[greenhorn]

for the first time , i hit someone !

some old man on a bullet overtook me from the left, and pulled an abrupt stop in front of me at a signal. I wasnt mentally expecting a bike to overtake me, and more importantly, pull a stop at that point, and i was coasting to a halt to a predetermined distance behind the m800 in front of me. bumped onto the guy's rear wheel and pushed him forward. he didnt fall off thankfully. he stared back , and went on his way. Probably he knew it was coming.

Dad was shocked. he asked me if I'd done it on purpose. I hadnt seen him coming.

But in retrospect, he deserved it. And my indica gets its second battle scar. Funnily, the first one is also from a bullet. Wonder why these folks on bullets think everyone will stop for them. Having been on one, i know the feeling, but lets not bank on that - as these guys found out

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Bhargava_sr

parking inside my house, was bit overconfident did not see the left side gap between the car and the gate.
Well the scratch was very minor, managed to get it fixed.

Have experienced & very well know how that hurts. After that had happened you feel " Why the hell I wanna get so close ). Its always very easier to get much closer to the wall at either sides with help of side view mirrors (to the xtent the mirror touch the wall)

[sushantr5]

I was in Pune and I had to leave to my native karad at 11pm. Karad is 165 kms from pune. And I was having a elderly copassenger who is trying to talk with me to keep me awake while driving though he was feeling very sleepy.

We were crusing at speed of 80. Road was empty and we were talking to eachother. I was thinking that I am active my eyes are active my actions are quick. My copassenger was saying that I am very active in night driving. It was 1.30 am.
And all these things were going smoothly and we both were pretending that we were active. But that was a mistake. My brain was sleeping. I mean I am unable to judge things quickly. I used to recognise things on road after passing them.

And suddenly a white thing came into our road as my brain was sleeping I did not recognised quickly. My car tire passed over that object. Still my brain is not awake. Later after large thud I recognised that my car has passed over a dead animal.

At that time I recognised that only eyes and body movements are not certificate that you are awake. Its your judgement power that goes to sleep.

After that I stopped on the side of road. Washed my mouth. Had a cup of tea. Then started next journey. And we again started to think that we are awake...

[vnabhi]

Well, I had my share on my 1-week old Fiesta. Ford was installing Nokia bluetooth free, so I went to their stockyard to get mine fixed.

After waiting for an hour, I was told the car was ready. I started the car and started reversing, while talking to my wife on the bluetooth set (was thrilling). After a while, the car stopped.Thinking it was a stone, I pressed on the throttle, only to hear a 'clunk' sound and the car did not move back further.
I stepped out and found to my horror that there was a low-height barbed wire, and it had laid an imprint on my bumper and a small dent on the boot exactly at the angle between the horizontal surface and the vertical. I felt heart-broken.
When I went for 1st service, I was told that it was a major job to fix that small dent,as the entire boot would need to be painted after denting. I left it as it is as I did not want to lose my NCB. Till today that dent is there, but very small.

[drkumarmp]

I was just going through all the post in this section & am very impressed since these are very important lessons to others and it takes a lot of courage for someone to accept their mistakes & more importantly their inadequacies with driving, since I had read somewhere that every man thinks he is the best in the world at two things & one of them is Driving.
I Have been driving for nearly quarter of a century (considering my age there would be a lot of legal issues involved) done a lot of highway driving, I never have allowed anyone else to drive my cars, always drove myself all the way even if the other passengers were more experienced drivers than me, got myself a Innova in 2007 Aug. and since then I had noticed that the drowsiness while driving was getting to me, previously I was driving M800, didn’t have AC, had to drive with the windows down, lot of drag on the car & disturbance of highway wind & Noise, but all that had a way of keeping us awake, now with Innova, the Climate control, super silent interiors, windows rolled up it gets quite cozy & comfy, on long drives I used to feel sleepy & thought with so many years of driving experience I could shake it off by continuing the drive or wriggle my head, etc. once while returning to Bangalore had dinner at Kamat Lokaruchi at Ramanagara & considered washing my face but thought it is just 1 Hour drive to Bangalore why bother & continued, after about 20 minutes the drowsiness started & I just closed my eyes to give it a couple of seconds rest & had gone to sleep for a brief period, (probably few seconds as since it’s a busy road if I had dozed off for longer I wouldn’t be writing this), we usually do that on long stretch of clear road, shut the eyes for a few secs & open like a extended blink to give it some rest but this time I actually had a small dream that confirmed that I had actually dozed off, maybe it’s the luxury of Innova combined with my age factor & the boredom associated with highway (the excitement usually goes off after a couple of decades), since I wear spectacles I thought maybe it’s the change in power so got it checked & actually there was a error in the making of the spectacles as in wrong Axis, that sorted, got a new essilor pair with all antiglare etc. bit better now but still not very confident, checked the net & there are plenty of cases abroad, the constant starring on the road, with a constant speed, not moving the head much, the eyes get strained & in turn drowsiness sets in, best cure is to pull over, wash the entire face, walk a while, even nap a while before continuing.
Most accidents take place when we are less than 100kms from destination since before that we will stop & take a break but when we are this close we think we can just push ourselves a bit further & get home, bad call!
I am thinking of getting my eyes checked for signs of dryness (that can cause strain), will post any positive results, please share if anyone has such drowsy problems & if a cure has been discovered by you.

