[Vishyvish]

I agree that we must maintain our calm in such situations, but for how long. Being human, crossing the thresholds of the line within, often due to such maniacs on the road would only lead us to turn into one. Am I alone in such expressions!!!
Anyway, keep cool. Let's all learn the tough way to remain sane in an insane world.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by VW2010

what kind of crossing is that. This is bad design in all sense. I am sure there is one accident a day at this junction. They at least need a speed breaker in one of the roads or all 4. This is crazy

From the direction I'm approaching and on the opposite side of the road (from where the Indica is coming), there are speed-breakers. You can see my car going over it too while approaching the junction.

At such junctions people should look both ways before crossing. The biker would have easily seen the Indica trying to cross the road, but as the typical mentality is - me first - he just squeezed through, missing the Indica by a fraction of a second thereby endangering not only his life but those two kids.

If the Indica had struck the bike, they would have landed on my car.

[VW2010]

@IronH4wk,

The worst thing to have is someone landing on your car without any fault of your own. I am sure the bike guy made a judgement call which could have been potentially deadly.

Unless i am insane i wouldnt be doing that with 2 kids on board. I have a strict rule that i cannot be responsible for someone else death and hence i strictly say no to pillion in many circumstances to grown ups that there is no way i am carrying a kid on the bike in Indian roads.

I also find callousness by Indica driver as well. He is hardly trying to slow down while i saw you trying to watch before u moved.

[vnidta]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Whoa, we discussing about Bad Drivers coming onto opposite lane !! Here is my story from last week.

Soumyajit, the following image would give you a fair idea about that TT guy (Though there are just two of them, I'm sure he'd have done more of those)



Just look at the meager fine amount. This is the reason why the attitude still prevails and keeps increasing as days pass.

And yes, as all the others suggested, it would have turned into vandalism if you had not budged at the last possible moment. I appreciate your bravery though

Since the day my own cabbie told me to shut my mouth when I pointed out another cabbie's mistake, I have started being even more quiet about all the nonsense around. I guess this is quite a tough thing to change unless the fines are increased to insane figures and these happy rule-breakers get the taste of this for a certain number of times.., as someone rightly pointed out in another post.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

almost accident - these three had a close shave.

That is plain scary. Did the bike even bother slow down? I can see the indica crawling across the junction whereas the biker just seems to zoom past.

Big junction, how hard is it to actually slow down and get across? And as someone else also said, that is a scary junction cross.

[luvDriving]

This morning while coming to office (thats right, I couldnt get a sick leave :P ) I saw an absolute moron.

This moron was driving a WagonR on the busy single lane road from DSK vishwa towards Dhayari Junction. Those living here will know just how difficult it is to cross over to the other side at peak hours.

An old lady was trying to cross from right to left holding the hand of her (maybe 3-4 year old) grandson who was dressed in school uniform with a school bag and water bottle. Now she got to the midpoint and this moron did not even reduce speed.

Due to heavy traffic, she took time to cross over and this idiot kept honking and revving to urge her to hurry up. Other people stopped to let them cross over. I wanted to give a piece of mind to that driver but he zoomed off.

He was sensibly dressed, probably in an IT/IT-enabled company with an I-card around his neck. I wonder if in addition to road sense and civic sense, have we become so ignorant. God help us all.

[Deepak K Gupta]

Originally Posted by vnidta

Soumyajit, the following image would give you a fair idea about that TT guy (Though there are just two of them, I'm sure he'd have done more of those)

Attachment 1353672

Just look at the meager fine amount. This is the reason why the attitude still prevails and keeps increasing as days pass.

And yes, as all the others suggested, it would have turned into vandalism if you had not budged at the last possible moment. I appreciate your bravery though

Since the day my own cabbie told me to shut my mouth when I pointed out another cabbie's mistake, I have started being even more quiet about all the nonsense around. I guess this is quite a tough thing to change unless the fines are increased to insane figures and these happy rule-breakers get the taste of this for a certain number of times.., as someone rightly pointed out in another post.

Noticed the screen shot that you posted. It seems that anyone can access violation records with only Reg. No.in Bangalore Police data base. In Kolkata Police site you need Chassis No. as well so only the owner has access.

[vnidta]

Originally Posted by Deepak K Gupta

It seems that anyone can access violation records with only Reg. No.in Bangalore Police data base

Yes. It is true that the Bangalore Traffic Police have provided this facility. I feel that this is a good practice since it would be easy to know for what action a certain vehicle has been penalized. Most notably, these sort of minor details help you get out of trouble in case there are any.., for example, take Soumyajit's case. If it had turned a bit more ugly (thankfully for him, it didn't), he could have used this to prove one of the points.., if not everything.

On a lighter note, if you have net access in your phone and if you get into trouble like the way Soumyajit did, you can just use that link and get the info on the other vehicle. It would give you a fair idea if it is worth wasting your time fighting with the other guy. If he is a frequent offender, chances are that he wouldn't mind repeating them. It's definitely not worth risking your peace of mind for such people.

Originally Posted by Deepak K Gupta

In Kolkata Police site you need Chassis No. as well so only the owner has access.

Thanks for the info. Previously, RTO website (https://vahan.nic.in/nrservices/) had a similar requirement to get to know the vehicle ownership history. Now, I noticed that this has been made an on-demand, paid service.

[jkrishnakj]

27th March - i did a quick day trip to Tirupai and back, and this time, the Red Flame Brio called us, so the Safari took some rest.
On my return - i had faced two incidents.

