[90BHP]

I am glad all of you all are safe, can't be more than furious about the kid jumping on road without supervision but, then when I see this a rural belt its almost impossible for these people keep track of children when they have some much physical labor at had. It's unfortunate for you to bear these losses, I am sure you will get adequate compensation from the insurance companies. God bless !

[nanduchitnis]

Originally Posted by bblost

Please use a child seat in the future.

I second that. Child seats should be mandatory by law. Right now only the front driver and pax seat belts are compulsory. Rear pax though provided with seat belts never use them and never get cited by cops.

[srishere]

One time, when i was travelling on a highway in Papua New Guinea, the driver said, if we hit on someone, on the highway, there is no police case, as these roads are meant for driving fast and for vehicle use. Don't know whether the law actually put it down that way there.
Of course, even if that is the case, in India, with the population, its not possible.
The only trouble is, how is it that, we are so very (even well educated), uncultured, when it comes to roads and driving. In many places, we have even schools and colleges that are by the sides of highway and in some of the places, we have houses and shops on both sides of national highway.
Think, we need our education system to train the children to educate the parents on road safety and even care on general things.
Its very good to see that no one was hurt. And sorry to see the vehicle damaged this bad.

[abhishekgbiswas]

Definitely an unfortunate accident where the outcome could have been much worse but really fortunate that no one got hurt.
Drive safe.

[pranxter]

Originally Posted by revintup

Are these available in India? Where and how much?

Should be available at auto accessories shop, although not many were selling them say 2-3 years, but quite a few are stocking them now. I have seen Reliance Automart sell them (I had been to one at Basaweshwarnagar, Bangalore)

[swiftnfurious]

Thank God that everyone is safe except minor injuries.

Originally Posted by tazmaan

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

I vote against this. If the divider is bigger, more chances of the vehicle toppling on to the next lane. Probably good & strong railings could help I guess.

Originally Posted by DevilsCry

This method of preventing from hitting a kid in front is just unacceptable to me.

While I agree with your views, I doubt a whole lot of us will think about hitting a human ! In this case, if the lady had hit the kid & he died [most probably], she would be carrying those haunting thoughts through out her life [& passengers too]. Here, by God's grace no one lost life - that's the biggest relief. They will recover from the shock much easier & quicker.

Originally Posted by sudev

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.

+1 Sir !! I follow this after starting to drive on highways. The middle lane gives you much more space to swerve if required. Don't get too close to the vehicle in the front, overtake when you can see the roads well ahead and honk / flash lights till the driver in the front is aware that you are going to overtake.

Originally Posted by revintup

Are these available in India? Where and how much?

It's available in almost all hyper markets [Total / Spar / Big Baazar / Reliance Mart etc]. Guess some of these travel bag companies [Samsonite etc] may also have these in stock. Or even the kids toys shop. Guess the prices are from 5K.

[simplyself]

Yes, it appears it is better to be in slow lane.

The median is now being planted with shrubs so that the oncoming lights do not disturb the drivers in the opposite lanes. It is good trick to cut the light but what happens is any kid/man/cattle can come out of the shrubs with very little notice. Whenever I gain higher speeds, I instinctively change into the slower lane. That way we get some more time if anything happens suddenly. Also, faster moving vehicles continue in the right lane and reduces the need to keep an eye on rearview mirror for any vehicle which may be coming to overtake you.

[riturajsharma19]

One of my colleagues recently lost his life in a road accident while 2 others survived with not-so-minor injuries. They were on an official trip and travelling 120 plus on a Safari - that too on a undivided highway with traffic on both directions at 7:00 PM in the evening. The driver, a juvenile, apparently did not see a sharp turn ahead and applied full brakes, on which the wheels got locked and the car skidded and fell into a ditch.

I strongly feel people who drive 'non-safe(ty)' vehicles with no ABS or airbags need to be extra careful with speeds on highways. Plus when one is travelling by commercial vehicles, the drivers of which tend to do insane speeds, it is imperative to pre-inspect the vehicle and also the driver. In the above incident, had any of the passengers cautioned the driver to reduce his speed, the accident could have been either avoided or atleast no loss of life would have happened.

[IUNKWN]

Originally Posted by riturajsharma19

I strongly feel people who drive 'non-safe(ty)' vehicles with no ABS or airbags need to be extra careful with speeds on highways. Plus when one is travelling by commercial vehicles, the drivers of which tend to do insane speeds, it is imperative to pre-inspect the vehicle and also the driver. In the above incident, had any of the passengers cautioned the driver to reduce his speed, the accident could have been either avoided or atleast no loss of life would have happened.

I second you. Only when you or one of your near and dear ones become a victim, then you realize how it feels. My cousin, lost his wife, (just 7 months old marriage). Almost the same story, they swerved to save a maruti zen coming from the opposite direction on the Chennai Pondicherry road (no divider). The zen was trying to overtake near a turn and suddenly came in front of them. They were not wearing seat belts.

[harpreetkanwar]

You and the family is very lucky to have survived. Instead of discussing how you should have maneuvered the car in such a situation we should really talk about three basic facts:

1) 95% of our cars do not have safety features like airbags, or proper crash tests done by Euro NCAP, etc.
2) Our roads are clearly not the best, when it comes to quality of tar, dividers, crossings, etc.
3) 95% of our cars have insufficient braking technology and cost cut= downsized tyres.