[kiranseth]

well, i had a similar taste of life last week when i was holidaying in kerala. I was exhausted with the constant driving, waking up very early morning and the lack of proper sleep. while driving back from malapurram to guruvayur. near edappal i was cruising at 80+ in my santro while there was a three wheeler goods carrier which and almost stopped to take a right right in the middle of the road. i had dozed off for few secs and by then we were almost close to the three wheeler. I applied brakes and we hit the back of the three wheeler. i had my parents along with me and thank god nothing happened to us. The bonnet of the car and the headlight took the small impact of the crash and now the car is in the workshop getting my bonnet and headlight replaced at a total cost of Rs 10k.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by drkumarmp

after about 20 minutes the drowsiness started & I just closed my eyes to give it a couple of seconds rest & had gone to sleep for a brief period, (probably few seconds as since it’s a busy road if I had dozed off for longer I wouldn’t be writing this), we usually do that on long stretch of clear road, shut the eyes for a few secs & open like a extended blink to give it some rest but this time I actually had a small dream that confirmed that I had actually dozed off, maybe it’s the luxury of Innova combined with my age factor & the boredom associated with highway (the excitement usually goes off after a couple of decades),.

Closing the eyes for few seconds even on an empty highway is really scary even to think that for a moment. Why do you want to push to that extent saving 5 minutes of your travel time. Instead pull out, relax your eyes for few minutes before you continue your journey.

Many at most of the times are getting away from serious crashes trying to save time ex - 15-30 minutes on a 500 kms drive. Remember you will not be always lucky & that is the primary reason for many highway accidents. If you do not feel like getting down or stopping the car is a different story, but do not overrule when your body wanted it (do not try to copy some travel gurus here as our mind and body conditions differ)

[Jaxy]

hi,

once we three friends were traveling Delhi - Dhanauldi (near Mussorie) on our Tbird Bikes, One of my friend had just come of a night duty with Lufthansa and was very sleepy, we insisted he should stay back and not ride with us but he said he will manage it easily and didn't give in, so we were off to Dhanauldi 4 am in the morning.

It was very hectic and tiring ride. Almost, 15 kms left to reach our destination, we decided to take a break for the final time and have tea. me and my 1st friend parked our bikes and were waiting for our friend (lufthansa), we couldn't judge how far he had been left behind due to heavy clouds and fog, nevertheless he arrived and i could just see he wasnt at all comfortable after driving for 340kms, we asked him to have tea and just as he was about to park his bike he just dropped it and dozed off in the middle of the road. We had to pick him up and make him come to his senses. thankfully, no vehicle was passing by at that time else he would have been surely run over beacause of low visibility on curvy hilly highways.

shees!! can't imagine if he had fallen asleep while taking curves on those hilly roads.

with regards,
JaXy

[discoverwild]

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

There you go. 5-6 seconds after that I was literally touching 160.

Here is the link of the NH4 journey.
YouTube - NH4

I know you posted this a long time back, but I just came on to this thread now. This is what I would call highly irresponsible driving.

You are driving a pea-sized (not to mention, the strength of a pea as well) car at insane speeds and you use one hand to cover the episode on video.

