[MT_Hyderabad]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

If you see congestion ahead, should you slow down or continue at high speed? Hitting the ‘protrusion’ (it doesn’t actually protrude

The whole road ahead is a protrusion.
Have a look at this image and also the long video of the youtuber.

https://youtu.be/yMtoWspcp5c

[deepakv]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

...

The site where it happened is shown in this video. It is clearly a design flaw; rumble strips do not exist and these guys are waking up to put them across after this accident.

https://Youtube.com/watch?v=EwamYUmmNHo?feature=share

...

I think its about time we stop expecting our corrupt politician-contractor nexus to deliver anything meaningful to stop such deaths. We must do our bit to educate our families, our Uber/Ola drivers etc. Maybe start with the guy who posted this video - with his bike mirrors turned in stylishly because who cares about looking back?

[drsnt]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

This report does not talk about the vehicle speed data that was shared by Mercedes. These guys were completely oblivious to the fact that speed data exists.

https://Youtube.com/watch?v=EwamYUmmNHo?feature=share


A simple Google search will help.

Looking at the video I strongly believe that either it was overtaking from left gone wrong or higher chance that some bigger vehicle crossed their path by suddenly turning left forcing them into barrer.

[Bhargav7]

Originally Posted by Kln

The road is incredibly busy. Imagine driving in 70-80s speed zone. Imagine lane changing, maneuvering, honking, having your attention split in 10 different directions because of piss poor infrastructure. Now imagine a big vehicle in front of you suddenly merges to your right, leaving you right on the path to the bunker (everyone has seen this happen at least once in their lives). The way the strip of road is, it is highly unlikely that ONLY seat belts would've saved Mr. Mistry. It indeed is bad design, and it is shocking that noone is challenging the lackadaisical attitude of the NHAI babus. But I guess that's we are as a country - if anything goes wrong in your life, it is you who is to blame. Don't question the authorities.

Respectfully disagree on more than one point here -

1. Usage of a seatbelt would have most like saved Mr.Mistry. Usage of seatbelt while within the speed limit would have been even better!

2. 70-80 speed limit does not mean that you have to drive at that speed, no matter what. In the situation you have mentioned, where the road is incredibly busy with a big heavy vehicle driving next to you on a two-lane road, the driver has to slow down.

3. Anything goes wrong in life - we can blame a hundred different people. In this case, we can blame the Government or NHAI. And that changes nothing. In the end, nothing changes the fact that this is a totally unavoidable death that could have been saved by buckling up and driving more responsibly.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Kln

PS - No personal offence intended, this is just discussion - sorry if I sound abrasive

No problem! I don't mind mind a robust conversation!
Of course, we are poles apart, because you are arguing for a world as you would like it to be, rather than the world as it is. No, you are arguing for the world as it should be. I acknowledge that. But nothing short of changing the world is going to, erm, change the world!

In the end it is the driver in the driver's seat. Even if we see them as the last point in a long line of failures, they have that final responsibility.

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Cant handle those or cant ride/drive with utmost concentration and alertness required on Indian roads anticipating surprises all the time? Please don't ever occupy the driver's seat. No point in crying now.

A very hard truth, but it is the truth.

Originally Posted by Kln

... The way the strip of road is, it is highly unlikely that ONLY seat belts would've saved Mr. Mistry. It indeed is bad design, and it is shocking that noone is challenging the lackadaisical attitude of the NHAI babus. But I guess that's we are as a country - if anything goes wrong in your life, it is you who is to blame. Don't question the authorities.

It is not the hand of government, or the hand of gods, or the hand of anyone or anything else that holds the steering wheel.

Why do you think nobody is challenging the NHAI? Do you really think that nobody agrees that the road design verges on criminal? (never mind this incident, what-t-f is that pedestrian crossing doing there? ) There is lots of agreement.

When all that is done away with, replaced by fully-six-lane highway, with restricted access, there will still be accidents. Perception of safety is a dangerous thing --- especially in a country where perception of danger doesn't seem to work at all

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by deepakv

I think its about time we stop expecting our corrupt politician-contractor nexus to deliver anything meaningful to stop such deaths.

