[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

I guess the problem here is with the Sumo, as there was no brake lights on the vehicle! Or is it not visible from the dashcam video?

They were working but annoyingly in a wrong manner. You can notice how the high mount stop lamp is flickering all the times and it gets brighter only when he brakes.

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

They were working but annoyingly in a wrong manner. You can notice how the high mount stop lamp is flickering all the times and it gets brighter only when he brakes.

Exactly, I did notice that... and the regular stop lamps did not light up too. Had they been working normally, you probably would not have had this near-miss.

[audioholic]

This happened two days back and its a mix of factors, including my own mistake. Also a huge to google maps for their recent update to the app. Earlier, on the move it would suggest alternate routes. But the popup message would disappear with the default option being NO. Now, they have changed it and in case an alternate route pops up it activates it by default. I dont use maps for navigation but only to see traffic conditions in the upcoming parts of my commute during a traffic signal.

There was a tractor parked and I could not see what was behind it. At the same time this popup came and by the time I declined it and looked back, a small girl was already 1/4th in my path. I braked immediately and though it was quite late, since I was driving at less than 30kmph, I could stop without going too close to the girl. A passerby had already held his hand on his head and later the girls mum pulled her away. I did not stop since I had no incident and carried on.

https://youtu.be/UeSDs1fMEFo

[srvm]

Originally Posted by audioholic

.....
There was a tractor parked and I could not see what was behind it. At the same time this popup came and by the time I declined it and looked back, a small girl was already 1/4th in my path. I braked immediately and though it was quite late, since I was driving at less than 30kmph, I could stop without going too close to the girl. A passerby had already held his hand on his head and later the girls mum pulled her away. I did not stop since I had no incident and carried on.
.....

Whoa. That was close. Thank God you were going slow
I'll remember this incident whenever I drive past a parked bus/tractor/van. Always expect the unexpected on our roads!

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by audioholic

This happened two days back ... I dont use maps for navigation but only to see traffic conditions in the upcoming parts of my commute during a traffic signal.

Glad that nothing untoward happened, and you were at a sane speed.

If your intention is only to see the traffic conditions, simply use the "Start Driving" option - no navigation but just the map with traffic (if enabled) gets displayed

[Thad E Ginathom]

I do not want to hurt anyone or anything, but a child running out is my greatest dread.

Many will be aware of this already, but one of my driving lessons was, of course to be aware that anything could happen when there is a blind spot, but always look for clues. Sometimes one can see through a gap, or even spot legs or feet underneath a vehicle.

Glad all was well, Audioholic. Your heart must have skipped a beat!

[hrman]

Wow audioholic. My heart skipped a beat seeing the video. That was a near miss. Save for your speed, the girl would have got knocked off the road.

Need to be careful and eyes peeled all the time. There are all kinds of morons on the road.

Not related to your case, but as a practice, I always watch out for commuters who get off a bus and try to cross the road in front of the bus. They are at the highest risk of getting knocked down by a vehicle passing from the side of the bus. I dont understand the impatience of these bus travelers.

[ubermensch]

This particular incident which had me shaking was on a winter morning. I was on my way to a biker's meet, all geared and loaded. Some Saree-clad woman at Chattarpur mandir decided to pull an Usain bolt across the street while hiding her face from the side of incoming traffic (Maybe the logic was "If I can't see them, they can't see me?"). I swerved hard and luckily there was no traffic on the side and back, saving me a collision. I was clueless, reprimanding a woman would be unparliamentary and would result in unwarranted crowd

[IndieGooner]

This incident happened around two years back. There is this 2KM long well paved four lane road next to my office. This road does not see much traffic during daytime, has no speed monitoring and is nearly deserted during night - perfect recipe for illegal speeds.
I was on my bike going home at around midnight and the road was empty as expected. I was doing 50-60 km/hr on the inner lane (mistake 1), when I noticed a car approaching me from behind. The guy flashed once and I hesitated a bit before moving to left without using indicators(mistake 2). Next thing I know, there is a horn blaring to my left and a Honda Brio zooms past me on left lane. The guy had switched lanes and passed inches away from me! At those speeds I would simply have been obliterated.

The car driver was doing illegal speeds and was impatient to jump lanes without knowing where I was heading, but had some thing unfortunate happened I too deserve blame. I am a lot more careful these days and (touchwood) avoiding such hairy moments.