So, there was this Fortuner, who was going ahead of me, a bit slow. This was between Palamner and Kolar. Brio, as you know is a delight once it its the 4000 RPM mark, and it came to a stage where i overtook the fortuner very easily. That's when he lost it. Is overtaking such a big deal? Given the state highway, it wasnt easy for him to get past me, and he was trying to very badly to get past me. I normally am a patient driver but for some crazy reason, i was losing it, but better sense prevailed when my wife nudged me to stay calm. So, just before we hit the toll roads towards Bangalore, i pull over to the left and stop. And the fortuner guy slows down, opens the windows and hurls a few mouthfuls - and i still am trying to figure out if the BIG fortuner Ego got hurt by a small Brio going past him. Anyways - i recover quite fast and let it past.

Within minutes, we hit the toll roads - and these have several crossings, not to mention many people in cycles and bikes trying to cut over the othe side thru some small openings on the road. I would have been around 100 KM/hour on that road, and suddenly i see a small boy about 12-13 years darting across - looking to his right ( he should have been looking to his left actually ), i hit the brakes hard, tyres screech and i see him stopping bang in front of me, but thankfully, he didnt complete his run, and i had swerved left and somehow passed by. For a moment, i feel that I was the Bad Driver here. :(

Makes me shudder that the second incident would have made me appear in some really bad situation.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Arising from the accidents thread, I thought it better that I comment here...

Originally Posted by rr_zen

Just read in today's TOI that a biker who stopped on the highway to answer a call got hit by the car and he fell into the canal nearby and was declared as 'brought dead' by the Kilpauk Medical Hospital. The car was driven by an engineering college student aged 21 years who said he lost control of the vehicle.

Originally Posted by Lobogris

I am in no way defending or condoning the reckless driving of the car's driver but we often see bikers stop and hang out in the side lanes of major roads and highways even at night without any lights. This is really dangerous as anyone can hit them. Common sense should be used to stop at a location that is completely off the highway such as an exit or a restaurant/ petrol pump etc or at least wait for a patch of road where you can get your bike away from the traffic lanes. Often I see a biker stopped on the road when there is a safe patch just a few yards ahead of them.

Awareness of safety is sorely lacking in India. Even bicycles and pedestrians hang out on fast moving highways at night and do not bother to even put on a cheap reflector that could save their lives. On the same note a large number of motorcycles and scooters do not have a working tail lamp and are blissfully unaware of the danger it poses.

I see quite a lot of bikers stopped to answer the call. The call of the cell phone!

On the one hand, it is good, but, on the other, they really need to give thought to where they stop to be both out of danger and out of the way of the traffic.

Whilst most do, at least, stop on the left (but even that is not necessarily good enough on a busy road), yesterday I saw a guy stopped by the median on a very busy and relatively fast stretch of city road approaching a major junction. All three lanes are full of traffic, and the manoeuvre to avoid the biker requires avoiding traffic to the left.

Avoiding these situations just requires a very little thought and a very little effort.

[jkrishnakj]

Absolutely agree with Thad. All it might take is another 10 seconds to spot a place to stop or another 50 metres before the bikers can pull over quite safe for everyone on the highway.

Try driving the Bangalore - Pune highway, especially, the Kolhapur-Pune stretch, and even the calmest of people will lose it to the bikers on that stretch.

[ghodlur]

I spot bad drivers everyday regularly at the signals where even when the signal is red they keep moving. In some case I have seen drivers stop their vehicles right in the middle of the intersection just because their conscience woke up and they decided to follow rules. Spotted one such driver today morning on way to work at the every busy Tatvagyan Vidyapith in Thane Ghodbunder Road. Unfortunately it turned out to be a Team BHPian.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I see quite a lot of bikers stopped to answer the call. The call of the cell phone!

Perhaps the law needs to be amended to make sure that all bike riders do have reflective jackets etc. Most of the "biker gangs" (or enthusiasts) generally follow such simple rules.

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by hangover

On your point 8 above, I too object to these lane creators. This is not just at signal lights but on narrow roads where there is a blockage ahead.Most vehicles follow lane discipline but these guys try to be pioneers in lane making.

Another set of riders are those who ride on footpaths when the road is jammed or simply to get closer to a signal light. They actually have the temerity to honk at people on the footpath.

Please add one more set of animals to this race. The ones who overtake everybody near railway crossings and stop at the head of the queue. The same thing happens on both sides of the gate and when the gate open, fun starts. I make sure that I never yield to requests from these guys asking me let them in. Similar creed is people trying to merge in near toll gate queues.
Drive up to the collection booth and requesting people to let them in. I need more people like me on the road, who won't let them in but moves slowly to make sure that next guy in Que is following closely and this merging is halted as long as I can.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I spot bad drivers everyday regularly at the signals where even when the signal is red they keep moving. In some case I have seen drivers stop their vehicles right in the middle of the intersection just because their conscience woke up and they decided to follow rules. Spotted one such driver today morning on way to work at the every busy Tatvagyan Vidyapith in Thane Ghodbunder Road. Unfortunately it turned out to be a Team BHPian.

This is always a difficult decision. I just don't believe that there aren't many "good" drivers among us that get caught out because we judged that we could get across and were wrong. It can happen, for instance that we are following other traffic that stops, and when it starts again, we are stranded, on a red but past the stop line.

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Perhaps the law needs to be amended to make sure that all bike riders do have reflective jackets etc. Most of the "biker gangs" (or enthusiasts) generally follow such simple rules.

All vehicles, even pedal cycles and carts, should have lights, and high-vis vests, etc, are certainly a good idea. However, the priority is stopping in a safe place that does not inconvenience others.