Our vehicles are simply not meant to do a 100kms/hr and come to a complete halt in a respectable breaking distance. I have myself seen so many accidents where I can literally see the person's vehicle skidding and dragging till it bangs into another vehicle, divider or pole after applying the breaks.

A simple solution to this is:

Either Buy safer cars (with better breaking, airbags, decent tyre size).
or
Drive at 60 KMS/HR.

[RGK]

Very sorry to hear this and thank God for zero loss. It is question of time for the involved families to recover.

I had a different experience long back. Was driving my M800 on a two laned highway where I saw a small kid (around 3-4 years) standing on the left side road. So I applied brakes anticipating that kid may cross the road. What happened next was the anti climax.
The mother standing on the other side of road suddenly ran across to hold the kid. Her intention was to save the kid.
Luckily the car stopped. Shouted at the lady of leaving the kid unattended rather than accusing her of crossing.

Four laned highways normally should have a wider median to prevent accidents. But the size of the median is getting reduced due to land acquisition problems.

The best and permanent solution would be to have underpasses at all intersections and fence the roads at intersections and small villages.

Safety should take the drivers seat in India but it is not still happening.

[DrVjy]

It was terrifying to read about your accident, tazmaan. The silver lining is that all of you are safe. Your accident reminds me of something similar I experienced when driving on a motorway in the UK some 10 years back. I was driving back home from my office, and was in the slowest lane (leftmost one). As I was driving, someplace I noticed a ladder lying in the middle lane (lane next to mine), likely fallen off some careless truck. It was shocking to see that thing on a motorway, but a bigger shock was coming in a few moments. A van driver on that ladder's lane (driving faster than me) suddenly noticed the thing lying before him, swerved quickly into my lane, then noticed me ahead, tried swerving back into his lane to avoid me, but was not early enough for that maneuver, and ended up knocking my car in the rear at high speed. That terrifying transfer of momentum, into the car's corner made me lose control of my car. My car rolled over, maybe more than once (somewhat like in the Hollywood movie 'Fast and Furious'), yawed by a full 360 deg as well, and finally (God knows how), came to rest on four wheels, in the slowest lane, across the driving direction. My briefcase had got flung off the car's window during those moments. All other drivers stopped to help me who was totally shaken, and called for police who were there in minutes. Surprisingly my car's engine (don't recall which make) was still running, and the car itself didn't seem to have had any major damage. Neither was I hurt as I had my seat belt on. The police however said they would have to cut thru the car's roof to take me out as according to the law, they would have to put me onto a stretcher only or otherwise they would be responsible for any injury during the process.

No case was registered by the police against the van driver as they considered his reactions as normal! Perhaps that was acceptable, but the police (apparently from laziness) also told me they were not going to bother about tracing the real culprit- the truck from whom the ladder fell off!

Looks like we need some sort of remote sensing device in our cars, especially when driving on our new gen multi- lane toll expressways.

[NST440]

Thank God everyone was safe, after seeing the pics i could only say kudos to innova or sheer luck , God has been great. Somethings i have learnt out of the whole episode is:

1. Seat belts are arms of God in a car,wear them always what so ever.

2. When a female is involved in an accident, people and authorities are less aggressive.

3. We can never comment on ''what else could have been done by the driver'' as its a matter of split second, those who've been through an accident know hard it is.

4. To come out clean from the aftermath & harassments of an accident, one has to have certain good contacts which i have seen in almost all accidents.

5.The Advertisement of Ceat Tires which says '' the streets are filled with idiots'' is just appropriate for driving conditions in our country .

CEAT Bike Tyres 'IDIOTS' TV commercial - 'SHOPPING' - YouTube

[aaggoswami]

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.

That is actually the correct way of Driving. Not jumping lane immediately without analyzing surrounding. Veering off into another lane to prevent an accident can lead to more dangerous scenarios. This is one thing I learnt from bike riding. When in emergency situation in bike, I used to change lane rather than braking. Once near college ( during my graduation days ) I did the same and Zen coming from behind almost hit me. Fortunately the driver of Zen managed to brake really hard and only the left front door of Zen touched my footrest. In another case near in my city ( in racecourse area ) a lady's feet were run over by truck when she changed direction into other lane to avoid a kid. She kept her feet down and braked while changing direction at the same time. The truck driver did brake which saved her life.

This is a very dangerous maneuver and even a relatively stable car like Innova can be difficult to handle with not so high speeds. This is enough to gauge how dangerous our highways are and also how difficult sudden maneuver can be.

[JediKnight]

Originally Posted by harpreetkanwar

Either Buy safer cars (with better breaking, airbags, decent tyre size).
or
Drive at 60 KMS/HR.

I am amazed how people have blind faith in safety tech and see technology as a license to drive at insane speed. If you would have noticed the vehicle involved in the accident was a Innova "V" variant which comes with airbags and ABS. In fact in this case the ABS would have helped the lady veer into the opposite lane. Technology helps no doubt bit but is no excuse for over speeding.
It is simple physics. If we recall the formula for Kinetic Energy (KE) in your 10th standard physics text KE = 0.5 * m * v^2. ( where m is mass and v is velocity ) Notice that the velocity is sqaured. Your brakes have to dissapate the KE accumulated by the vehicle before it can come to a rest. An 2 x increase in speed will cause 4 x increase in KE which will lead to 4 x increase in breaking distance.

The only safe way to drive in India is to drive defensively anticipating the worst. Resist the urge to rip your vehicle even if you see an empty road. Even though you may have ABS and great tyres.