[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Several possible answers, including:

-- Who is the judge of their expertise? Themselves? Not good.

-- The really experienced and expert drivers will probably be driving much slower.

Well said !.

Always always go on the defensive once you cannot see the road ahead even a wee bit .

[bharat4ever]

Originally Posted by anb

Another near miss experience. I didn't expect the scooter to come into the road. Thankfully the Grand i10 slowed down and I was able to move left. May be I shouldn't have tried overtaking the grand i10.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=2IfopIM-_fE

In my opinion there was enough warning that the scooter guy was planning to cross the road, and you should've chosen a better situation to overtake.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

I had 2 options, 1. To brake hard, but at those speeds, the car will swerve uncontrollably and might prove to be fatal to both the parties

2. Stick to the extreme right of my lane and gun it through.

I did the 2nd and managed to get out of the ordeal. Quite a close call in my experience.

A really bad decision in my view. If the other guy had been slightly faster, you would have smashed into him at very high speeds. Braking while sticking to the extreme right would probably have been the right decision here. And yes, keeping speeds under check is extremely important - on our highways, you cannot drive assuming everyone else will be sensible, and hence Autobahn speeds are certainly not advisable. If you are too fast to brake without losing control, you are too fast!!!

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Soon after, within less than 5 seconds, the VW comes to a dead stop and the Rapid follows. I was next in line to slam the brakes dropping 2 gears down and managed to stop the way you notice in the video. Basically, all of us came to a dead stop in the middle of the highway from usual cruising speeds in under 5 seconds!
Behind me was a KSRTC bus but was far away or else I am more than sure it may have resulted in a bad read end collision into my car too.

You should have more distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

All in all, a very narrow escape and an extremely lucky one for me in all these years and kilometers of highway driving. The saviors here were the ABS and the fact that all 3 of us were belted! The roads were wet as it was raining constantly after Kunigal and my car's tires (Primacy 3STs) have run more than a lac km now with some usable life left on them. I am also assuming that may be newer tires may have fared better than this but nevertheless these managed well too.

In my experience, pressure on brake pedal to a just be of to the level just before where the ABS starts pulsing, that gives you shortest braking distance. Even if you see good amount of tread remaining, anything below 3mm to 3.5mm does not give you the desired grip.

Rahul

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Hayek

. If you are too fast to brake without losing control, you are too fast!!!

Oh yea, totally agreed.

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

An extremely close call | NH75 | Very minor nudge

The Rapid driver gets out of the car assuming a major impact/damage but I tell him that there is no damage, which he sees. I apologize while he too says sorry and we continue our journey back home. All this exchange in may be less than 10 seconds.

Good presence of mind and reflexes. These are the kind of situation when even a second of distraction can turn out to be dangerous.

The only thing that worries me is the Rapid driver and yourself stopping in the fast lane. In the end of the video the bus driver is seen passing you from your left but anyone behind him could have been in a blind spot and could have rear ended you.

Not sure because of the situation you thought stopping here instead of the side path off the main road was safer?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by SnS_12

The only thing that worries me is the Rapid driver and yourself stopping in the fast lane. In the end of the video the bus driver is seen passing you from your left but anyone behind him could have been in a blind spot and could have rear ended you.

This was my biggest fear as soon as I stopped. And this was unlike a normal day on this highway as it was a Sunday and many cars were on the road returning back to Bangalore. I usually avoid such times or days to drive but over that weekend, I had no other choice.

In fact, I also thought if I can slowly move the shoulder area and then talk to the Rapid driver but this was a situation where even if I had turned my front wheels to left, the Rapid driver may have mistaken that for my escaping from the situation!

Thankfully, the KSRTC bus was still far way, on the fast lane and could manage to stop in time.

[MaheshY1]

Here's how I would react in this situation:

1. driving in left lane on 2-lane road
2. notice some possibility of slowdown in left lane
3. = traffic could merge into 1 lane
4. so, slow down and move to right lane
5. prepare for further slow down as 2-lane traffic merges into 1 lane.

I cruise on highways around 80 (90-100 for overtakes) and on expressways at 100 (110-120 for overtakes). Thus, staying well within the legal speed limits and only touching or crossing the speed limit to overtake.

[KGS]

After watching these hair raising videos , I feel driving etiquettes should be part of our nation wide curriculum and taught to every child.

Even though this wonderful platform is helping people realise the best driving practices but we still have very limited reach. In a country with a population of more than 1.3 Billion people and where anyone can get a Driving licence it is very important to help our next generation become a better driver than us.

Even at our individual level, we should teach our children what we should do and what we shouldn't do while driving. I do this with my son. He is 4 but already aware about traffic signals , IRVM and ORVMs, speed limits in city limits and on expressways/motorways and some other day to day nitty gritties of driving.

[GeeTee TSI]

I had a near miss last week during my drive from Mumbai to Bangalore somewhere in AH47 after Hubli

Was following a truck and waiting for an opportunity to pass. No sooner did I move out of the lane to overtake, than the metal bar which goes across the rear loading bay fell right off on the road! I was having a mix of emotions from shock to anger (at the sheer irresponsibility) but decided against giving the oblivious driver a piece of my mind (I doubt he even noticed it!)

It could have very well fallen right on my path (worse, on the car itself). Regret not having a dash cam but including a generic picture of a truck with a (squiggly) yellow line to signify the part which fell off

[tazmaan]

Had a close shave with a Cow jumping through the median.

