[vivekiny2k]

here is something happened to me. We were riding to pondicheri from chennai, I was on a thunderbird. I noticed a fellow biker ahead of me had his side-stand down, I raced a little, turned towards him and indicated about the stand and then he sped off. I turned back to road and it was nowhere to be seen. the road had already turned left. I was at the edge of the rightmost part of ECR. thankfully no vehicles on the other side. immediately turned a sharp left to back in my lane and and thanked my stars.

another very similar incident. I had just learnt car driving. had my lunch box on pasenger seat which fell down as i turned a sharp left. I cool-ly bent down to pick it up, and when i looked back up i was going to hit anther car in right lane head on. swerved left and decided never ever to lose sight of my road.

[ImmortalZ]

Busy T junction. Waiting for traffic to clear to merge into the road home.

A white Audi A4 floats by and I'm so mesmerized that I nearly rear-end an auto. Happened to almost everyone beside me too. Quite a few of us looked at each others' faces. We all knew what went on in our minds too. What a car.

[absynthguzzler]

Driving at night, there was a bend in the road ahead, i misjudged or "assumed" that the oncoming traffic is in right lane(by looking at the headlights). But as things got closer , i had a lorry actually driving on the wrong side of the double road head on!.

I was fortunate that the driver behind me noticed the incident too (Zen191+ friend) and slowed down , thereby i could brake and cut to the left.If not, I wouldn't be writing this message right now.Dividers cant instill confidence of safely driving in your lane, specially at bends.

[deadguy25]

Originally Posted by absynthguzzler

Dividers cant instill confidence of safely driving in your lane, specially at bends.

I thought this menace was only in Tamil Nadu, especially the Hosur->Salem 4 laned road. Every time i drive on that stretch, I find a moron coming head-on in the wrong side, though the other is being used.

[Nitin]

Driving from Calicut to B'lore in 2004, I was at the wheels of the Corsa. Just passed Bandipur,there's a sharp turn to the left.I saw a truck coming from the opposite direction,and wanted to get past the turn so as to avoid a biker who was ahead of us.
Managed to get past the biker, but I took my eyes of the road ahead for a fraction of a second, and ended up grazing the rear part of the truck.My dad said that the trucker swerved to the right suddenly,and hence clipped the car.
None-the-less, it remains in my memory as a fault of mine!

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

I was driving a stock Zen. I maxed 155kmph on NH4.

155 km/h in a Zen? That must be some kind of record.

Anyway, this incident happened when I was learning to drive in a Morris 8 in Kolkata. The brakes didn't hold too well, and I was learning to slow down on the gears. On the Red Road at about 50 km/h, a brand new Premier Padmini braked in front, and I rear-ended him. The driver came out and started an argument. In the meanwhile, my Morris was in gear, with my foot on the clutch, and the clutch inadvertently slipped out from under my foot. My car jumped forward and rammed the Padmini again. The man took one look at his bumper which was hanging down by then, got into his car, and hurriedly drove off! Minor scratches to my Morris, and my brother and I had a jolly good laugh.

[A.R]

My Experience:
I was traveling back from TVM to Bangalore with my friend in my Baleno. I was the only driver & we had crossed Madurai into a by pass narrow road as directed by some cops at around 12 am. The road went through some fields pretty narrow (say a Bus and a Car may not pass through), curvy & no reflectors or even moonlight. At a particular point there was this sharp turn almost 90 degrees towards left. I almost missed it & ran off the road when my friend alerted & I steered with both hands hard. Now the car did turn in time but oversteered & went to the other end (narrow lane). I had to steer again 2-3 times to get it back in control, stopped the car, sighed and started again.

[watashi75]

This happened when I went to the RTO for registering my car. I was a new driver then.

I had to take out my car in reverse and I was looking behind with full concentration. Suddenly the car stalled and when I turned my head I saw to my horror that the front had struck a Fiesta which was parked close by. There was no place to move forward so I had to continue in reverse, scraping some more paint. This was my first accident and I was a bit apprehensive since it was a new Fiesta. I quickly drove off, went straight to the dealer workshop and removed all trace of evidence from my bumper!

[ramkya1]

Nice thread, reading this has re-affirmed my faith NEVER to drive at any time after sleep-deprivation or when feeling sleepy.

