[swiftnfurious]

I think stray cattle / dogs / beggars are a part of most highways in India, roaming around freely. I found LOADs of them on my trip to Tirupati from Bangalore and even hit a dog, ran over another and escaped from a BIG buffalo too. All these in one trip.

The best things to do on such roads is to

1. Keep good distance from the car in front of you
2. Drive in a lane which is not the same as the car in front of you - this will let you see the road ahead of you and will also give a better distance to break [unless the vehicle in front comes into your lane]
3. Follow the vehicle in the front for some time and overtake when you can see a good distance in front of you
4. Let the vehicle in front keep driving in front [if the speeds are good] and clear the way for you
5. Drive in the night when usually dogs / cattle / beggars don't roam around [may not be practical always to drive in the night]
6. Avoid driving in twilight - this is one time where your natural visibility / cars lights / natural light just doesn't let you see much in front of you.
7. If there is a vehicle tailing you, its better to move into a different lane than the vehicle behind you or even let them overtake
8. Drop you speeds to 40-60 kmph when you see cattle / human / dogs - there are high chances that they will come into your vehicle - Don't take chances thinking it will move away from car!

and lastly, please don't swerve unless you really have to ! Because on these roads, there are high chances that there could be vehicles parallel to you or which might reach parallel by the time you brake hard.This could also result in the car losing balance and drift sideways or even flip. Its always better to brake & stop the car in a straight line, the braking distances are better [lower] when you brake straight.

[mdsaab]

Originally Posted by noopster

Half cars length is inadequate at tha insane speeds on the e-way, mdsaab! Please maintain at least 3 cars distance unles planning to overtake.

Arrey sorry yaar. To be read as 1 1/2 car lenghts.
Was shocked myself when i read your post

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

I think stray cattle / dogs / beggars are a part of most highways in India, roaming around freely. I found LOADs of them on my trip to Tirupati from Bangalore and even hit a dog, ran over another and escaped from a BIG buffalo too. All these in one trip.

The best things to do on such roads is to

1. Keep good distance from the car in front of you
2. Drive in a lane which is not the same as the car in front of you - this will let you see the road ahead of you and will also give a better distance to break [unless the vehicle in front comes into your lane]
3. Follow the vehicle in the front for some time and overtake when you can see a good distance in front of you
4. Let the vehicle in front keep driving in front [if the speeds are good] and clear the way for you
5. Drive in the night when usually dogs / cattle / beggars don't roam around [may not be practical always to drive in the night]
6. Avoid driving in twilight - this is one time where your natural visibility / cars lights / natural light just doesn't let you see much in front of you.
7. If there is a vehicle tailing you, its better to move into a different lane than the vehicle behind you or even let them overtake
8. Drop you speeds to 40-60 kmph when you see cattle / human / dogs - there are high chances that they will come into your vehicle - Don't take chances thinking it will move away from car!

and lastly, please don't swerve unless you really have to ! Because on these roads, there are high chances that there could be vehicles parallel to you or which might reach parallel by the time you brake hard.This could also result in the car losing balance and drift sideways or even flip. Its always better to brake & stop the car in a straight line, the braking distances are better [lower] when you brake straight.

Fantastic post. And some useful piece of advice to be followed.
Personally follow most. Especially hate it when someone is tailgating. I always make way for them to pass. And now with the rear ended episode. Even more so. Infact i always follow this even while driving in the city. But when you are stationary i guess its not in your hands
Drive safe!

[dot]

Sorry to hear about the accident, DueLLer. You (and we) should actually thank our stars that it only a rear bumper loss, nothing more. Accidents on e-way tend to become nasty very quickly.

Finally, like any highway in India, expressway is not safe. Inspite of doing everything right, following every rule, somethings can go wrong.

[vnabhi]

@DueLLer--I'm very sorry to hear about the rear-ending. The only road where I dared to drive at speeds between 140 to 170 was the Pune-Mumbai Expressway, only because it was the only road that was well-barricaded.

Now it looks like things have gone to dogs. The cab guy should pay for tail-gating and rear-ending you, though I know it calls for a lot of effort.

