[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Correction accepted!

It's a shocking incident, with one person standing out as the guilty person, but it is good that other aspects have been talked through too. Road design should include margin. Whether it should include such a large margin is moot (and we have been mooting it!) but certainly, there should be margin beyond the envisaged speeds demands.

The more I see the video, the more I feel a lot of them were speeding, but to be doing over a 100 in a designated 40 zone
I also see the design and its bad and I have feared this kind of an accident for a long time for a lot of flyovers that have been built across cities. When you build a road, you make it idiot proof.

No car should be able to tip over a flyover. Period.

[deetee]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

No car should be able to tip over a flyover. Period.

Okay let's make them car proof, what about loaded trucks and tippers that can still tip over ? (That happened before )

[Guna]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned: apparently the driver is a 27 year old CEO of a startup. I thought he is just another spoilt rich kid (which he may still be).

[caffeineAM]

Originally Posted by Guna

I don't know if this has already been mentioned: apparently the driver is a 27 year old CEO of a startup. I thought he is just another spoilt rich kid (which he may still be).

Let's not bring that angle in here.

[JonSnow]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

You seem to be forgetting the clocked 104kmph. Nobody can blame the flyover for that.

Maybe we should ask how many thousands of cars have taken this route and not flown over the wall? Several contributors to this thread are regulars.

No doubt the driver is to blame for this accident. There is no way he should have been driving at those speeds.

Coming to the flyover design, my colleague who used the flyover just after it was opened had told us that the flyover seemed a bit scary and accidents were likely. It seems like you can't judge the sharpness of the turn while climbing the slope and you realize it suddenly when you reach the end of the slope and the curve is right ahead. At sane speeds, you'll have enough time to react but in cases of drunk driving and overspeeding it has led to accidents. I'm no expert in flyover design to judge if this was a design flaw or not, but there is less margin for error here. All the more reason to drive defensively anywhere anytime to account for unexpected scenarios.

[lrsays]

Originally Posted by JonSnow

All the more reason to drive defensively anywhere anytime to account for unexpected scenarios.

I almost hit a holy cow having breakfast on right most lane (on a 6 lane highway). Most of the accidents are combination of wrong design of road/curves, unrealistic speed limits and bad driving. Sometimes traffic police keeps 40 km/h as speed limit on good roads, after seeing such a useless limits subconscious mind is trained to ignore them unless there is a cop with speed gun!

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by JonSnow

(snip)but in cases of drunk driving and overspeeding it has led to accidents.

I don't see why roads should be designed for such people who shouldn't be driving in the first place. It would help identify such and permanently prevent them from driving. Oh yes, Utopia, come over.

[Kosfactor]

The car appears to have landed on its rear end, survival of the driver if belted up isn't a miracle in this case. I don't think any claims of cars safety features hold good here at all, I don't think any crash testing involves a car flying off a ramp and landing on its backside, then breaking the remaining tumble with a tree, killing someone and damaging other vehicles when it finally comes to rest.

Safety sometimes isn't just of our own, our Airbags aren't there to protect those we run into.

Let this incident be a message, a lesson to remember to drive safe!

[Guna]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

The car appears to have landed on its rear end, survival of the driver if belted up isn't a miracle in this case. I don't think any claims of cars safety features hold good here at all, I don't think any crash testing involves a car flying off a ramp and landing on its backside, then breaking the remaining tumble with a tree, killing someone and damaging other vehicles when it finally comes to rest.

I thought the car partially fell on a tree first before hitting the road? If it had fallen off directly on the road, the damage would have been worse.

[opendro]

Originally Posted by msdivy

So to prevent this accident (and such accidents) we need flyovers rated at 104kmph (65 miles per hour), with right banking, taller/stronger guard rails and other paraphernalia, so that the endowed folks can safely enjoy the G forces for few seconds within city limits.

I'm not denying that this driver went totally out of control, beyond his abilities and beyond the rules. All I'm saying is that the flyover design seem poor and can put someone unfamiliar with it into a big surprise.

Would you like a car that breaks apart the moment you exceed the rated top speed mentioned by a manufacturer or by the law? You are missing the point. Prevention is always better than waiting for the bad event to happen. For example, if a car cannot handle a certain speed, put speed governor like Honda did, don't just break apart and blame the driver. That is called prevention. Similarly, if a flyover is turning at 90 degree, there are many ways to ensure either people don't cross a certain speed limit or they don't flip over when they cross the speed limit. Why do highways have the huge median when just a simple line would have saved space? That is called prevention.

