[svsantosh]

This reminds me of a thread in TBhp (a NRI gentleman had posted it) - it said the driver (he or his friend, I cant recollect) was Actually fined (in a accident case) for swerwing AWAY from the current lane.

Indian mentality (or general human mentality) is to save yourself/the kid ahead - and you turn the wheel left/right. But in USA it is a crime with very big repurcussions I think.

And 'why' is seen in this thread! Poor Wagon R, didnt see this coming... thank God no one died in the wagon-R. It would have a bitter irony if some 1 died in the wagon while trying to save a kid running across the highway.

God IS there!!

EDIT------------
Gotcha!!

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...t-driving.html

[MileCruncher]

Firstly sorry to hear about the accident but good to know that no one received grievous injuries.

The Wagon R as well the Innova for all practical purposes are total loss and hence its required by law for FIR to be filed for claiming insurance. Since no one was seriously injured/died your aunt should be able to get through with the case with a penalty.

Just a piece of advice for everyone, driving on 4-lane highways is not as easy as its perceived out to be. Try driving as much as possible on the left. And always keep checking all 3 mirrors to know your surroundings.

[vivekiny2k]

Sorry to sound mechanical but it's not worth risking many lives for the sake of one. Apply full brakes, sound horn, but swerving is not what I would recommend in such a situation.

The agony of he wagon R driver alone is enough to rationalize the thought here.

[shashank.nk]

Tazmaan, glad to hear that no one was injured in the accident. When i first looked at the pics (before reading your post) it looked like there might have been some serious injuries. Lucky that everyone escaped!

Though with improving infrastructure the average speeds on highways is increasing, it sad to see that one cannot be safe even when doing 80km/h. No amount of caution can be said to be enough for our highways.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

Sorry to sound mechanical...

@vivekiny2k: It must have been a very very split-second decision for the lady driving, and evaluating the consequences of swerving / braking / running over the kid etc. would have been far from her mind when travelling at over 70 feet per second. We are all just very glad that the outcome of her actions was zero loss of life.

[ravi_23]

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident. Highways in India are becoming unsafe day by day. Thank God that nobody got hurt in the incident. How was the wagonR owner's reaction, was he understanding?

Also I agree with vivek's comment to some extent. One should try his/her best to get the attention of the road crosser by blowing horn so that the pedestrian becomes aware. Also should slam the brakes as hard as possible and bring the vehicle's speed down. Sudden movements of the steering is not advisable at high speeds, but after having said all this, I guess at such times people do not get enough time to react properly to the situation. It all just happens in a fraction of second

[miles_hungry]

This is a really unfortunate incident. Sorry to hear about it, and thank God that no one is hurt. Government should take steps to spread awareness among people as to how to cross roads and drive vehicles specially in rural areas. Also as mentioned by someone, boundary walls should be made in accident prone areas so that stray animals and people cannot cross the road in certain stretches.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

@vivekiny2k: It must have been a very very split-second decision for the lady driving, and evaluating the consequences of swerving / braking / running over the kid etc. would have been far from her mind when travelling at over 70 feet per second. We are all just very glad that the outcome of her actions was zero loss of life.

Sure, I am not claiming or blaming anything. I am hoping once we have had this discussion, next time we will not make that instinctive mistake.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Just a piece of advice for everyone, driving on 4-lane highways is not as easy as its perceived out to be. Try driving as much as possible on the left. And always keep checking all 3 mirrors to know your surroundings.

This has been repeated so many times by long distance travelers that it deserves a mention again.

Try not to be in the fast lane as far as possible. It is irritating to change lanes to over take slower moving traffic but trust me it is much safer.

Imagine the reaction time she would have if she was in middle or left lane. And same goes for WagonR.

Thank god no one was injured in this one but have seen too many jumps of meridian to keep telling people get out of mentality of driving on undivided highways and keep to left most lane.

[parsh]

Man thats a ghastly mishap. Thank Goodness, nobody is hurt badly inspite of such a serious accident. The stray children, animals and trucks veering into lanes un-notified is really a nightmare.

On our 4500km journey recently in May-June we could have had similar situation and maybe fatal as a truck in the leftmost lane veered suddenly into our middle lane and our Innova with about 5 of our family children on board being at 100-120ish it was near fatalish experience and somehow just escaped with a bruise on the Left OVRM as we could take action to get into righmost lane immediately. The truck was taken to the Police Chowky ceremoneously with photos taken and remanded by the authorities on the highway.

Inspite of Dirving Safely ourselves we just can't seem to get over with these 3rd party reasons for accidents.

