[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I think this is done just for the thrills.

Quite thrilling, that would have been.

[Guite]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

His was a narrow escape. Never understood what makes people take such insane risks to save a few minutes.

I find that two wheeler drivers take the biggest risk. While just a little knock on their vehicle can send them toppling on the road, they cut across in front of other vehicles with very little margin. This happens in two ways: first type is cutting in front of another vehicle perpendicularly. This they do so consciously, so it amazes me why they take such big risks.

I witnessed the most dangerous of this type on Friday evening, about 8:30pm, at a road crossing. I am on first lane. A truck is on the second lane, slightly ahead of me, the front of my car is about in line with the truck's rear bumper. Signal is green for us. When the truck is halfway through the crossing, I see a bike coming through from the left in front of the truck, with inches to spare. If my car were more aligned with the front of the truck, the bike and my car would have collided. I see a lot of near misses daily, I am amazed and aghast at the same time.

Second type is overtaking you and moving into your lane almost brushing your vehicle front bumper. I think most of them are not aware of the danger involved. Probably most of them do not know that they need to drive some more time in a straight line before they change lane, to complete the overtaking manoeuver. I learned this by reading Indian Auto journal during its heydays.

[ecenandu]

The irony, uploader finding the other guy as a bad driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4gNqQWEVeY

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

The irony, uploader finding the other guy as a bad driver.

The Innova driver is certainly in the wrong, weaving in and out like that, and moving into the left lane without checking that it is empty and clear. Typical bad-cabbie driving.

The owner of the web cam, though, in my humble opinion, should have been ready for something like that. Could have been even worse: the Innova guy might have forced the truck to move to the left. The dashcam itself might not have survived the consequences of that.

I'd love to hold up a banner saying never overtake on left. But what can we do? That trucker is not going to move to the left lane.

The best we can do is to say If and when overtaking on left, excise extreme caution. Make sure others know you are there, and be prepared for anything. And if it all goes horribly wrong don't blame someone else.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

The irony, uploader finding the other guy as a bad driver.

[]

Lately, there is a spurt in the number of these self proclaimed professionals, aimed with go pros and dashcams judging everything that comes in their way, without self evaluating their own actions. Look her for example :

https://youtu.be/HuXfMGwZVzI

This great man wants to investigate by parking his bike bang in the right lane in a dark street, where the speed breaker is also invisible. What an idiot. Later he goes and confronts the car driver claiming it's fault. What a load of crap that video was. Same case with his other videos too. In such an incident if the car guy had actually stopped, people like these would have blamed him for no fault of his.

[PrasannaDhana]

Here are a couple videos from my dashcam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5BGi3T8Gjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Vox4ZLQVM

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Lately, there is a spurt in the number of these self proclaimed professionals, aimed with go pros and dashcams judging everything that comes in their way, without self evaluating their own actions. Look her for example :

This great man wants to investigate by parking his bike bang in the right lane in a dark street, where the speed breaker is also invisible. What an idiot. Later he goes and confronts the car driver claiming it's fault. What a load of crap that video was. Same case with his other videos too. In such an incident if the car guy had actually stopped, people like these would have blamed him for no fault of his.

Great man indeed. Instead of focussing on the helmet less guys who fell due to abrupt braking, and educating them about the need of helmets and safe distances, he goes chasing the car! What an idea Sirjee!

[tharian]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Here are a couple videos from my dashcam.

The last clip of the first video is epic!
How can someone be so aloof when on the road especially when riding a two wheeler and joining a highway?

The same was witnessed by me on a Kerala highway and she kept cutting right across to the right lane to take a U turn and almost caused a major pile up because of hard braking of the vehicles including mine, behind her. The truck behind me braked and was sideways when I saw the rear view mirror.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

The irony, uploader finding the other guy as a bad driver.

The title of the thread, when it was written in 2005, had some meaning. There probably were not that many bad drivers on our roads, and some of us wanted to spot them and steer clear. The bad drivers today far outnumber the good.

Today, there should be another thread saying: "Good Drivers - How do you spot 'em"

Originally Posted by harsh79

I'm sick of Delhi Police parking and stopping their Innova's anywhere and anytime they please. They don't give a crap if the roads are narrow or already packed, they just sit there sipping their tea, oblivious to the bottlenecks caused.

Their laziness nearly lead to getting rear-ended last night, The cop driving could've easily stopped behind or ahead of the truck.

Barapullah elevated expressway. Tyre screech is from the Dzire behind me @ 21 sec mark.

harsh79, that road is a 50 kmph zone, while your camera says you were doing 70+. No point blaming the Delhi Police Innovas, the poor fellows have a tough life anyway. But the road is erratically curved, poorly marked, with no run-off area, where a high speed crash can cause a car to break the barriers and jump from 30 feet above on to terra firma, and there is good reason for the 50 kmph notification.

When will the good drivers in this city and country obey the declared speed limits?

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Lately, there is a spurt in the number of these self proclaimed professionals, aimed with go pros and dashcams judging everything that comes in their way, without self evaluating their own actions. Look her for example :

This great man wants to investigate by parking his bike bang in the right lane in a dark street, where the speed breaker is also invisible. What an idiot. Later he goes and confronts the car driver claiming it's fault. What a load of crap that video was. Same case with his other videos too. In such an incident if the car guy had actually stopped, people like these would have blamed him for no fault of his.

