[vamsi2390]

There's wrong sided driving on the left side of the road and then there is this. Not sure what these guys smoke before coming onto road.

https://youtu.be/lwngHqBJ8Cc

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by vamsi2390

There's wrong sided driving on the left side of the road and then there is this. Not sure what these guys smoke before coming onto road.

Oh but there is a method to this madness - there are 3 schools of thought when it comes to picking a side to drive on:
1) Drive properly on your left side lanes, as prescribed by the law - This is a dying practise and is only followed by feminine drivers. It is not macho to do this at all.
2) Drive on the wrong side, on the fast lane while hugging the median, with headlight on high beam - I witnessed firsthand how a novice van driver was coached by his brother to do this in Jamshedpur in 1999; the big brother explained eloquently how the right way to drive on the wrong side is by hugging the median with the lights on, so that oncoming traffic won't miss seeing you
3) drive on the wrong side, on the slow lane or on the pedestrian lane - Some noble lorry drivers do this by chugging along considerately slowly in 1st gear. Some whiz past you at 100 Kmph. Your crashing velocity with them may vary.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by locusjag

1) Drive properly on your left side lanes, as prescribed by the law - This is a dying practise and is only followed by feminine drivers. It is not macho to do this at all.

Surely you've noticed how "macho" the "feminine" bikers of our city have become!

[Chetan_Rao]

Today, while ascending the flyover on Mysore Road towards Corporation Circle, a non-helmeted scooter rider ahead of me on the fast lane stopped suddenly after cutting across me from behind another vehicle.

Reason? His phone rang!

Yeah, just like that. Stopped, whipped out his cellphone and began a conversation right there.

[SS-Traveller]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKeXhZ83f_c

Cattle are always a menace on the road, and this bull simply barged into my path blindly last evening. My attention was diverted towards the police motorcycle with flashing lights blocking the left lanes (the fellow was simply having a chat with another cop, it seems), and the glare from oncoming high beams made me miss the bull early on. All safe, thank God!

[srvm]

This happened on 18th May, when I was visiting Chennai.
I was driving a 2-wheeler with my wife riding as pillion around 7pm near Sankara Vidyalaya, Selaiyur, East Tambaram. I was going from Camp Road junction towards Tambaram Railway station. It was after dusk.
There was this mini-truck with its rear uncovered (no tarpaulin stuff) carrying some long poles/iron rods protruding a little behind the vehicle. Due to this protrusion, I left enough safe-distance while following it (speed ~ 40kmph). Unsurprisingly, this gap was filled with couple of 2-wheeler riders who were now quite close to the mini-truck.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the mini-truck braked hard. A tailgating 2-wheeler rider (no helmet, of course) who did not expect this, could not brake in time to avoid collision. He hit the poles/ rear of the truck (I'm not sure which one) and fell down on the road just in front of me (his body was perpendicular to traffic movement behind). I had heart in my mouth for a fraction of second while I braked and swerved a little to avoid running over his head. I missed his head by about few inches.
I slowly moved to the kerb and parked my vehicle. My wife was in shock. Traffic came to a standstill. Samaritans in the crowd helped the young man to his feet and took him to the pavement. He was holding his shoulder, neck and jaws in pain.
The mini-truck was still halted. We found the reason for his sudden braking. A bunch of bovines were suddenly crossing this busy road after dusk!

As I left the scene, I was wondering how life in our roads hangs by the smallest of margins! What if I had run over the fellow's head?!

Lessons (re)-learned by me from above incident:
1. Maintain safe distance from vehicles ahead.
2. Speed is your greatest ally as well as enemy. When I am at slower speeds I always seem to have enough time to react to sudden changes in traffic around me. I'm sure I would have run over the fellow or fallen down trying to avoid him, if my speed was more than 50kmph.


Lessons that (hopefully) the young man learnt:
1. Helmets can save lot of pain! as well as life.
2. Know and respect your vehicle's limitations. A 2-wheeler with drum brakes is definitely going to have longer braking distance than a mini-truck/car/bus at the same speed.
3. Your luck can run-out any day.

[srvm]

Mods: Sorry for the back-to-back posts. I seem to attract such near mishaps!

Both the incidents happened yesterday (16th June) while I was on my way back from Tiruvannamalai to Bangalore.

Incident-1: This occurred on the NH just before Krishnagiri. I was travelling at 80kmph on the left-most lane (out of 3 lanes). There was this white car (maybe Verna) who was in the middle lane just ahead of me doing about the same speed. Suddenly, he decides to exit NH (exit to service road was merely 10-20 meters ahead), he starts to dramatically slow down and change lanes and I give a long honk to let him know of my presence. Only then he switched his left-indicators on by which time both of us are past the exit to service road. He waves his hand apologetically since I had to brake very hard to come to very slow speeds since his Verna was already a bit in my lane. He came to a standstill. I pass him on the left.
I'm cursing under my breath while I pick up speed. And I watch this in horror through my IRVM: he is reversing in the middle lane of the NH to reach the exit that he already missed!



