Team-BHP - Your near-miss experiences on the road

Quote:

Originally Posted by sibitg (Post 3924242)

I was going to Yelagiri from Bangalore last week in my Brio. I was in the Krishnagiri-Vaniyampadi highway and doing around 100km. I noticed an aged woman crossing the highway counting something, may be money. I applied break and I had enough space in front as I noticed the woman in advance. She realized my presence only after reaching close to her and after sounding the horn. She immediately ran away.

My questions is, was it because of my car color she didn't notice my car? It is Silver color and this happened in the morning 9AM under bright sun. Does Silver color not noticeable under bright sun light? Which color provide better visibility under bright sun light as well as night?

I doubt if the colour of your car had anything with the incident. Especially if it was at 9AM!
I guess it's easier if we just accept the fact that Indian highways are filled with characters like these, risking their lives and others'.
Like in the old tire ad. :D

Our awareness is probably the only thing that can help us on our highways!

Location: On NH-7, between Hosur and Attibele toll (Gateway to KA)
When: 16th March, around 9:30 in the morning

Traffic was moderate, I was cruising at ~80kmph in the middle lane. There was an Eicher 10.50 light truck (the 4-wheeled one) on the right-most lane, chugging along at a slower pace. No sooner than my car's rear tyre passed the truck's front fender that we heard an explosion. I could see in the RVMs that the truck's rear left tyre had burst and because the driver applied brakes, it swayed, fishtailed and fell to its left side, on the middle lane. Had we been a little slower, the truck would've fallen onto my car. Had I applied brakes, the truck would've crashed onto my car's rear before resting on the side.

Since we'd passed a Highway Patrol vehicle a few seconds before this took place, I was confident that help would be made available soon, and didn't stop to check on it.

One VW Vento scraped my Brio's front bumper left corner two days before in NH47. I was in the right most lane and after a signal I was speeding up. This Vento guy want to move to the right lane in front of me. He came so fast from left side and pushed his Vento to the right lane even before his engine compartment passing my Brio. His right door (I guess both right doors) scraped my Brio's front bumper on left corner. After that he immediately move to the center lane, from there he moved to the left most lane with his emergency indicators on, then sped away. I was trying to stop on the accident spot itself, since he didn't stop I continued. I have a dashcam, but on this fateful day it didnt work. It had a loose contact on the car power splitter I used. Power splitter was of low quality. Since I was depending on the dash cam, I didn't notice his car number also. One bike rider behind me noticed the number and gave to me. But when I checked it in Kerala RTO site, looks like there is a mistake in that number. Or not sure whether the car was using a fake number.

Paint is totally damaged on the left corner of my front bumper. Is it possible to repaint only that area? Or do I need to repaint the entire bumper? Or do I need to replace the bumper? There is no other damage to the bumper except paint.

I don't know how to avoid these type of accidents. We can not always look to the sides and see who is coming on to us. Even if I notice him, I can not do anything. He came directly on to my car.

Have a few experiences. The first was when I was a kid and my dad was driving (Premier Padmini). It was a national highway and we were driving at night. My dad was following another car in the front (also a Premier Padmini) just to keep company. Suddenly, the car in the front seemed to disappear only for us to realize that there was a curve and the next thing we knew, our car spun twice and ended up on the side of the road hitting a bush. If there was no bush there, the car would have toppled. A few seconds later, we saw two buses coming in the opposite direction. If we had spun a few seconds later, we would have been hit by the buses.
Then there were few incidents where a state transport bus brushed on the side coming from the opposite direction, tipper trucks cutting into the highway from bylanes right infront without any warning, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by humyum (Post 896250)

On the way to mahabaleshwar around a year nd half back,heavy rains..upto the extent of highway being flooded till half and more of the 800s tyres many a times.
Overtake some trucks, and move back in my lane.See a truck overtakin another truck from the opposite side.
I slow down since the roads are slippery,visiblity is very low too.Since i have slowed down the trucks which i had overtaken are right behind my back.
The truck from the opposite side is just not moving over to his side.I have completely stopped now.
He is done with the overtake,but still he is on my side.He passes a point after which something tells me,he is not going to budge.I slam the 800 in reverse,turn the steering to the right,scrape my hatch against the truck behind but i m out of the oncomin trucks way.
He headon goes inside the truck which was behind my car.If my 800 was in between then it would been sandwiched and all of us would have been sure shot dead
This was like the closest death defying action i ve ever had.

That's one hell of last minute thinking. Good that you thought to reverse and escape.

Sharing an incident which happened with me.

Was returning in the (late) evening from Metro store after buying the monthly ration. The store is in Zirakpur (outskirts of Chandigarh) and there is fly-over which one has to take towards Chandigarh (folks who would have travelled from Delhi to Chandigarh would know this flyover that I am referring to). Was going at a comfortable speed of 50~60 kmph when a volvo bus (Chandigarh Delhi sector probably) over took us. The rear fender (the bottom section where number plate is affixed) was loose and haning from one side scraping the road. We were climbing the flyover and I remarked to my sister that should this come loose, it could cause damage to folks on the road. The bus crossed and as soon as we were level on the fly over I suddenly see the fender thingy lying on the road bang in front of me. I would not think it was a calculated decision between braking or turning but I instinctively turned to right to avoid it (changed lane) and crossed it. Luckily traffic was sparse and had there been a vehicle in the right lane, we could have had a nasty collision as well. Stopped a few meters ahead, calmed down my nerves (was a bit shaken truth be told) and then went back and moved the fender to a side from the middle of the road and continued. Noticed that another passenger car too had to perform the same maneuver to avoid colliding with the fender.