I'm sorry, it's honestly high time we stop letting them get away! The fact that we've let them get away all this long has actually emboldened them to stop maintaining roads even after collecting tolls. In fact, in my last trip, the best maintained roads were actually the non-tolled roads. Can you believe that?

High time we call out and highlight the BS they've been feeding us. Road safety is a two way street. Drivers are expected to drive safe and the authorities are expected to maintain infrastructure and improve areas prone to accidents. The latter is never done and acknowledged and we can see it in the NCRB report - no mention about infrastructure issues in any of the accidents.

I appreciate MT-Hyderabad on callling out the obvious and sharing with us the footage of the actual strech, confirming my suspicions that road design is appalling.

[ashokabs]

There are many comments about the road design, driver error, overspeeding etc. Suffice to say that in India we are used to poor road design and depending on our skill to avoid poor road conditions, bad driving, poor road design etc. We are so used to it that it is now second nature. Unfortunately, everyone does not have the same skill level or reaction time to avoid an accident. The road is designed for people of modest skill level who will follow the road signage and of course traffic rules including speed limits. If the road had merged seamlessly with the bridge there might not have been a fatality. However, that is not a given as the car would have bumped off the bridge berm and could have careened into another vehicle. There is no signage as far as I could make out - might be mistaken looking at the videos - that cautions drivers to reduce speed as a narrow bridge is approaching. There should have been prominent signage at regular intervals and of course a few rumble strips.

There have been many attempts on highways to get the trucks and slower vehicles to drive on the leftmost lane. They are only partially successful and I have rarely seen a truck driver being fined or stopped.

But why are we making such a fuss! Seems like the State Govts and the Central Govt are quite content with a situation of 4-5 lakh fatalities on the road every year. Even if a road is well designed and safe who will ensure lane driving, following speed limits, signalling when changing lanes, overtaking from the right etc. It is all a pipe dream unless everyone takes it seriously. If you want to drive safely and follow the rules drive in Europe, US, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan etc.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by Kln

But I guess that's we are as a country - if anything goes wrong in your life, it is you who is to blame. Don't question the authorities.

I fully support the demand for high quality infrastructure that meets global standards. All lanes should be properly marked and any dangerous protrusion should either be avoided or at least covered with a crash barrier in addition to warning signs. However, the sad fact is that we have tens of thousands of dangerous and unacceptable protrusions and unsafe lane markings. in these circumstances, while we can and should try to get them rectified, in the interim it would be wise to drive with caution knowing such conditions exist. For instance, obviously no cattle should be on the roads. Nor should there be any wrong way drivers or parked trucks. Since these are common, should a person drive cautiously keeping them in mind or crash into them?

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

The whole road ahead is a protrusion.
Have a look at this image and also the long video of the Youtuber.

Please review your posted video from 3:00 minutes onwards. There seems to be an optical illusion from some angles but a normal drive seen between 3:00 and 3:20 seconds of that video clearly shows that there is no protrusion. in any case, the lane had narrowed and disappeared much earlier.

[Nalin1]

This give a much better idea of that strip-

https://youtu.be/__iVayp2ANo

100% agree that it is a bad design. There are a zillion other such bad or even worse spots. But what do you do? Crash into them and blame the authorities, engineer, contractor, NHAI, Govt, corporator, minister, from heaven? They will be prosecuted and you will come to the world?!.

Or do you navigate carefully and save yourself first, then do whatever is in your hands to bring about a change?

[V.Narayan]

All other arguments aside it seems to me, by looking at the skid marks, that the car veered sharply from the right lane to the left lane just before the point the bridge starts as if trying to overtake a slow moving truck occupying the right lane. Those skid marks are at an almost 45 degree angle to the forward direction of the road. If the car were indeed running in the third left most lane that merges into the middle lane without signages then the crash skid marks should have been head on and not coming in from the right. May be I am ignorant of the finer points of crash analysis, I am certainly no expert by a long margin, but this question has been on my mind.