Sheer madness, I should say. What if you had a flat? I am also surprised that none of the Team-BHP members pointed this out.

No personal offense meant. So please don't take it in the wrong sense.

[COUGAR]

happened twice before and both times it was because my attention was diverted to the glovebox compartment of my gypsy.

first time: driving down the Banglaore-bypass near Hinjawadi. Was approaching the Infosys flyover signal when i reached across to my glovebox compartment to swtich the FM channel (my stereo is mounted inside the glovebox of my gypsy). The signal ahead of me turned red and the trafic stopped but i couldnt stop in time! i ended up rear ending a rickshaw. Fortunately i was not going very fast so the damage was not too much. Plus with my camouflag colored cap and khakis and hte Gypsy may have given him the impression of me being a military person! So not much trouble!

2nd incident: i was driving through pouring rain in a certain forest near Chandrapur trying to wrap up the last of my work there. I am quite familiar with the area and can virtually drive through blindfolded. But on this occasion the forest department chose to overnight put up a huge log across the trail to block off access to a section of the forest. While driving i reached out to the glovebox to pull out my GPS: stupid idea when driving through blinding rain. I suddenly saw the log and slammed the brakes but instead of stopping the gypsy just SLID on the slush and because i had instinctively swerved rammed into a tree! For a month after that, the local forest officer wouldnt let me drive into the forest without an escort! :sheepish:

[asethi]

I always thought I'm very alert while driving, but this belief came crashing after this incident that could have almost ended my life. It was during my trip to Kollam in feb. We started quite early from Bangalore at around 3.30AM, and after Cochin there's 4 lane work going on. I was driving steady at almost 80kmph when suddenly my wife screamed and pulled the steering towards herself. Not realizing what had happened, I just tried to take back the control of the car at such high speed. After that I realized that a truck was coming on my side of the lane at very high speed without any horn/dipper, and I failed to notice that. Had my wife not pulled the steering, perhaps I would not have been writing this today. Realizing what could have happened, I just stopped the car and my heart was in my mouth.
Now I think this may have also happened due to my mind half asleep, as I hardly had already any sleep that night. Now I always try to get a good sleep before setting off for a long journey!

[throttleking]

This is a good thread, so let me confess, about 3 years back i had Wagon R Primea. on Sunday afternoon i started toward office, empty road in nagpur, so was going little fast enojying the music. There was 90 degree turn on a single road which i took very fast at around 60kmph, the car almost rolled and there was CD lying on my dashboard which went spinning to another conrner toward the passenger seat and was about to fall from dashboard. so deviated my focus from the road assuming that the road is empty and tried to catch the CD with left hand. :(

suddenly within fraction of sec a big sound Dhuuuup and a heavy jerk, i look back on road and there was whole Man lying on my windshield bhai log fat ke haath me aa gayi, had to break immediately, car skidded and this guy fell off the windshield onto the road. and i said shiiii yeh to gaya.

but luckily nothing happened to the guy, he stood up and started scolding me, in return i started scolding him saying that he was walking in the middle of the road

loss : Windshield broken, bonet gone for toss. But lessons learnt forever. It was my mistake

[balan]

Once after a heated arguement with my wife, going along Old Madras road at 60, the front santro suddenly braked as a cycle guy came in front of him at an intersection. Couldnt react fast and my M800 hit the santro inspite of braking, the santro hit the cycle wala. All the locals took the santro driver to task as he had hit a cycle guy. I was asked to move off and went straight to a maruti service center, dropped the vehicle there, went home.

Once after picking up my child after exam in my Indigo, was asking her the exam details while the front ford ikon braked at the signal. Luckily nothing happened to both the vehicles except a small black mark in the previously well dented ford ikon. The owner lady wanted me to replace the entire bumper !!!!
I said this is my portion of damage and I will get it touched up the local garage and finally went of giving 200 rs to the lady.
Best regards
Bala

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by balan

Couldnt react fast and my M800 hit the santro inspite of braking, the santro hit the cycle wala.

You should have bailed the Santro guy out. It was your fault.

[FlyingSpur]

I took extreme care throughout the journey, luckily nothing unfortunate happened at all. But that's no excuse, so let me just put it this way then.

Do NOT, EVER, set off on a 1400km, 15-hour long drive through 8 states on a USA interstate after staying up all night.