I was reaching the end of my journey from Mumbai and was about to reach Ahmedabad. Luckily there was no vehicle in the middle land. There was an alto just behind me who was not very lucky. He too swerved but could hear screeching sound and from what I could make out from IRVM a nudge to the cow. My speed would have been around 70 to 80 kmph and I was alone in the car.

https://youtu.be/ttmVRe04bC0

[Lowflyer23]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

I had 2 options, 1. To brake hard, but at those speeds, the car will swerve uncontrollably and might prove to be fatal to both the parties

Even if you were at very very high speeds (which you yourself accepted), a modern car equipped with ABS + EBD shouldn't swerve uncontrollably, that's not normal. I have tried panic braking on several cars on a closed private stretch of a known many times. I once jammed a Fiesta (global) at the speed of 170 and the car stopped absolutely dead straight. I'm not praising the Fiesta here, all modern cars are like this (or I think so) and even the steering wheel shouldn't pull to left or right.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by Lowflyer23

. I once jammed a Fiesta (global) at the speed of 170 and the car stopped absolutely dead straight. I'm not praising the Fiesta here, all modern cars are like this (or I think so) and even the steering wheel shouldn't pull to left or right.

I forgot to add this to point 1 . Steer left while also slamming the brakes to avoid impact. I was doing higher speeds than that. Guilty as charged. While I agree the car wouldn't have had problems stopping in a straight line, but if I had to steer to left while also doing a panic braking, things would have definitely gotten ugly.

Moreover there wasn't enough distance to avoid an impact to brake hard without changing direction.

[theabstractmind]

I have almost never had a near miss when driving a car. Largely I'm a defensive driver and have overcome aggressive instincts of the youth by practice. I have had one instance of a Panic breaking in 10 plus years of driving a car, when on a two lane road a TVS moped rider on the right side of the road decided to cross the road without seeing the cars coming from his left. ABS and reflexes saved me. But there was one when parking it. And the one I'll never forget.

I had my Kwid AMT then which I always parked between two trees on the roadside. On this fateful day, after parking I saw I could move another feet to the front. And I decided to do this with one feet and one hand, the wrong ones. With the door left open, I cranked on the car and while slowly releasing the hand brake , used my left feet to press the accelerator. Bang! The left fender had grazed the tree and detached from the chassis, breaking the left headlamp. All this while my wife questioned my intentions when I had left the door open and tried to move the car.

The most fortunate part is that the collision was not head-on and I somehow got the car to stop, or possibly the tree. My then 5 year old was inside the car and was thrown around in the back seat and I am lucky he was unhurt. I curse myself until today on my foolishness. Scares me to think that there was a junction a few feet ahead and I could have completely lost it with my life or my son's or someone else!

Lessons learnt:

1. Always accelerate and brake with the right foot, that is what I'm trained for.

2. Always close the door of the car before moving it. Even if it is a few inches.

3. Ensure safety of occupants.

4. Never overestimate your own driving skills. There's always that additional room for improvement.

I'm sharing this so that someone can learn from my mistake.

And yeah. I was really thinking hard and thought I had missed something, after all I could not be perfect. Then recalled a mistake. Well it wasn't a mistake, possibly not a near-miss either, but pure luck.

Four friends drove to Kemmangundi in a M800 with myself and a friend as primary drivers. Possibly I had not yet clocked 5000 kms of driving then. On the way back from Kemmangundi, there was this two lane, well actually a single lane road; the width of two cars basically, where one has to drive on the mud to let opposite guy pass. In one such section with me on a downward incline, there was this Tata Sumo who came bang opposite to me trying to overtake something I can't recollect anymore. It wasn't an option for me to get two tyres on the mud as the height difference between the road and mud was too much and the car would likely topple. I was possibly doing 45 or 50kmph. Once I saw the Sumo, I saw two village women possibly in their 50s walking right on the road behind it. I slammed the brakes as hard as I could and kept the car on the edge. The Sumo passed, but just as the car halted, it touched one of the ladies. Literally touched, like a firm tap on the shoulder. The Lady fell. Immediately we took her to a nearby clinic in the village even as villagers were trying to crowd around. Got her some treatment, paid the doctor, and some to the kin of the lady. The doctor examined and said she just had a mild bruise and wasn't a worry but advised us to leave the place soon.

After paying the dues, I told my friend that I will still drive. I was a bit shaken, well truly shaken. But I took the keys and started driving at 40s again for a few kilometres to be able to regain confidence for a lifetime, then handed over to the friend the driver's duties

Lesson learnt:

1. When crossing villages, drive much slower than you can, honking doesn't help, at all.

2. If the roads are built for X speed, drive 5 or 10 kmph slower to be on the safer side.

Ever since, I have had just one close shave as indicated in the previous post.

[StopUnderrides]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

You should have more distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you.




In my experience, pressure on brake pedal to a just be of to the level just before where the ABS starts pulsing, that gives you shortest braking distance. Even if you see good amount of tread remaining, anything below 3mm to 3.5mm does not give you the desired grip.

Rahul

No. That's not needed with ABS. With ABS you should stand on the brake and let it do it's job-which is to prevent wheel locking. Interestingly ABS can make things harder in certain situations where there are leaves on the ground or gravel etc. Wheels tend to lock and ABS will keep relieving pressure on the pads to prevent locking.