[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Nope, the airbags did not deploy.
One of the pics posted at this link clearly shows that the driver was buckled in, while the passenger wasn't. Not posting it due to obvious reasons.

Shame, really. Sheer waste of a promising life.

IMO, it does not show that the driver was buckled in, it shows that the seatbelt was buckled before the driver sat.

If it was the driver who was buckled, the pretensioners would have been activated, and the belt would be sagging. Also, when the driver was rescued, he should have been unbuckled, if it was him who was buckled and not the seat.

Though in some cars, the airbag sensor triggers both the airbags and the pretensioners. Still, I would say driver was not buckled too, and if he was, he would not be in the ICU.

[Ry_der]

Yesterday I also met with an accident. I was driving on NH 11 (Jaipur Agra stretch ) when a puppy walked in on the fast lane. I was cruising at 90KMPH and was able to spot the poor soul. I slowed down to 60 and switched the lane but the puppy just ran to the side and despite the efforts, I couldn't save it from hitting the car. I was driving my WagonR hence couldn't do any harsh braking or swerve. The car sustained no damage but my heart surely did as the puppy was dead on impact. Couldn't sleep last night. I could have saved him but on the cost of endangering lives of my wife and 3 year old son. It was one of the hardest decision of my life. I still feel guilty.

[tazmaan]

Originally Posted by Ry_der

I slowed down to 60 and switched the lane but the puppy just ran to the side and despite the efforts, I couldn't save it from hitting the car. I was driving my WagonR hence couldn't do any harsh braking or swerve.

You did the right thing, I can understand your agony but what you did probably kept your family safe. Unless its a person or something as big as a cow/buffalo/camel I would not swerve and prefer safely braking in a straight line.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by tazmaan

You did the right thing, I can understand your agony but what you did probably kept your family safe. Unless its a person or something as big as a cow/buffalo/camel I would not swerve and prefer safely braking in a straight line.

This is exactly what my typically-British animal-adoring father taught me.

It is tough, though. The blessing, if any, is that Ry_der killed the animal outright.

[GranvilleDsouza]

Originally Posted by Ry_der

Yesterday I also met with an accident. I was driving on NH 11 (Jaipur Agra stretch ) when a puppy walked in on the fast lane. I was cruising at 90KMPH and was able to spot the poor soul. I slowed down to 60 and switched the lane but the puppy just ran to the side and despite the efforts, I couldn't save it from hitting the car. I was driving my WagonR hence couldn't do any harsh braking or swerve. The car sustained no damage but my heart surely did as the puppy was dead on impact. Couldn't sleep last night. I could have saved him but on the cost of endangering lives of my wife and 3 year old son. It was one of the hardest decision of my life. I still feel guilty.

Similar incident happened with me while on my way back from Nashik on the weekend. Was above 100km/hr and a cow decided to cross the highway. First instinct was checking mirrors for speeding vehicles behind me, then braked hard and saw my ABS kick into action as well, managed to stop well in advance and the cow passed by. After that, my ABS light stayed on for a bit, went off later

[Ry_der]

Originally Posted by GranvilleDsouza

Similar incident happened with me while on my way back from Nashik on the weekend. Was above 100km/hr and a cow decided to cross the highway. First instinct was checking mirrors for speeding vehicles behind me, then braked hard and saw my ABS kick into action as well, managed to stop well in advance and the cow passed by. After that, my ABS light stayed on for a bit, went off later

Attachment 1635381

Sadly my primary car (Hyundai Accent) also lacks ABS. After this incident I am seriouly thinking to downgrade to a hatchback with ABS+EBD once the finances are sorted out(Tiago XZ REVOTORQ may be). The Accent is too good to be real but still I will have to let her go.

Originally Posted by tazmaan

You did the right thing, I can understand your agony but what you did probably kept your family safe. Unless its a person or something as big as a cow/buffalo/camel I would not swerve and prefer safely braking in a straight line.

Sir, I also follow the same practice. The trick to slow down and switch lanes before hand always worked for me earlier.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

This is exactly what my typically-British animal-adoring father taught me.

It is tough, though. The blessing, if any, is that Ry_der killed the animal outright.

Thanks for the soothing words sir. I feel less guilty now.

[PetrolRider]

I am not very sure if this could be accounted as an accident, but definitely can lead to major accidents.

On May 1st I am returning from Mumbai to Pune with my wife and kiddo in the afternoon. After Vassi bridge, I believe that is Panvel Sion express road, I was on the middle lane driving sedately.

There was an omni in front of me and a truck ahead of it. The Omni driver decided to overtake the truck from left lane on one of the flyover. There was some 50 meter between me and the truck in the middle lane and the omni on the left lane beside the truck in the process of overtaking. Suddenly one of the advertising wooden board that are stuck to the light poles on the side of the over bridge fell loose and hit the windshield of the omni and then fell on the middle of the middle lane.
Some how I managed to pass over it keeping the piece of the board between the wheels. But I can clearly see a big crack on the omni windshield and the omni driver visible shaken. I believe he parked on the service road after the flyover.

