[stevie]

hi friends

My main reason to write today is because i was convicted to do so.To let everyone here know that its not just survival alone...........its a second chance........a second chance for what one may ask!!!!
A SECOND CHANCE TO BE RESPONSIBLE!

It happened all of a sudden! Everything that day seemed to go right. Every decision seemed right and best of all.....quick.
My mom always told me...."dont make/take hasty decisions"!!!!!That kept ringing in my ear but everything seemed right!

I along with my uncle and his family decided a road trip to pondicherry from bangalore.We were all kicked since it was 9 am and we decided to leave my 2.30 in the afteroon.Everyone disappeared to do their packing.
We started the awesome journey and of course the new QUALIS was the perk.it was about a month old and was raring to go on one of these drives.

to cut the long story short.......we were already two hours through the journey.we were on the highy way and deciding to take a quick chai stop!!my uncle told me..........after the chai break i will take over for about two hours so you can take a break.................well we were unable to find a decent chai stall to stop at........strangely enough to be slowed down by the network of barricades one would clearly see in the andhra territory, palamner and chitoor districts.
having driven through one of the sets of barricades.....a small voice in my head to ld me....BUCKLE UP! I very simply pully eh seat belt, securely fastened it.
we were climbing a small ghat section.in my rear view i saw a sppeding lorry gain pace and ready yo overtake me on a sharp right curve.i let him pass.only to realise that he overtook in an instant and braked to avoid an approaching lorry.

In a split second..........in a nano second...........in the blink of an eye.......he tapered me off the road only to find myslef trying to gain as much control and keep the car firm on the road.
the next thing iknow is...we were tunbling and tossing down the side of the ghat section, tumbling and tossing around a few times before hte car actually landed on a large bush the actually held it in place.i was outcold.
someone was calling out my name.....i could hear sirens.....people ....commotion...noise........and a huge splash of water that woke me up.
It was a very kind man trying to reach out to me and and grab my hand.i was pulled out.......i was searching for other family member and found that they were all safe (my uncle was actually clicking away pics with his camera and seemed totally ok after the tossing and turning).the cops were there real quick and took us to a private hospital where all of us were checked for injuries................none of us were hurt.........can u believe that........not a single injury.

The cops later told me that the place is called 'boothagandalam' which translated means 'the devils pit'!!! he siad no one has survived this fall.....they have never seen cases of survival in this spot.i broke down.

there were many factors and many more realisations through the whole event.
I personal;ly believe its the sheer grace of GOD that i am alive today, secondly the timely help of people that were literally never there when it happened.(they just gathered instantaneously), and believe me the design of the qualis and the technology involved in making its body, rocks!!!! none of the pillars of the car were actually bent inwards..........all pillars were bent and protruding outwards.....the impactors on the doors were rock solid and the body created its own cocoon that saved us.the car was dumped and we had to buy a new one.

i have learned from this...........learned to respect life, learned to respect the machine and learned to be as responsible as possible when i drive.
i do love speed but i love it when i know i have a control over it.

i may have dragged streched and even bored a few through this story but i just had to share this eperience with you..........an experience of a life time.had made me a stronger individual.

thanks all

[zenx]

Wow, that was really a second chance! Thank god everyone came out safe, and yes the importance of taking the precautions we can cannot be highlighted better than through this incident of yours. Its also heartening you have come out positively from this and not taken a 'never going to drive again' route that many do after similar incidents.

[stevie]

thanks........yes indeed! have learnt from the whole experience! wow!!

[drifter]

Thank god man you and everyone else made it out without any injuries. I know how you feel. All it takes is a few seconds to change lives forever.

Drifter

[2L8uLoose]

Dude.. glad to know you guys ok..
PEOPLE LEARN FROM STEVIE's EXPERIENCE.. its a MUCH MUCH CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE THAN YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE!

[stevie]

yes! its all about learning...........what did i learn today types!!!! i learn loads of stuff from my experiences and of course team-bhp.one "helluva" learning place!!!