Seriously? No fault of his? Panic braking in the middle of the road because he wasn't paying attention IS his fault. Also, that speed breaker wasn't like the Himalayan ones we have in Bangalore to justify such a panic braking (can hear the wheels lock up).

Solely by what's in the video, the biker doesn't confront the car driver, but merely tells him that what he did caused the scooter fellas to fall, which I believe is true. And if you're telling me that one doesn't look what happened behind you after such a panic braking (that's what the driver tells the biker - he didn't even know something had happened) to check if anything happened, that person shouldn't be driving at all.

That being said, stopping the bike on the right lane, stupid thing to do.

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Great man indeed. Instead of focussing on the helmet less guys who fell due to abrupt braking, and educating them about the need of helmets and safe distances, he goes chasing the car! What an idea Sirjee!

How did we conclude that the fellas on the scooter were not maintaining distance? It's not even seen in the video how far they were. To stop a scooter abruptly is not as easy as it is for a car. Even if they were two car lengths behind, they would have still lost control of their scooter because of the panic braking.

And he does say he spoke to them about wearing helmets

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

How did we conclude that the fellas on the scooter were not maintaining distance? It's not even seen in the video how far they were. To stop a scooter abruptly is not as easy as it is for a car. Even if they were two car lengths behind, they would have still lost control of their scooter because of the panic braking.

And he does say he spoke to them about wearing helmets

Had the scooter rider rear ended the car, whose fault would it have been?

If you aren't able to stop 'safely' in time when the vehicle ahead stops, clearly you are not maintaining safe enough distance. Whether it is one car length or 5, the scooter rider should know best depending on his abilities and the condition of the vehicle.

Confronting the car driver is fine, but you cannot ignore the mistakes of scooter rider. I would put a bigger blame on him rather than the car driver.

[harsh79]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

harsh79, that road is a 50 kmph zone, while your camera says you were doing 70+. No point blaming the Delhi Police Innovas, the poor fellows have a tough life anyway. But the road is erratically curved, poorly marked, with no run-off area, where a high speed crash can cause a car to break the barriers and jump from 30 feet above on to terra firma, and there is good reason for the 50 kmph notification.

When will the good drivers in this city and country obey the declared speed limits?

The "poor fellows" as you've described are policemen out of choice and it's very much expected of them to discharge their duty in a safe manner.

Yes, the elevated expressway is erratically curvy but IMO the road is marked very well. The curvy bits have reflectors on the sides too.

With people whizzing past from both sides and the other umpteen things one needs to keep a lookout for when driving around Delhi, one can't always stay within the prescribed speed limits, most of the time for one's own safety.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Had the scooter rider rear ended the car, whose fault would it have been?

If you aren't able to stop 'safely' in time when the vehicle ahead stops, clearly you are not maintaining safe enough distance. Whether it is one car length or 5, the scooter rider should know best depending on his abilities and the condition of the vehicle.

Confronting the car driver is fine, but you cannot ignore the mistakes of scooter rider. I would put a bigger blame on him rather than the car driver.

Yep he's at fault; not siding the scooter rider here. Actually, it looks like both of them got caught in the "it don't happen to me" moment. Didn't pay attention to the road and ended up panic braking and falling off the scooter respectively.

I think that's the problem with most inexperienced drivers/ riders - they think accidents happen only on Star Movies and HBO or AFV on Zee Cafe!

[hybridpetrol]

Yesterday I was driving from Palani towards Pollachi. This route is a 2 lane road, with a little bit of room on either side of the road. Just like every other road in India, this route also has a number of blind curves hiding all the action happening just 50 meters ahead of our wind shield.

As usual, I was driving with a lot of space between my car and the car ahead.
Two cars ahead, the car's driver suddenly seemed to have spotted a road side shop selling coconut water and stopped right there in the middle of the road. Since it happened to be a blind curve, the gentleman in the car ahead of mine struggled hard and avoided a crash by inches. I could see his wheels rotated in the opposite direction. Since I had a good braking distance, I stopped safely behind this car.

After this drama, slowly the gentleman ahead of my car reversed and continued his journey, while the one who caused this drama got down for coconut water as if nothing happened!

[sunsetorange]

Originally Posted by hybridpetrol

Yesterday I was driving from Palani towards Pollachi. This route is a 2 lane road, with a little bit of room on either side of the road. Just like every other road in India, this route also has a number of blind curves hiding all the action happening just 50 meters ahead of our wind shield.

As usual, I was driving with a lot of space between my car and the car ahead.
Two cars ahead, the car's driver suddenly seemed to have spotted a road side shop selling coconut water and stopped right there in the middle of the road. Since it happened to be a blind curve, the gentleman in the car ahead of mine struggled hard and avoided a crash by inches. I could see his wheels rotated in the opposite direction. Since I had a good braking distance, I stopped safely behind this car.

After this drama, slowly the gentleman ahead of my car reversed and continued his journey, while the one who caused this drama got down for coconut water as if nothing happened!

But Pollachi elaneer is to die for! He seems to have taken it a bit too literally ;-)