[DevilsCry]

Not trying to point fingers at anyone but swerving at 80kph resulting in jumping over divider and hitting a car on opposite lane? This method of preventing from hitting a kid in front is just unacceptable to me.

It was really lucky that no one got grave injuries. Imagine a heavily crowded Innova hitting a heavily crowded Omni on opposite side! Could have been fatality in a dozen.

[tazmaan]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

Sorry to sound mechanical but it's not worth risking many lives for the sake of one. Apply full brakes, sound horn, but swerving is not what I would recommend in such a situation.

Originally Posted by ravi_23

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident. Highways in India are becoming unsafe day by day. Thank God that nobody got hurt in the incident. How was the wagonR owner's reaction, was he understanding?

Also I agree with vivek's comment to some extent.

We have been taught this and follow this as a rule. As a matter of fact my Aunt always gives us a lecture when she sees one of us swerving when a dog or something comes in front of the car. She says maintain your line hit the brakes. But she her self confessed that she broke the rule seeing a child she was about to hit. She says she remembers every moment of the accident, she did brake and then swerved at the last moment (I guess if it was a non ABS innova it would have hit the child) As quoted by the Police and L&T rescue staff 'You saved a life God saved you'. Wagon R family took it pretty well, a car following our car gave the statement supporting ours which calmed him down.

Originally Posted by miles_hungry

Also as mentioned by someone, boundary walls should be made in accident prone areas so that stray animals and people cannot cross the road in certain stretches.

If that's not possible at least we need taller and stronger dividers to prevent cars from jumping them.

Originally Posted by sudev

This has been repeated so many times by long distance travelers that it deserves a mention again.

Try not to be in the fast lane as far as possible. It is irritating to change lanes to over take slower moving traffic but trust me it is much safer.

Imagine the reaction time she would have if she was in middle or left lane. And same goes for WagonR.

We were passing trucks at that time, there was a lot of truck movement that morning.

Originally Posted by DevilsCry

Not trying to point fingers at anyone but swerving at 80kph resulting in jumping over divider and hitting a car on opposite lane? This method of preventing from hitting a kid in front is just unacceptable to me.

It was really lucky that no one got grave injuries. Imagine a heavily crowded Innova hitting a heavily crowded Omni on opposite side! Could have been fatality in a dozen.

Yes true one should hit, but easier said than done!

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Please use the "edit" button if posting within 30 minutes of the first post, instead of creating another back-to-back post.

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[drmohitg]

Its very much correct to say that one should not leave there lane and break even if it means hitting the obstacle.
But in reality things are never this easy. Thats why we are called humans. The first reaction will always be to save that child rather then dwell into the after effects of what may happen if you change lanes. I am not sure which is right and which is wrong. You hit the child and you will face a complicated case and also probably live in the everlasting horror of that scene for the rest of your life. You hit someother car/divider and lose someone in your family or the car you hit and again you face a complicated legal case and live in the agony of killing someone for the rest of your life.

Can we really pick between the two? I cannot.

This does once again points out the proper way of highway driving.
1. Be in the speed limit however free the road looks and whatever top speeds your car can do. I come across such people frequently who claim that they have total control of there car when driving in excess of 100. Just admit it that its humanely not possible and its foolish to believe otherwise.
2. Always be extra alert on the highway, use your horn well and try and slow down at crossings or places where there are villages on the sides of the road.
3. When you go car hunting next buy a car which has all the safety features even if that means buying one from the segment below. Your life is worth more then mere engine specs and length of the car.

[revintup]

Thank God's everyone came out safe. And thanks for posting. If at least one person understands the importance of wearing a seatbelt after reading this, I would consider this post as a life saver.

I have always had a hard time convincing others regarding seat belt use especially elders. They just utter total nonsense like

1.my amby never had one,
2.you will die if only God wishes you to,
3.wrinkles my shirt,
4.suffocates me,
5.restricts my mobility?????
6. ANd best of all, makes me look like a coward

Originally Posted by bblost

Please use a child seat in the future.

Originally Posted by tazmaan

I have got my family to start wearing seat belts and the next step would be to start using the child seat. We have one but I have to go convincing around how important safety is.

@mayankjha1806 :- It hurts to see the car damaged but the car did what it was designed to do which is to keep the occupants safe. I am impressed with the Innova's safety or may be it was just pure luck.

Are these available in India? Where and how much?

[bblost]

Originally Posted by revintup

Are these available in India? Where and how much?

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...seat-kids.html