Aftermath I was thinking, the board may hit any vehicle anytime. Especially it would be so sudden, it will impact driver's momentary action (swerving and hard breaking) and also can break the windshield and injure driver leading to major accident.

What would one do in such case? There are lot of such stuffs on our roads everywhere which can literally fell on us or hit us while driving. Who are responsible for them ? The road maintaining authority, the civic body, the advertising company?
We all pay road tax, toll and also a lot of cess, should not advertisement be banned from roads, in fact we are a banning nation, what it takes to ban something so unsafe?

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

What would one do in such case? There are lot of such stuffs on our roads everywhere which can literally fell on us or hit us while driving. Who are responsible for them ? The road maintaining authority, the civic body, the advertising company?
We all pay road tax, toll and also a lot of cess, should not advertisement be banned from roads, in fact we are a banning nation, what it takes to ban something so unsafe?

You are talking about things that are likely to fall on your vehicle like poles, advertisement hoardings etc. We, humans, are to be blamed for all the mess.
Who will control human beings in their 2/4 wheelers from crossing the lanes blindly / coming in the wrong direction on the National highways where vehicles are going fast?.

[neeravnaik]

True that on Indian roads with safety norms that way they are sometimes there is simply no way to avoid some incidents. Only thing I can think of is to be 2-3 steps more conservative in driving than what you can so you can react better. Your case is a good example where you were able to avoid this as you were driving sedately.

[supremeBaleno]

This mini-truck carrying 10K litres of water (pumped from the nearby river) in a tank turned over on it's side near my home in KL yesterday. The driver was getting onto the main road from a sloping-upwards side road. When he braked hard for another vehicle, the water load shifted leading to the truck toppling over. It is to avoid such incidents that water/fuel tankers have multiple compartments to store their load (instead of one single container).






P.S.: With water scarcity (due to lack of rains for many months), it is common now to see folks pumping/transporting water from the river.

[GJ01]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

This mini-truck carrying 10K litres of water (pumped from the nearby river) in a tank turned over on it's side near my home in KL yesterday.

This would have not happened if it were a tanker. The picture shows a ceiling /roof tank tied in on the bed of the truck. This puts a lot of water in a tall vertical space, as against a flatter horizontal one. With this the Center of Gravity gets disturbed - and from what you are saying if the mini truck was already on an incline, its CoG was already precarious. This is probably a good candidate for the National Geographic program - The Science of Stupid.

[prithm]

Originally Posted by GJ01

This is probably a good candidate for the National Geographic program - The Science of Stupid.

How dare you question and mock the ingenuity of Indian tanker lorry drivers ?

We (Tanker Lorry Drivers) will do what we please at the cost of others lives and go scot free irrespective of the outcome, till my coffers are filled with currency.

On the serious note though....

Water tankers are not only dependent on Centre of Gravity, but also on Fluid Dynamics. The ballast tanks inside the shell actually have flow control doors or perforated walls which reduce the slosh. Thereby minimizing the instability due to turns. Perfect examples are Fire Engines which can do amazing turns and sharp moves yet retain straight line and can stop in few meters length without swinging off the path.

But all that for people who care. Not for illegal transporters.

[n_naik]

7 killed as speeding car hits truck in Shimoga

Shimoga : Seven persons were killed when the car in which they were travelling hit a truck from behind near Sagara road of Ayanooru on Wednesday night.

The accident happened when a truck carrying wooden logs was hit by the speeding car. The wooden logs fell on the Innova car killing all the seven passengers on the spot.

So far, the deceased who have been identified are Madhu and Praveen of Magadi, Sridhar from Bengaluru, Raghavendra of Shikaripur, Manjunath of Chorady.

They were going to attend a wedding party in Sagar on Thursday.

http://newsnirantara.in/7-killed-as-...ck-in-shimoga/

Clicked these from the local TV channel:







Rain + MidNight = Bad visibility + on top of it, a lorry with protruding logs of upto 3-4 meters = Deadly accident.

According to the police who spoke to the media, the protruding logs didnt have reflectors either. RIP those unfortunate souls.

[prasadee]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

On the contrary, I think, given how the driver seat belt is still buckled, I would assume driver was sitting on it, rather than being belted up. A common practice in our country to silence the seat belt reminder.

A friend of mine has acquired an extra buckle clip (without the belt) that he keeps clipped in all the time to silence the seat belt alarm. Apparently his cotton work clothes get crimpled because of the seat belts. He had a big speech about risk and risk mitigation. And how he mitigates risk by wearing seatbelts only while on national highways. When we met for coffee, people were calling him a genius, and I had to bite my tongue.
Hopefully our next generation will make seat belts a habit rather than think of it as a nuisance.

[itwasntme]

Hope he is more careful of his passengers!