[Mortis]

One MH12 registered Duster was aggressively cutting me off and driving extremely close to my car on purpose (bumped mirrors twice) in Santacruz Mumbai last week just because his lane was slower and there was no place for me to allow him to overtake like like i usually do for such drivers. Finally I had to come to a complete stop in 30-40kmph traffic to allow him to overtake.
All the while he was giving me " The Look " according to my co passenger so he wasn't even watching to road properly so it was obviously an ego thing with some big car - small car thrown in for good measure.

The funniest bit in all this was that he was always just 1-2 cars in front of me the entire time we shared the same route and also he looked almost exactly like a younger version of GTO :P

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Reaching home, I did think about this overtake and whether going so precise on an overtake maneuver is necessary at highway speeds. It is not!

So what else could have I done to not have experienced this situation in the first place? Slamming the brakes after seeing the obstacle ahead isn't a good plan as the vehicles coming behind you can find that as a nasty surprise.

Firstly, the single lane change was smooth and well executed.

However, I feel, somewhere from 11 seconds in the video, as the road straightens and you line up to overtake the truck, I could see something happening on the right lane. Due to the video quality it is not so clear, but I can see something going on in the right lane. What speed were you traveling at this point?

I follow something called the "Gate Concept", which my Boss and Guru Behram Dhabhar taught me while I was a trainee. In this case, the truck was closing the gate for you -- between him and the men at work. Overtake only when gates are open, abort when gates are closing or closed. In this case, I would have aborted the overtaking manoeuvre.

I try to be always aware of my surroundings, when on highway, I keep looking at the RVM once in a while, so I know who is around. While overtaking (when there is a lane to my right), I do an additional "shoulder check" to eliminate any objects hidden from my blind spot area. In an emergency braking situation, one could save some precious reaction time with this approach (reaction time used for scanning your RVM).

Spike

[Akshay6988]

Originally Posted by Duckdoc

a further few metres away, law enforcement stands.

Did you mean "loot collecting agents" ? I have no respect for these guys, atleast in my city they're just collecting fines from gullible bike riders. They don't care about traffic build ups, they don't care about mis managed parking. they're just there looting money from people.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

However, I feel, somewhere from 11 seconds in the video, as the road straightens and you line up to overtake the truck, I could see something happening on the right lane. Due to the video quality it is not so clear, but I can see something going on in the right lane. What speed were you traveling at this point?

Are you asking about the vibrations? If so it is from the dashcam mount that has started to give up.

I was doing 110 before the overtake and decelerated (not braked) once the road straightened out and once the Tata ace was in my line of sight. I must have finished the overtake at 105ish kmph.

I do all those stuff you had mentioned (I drive 120+ km daily). This instance I didn't expect a stationary obstacle in the right lane of the highway until I was able to see it.

But yeah, we need to expect the unexpected. To be prepared of the unexpected, lesser speeds at those times makes stuff much easier That was the point of the sharing that video.

[PrasannaDhana]

One from today

The lorry ahead is moving at a good pace through the barricades on the national highways. There comes this intersection where another large truck, who is supposed to wait for the oncoming traffic on the highways to pass, and then move ahead. But he gives no crap about anything and continues to cross the highway. The lorry ahead of me showed no signs of stopping (he braked and steered to the right a bit to avoid contact) and then the large truck stopped.

Also notice the idiot two wheeler who crossed the highway like it's totally free.

https://youtu.be/OSi9Y7XkLtY

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Also notice the idiot two wheeler ...

There's a gap, is all he needed to know. That it was between two vehicles that could each reduce his entire body to paste, and was closing, means nothing to him.

Nothing will happen. Well, OK, nothing did happen, but it was still idiocy.

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

I was driving my Storme on the highway. There was this curve, the left lane was occupied by a long multi axle lorry, which obviously blocked the line of vision as of what was ahead in the right lane. ...

My contribution to this one: Your line of vision was not clear, therefore you should not have overtaken. That hold true whether it is a lane or a highway.

Maybe you could have made an exploratory and cautious move to the right lane from much further back, taking a look, ready to go or abort the whole idea?

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Maybe you could have made an exploratory and cautious move to the right lane from much further back, taking a look, ready to go or abort the whole idea?

I switched to right lane much before the beginning of the curve. I proceeded with the overtake as I was not expecting a stationary object to be present at the end of the curve.

I get your point though. That's what I had said in my post too. I should have slowed down and then, the Tata ace wouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it was in the video.

[anb]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

I thought the bus driver would merge back in the lane when I first saw him on my lane. Then only did I realize he was overtaking multiple vehicles at the same time.

He must have really believed that it is an one way road or should be really dumb!

Similar experience, But here the road has little more width.

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

[Venky03]

This fiasco took place yesterday when I was travelling via NH66 :

0:00-0:06 was a diversion as the highway is still under-construction, I had reduced the speed to maintain a safe distance from the truck in front; overtake was not possible as there was oncoming traffic from opposite lanes.

