[ABHI_1512]

Over the years, car owners and their behavioural patterns over the usage has come a long way. Road accidents have increased many folds and have encountered many such incidents over the years. I am jotting down some points which can go a long way in avoiding accidents and yet these go unhindered. Here, I want to know the valuable inputs of members regarding some of the traits of the vehicle owners and which I have been seeing with great impunity in the recent times. I am including cars and bikes both, and which runs on highways as well as cities. Listing some of the observations:

1. No usage of Seat belts by rear passengers on the highways- Maximum deaths could be avoided if rear passengers buckle up. I find this behaviour pretty annoying when even after knowing that buckling up can save your life, passengers still don’t find it important. The recent case of death of a high ranking Policewoman near Calcutta could have been avoided had she buckled up in the rear seat.

http://https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/kolkata-polices-first-female-officer-in-charge-dies-in-car-accident/article32585401.ece/amp/

2. Parents sitting with kids on the front seat- This behavioural pattern gets my goat when I see tiny tots sitting with their parent on the front seat where the parent is buckled up. It gets more atrocious when you see that on the highways where the car is touching 100km/hr. Why is sitting in the back with the child so difficult if you don’t have the necessary child seat available ? When will we behave like mature car owners and passengers ?

3. Parents holding kids through the sun roof- Small kids peeping through the sun roof for joy and parents holding them and when the car is in motion. Even after many deaths occurring due to the same, this practise still continues unabashedly in the name of joyrides.

An example of the above situation, if seen closely, the small kid was being held by the arms of the parent


4. People wear mask while riding but refuse to wear Helmets- This practise is hilarious when I see people wear mask in protection against Coronavirus but they don’t wear a Helmet as if their head is made of Iron and won’t ever break. Came across a severe accident where the biker slipped on sand laden street and was grievously injured.
Could have avoided the injury had the helmet was in place.

Four potential avoidable situations which can go a long way in minimising deaths on the Indian roads. No amount of safety of a car or bike will come to rescue if we continue to practise unsafe habits.

[nagr22]

This is a good thread and I too notice a lot of bad habits which our fellow road users follow on the road either knowingly or unknowingly. A lot of these are so risky that a single bad incident can ruin the lives of themselves as well as other parties involved in the incident. Yet our people continue to do them without a care in the world. Some behaviors which I can think of apart from what is mentioned already are,

1. Driving on the wrong side of the road:

This is something which is so common in Bangalore streets that sometimes I wonder whether I am the one on the wrong side! People drive/ride on the wrong side even if the place to take a U turn is just a few meters away! Nowadays almost no one seems to be respecting one way rules inside city streets and even educated folks wearing suits can be seen driving on the wrong side. Earlier it used to be just 2 wheelers but now you can see Autos, cars, bullock carts, tipper lorries, BMTC buses and anything and everything with wheels are driven in the wrong side! If you see a vehicle with its blinkers and high beams on and coming on the wrong side, you have spotted a pro.

2. Tailgating and cutting off by 2 wheelers
Here's a picture to explain what I mean.



When you are about to overtake a slow moving truck and you are gunning your accelerator and out of the blue a two wheeler zooms past in the gap between your car and the truck. If your car accelerated even a little faster then the two wheeler will be sandwiched and probably dead! Yet, I encounter hundreds of such riders doing these manoeuvres without realizing the dangers of it. I always remark to my wife that many two wheeler drivers are alive ONLY because the drivers of bigger vehicles are being careful. Sometimes I even count the number if lives saved by me to pass time in traffic
But seriously this is true. Many two wheelers drive with an attitude of 'Give me way or I will come under your wheels and you'll have to see the gory picture and face consequences'.

3. Cutting off and slamming on the brakes



This is an extension of point 2. Many times we notice speed breakers or pot holes ahead and are in the process of slowing down to tackle them gracefully. My car has soft suspensions so I even take some potholes at decent speed. But I still slow down a bit and suddenly the vehicle next to me cuts me off only to realize immediately that there's a pothole and slams on the brakes even before completing the overtake! This is a seriously risky behaviour and I have learnt to anticipate such moves by idiots.

4. Tailgating and thinking indicators means they have right of way



This is something which I experience on highways very frequently. People always seem to be in a hurry and when I am waiting patiently behind another vehicle who is completing an overtaking move, an impatient driver pulls alongside you with indicators on trying to squeeze between you and the vehicle ahead and all this while we are all doing high speeds. This is a very stupid and risky move because, firstly we are all at high speed so a blink of an eye can cause a crash and secondly when the driver is trying to squeeze into that gap, for any reason if the vehicle ahead on the left lane slows down or if my car speeds up, we will all have a high speed accident.

These are something I could think of. I encounter these kind of folks by the hundreds everytime I go on a long drive and they completely spoil the fun of a highway drive for me. These behaviours are not only annoying, they are serious safety hazard both to the people doing those moves as well as to other road users.

[anandhsub]

While it is wrong, I can at least understand both why trucks hog the right lane on the 6 laned highways and why faster moving vehicles have no other option but to overtake from the left.

However what is highly dangerous and I was shocked when I experienced it first hand is overtaking a vehicle already on the left lane using the SHOULDER when there is already another vehicle overtaking on the middle/right lane.

Happened to me once on the NICE road in Bangalore and was completely shook.

Give a half decent shoulder and drivers consider it an extra lane to drive on.