Sorry for re-emphasizing the point again. I had to, seeing the number of people who don't see the benefit of preventive measures.

[narayans80]

Am surprised we are even talking about road design here. Speed cam detected 104, which means he was probably doing a lot more. But even doing 104 on a 40 zone in a country that has strict speed enforcement would mean lot more than a speeding ticket.

Long back some acquaintances did something like that, they had been booked something in the lines of 'driving and endangering others' (don't remember the exact terminology) their licenses suspended for 6 months, had to visit that state for court hearings, community service and what not. Last but not least, insurance premiums jacked up. All this for over-speeding by a large margin, not voluntary manslaughter like this.

Given the driving discipline in India, even if we build a 'Great wall' on Biodiversity flyover, we can expect to see dramatic accidents which we may never have imagined.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by BeingHuman

One JNTU Expert Engineer has suggested fitting a rolling barrier to fixing issues at blind curves.
https://interestingengineering.com/t...lions-of-lives

That is an excellent idea. Again the cost comes into the picture. Would have regular guard rail have helped?

Originally Posted by Guna

I don't know if this has already been mentioned: apparently the driver is a 27 year old CEO of a startup. I thought he is just another spoilt rich kid (which he may still be).

His age or job is totally irrelevant, He is just a driver on the road.

Originally Posted by opendro

and can put someone unfamiliar with it into a big surprise.

Being unfamiliar is more the reason to be cautious and obey the road signs. BTW, if he was using maps, he would be seen a sharp turn (not that we would have noticed at his acceleration ).

Originally Posted by pratyush6

When you build a road, you make it idiot proof.

No car should be able to tip over a flyover. Period.

Will need a 8ft height and 5ft wide concrete wall to stop the car at 100Kmph.

[MMinor]

Originally Posted by wrongturn

Yeah, blame it on the car and the government! Though GTI is a brilliant car, road is more than wide enough and parapet walls along the bridge are as tall as they should be.

I disagree sir, we can blame two unrelated entities for contributing to this. I am not above suggesting that the driver be used as a test dummy in a nano. I have no empathy for the driver at all. However the govt is at fault too. No one in their right mind would expect people to follow a 40KMPH speed limit in a country where we already spend a big chuck of our waking hours in traffic. I'll quote a real life example. When Jerry Sandusky was arrested and convicted for child abuse, the school president Spanier too was indicted. Not for active contribution but for being a passive spectator. Govt here has played the same role, not at the exact moment the car jumped the barrier but by not making it difficult for something like this to happen.

[hangover]

Originally Posted by swapnil.awate

I also noticed the straight section is inclined upwards, where the turn starts, making the matter worse.

It seems that a better design would be to rebuild the flyover by cutting across the bio diversity park which looks unused.

The news reports don’t mention how many passengers were traveling in the car.

If it was a heavy load then maybe the centrifugal moving mass tipped the car over when it’s left side collided with the wall of the flyover.

I don’t see any fire trucks when the vehicle was photographed. Were they sure that the fuel would not spill or explode?

[keith2524]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

I wonder why those CCTV cameras were there at all. If they can calculate the entry speed and exit speeds, why cannot they be used to fine every speed limit breach?

The Cyberabad traffic department has confirmed that more than 5000 speeding fines were issued in the first two weeks of this flyover opening. In fact if you search the online traffic violation database, it returns a overspeeding fine issued to this driver about 2 seconds before the crash, along with photographic evidence.

Also, here in an interesting article accusing the administration of trying to shield the accused.
https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscr...d-cong/1671625
I cannot comment on the above, but my observations on design are to do with fool-proofing and preventing further incidents. Would be nice to know at what speed a MM Scorpio, or Xylo or a Tata Winger topples at this particular turn. Not everyone drives a GTI and most Indian cars would kiss the road at a much lower speed. What is the operating limit of this turn? Are we going to witness incidents where a 4 wheeler loses grip momentarily while doing the speed limit and push a two wheeler off the edge? How many more will die if improvements are not made and restrictions are not enforced?

Also, bear in mind the road leading up to this flyover is the 3 laned Old Mumbai highway, and the one after is the Biodiversity Park - IKEA/Mindspace interchange road, also 3 lanes of unrestricted flow. During no peak hours the average speed of vehicles here is 60-80 kmph (with many fools going over 80). If you are going to introduce a 40 zone between the two, then there better be very prominent signs and speed breaking rumbler strips. Both are being installed today as we speak.