[BenjiRoss]

Originally Posted by audioholic

This happened two days back and its a mix of factors, including my own mistake. Also a huge to google maps for their recent update to the app. Earlier, on the move it would suggest alternate routes. But the popup message would disappear with the default option being NO.

Now, aren't you glad that those narrow streets had speed breakers. Or else, you (and any others) may have been driving a little bit faster and in this scenario this may have been disastrous!!

[hema4saran]

Originally Posted by audioholic

This happened two days back and its a mix of factors, including my own mistake. Also a huge to google maps for their recent update to the app. Earlier, on the move it would suggest alternate routes. But the popup message would disappear with the default option being NO. Now, they have changed it and in case an alternate route pops up it activates it by default. I dont use maps for navigation but only to see traffic conditions in the upcoming parts of my commute during a traffic signal.

Now that is one lucky escape dude. Things would have been a disaster if you were 5kmph faster than your current speed on that day. Its a lesson for all of us to keep our eyes on the road especially in crowded places or a residential area.

Your dashcam quality is good. This is the first time I am seeing a dashcam footage with the speed of the vehicle. This will help us many places if someone is blaming us for our speeds. Which model it is?

[lamborghini]

This happened a while back on the Mumbai WEH, between the Airport and Bandra.

Bunch of us were driving around - speed limit is 80kmph, when all of a sudden a chap popped up on the right most lane and was attempting to cross the road.

With the high beams coming in from the other side - we couldn't see him as he decided to do this on a dark section of the road (which is otherwise well lit), but thankfully he was managed to jump out of the way just in time!

Just one of the many reasons I hate those who drive with their HL on high beams - I couldn't spot him at all (heck, the camera picks him up barely 1 second before the incident with it's better field of view).
Shudder to think of what could have happened did he not jump away!

https://youtu.be/IybLaP5Je8s

See 13-15 seconds, on the right most lane - blink and you'll probably miss it; and sorry for some of the words used!
Ignore the date & time - It resets every time the car is parked for 2-3 days.

Any tips on how to avoid such incidents?

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by hema4saran

Your dashcam quality is good. This is the first time I am seeing a dashcam footage with the speed of the vehicle. This will help us many places if someone is blaming us for our speeds. Which model it is?

It is a Viofo a118. The dashcam does not overlay speed and related data onto the video on its own. It stores the GPS data in the video which can be extracted by using an application. I have manually overlaid the speed by taking this data out of the video through a tool called Race Render.

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

Now, aren't you glad that those narrow streets had speed breakers. Or else, you (and any others) may have been driving a little bit faster and in this scenario this may have been disastrous!!

No. To be frank this area is full of speed breakers and I hate them completely. I do keep speeds less than 30kmph in such areas irrespective of whether there is a speed breaker or not. On a manual car I dont cross second gear and in the Celerio I usually take my foot off once it reaches third gear. Since I switch between driving here and in Germany where the speed limit is 30Kmph for such zones, I have adopted the same practice here. Helps in avoiding trouble when I travel to Germany else I would be zipping down the streets at double the speed limit and end up in a traffic ticket or even worse crashing into a cyclist

The speed breakers on this road as well as another small but crucial road in this area fulfill the intention of cutting down the speed, but on the other hand, a lot of vehicles including buses and trucks end up slowing down and accelerating at every speed breaker, which will lead to excess noise and air pollution.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

Now, aren't you glad that those narrow streets had speed breakers. Or else, you (and any others) may have been driving a little bit faster and in this scenario this may have been disastrous!!

Originally Posted by audioholic

No. To be frank this area is full of speed breakers and I hate them completely. I do keep speeds less than 30kmph in such areas irrespective of whether there is a speed breaker or not.

There's a popular saying - "this is why we can't have nice things".

For every 1 audioholic who drives at sane speeds in roads like this even in the absence of speed breakers, there'll be 10 others who drive rashly, causing worry or even injury to others.

So sadly, it's the good drivers who're penalized by the lowest common denominator of the speed breaker.

[Chetan_Rao]

Unmarked speed-breakers are not a good idea, irrespective of location and intent.

All it takes is ONE person unfamiliar with the area, passing through during low visibility hours of the day to have disastrous, potentially fatal consequences, even if not speeding. It appears like an easy remedy against bad driving/riding, but it creates more problems than it solves.