Morons- I feel enraged seeing your video even. But this type of incident occur at least twice everyday when I drive to work (130 kms in state highways). Good you maintained 70 Kmph in a 4 laned road, where most guys now keep it a norm to do 120+.
On the other day, I was driving from Villupuram to Chennai. There was heavy traffic and what's more irritating that every alternate idiot who drove car asked what driving ethics and patience was !! They couldn't wait for few seconds but barge through left, right and centre honking and flashing lights. I don't know what's the fun they are getting with flashing beams. Maybe they are considering it as a style quotient. Even when I was following a slower vehicle overtaking a still more slower one,they keep honking and flashing. What do they expect of me? Drive right over a truck or bus??? Sorry but couldn't resist the rant as I went nuts during that drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoneCollector (Post 3969109)

Yesterday, while coming back from Patna, all of a sudden these 2 elderly dhoti clad gentlemen on bike popped out of nowhere. We were doing about 70kmph and my driver stomped hard on brake pedal and got first hand feel of ABS kicking in. I was on passenger seat and before I could understand where they came from, I saw them waving hands to stop traffic to let them cut across through an illegal crossing in median. Had it not been for ABS, we would have skidded and banged them. :Frustrati

It looks very leisurely in video but it was too quick.

Apologies if this sounds rude but your driver is not that good / alert. please see your video again. He had about three seconds. The car really responds at almost the time it would have run over those morons.

You can see the car speed dip from 66 to 31 about 2 seconds after you see them. IMHO at those speeds, he should've reacted a second earlier.

Quote:

Originally Posted by phamilyman (Post 3970473)

No no, you are not sounding rude at all. This forum is always a platform for healthy discussion. My driver might not seem that good or to have reacted a little late but in reality, it was much faster. Like I said earlier, the video doesn't do justice to reactions. The moment we saw them climbing onto the road from shoulder I told him to slow down, it doesn't look like that in video but he did slow down. Yes, our fault that we never thought that they'll try to cut across even after looking at vehicles crossing. As far as the speed stamp is concerned, it takes time to change and even a second's delay will look like that it was late reaction.

A close call for me but not for the one tailing me:
This was the closest call in recent times and by the first look of it, it appears that I literally pushed that Innova ahead after crashing into it but I didn’t even touch that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9JchdPFLU

The short length of the bonnet of the Ertiga along with the exact timing when the Innova eases on the B Pedal to surge ahead a bit and me braking right at that juncture creates a feeling that I crashed.

Why the video alone, I myself felt I crashed into the Innova but I knew I never felt any impact sitting on the driver’s seat.

Why I honked/Flashed?
The Innova driver was for sure confused. His braking that way was giving me hints if he lost his way and suddenly realizes he need to start heading back? Well, I have noticed many that way. He then starts to talk to the BETL chap standing right there without any indication/hazards lights to warn other. I instantly turn on my Hazard lights (You can listen to that too). Those indicators on the extreme edges of the Mirrors are so useful to warn the traffic on the other lane from way behind even if they cannot see my tail lamps. I mean, stopping there for a longer time for sure would have resulted many more tailgating as traffic was thick.

The Innova driver wasn’t fast but was not really paying attention too is what I felt and here’s why:

The punctured car on the fast lane
Hazard lights on
Boot Door open
Human being standing/trying to remove the spare wheel
BETL officials holding the reflective cone and wearing reflective jacket

With so many hints, no doubt the Innova slowed down but “Right there” and that is exactly what cost the accident behind me involving a Sunny and a Tempo Traveler. I got saved may be because of the Innova driver eased on the B pedal and surged ahead.

The Sunny was tailing me closely frantically flashing his lights asking/making way and when I braked first, the biggest fear I had was that it will just crash into me. So you can notice that I release the brakes a bit to surge ahead to create more gap so that the Sunny could stop in time. Well, it did but not the TT that was right behind it which tried hard and then CRASHED into it. Even when I could hear the screeching tires, I was praying that the Sunny doesn’t get hit and in turn crash into me after getting pushed due to the impact.

You can very well listen to the screeching of the brakes and then a crashing noise.

I have deliberately let the audio be there and in the end you see me tell the BETL chap to place the cones a little further ahead and not where he had placed so that people have enough time to react even in the last moment than crash into the stationary car ahead.

And yes, I was super lucky:
Finally, to check if I had indeed a damaged Number plate, Bent Radiator/Condensor, swollen bonnet, I checked the car at home and even this morning after seeing this video as I still can’t believe that I didn’t crash into the Innova. I then thought if I had indeed crashed into the Innova, I am more than sure that the driver would have stopped and come out to check the damage upon experiencing the impact of me crashing into him. That was the luckiest day for the Ertiga as it may have got sandwiched between the Innova and the Sunny.

So here’s the pic of the Ertiga’s front as I captured this morning from my office parking. I even opened the bonnet and checked things inside. The Bonnet release function working itself is the first hint that there was no impact. I thank my lucky stars and may be Innova driver who created those extra 5 inches gap :).