As regards safe distance on expressways and 4-laned highways, one and half car lengths will not suffice---it is better to follow the 4-second rule that people follow in the U.S.A. To cut a long story short, note the time the car in front passes a stationary object, like a tree of lamp post, and then count 4 seconds. You should not reach that object before the count of 4.

[mxx]

This is common in our roads. But the fact that it is happening on expressway is scary nonetheless. All those who encounter these sort of scenarios should make formal complaints. This is a tolled road, and should be maintained and patrolled

[odyssey045]

Sorry to hear about this!! The thing is no one takes responsibility for such happenings, even the contractor who collects tolls for the highway.. They half expect the cow ambling on the highway to take responsibility for its presence there...

Jokes apart, when i drive on highways (especially the two laned ones) the rules i follow

- keep adequate distance with the car in front of me.. if its a four laned highway, then i try not to be at the back of the car immediately in front of me.. This gives me a good view of the road.

- honk.. honk.. honk.. whenever you do not have a clear view of the highway.. You never know which dumb human is trolling on it.. I have seen even dogs are more sensible these days.

- honk while overtaking.. you never know if the driver in front of you is dozing off.. This is true especially for lorries.. i have had lorries drift away while overtaking them.

- if you have more than 2 lanes in one direction, maintain the middle lane.. always the safest.

- overtaking from the last lane in the left needs to be done with caution.. I once saw a bullock cart coming in the opposite direction when i was in that lane.. And i had no idea that it was there! To its defense, it couldn't flash a headlight or sound a horn!!

The chn <-> blr highways turns a nightmare especially near ambur/vellore areas. They got city bus stand/bus stops/signals with busy intersections over there even though its supposed to be a toll highway..

Even after honking continuously while crossing the area, i once saw a man with a cycle ambling across the road without even looking for vehicles on the road..

[aalokg]

Its really sad to hear about the unfortunate incident. Are the damages not covered under the insurance ?

Originally Posted by typeOnegative

Standards are dropping. If you are driving to Mumbai from the Pune side, you will notice that there is a road that joins the Expressway from the Sinhgad Institute. This is ridiculous. Also, as ukderebail has pointed out, regular maintenance and security seems to be going slack.

Thanks for the heads up.

The road that you see is actually the approach road to the IRB warehouse. Initially, even I used to think that its an road going to the Sinhagad Institute, but then I noticed that it just goes to the warehouse. But I have seen students waiting by the side of the road for buses going towards Bombay. They probably get there by jumping the institute boundary wall (??).

Regards,
Aalok

[khoj]

Originally Posted by aalokg

The road that you see is actually the approach road to the IRB warehouse. Initially, even I used to think that its an road going to the Sinhagad Institute, but then I noticed that it just goes to the warehouse. But I have seen students waiting by the side of the road for buses going towards Bombay. They probably get there by jumping the institute boundary wall (??).

That road does lead to the Sinhgad institute. A friend's children study there and per him that road is regularly used by the institute's buses. Thank fully the politician (from the city with 12 brains) who owns the institute did not insist/ was not indulged or maybe better sense prevailed and a cut was not provided for buses coming from Lonavala to turn right towards the institute. For this they have access via a service road.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Holy Cow! That would be an appropriate exclamation.
DueLLer, feel sorry for your car man. At the same time, i do admire you for letting the people go on counts of humanity. Kudos to you.
I strongly suggest, you get in touch with the cabwallah/ owner and claim damage expenses.
Be careful henceforth and thanks for the headsup.

[fuel_addict]

The expressway is slowly going to the COWS. Dueller, sorry to hear about the damage. It is most unfortunate for no fault of yours.

Traffic snarls, human/animals straying incidents such as these are slowly becoming the norm. Have seen 2 wheelers on the exp-way too. Lack of lane discipline is another menace. And to top it all, they increase the toll to 165. This is daylight extortion.