[Fuelled]

Thank god you and ur family's safe man. That really was a nasty accident.

Luck.. and i meant the best of all lucks was on your side that day.

[Rehaan]

Hey Stevie,

As everyone says.... really really lucky!
Glad to know that noone was hurt....

How about posting some of those pictures that your uncle was clicking away?

cya
R

[aZa]

Stevie !!! Glad to hear everyones safe what happenned to the trucker ? did anyone catch him ?

[rks]

Originally Posted by stevie

[...]
to cut the long story short.......we were already two hours through the journey.we were on the highy way and deciding to take a quick chai stop!!my uncle told me..........after the chai break i will take over for about two hours so you can take a break.................well we were unable to find a decent chai stall to stop at........strangely enough to be slowed down by the network of barricades one would clearly see in the andhra territory, palamner and chitoor districts.
having driven through one of the sets of barricades.....a small voice in my head to ld me....BUCKLE UP! I very simply pully eh seat belt, securely fastened it.
we were climbing a small ghat section.in my rear view i saw a sppeding lorry gain pace and ready yo overtake me on a sharp right curve.i let him pass.only to realise that he overtook in an instant and braked to avoid an approaching lorry.

In a split second..........in a nano second...........in the blink of an eye.......he tapered me off the road only to find myslef trying to gain as much control and keep the car firm on the road.
the next thing iknow is...we were tunbling and tossing down the side of the ghat section, tumbling and tossing around a few times before hte car actually landed on a large bush the actually held it in place.
[...]

A few questions.

Did you actually signal to let the lorry go ahead on the sharp right curve? If so, a definite mistake on your part-- he could have thought that you were giving him the all-clear on the blind curve.

Secondly, did you consider just braking hard, rather than swerve to the edge of the ghat road, with potentially disastrous consequences? The Qualis has excellent brakes, and you might have gotten away with a relatively minor impact, either sideways or on to the rear end of the lorry. Note that the lorry driver preferred a potential sideways impact with you rather than a head-on collision with the other lorry-- that is the correct response on his part, given the choice.

Thirdly, why were you driving so slowly as to let a lorry pass you on a ghat road? Were you searching for a chai shop? If not, I would say -- come on, man, you have a Qualis. It is my strong belief that you must drive at a reasonable speed on the highway and stay clearly ahead of the slow-moving and heavy vehicles, in order to be as safe as possible. You will then have a clear view of the road, rather than have it obstructed by slow-moving vehicles ahead of you. Not to mention the nuisance of being frequently slowed down by their constant braking. When you do the overtaking, you are relying on *your* skills to get the job done safely. When you continually let other guys overtake you, you are relying on *their* skills to execute the overtakes correctly. I definitely prefer the former. A lot of people may not agree with me, but I firmly hold on to this idea. Slow driving on the highway is not necessarily safe driving.

Of course there are exceptions to this rule. E.g., if the lorry/bus driver is coming at an unsafely high speed behind you and is apparently hell-bent on suicide, you might just have to let him go. But my experience is that most lorry/bus drivers are not of this variety. And their heavy vehicles are just no match for a modern car, especially on ghat roads. I don't recollect letting *any* of these buggers overtake my Santro ZipDrive, not in the recent past at least.

Regards, rks

[nitrous]

...........its a second chance........a second chance for what one may ask!!!!
A SECOND CHANCE TO BE RESPONSIBLE

I've always thought the same way,brotha.

[Wheeliej]

Hey Stevie, glad to hear that you all survived with no injury. These truck drivers are just toooooo unreliable.

Thanks RKS for the sound advice.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by stevie

in my rear view i saw a sppeding lorry gain pace and ready yo overtake me on a sharp right curve.i let him pass.only to realise that he overtook in an instant and braked to avoid an approaching lorry.

If I remember correct, there are no more than four sharp corners in that area. Which one is this?

[Sagarpradhan85]

just thank god..... hes the one who saved u

[amitoj]

Thanks for sharing this stevie. The little voice at the back of the head is often hard to listen to! But u did a good job in the end.