Recent event on my MP trip: 28-10-09. Last day at Panchmarhi, did a whole morning of sight seeing, had a lovely lunch at Garden Restaurant, started ride down at 0135 pm, its ghats down for 32 kms till Matkuli check post. Lovely roads, heavy lunch, soft music playing on the ICE, younger son already asleep in the middle row, wife on the co-passenger seat (alert, knowing this is the most dangerous time, from past experienc).....

Swish... Swish, going down, velvety road, we would have covered about 15 kms, I would have closed my eyes for a fraction of a sec., the front left wheel leaves the road, THUD...... THUD.... THUD........., I am snap-awake, twist to right and back on road, onrushing right sharp turn staring at me at about 40 kmpm, auto-pilot takes over, gear down, hard brakes and just about turn down into the roaad, fully alert..... come to a rocky-scorpio-hard-stop. PHEW......that was close.... that was a huge abyss on the left side of the curve!!!!!!!!!

Same thing happened on the way back from Kerala in June / July, 09, Bangalore to Hubli stretch, at around 3 PM, post lunch, was doing 120+ had a momentary lapse and almost ran off the road, there was enough tarmac and that was just a milli-second, steered back into the road on time. Nobody noticed in the car, but I know that was a dangerous moment.

I find the time, post-lunch, around 1-3 the most vulnerable time for me, specially if the road is good. I insist on my wife or co-passenger to be awake at that time or try to stop 2/3 times or sing along with a music or do something to keep fully alert.

I feel it's important to understand your bio-rhytms and plan your drive accordintly to avert disasters.

--Ramky
=======

[abhi_krishna]

Had a busy day at work...And also a fight with girlfriend..ended up getting my car scratched at a turn....

[dushmish]

Right said Ramky! Knowing one's body clock is the key to long drives. Lovely roads, sparse traffic and nice food, cannot get more soporofic. Driving from Mehndipur ke Balaji (near Mahua on Jaipur Agra road) NH 11 I guess, in my dad's 800 with 5 passengers I too had a momentary lapse when the car swerved on to the right side of road on a longish turn. Drowsyness had taken the best of me, I realised it in a milisecond. My heart stopped for once. Had there been a truck coming from the opposite direction! Disaster! No one noticed. I still feel guilty of it and get a scary feeling as I write about the incident.

Shared it with wife later (she was a passenger). Have told her to keep talking to me post snack drives specially the grave yard shift (1 pm to 4 pm).

[ramkya1]

"Recent event on my MP trip: 28-10-09".

Please read as 28-10-08, sorry for the typho.

Ashislpallod, thanks for alerting me.

MODS:, my 20 mts. limit is up, you may change it to 09 on the original message. and delete this message. Thanks.

[maverick030581]

About two years ago,driving with my girlfriend in the passenger seat in my Accent,fighting playfully.Recipe for disaster
She tries to tickle me while I'm hurrying to make a signal,I take my eyes off the road for a second or two,fail to see people to the right are jumping the signal so the 800 ahead of me has stopped.See it just in time to get a shock and screech to a halt just in time.Had checked the mirrors just before that so luckily no one behind me.2 minutes later,she does the same thing and again I lose focus for a second,fail to see a jerk is cutting me off which leads to a brush.Slight scatches on both cars,we both apologise and move on.
The "playful" fight then metamorphosed into a serious one and she hasn't ever tried to pull any stunts while I'm driving since then

[rm_arjuna]

This incident happened a year ago when i had just got my car licence was perfecting my driving skills . I was driving in the Cantonment area of Bolarum(hyd) , i had to take a u-turn , little ahead were armed sentry posted with Zig Zag gate to regulate traffic . I approached the turn just to show off swerved the steering with one hand , since i was new driver my grip sliped instead of turning i was headed straight to a drain & tree ahead .My driver in passenger seat immediately pulled the hand brake and we came resting on the drain with the front wheels struck in the open drain. I got to hear a mouthful from the jawan's , who also helped lift the car . After that incident was scared to take the wheels for a week and still dont try to repeat such stunts .

[siddartha]

while trying to read an sms and foolishly trying to reply to that sms , i rear ended car which was parked by the side of the road . the damage was huge!