, it was on the other side of the divider, where it fell upside down on the cab, and had a head-on collision with a Dzire that was behind the cab.

At the time of the accident, it was raining heavily . A source said a stretch along the divider was flooded, causing Sirva not to notice a pothole. He hit it, causing him to lose control of his vehicle. An officer of the RCF police station said, “It's too early to say what exactly happened. We have called experts to analyse the sequence of events and to understand what may have led the Innova's driver to lose control.“ DCP (Zone VI) Shahaji Umap said the police are awaiting Sirva's post mortem report to see if he was under the influence of alcohol, though prima facie this has been ruled out.

The Dzire's occupants received minor injuries: Mahesh Kuklekar (38) and his friend Ajay Jadhav (33), both residents of Vashi, were treated at Shatabdi Hospital, Chembur, and allowed to leave.

Immediately after the accident, several motorists and taxi drivers stopped their vehi cles and rushed to the spot to help the victims. But the impact of the first collision was such that the Innova and the cab were mangled. The fire brigade had to be called, and they had a hard time extricating the bodies. A source said firefighters and the police had reached the spot within 10 minutes.With the help of a towing van, the Innova and the cab were taken about a kilometre away , where, with the help of fabricators, the mangled steel was cut to remove the bodies.

The three victims were moved to Shatabdi, where they were declared dead before admission. All bodies were taken to Sion Hospital for post-mortem examinations. The cab's driver Jaiswal, a resident of Vartak Nagar, Thane, is survived by wife and two school-going children. Kelkar, his passenger, lived in Cherai, Thane, and is survived by wife, a sales tax officer, and two school-going daughters. He was a senior coordinator with World Trade Centre, Cuffe Parade.

Because of the accident, which occurred during the morning rush hour, traffic on both arms of the Freeway came to a standstill. The police had a difficult time controlling curious onlookers, who stopped their vehicles and got out to click pictures of the scene and post on social networking apps.It took two hours for traffic to return to normalcy