[SPARKled]

Lucky me, I have never encountered any animal on the Pune Mumbai Expressway for the full part of 3 years that I travelled almost every week end on this road except for an occasional road kill invloving smaller animals like dogs and cats.
Thankfully you are safe and only your rear bumper took the brunt of the damage. But IMHO you should have asked the Indica driver to take care of you insurance claim as I am sure he would have had liability if not full coverage and I guess bull bars (are they not banned??) are known to cause more damage than regular bumpers.

[DueLLeR]

UPDATE

Picture of the damage attached. As some TBHPians have pointed out, the expressway being fenced for most parts, it is highly unlikely to see dogs, cats, two-wheelers or tractors on this road. What I saw on Saturday was a herd of cows/bulls runing helter-skelter on the fastest lane! In my 7 years and 100s of trips on this road, I have never experienced anything of this sort. This adds to the driver psychology to never expect such things on the expressway. On any other highway, me or any other driver would be more alert due to the lack of fencing and fewer lanes. This is also probably the reason for the 100s of accidents that occur due to over-speeding, loss of control, tyre bursts etc.

Took the car to HASS to get an estimate of the repair costs. Thankfully, there is no metal damage and even the taillight has escaped without a scratch or a crack. The only casualties are the rear bumper and the plastic rail under it. Sharayu Hyundai has estimated the repair costs to be around 8k.

The reason why I don't want to claim insurance for this damage are:

a. The repair cost is negligible to claim under insurance and not worth losing my NCB, besides paying a higher premium next year. Besides, being plastic, I will only get 50% cover.

b. Claiming for insurance would mean dropping the car off at the workshop for the better part of the week, waiting for the surveyor to come by and approve the insurance cover.

c. I keep shuttling between Mumbai and Pune during the week and cannot afford to be car-less (if that's a word!) Besides, the car is in perfect running condition.

Paid Sharayu Hyundai an advance payment for the bumper, rail and the paint job. They will get the new bumper ready and all I need to do is drive in to pull out the old bumper and get the new one fixed. Also, the color being white saves me the hassle of a shade mismatch.

As for claiming for the damages from the cabbie, it is highly unlikely because the cabbies work in unions and stand for each other. Filing a police complaint would yield no result as the damage is not severe and/or there has been no loss of life or damage to public property. The only way I could have recovered some of my loss is by using the fist, which I wouldn't ever want to do.

As for the authorities governing the expressway, they seem to have woken up after all. Today, I saw piles of sand/cement and some construction machinery along the shoulder where the accident occured. Also, saw a Tata tempo turtled inside the median. I suspect it has been a cow hit as the tempo did not have the usual damage signs of a high speed impact.

Cheers!
DueLLeR

[mdsaab]

Have to re-type my post as i realised i made a blunder on the distance to be maintained.
Please allow me to correct it to.
3 car lengths as distance on an expressway. Rightly pointed out by @noopster
and 1 1/2 car lengths is to be maintained within the city on faster non bumper to bumper roads.
I realised this while driving yesterday and made a point to measure the distance i maintain.
Extremely sorry for the wrong advice mentioned earlier.
And hope no one has followed that as yet.
Drive Cattle Free!
Drive Safe!

Just saw your update post.
It looks bad, but luckily not too bad. and you are getting it repaired in the most sensible manner.
Good luck!

[dot]

Originally Posted by DueLLeR

Paid Sharayu Hyundai an advance payment for the bumper, rail and the paint job. They will get the new bumper ready and all I need to do is drive in to pull out the old bumper and get the new one fixed. Also, the color being white saves me the hassle of a shade mismatch.

I think you did the right thing. The damage is not much and it costs 2.5 full tanks. Best to get on with it.

[silverado]

Kudos to you Dueler, you kept your cool and did the right thing.
People would lose their mind especially if the car was as new as yours.

I dont think any of us could have done any better in such a situation.

I am happy it was only a INDICA, touchwood.
It could have been worse in case of a larger vehicle.

I havent driven as much as you have on the Eway, but i follow one simple rule if possible on most occasions, to have a better view of the road ahead of the vehicle you are trailing.

I do this by alining my car slightly towards the right side so my view is not completely blocked and i can see beyond the car ahead of me.