My amateur mind believes, right or wrong I don't know, that as the car approached the bridge it was running in the right lane and the driver decided to overtake some slower moving vehicle occupying the right most lane {a common though incorrect occurrence in our country}. As she was undertaking this manoeuver in her minds eye the road was ~11 metres wide like it had been 2 or 3 seconds earlier {55 to 85 metres at 100 kmph} and steered accordingly only to discover tragically that in those 3 seconds of running the road had narrowed to ~7 metres.

I'm not getting into the blame the driver {poor lady has a big burden of problems right now} or the NHAI here. Just trying to assess the facts.

Photo reproduced from post#10

[DrCar]

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

It started first with blaming all those involved in following orders -
- Back seat passenger - For not wearing seat belts
- Mercedes benz - For airbags not getting deployed or some component failure
- Driver - For being irresponsible
- NHAI - For unsafe construction

Following more are in line :
- Imaginary truck driver hogging the right most lane
- Animals jumping across
- Villagers driving on the wrong side
- High profile tyres of luxury cars not suitable for Indian conditions
- Driver not aware of the terrain

Don't want to sound sarcastic, but why is Mercedes putting so much efforts to recover vehicle data?
We have numerous accidents throughout the country involving luxury cars. Do they put similar efforts in finding the cause of such accidents? Is lives of others less important?

My empty mind is thinking of other factors in play : Will give everyone a hint.
Watch or read about the movie 'The International'.

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Those skid marks are at an almost 45 degree angle to the forward direction of the road. If the car were indeed running in the third left most lane that merges into the middle lane without signages then the crash skid marks should have been head on and not coming in from the right.

Same thoughts ran in my mind when I saw the photo for the first time, but soon dismissed it as I realized it could be the recovery exercise pulling the vehicle out from the vegetation/median causing those skid marks. So the photo seems to be taken after moving the vehicle out. Checkout the post #3 on this thread.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by bejoy

Same thoughts ran in my mind when I saw the photo for the first time, but soon dismissed it as I realized it could be the recovery exercise pulling the vehicle out from the vegetation/median causing those skid marks. So the photo seems to be taken after moving the vehicle out. Checkout the post #3 on this thread.

Thank you for your explanation @bejoy. On examining that photo again you are right.

[MT_Hyderabad]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Thank you for your explanation @bejoy. On examining that photo again you are right.

You didn't see the actual accident site when the car was there?

Here are some screenshots from some videos I saw earlier (youtube history) and a graphic video.

https://youtu.be/nnYNq_Fr8tU

The angle at which it hit the wall, it appears they were on the right lane and tried to avoid an accident and over-steered into this structure. I mentioned this some posts before as well.

[NovemberKing_91]

Hello,

In my understanding, the car did NOT skid to the walls edge, but rather impacted it at rather high speed. There is a mention earlier that possibly Dr. Pandole tried to overtake a vehicle from the left and at a high enough speed that she had nowhere to go but hit the wall when she noticed it.
The skid marks that we see in the photos are created by the car being DRAGGED AWAY from the crash site by the tow truck. If full panic braking had been done, despite ABS, there would have been some skid marks on the road. In the video, where Mr. Darius is still seated within the car, we can clearly see that there are no such indications of a panic braking.
Also, I feel that either she had simply no time to even turn the steering just a little away or she absolutely did not see that wall's edge. Otherwise, for a car travelling at triple digit speeds, as reported, there is no way that it goes straight into the V edge, if the driver has even a little bit of rotation on the steering. In max cases, it should have sheared off the left side of the car and the car spins a few times, maybe even tumbles, but the way it was stuck solidly into the wall, it's clear indication that there was very little, if any, directional input at the time of the crash. The same can be seen in the photos above as posted, straight tyres, plumb into the wall.
While it is obviously very sad about what happened to Mr. Mistry and the Pandoles, I am quite amazed to see the amount of expertise we have here in TBHP to be able to analyze the accident quite quickly #respect