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-   -   Your near-miss experiences on the road (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/42155-your-near-miss-experiences-road-57.html)

Cochin - Trivandrum is one of the dangerous roads now especially after they have started the expansion work. And Cherthala - Aroor is quite famous for such jaywalkers as they dont have proper street lights except when you reach near Aroor. I was surprised to see the "candlelight" streetlights along this stretch. Wonder how they call this a national highway and collect toll :Frustrati.

A near miss captured by my dashcam on the Hebbal flyover descent into the city. The scooter in front was headed straight into the goods carrier which had almost braked to a standstill. With insufficient brake pressure applied by the (novice) rider, the pillion in fact lunged forward and squeezed the brake lever hard just in time!

Witnessed this near miss somewhere between Malakkapara and Athirapilly, last Sunday. Being a weekend, the route was full of dumb riders and drivers. We were behind this Innova for quite some time, and we noticed that it was being driven..... erratically. Not just a bad driver, but an erratic driver. It was slowing down randomly in the middle of the road, speeding dangerously around blind turns, stopping abruptly near some interesting tree etc.

And then this happens. A bunch of idiot bikers had stopped on the road (even though they had ample space to the side). The Innova tries a blind overtake and nearly crashes into the oncoming Sumo.

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

The Sumo is definitely at fault for not reducing speed for a curve. But the Innova could easily have slowed down and honked. After a while, we were able to overtake it, and thats when we saw that it was being driven by a very young kid, probably just 18 or 19! The vehicle was full, no one was wearing seatbelts, and there was a kid sitting on the passenger's lap! :Frustrati

I am still amazed at how an entire family could place their lives in the hands of such a young kid, and no one bothered to correct his erratic driving!

Two idiots in one trip!

Yesterday on the Madras - Bangalore highway, it appeared that a man and his wife had decided to commit suicide.

https://youtu.be/iMknPO-ECdU

And on the rear facing camera
https://youtu.be/xDoa27eT2-E


Another idiot absolutely surprised that a car actually turned into Murugan idli, Krishnagiri after indicating. I am sure it would have been my fault if he had fallen
https://youtu.be/F9x9GEsJcYQ

Lucky that I actually took the break and ate; 45 minutes traffic jam before Attibele as a lorry crashed into a tar carrier.

This is my first post here on the site, and I'm sad that it had to be on this forum. But this one incident that happened today calls for a post.I recently turned 18 and am not attending driving classes. Today, as usual, I was attending the class and was driving behind a KSRTC electric bus. It stopped to the left for passengers to board. The road ahead was a curve with a slight incline, and my instructor asked me to overtake the stopped bus . *As I almost completed the manoeuvre, I saw a car coming down the inclined road, but I was at a good distance from it and could have easily gotten on with my overtake. But it seems the bus driver had other plans. As I almost overtook him, he accelerated fully and was completely adjacent to my car. The other car was almost in front of me now, and there was nowhere to go on the left. I stamped on the brakes, as did my instructor, and swerved left to avoid a collision.*I regularly go through the teambhp accidents' forum and the near misses' forum and know that these things happen on a regular basis on the road. But what surprised me was the fact that the bus driver made this absolutely maniacal move even though it was a driving school car with the L board on top and all. ( I even sounded my horn before overtaking).These things are enough for a learner to lose confidence, but in my case, since I'd read about things like these on the forum, I managed to stay cool, thankfully.

I will be making my first 100+ km trip in my new Hyryder this weekend when I came across this forum.

My near miss was my first long distance drive I ever made which was from Bangalore to Udupi in my Honda City. I was behind a bus which was trying to overtake another bus and I decided to follow. The bus in front of me overtook the bus and suddenly swerved to the left when I saw another bus approaching from the other direction. My heart literally stopped and I just managed to cut in right on time. I swore I would never attempt that again. I am actually getting chills just reliving it now.

