Team-BHP - Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em

Spotted in Manvi, enroute from Mantralayam to Hampi. Sorry for the poor quality image.

Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em-img_4855.jpg

The Driver was clinging on to the Steering and driving haphazardly as kids were seated on the driver's seat too!!.
I could count at least 20 children from the outside and there were a few crammed inside :Frustrati. Maybe the lack of buses - couldn't spot one on the whole stretch leads to this situation.

Today afternoon on my return from the town, had a run in with a bus driver, in fact three of them, I am posting one clip from the video. It’s almost the norm to break file, instead of following it. No one to control these fellow, I have send the video on WhatsApp to the cops, wonder if anything will come out of it.

https://youtu.be/giD6tOe-93g

Quote:

Originally Posted by sparky@home (Post 4450817)

Today afternoon on my return from the town, had a run in with a bus driver

Its almost like the norm these days. These private bus drivers in Kerala are absolutely arrogant and think its their birth right to drive as and where and when they want. I have complained to the high way police a couple of times, but they just don't want to do anything and give you a smirk equivalent to 'just get going'. I believe many buses plying in these areas are owned by cops.
I am not sure how far this is true, but a friend of mine employed a driver who worked as a private bus driver in the Trichur-Palakkad route. It seems the owner would sit with him once in a while and encourage/threaten him to drive fast and bull doze everyone else on the road. They are 'trained' to drive like that to earn maximum.

Absolute disrespect to other road users. :Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCORPION (Post 4450832)

Its almost like the norm these days. These private bus drivers in Kerala are absolutely arrogant and think its their birth right to drive as and where and when they want.

Actually it's been like this since ages. Back in 2000 during my engineering days in Calicut, we had two sets of options from the city to the campus - the govt buses and the private buses; both originating from different bus stands.

The private buses would be much faster on the roads; driving like maniacs. The govt buses used to take a shorter route, but drive (relatively) slower. And this was the case back then when the roads were mostly empty (read:way less traffic); the bus drivers' attitude was throwing caution to the wind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sparky@home (Post 4450817)

Last year on the same stretch a colorful moron (bus) like this almost pushed me out of the road with a risky overtake, only to stop at a bus-stop 50m away. At that point I got in front of the bus and from there to Punkunnam junction I maintained a speed of around 40 kmph and ensured that the crying bus (honking profusely) don’t get to jump ahead again. They expect road users to give way to them like who we clear off for ambulances to pass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sparky@home (Post 4450817)

Today afternoon on my return from the town, had a run in with a bus driver, in fact three of them, I am posting one clip from the video. It’s almost the norm to break file, instead of following it.

Calicut/Thrissur and Thrissur/Palghat and not to mention Kochi buses - It's been happening for many years now and I guess this won't change.

Have been in similar situations before but had one that was least expected. Atleast most guys do try to squeeze in at the last moment. But once, near Kuthiran, this bus decided to take things to the next level. Very similar to the video posted, this bus comes near my car, flashes the headlights and instead of squeezing in to the right lane, he decides to overtake me by going off the road (ie, the wrong lane) and then squeeze on to the right lane. :Frustrati

On the way to office this morning, I saw an XUV driving with its hazards on continuously on the outer ring road! (Sorry, do not have a dashcam).

Initially I thought maybe there is something wrong with the car, but after following it for more than a couple of kilometers, as far as I could see he/she was driving absolutely normally on a bright sunny day!

Then at one stage, the driver turned off the hazards to indicate a lane change and then turned on the hazards again!

Sorry, does not make much sense posting it here without any footage, but could not resist doing it wondering what prompted the person to do that.
To me it was personally distracting as the first thought that comes to mind is that maybe the car is not in an ideal state or something like that :confused:.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nalin1 (Post 4451761)

On the way to office this morning, I saw an XUV driving with its hazards on continuously on the outer ring road! (Sorry, do not have a dashcam).