0:07-0:10 let the truck in front settle in his lane before proceeding to overtake, was still a tight one though as the truck still had some part in my lane. Took my time because these diversions are frequent and truckers like to stick to the lane of their liking.

0:11-0:33 did proceed with the overtake, after a safe distance switched lanes and slowed down for the force traveller to pass. I don't unnecessarily honk at truckers, it takes time to maneuver those machines.
I understand that there are people who have very important and urgent meetings to attend, so I always let them pass because I don't want them to miss their meetings because of me

0:33-0:39 was a very idiotic and unsafe display of muscle, I was calm throughout as I was still processing what had happened and why. My father was in fumes, with the same question : What is he doing?

The force driver was clearly angry that I wasted his few seconds, and that was visible in the way he was honking at me; what followed potentially endangered both our and his passenger's lives.

My mom said that maybe he dozed off and lost the control of his vehicle for that time, but we all know that was not the case.

I wanted to report it but the Maharashtra Police transport complaints site is down and the Mumbai police site allows evidence size of only 5mb.

Front :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F72rNhF8RCQ

Rear :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA8G3RYxqCg

[CarNerd]

Originally Posted by Venky03

0:33-0:39 was a very idiotic and unsafe display of muscle, I was calm throughout as I was still processing what had happened and why

From 0:10 to 0:18 in your rear dash cam, he came too close and almost hit you. He should have kept a good distance from you especially during overtaking. It's better to file a complaint against such dangerous behaviour so that it becomes tougher for them in future if they get involved in an accident.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by Venky03

I wanted to report it but the Maharashtra Police transport complaints site is down and the Mumbai police site allows evidence size of only 5mb.

In case online complaints do not work, you could call the Highway Police in their contact numbers and log your grievance, don't expect much to happen unless you pursue it, but if the said rash driver gets involved with such incidents (or severe) in future, he could face some music.

https://highwaypolice.maharashtra.gov.in/en/

Also, if you would really like to pursue it with the police further, you could file an RTI with your PCR call details and ask them what action was taken by them on your grievance, that might lead to some action from the police.

Spike

[anb]

Taking opposite lane and blocking incoming traffic

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

[Yieldway17]

1. TNSTC driver overtaking with scant regard to a car coming on the opposite side.

https://youtu.be/w8lYYyf1_4o

2. Speeding Innova with political flag bullies others on the road to overtake

https://youtu.be/FL5Xp7EmBns

3. Couple of cars find highway roadside food attractive and have to stop their cars on an active lane with no regards to people behind them.

https://youtu.be/fJUBJpUfwKg

4. Figo gets into a gap which doesn't exist. Also thankfully indicates his intention after halfway into the other lane.

https://youtu.be/N0gt-9-nr9c

5. Motorcycle think they own the road and rides in the middle of the road.(my admittedly irritated honking muted)

https://youtu.be/J4mhE_Qq23w

6. Hyundai i20(?) becomes restless and makes a double overtake in a busy urban flyover and with no visibility of opposite traffic. Bonus: Motorcycle overtaking on the left tries the luck with the narrow gap between a cyclist and the auto rickshaw.

https://youtu.be/w1KUcqP5SKw

[Yieldway17]

More incidents from the same trip which I had missed previously.

1. Overloaded truck makes a very slow overtake of another overloaded tractor trailer. Innova tags along behind. Two wheeler on my side makes an early defensive call to stop and I'm bit delayed slowing down.

https://youtu.be/nsBpeJl4rVk

2. Car doing an overtake of a sugarcane loaded tractor trailer on a blind curve with a kid peeping out of the sunroof. Good driving and parenting. Combo breaker!!

https://youtu.be/MgbLP_lwPio

3. Finally, I make an overtake which ends up being tad tight in the end. Got bit overcome by successive motorcycles on the other side preventing my previous attempts.

https://youtu.be/KHvX4nf9Yr8

[Raghu M]

I am sure I will have tons of my dashcam footage with such incidents. The point is plain simple, never exceed speed limits. No matter what car you drive, always staying below triple digit speeds helps. Of course, there are always idiots on the roads.

1. While moving across a bent road (even on highways), I ensure to keep to the left. This way, you will have vision of incoming cattle, blocked vehicles or wrong side drivers
2. Always ensure to have 50 to 100 meters of front visibility. This ensures full understanding of what is in store for you.
3. Never let a heavy vehicle blind you completely, if it comes to that situation, ensure your speeds are completely under control. Never tail at high speeds
4. When you see some population (people, shops, houses), just slow down. You will have people, bikers, kids, and even the police barricades that will be erected to slow you down anyway. The speeds around these areas should never exceed 60 kmph
5. Never tailgate and try to overtake. It can turn fatal

While most of the vehicles have all safety features these days, I don't think even the best cars in the world can keep you safe when you encounter an accident in triple digit speeds. It's always safe to never test a cars limits. Happy driving all!