The second near miss was on my way back to Bangalore when I tried to overtake a car and felt something brush up against my elbow. It was a biker's jacket! I immediately got my foot off the accelerator and went back to my lane. I usually check my mirrors before overtaking and could have sworn I did here too but this guy was coming up at such a speed, that it missed all my mirrors! It was a good thing he was wearing an oversized jacket!

Looking forward to my next "long" trip. Hoping I don't have to make another post on this forum again.

I guess you will have made this decision on that day itself, but: don't EVER do that!

Always, overtake only as an independent vehicle, with your own visibility, and your own view of the road ahead.

The close encounter with the biker must have been scary. I remember a time, driving on a British motorway. I was moving to the next lane to overtake the vehicle in front and heard a horn in my ear. I looked to my right to see a white van, right there, overtaking me. I guess I hadn't checked properly. That's one of my personal don't ever do that again occasions.

Near miss during a U-turn on the highway.

I didn't notice the Activa till it came in front of me. As there were other vehicles crossing the road, I assumed it was free. Activa came as a complete surprise.

Understood what happened after I watched the dashcam video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgpVEo7KDJc

The Activa is actually visible in the camera from 0:33s onward but I completely get that you might not have noticed it in the maze of others trying to cross and that you would have started looking to the right to finish the turn, but you could have waited for a full clear.

The Activa rider too also didn't seem to be slowing down, if only to avoid a collision. He might have thought that there was enough gap between your car and his scooter to just breeze past but the way both men on the scooter look at your car makes me believe that they were glaring at you for turning in their way.

When something like this happens to me (and it does, sometimes) I have to ask myself very seriously why I failed to notice a danger. Lessons to be learnt.

Fair enough. It was their right of way. It is foolish to push right of way to the point of possible collision (and yes, I learned that one the hard, expensive way) especially on two wheels, with the probable damage to flesh rather than paint and metal, but still, it was theirs.

There is a difficult U-turn that I take on my regular home route. Only a few days ago, I cut it a little too close in front of an oncoming biker. I waved an apology: he acknowledged.

I have a question along similar lines. While the biker has a right of way, and perhaps the poster could have waited a bit more, what happens in peak traffic? As you know, practically nobody yields in India and you have to aggressively poke your front in for the vehicles to even slow down. Is this not what causes us to drive more aggressively? Is there any way to handle this? I hate doing this but I'm pretty much forced to.

In peak traffic, keep moving ahead until nobody from the other side can cross you anymore and they will stop for you. Then you complete your turn :thumbs up. You do not have to do it aggressively!. Of course, 1/100 might slow down or stop generously. In that case, when you complete your turn, watch out for others who will cross the generous driver staring at him for slowing down unnecessarily!.

By that way what is that 'right of way' or something you are talking about?

Take this U turn scenario for instance. The Activa had the right of way, yes? That's what I mean. If it had multiple times the traffic, let's say, and waiting is not feasible since it's heavy traffic all around, you'd have to keep moving bit by bit (around which two wheelers will squeeze in and move anyway) instead of expecting someone to yield. Whatever you mentioned is what I meant by aggressive. And sometimes people accelerate like the Activa guy did as well.

I am pretty sure Nalin1 was being sarcastic and it was a rhetorical question. :coldsweat

To your original question, yes it is always difficult in such situations. Nobody in India yields and even I have been party to that sometimes. All of us probably have because we have all been on the receiving end of it.

Unfortunately, I don’t see a way around. It’s one of those things which needs a critical mass of shift for the rest to follow. Just one of us yielding suddenly is probably more dangerous in my opinion. Poking your nose, carefully, reading every vehicle as possible is the only way I have figured out yet.

Haha that went right over my head *whoosh* rl:

But agreed, especially how following good practices can in some contexts be more dangerous. I actually used to yield after reading up and being prepared to be a defensive driver, but only to realize how it drives the vehicles around me batshit crazy! :Frustrati I get really frustrated sometimes trying to at least find the "mid point" here.