To me it was personally distracting as the first thought that comes to mind is that maybe the car is not in an ideal state or something like that :confused:.

I have seen such when it is raining.

I have seen people turn on their harzard light to let others know that they are proceeding straight at the crossroad.

I have seen Learners switch on their hazards as well.
Did the car have a Learners board on it?

I really wonder who in their wisest wisdom teach these.

:Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by swissknife (Post 4451768)

I have seen such when it is raining.

Yeah, some people think switching hazards on during heavy rain results in them getting noticed better. At least a little bit of sense there!

But this was a beautiful morning in Bangalore and no 'L' board on it :mad:.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nalin1 (Post 4451803)

At least a little bit of sense there!

No, there really isn't. Not a shred, not an iota.
It's idiocy of a heinous order, and they should be fined for it. Pray do not mention sense in the same sentence as this activity.

It's a menace that seems to be getting more and more prevalent every day. It'll become another hallmark of Indian stupidity, just like the right side indicator for overtaking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by swissknife (Post 4451768)

I have seen such when it is raining.

No one teaches this. It's just passed on from driver to driver observing others. The more people that do it, the more it seems to spread. Almost every single vehicle on the Mumbai-Pune expressway, I have seen, seems to have their hazards on even in the tunnels, let alone heavy rain and fog. It's absolutely stupid. Someone needs to teach them the science behind the light colours. They probably wouldn't pay heed to it but still.

Red is pretty much all you need to be visible to other drivers from a safe enough distance, in fog or rain. It penetrates better than white or the orange of the indicators. Some cars even have rear fog lamps which are brighter red lamps. Yet even these drivers stick to the hazard lamps, because, herd mentality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rohan24 (Post 4451823)

Some cars even have rear fog lamps which are brighter red lamps. Yet even these drivers stick to the hazard lamps, because, herd mentality.

Have seen many cars where the rear fog light has been connected with the brakes!

Today, I came across a driver who could perhaps rightly be called careless. I was crossing the road in front of my workplace when I saw a big white sedan parked on the wrong / no parking side, facing the kerb. Couldn't make out the make or the model as I was nearly fifty feet away and could only sight one side of the vehicle.

Two gentlemen were busy keeping something in the boot and the other two were standing next to the car. As soon as the boot was closed, all of them got inside and the one in the driver's seat started the car. Before he could move the car, I shouted at him and gestured wildly asking him not to move. Though they couldn't hear me, one of the passengers noticed my frantic actions and asked the driver to stop. All of them came out of the car to see what's wrong. I directed them towards the front right wheel.

Between the spokes of the handsome looking, shiny piece of alloy wheel was resting the red and yellow wheel lock put in place by a traffic cop.

Bad Drivers - How do you spot 'em-screenshot_20180829204751339_com.android.chrome972x688.png

Representative Picture (borrowed from amazon.in)

Had he reversed the car, he would have been poorer by at least a couple of thousand bucks; not to speak of the loss of peace of mind and face!

I can think of two reasons for the incident being mentioned in this thread:

Parking the car in a non parkng zone.
Not observing an alien object on the wheel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dailydriver (Post 4452020)

Between the spokes of the handsome looking, shiny piece of alloy wheel was resting the red and yellow wheel lock put in place by a traffic cop.
...
Had he reversed the car, he would have been poorer by at least a couple of thousand bucks; not to speak of the loss of peace of mind and face!
...

Not observing an alien object on the wheel.

Well, being guilty of the same mistake; I'd say it happens - you tend to overlook such aspects once in a while :)

But in my case, there was no other bhpian to inform me; plus it wasn't clearly a "no-parking" area (Pune has a lot of such grey areas), so I went ahead and started the car. And I found out the moment I moved; but it turned out my VW alloys were stronger than the wheel lock, which broke!

Thanking my lucky stars, I kept the lock aside, checked the alloy for any damages and moved out quickly.