[deathwalkr]

Merging onto the main road without pausing and looking

Starting parked vehicle from road side and just start moving without indicators or looking for traffic behind

Reduced usage of indicators

Hazard lights during rains

[SilverMachine]

While not committed by 2/4 wheelers, this practice is surely detrimental to their existence on the road - For the past year or two, another idiotic trend that I've seen here in Pune is pedestrians walking right next to the divider on the main road - kids, middle-aged, elderly people...seemingly oblivious to the fact that they're in the path of and at the mercy of the vehicle going along that road.

If the pedestrian gets hurt, which he/she most likely will; the 2/4 wheeler rider/driver will surely be blamed for no fault of his. Along with population, we'll soon be number 1 in the world as far as levels of stupidity go...

[BenjiRoss]

The bad drivers thread on this forum has all of the points mentioned above including dashcam footage and videos and lots of analysis. Maybe this thread can be merged with that one
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...u-spot-em.html (Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em)

[MUJ]

Rear View Mirror
One thing that I commonly find as unsafe is that most (I don't mean all of them) but most of the 2 Wheelers don't use their rear view mirrors. Age doesn't even come into play. A person in the teens don't even have the mirrors in their KTMs and R15s while those in the middle age group don't even look at them. I have also noticed, some people who have adjusted the mirror to look at their own beauty. Many have given me shocks by suddenly turning without a look at their mirrors. The same applies for 3 wheelers too.

[samee_arian]

Originally Posted by MUJ

Rear View Mirror
One thing that I commonly find as unsafe is that most (I don't mean all of them) but most of the 2 Wheelers don't use their rear view mirrors. Age doesn't even come into play. A person in the teens don't even have the mirrors in their KTMs and R15s while those in the middle age group don't even look at them. I have also noticed, some people who have adjusted the mirror to look at their own beauty. Many have given me shocks by suddenly turning without a look at their mirrors. The same applies for 3 wheelers too.

Pulsar 220 riders and Yamaha R1 riders come to my mind, don't know why they fold their rear view mirrors inside, not sure if it offers any reduced drag or extra performance, but surely a safety hazard. Also bar end mirror on most bikes are as good as useless. Many people just keep cracked mirrors or broken stocks which are an even bigger hazard for rider as well as others.

Jay walking is just not considered a hazard in our country, it is more like a privilege, especially guys who just raise their hand with palm facing towards the traffic as if there is some kind of braking system installed.

[MUJ]

Originally Posted by samee_arian

Pulsar 220 riders and Yamaha R1 riders come to my mind, don't know why they fold their rear view mirrors inside, not sure if it offers any reduced drag or extra performance, but surely a safety hazard. Also bar end mirror on most bikes are as good as useless. Many people just keep cracked mirrors or broken stocks which are an even bigger hazard for rider as well as others.

True. The kind of hazard possessed is large. I don't think folding those mirrors give extra performance nor reduced drag. It's just that most of them don't want to use them. Like the US and many EU states, I wish some day a rule must be bought into legislation about the usage of mirrors.

[hserus]

Taking a right turn by crossing to the right of the Road, driving some distance on the right and then taking the right turn onto the wrong lane before cutting into the lane you need.

[saisree]

Though an interesting thread, we have been discussing this to the length and breadth with videos and images in the Bad Drivers thread. It has more proof of what is Bad Driving.

@Mods, can we merge this thread into the Bad Drivers thread?

[adv.yzr]

Greetings,

The one thing I dislike the most is the usage of high beam by people when it’s totally unnecessary. Moreover, I have seen that with the addition of high power led or hid in by the manufacturer, the owner of the car feels as if what a great flashy product has been installed and it clearly needs to be showed off and flashed at all times. Even for that matter, people getting retrofitted the high power led/hid lights and even bars.

I have seen this a lot here in Delhi-NCR.

I hope people get sense pertaining to this aspect of safe driving.

Thanks.

[kamilharis]

Opening the door of car at road side parking without looking what's coming from behind!

I had to face such morons a number of times.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by samee_arian

Pulsar 220 riders and Yamaha R1 riders come to my mind, don't know why they fold their rear view mirrors inside, not sure if it offers any reduced drag or extra performance, but surely a safety hazard. Also bar end mirror on most bikes are as good as useless. Many people just keep cracked mirrors or broken stocks which are an even bigger hazard for rider as well as others.

Originally Posted by MUJ

Rear View Mirror
One thing that I commonly find as unsafe is that most (I don't mean all of them) but most of the 2 Wheelers don't use their rear view mirrors. Age doesn't even come into play. A person in the teens don't even have the mirrors in their KTMs and R15s while those in the middle age group don't even look at them. I have also noticed, some people who have adjusted the mirror to look at their own beauty. Many have given me shocks by suddenly turning without a look at their mirrors. The same applies for 3 wheelers too.

Many youngsters on KTM's and R 15's, Bullets and even Pulsars/Dominars drive rashly without RVM's or with folded RVM's. Perhaps they don't foresee anyone faster than themselves following their bikes, with a bid to overtake them. So they presumably don't need RVM's. Also perhaps, they focus on the oncoming traffic only, with the intent to find the swiftest way out to rush ahead by cutting lanes and by rashly and negligently overtaking other vehicles.

Another fact that is commonly taken for granted by moron drivers in a long row of parked cars on the kerb. All the parked cars are static and suddenly this moron who is seated in his car by now, doesn't view his or her RVM or ORVM but starts his car, steers negligently to the right (from the left side kerb) and drives on. The traffic already on the move on this road stretch is taken by surprise. The moron neither signals, nor uses his indicators, nor blows the horn to warn the traffic moving on the road, that his car is taking off from the kerb towards the main road stretch.

[2000rpm]

While not really unsafe, I find it really annoying when people (especially in the "L" category), drive in the first lane on expressways at speeds of 50-60.