Incident-2: I exited NH at Hosur to take Hosur-Bagalur-Sarjapur road to Bangalore. On the Hosur-Bagalur 2-lane undivided carriageway, I'm cruising at 60 kmph. I climb uphill section to almost its zenith to find a bus in my lane in the opposite direction at full-speed overtaking another bus (which itself was at good speeds). I was already on the left-edge of the road. I panic-braked and came to a complete halt and prayed for a fraction of a second. My car even stalled in the process. The overtaking bus missed my right ORVM by 2 inches. My heart was pounding for a minute. My wife who was riding shotgun was hyper-ventilating.


After the above 2 incidents, my wife remarked that next time she would prefer sitting in the rear seat to avoid seeing such heart-in-mouth events from the front seat. My 9-year old daughter who was in the rear-seat (belted up) remarks that "Papa, why do you brake like this suddenly, this often? Don't you know to drive properly?"

As I type this, my mind voice was saying: I'd rather be alive to post on this thread than be dead and become a post by another BHPian in the Accidents thread. I have been thinking, what could I have done differently to avoid the above 2 incidents and I'm unable to come up with anything. Any suggestions from fellow BHPians?

[GrandTourer]

Originally Posted by srvm

I have been thinking, what could I have done differently to avoid the above 2 incidents and I'm unable to come up with anything. Any suggestions from fellow BHPians?

I think the best bet to avoid such incidents is to buy a helicopter

On a serious note though, life on Indian roads is not completely in our hands. The most we can do is drive defensively and hope for the best.
I remember when I was learning to drive, my dad would always say "You do not control the other vehicles on the road. So honk on curves, slow down at junctions and never... never cut corners."

I guess until our RTO driving tests and theory exams get stringent enough we'll have to live with it.

P.S. OT: One of my uncle was telling me that for the theory tests, there's a guy from the RTO/driving school who's like "For question number 1 click option "A", for question 2, click option "B" and so on.". If this is the state how do we even expect safe roads.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by GrandTourer

I remember when I was learning to drive, my dad would always say "You do not control the other vehicles on the road. So honk on curves, slow down at junctions and never... never cut corners."

My dad used to say, "remember: 50% of all accidents are the other person's fault."

A bit cryptic, but it helps to make it stick in the mind. I don't think that the phrase defensive driving had been coined back then.

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by GrandTourer

I remember when I was learning to drive, my dad would always say "You do not control the other vehicles on the road. So honk on curves, slow down at junctions and never... never cut corners."

Yes, you are absolutely right!. You cannot control other vehicles on the road.

But if you keenly observe EVERY single vehicle around you (not only vehicles, but also every other movable/immovable object in your path like the Swiggy guy checking his mobile, dude on the phone without helmet, dog waiting to cross the road, one cow chasing the other etc), it is not impossible to anticipate.

Watch like a hawk and do not let your mind waver even a wee bit !

[Funny]

This happened couple of weeks back. This moron was bending down and doing something on the road in an unlit street. The headlight from incoming traffic didn't help either as I was distracted by it. Fortunately I could spot him when I got close and brake hard to avoid collision. There was ample of space on either side of the roads to do whatever he was doing but no, some people do not like to use common sense these days.

Near Miss - Bicycle on Un-lit Road at Night

[svsantosh]

https://youtu.be/XBAVFaYYwow

Mysore Road, Both Biker and Car at Fault. Biker Drifted without seeing mirror, car was stupid to squeeze through!

[the_skyliner]

Originally Posted by srvm

Any suggestions from fellow BHPians?

Anticipation. Have more of that, you shall be fine.

My father used to say to me that learn road judgement first and then the actual driving. What he meant to say was anticipate more than usual while driving on our roads.

When you were in the left most lane, then better to not overtake the car in the middle lane as it is not allowed as well as it comes with a huge risk of someone veering their way to exit and not noticing you in the left most lane.

While climbing up, I always assume that on every blind turn, some moron is going to be right in front of me and so I slow down just a little to make sure there is enough time to avoid a collision.

Hope this helps. Don't let your confidence go down, that's also very, very important. You did good to avoid any mishap in both the cases.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

Mysore Road, Both Biker and Car at Fault. Biker Drifted without seeing mirror, car was stupid to squeeze through!

95% to the car driver.

True, the biker would be better not to weave, but it is his lane: the car driver is just a bully, forcing his way through.

Lucky day for the biker

[Leoshashi]

Had a near miss with an idiot. Don't know if he was distracted or was attempting an audacious overtake. Luckily there was nothing to my left and I somehow dodged him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfD4sjMWgTk