[novice]

I drove down to Chennai on Jan 10 from Bangalore in my Corolla. I started from Bangalore at 3.30pm and reached Vellore at about 6.15pm. I met with a nasty accident at around 6.30 pm on outskirts of Vellore(at a place called Perumugai, about a kilometer from Sathuvachari police station). I was driving at about 110 km speed and I was on the right most lane.

There was guy on a bike on left lane, he took a sudden right turn and moved into the right lane to cross-over the gap in the median. My car was only few feet's away from the bike. I slammed the brakes and steered to right, luckily there were no vehicles behind me. But it was too late, right side of my car hit the rear of the bike with full speed. The guy on the bike was thrown away and landed on the median few feets away and his bike got struck between the front bumper and the RH weel, dragged for about 20 feet. The bike was totally destroyed and looked like a mangled piece of metal. The left side of My Corolla took the full force of the impact, the parts damaged are,
Front Bumper,
Right side Head and Fog lights
Right side ORVM
Right side Fender
Boot Lid
Radiator Grille,
AC Condenser bed
AC pipes
Front Grille
Right side door and lot of other small parts in engine compartment.

But surprisingly and fortunately, the bike-wala survived with only small cuts and lot of bruises. It was really difficult to believe that he survived considering the extent of damage to the vehicles.

He was immediately taken to a nearby hospital and large crowd gathered at the accident site. Some people did try to create trouble and but luckily not much trouble from crowd. Even after so much of damage, car was in drivable condition.

Police came and asked me to bring the car to the police station. That guys relatives also came and they wanted to go for settlement, since they knew it was his mistake that resulted into accident. Police also was little helpful to me but most of the time they were on the fence wanting to make some money. One of my uncles is politician, he is a state secretary of a national party in a neighboring state. He called up his counterparts in Tamil Nadu. They spoke to the police and sent few local party leaders to the station. After some hard-negotiation they agreed for Rs.4000 for his medical expenses and no compensation for bike. It took almost three hours to settle everything, I started to Chennai at 9.30pm and drove with only one headlight and one ORVM; reached Chennai at about 12.30am.

Next day I went to Lanson Toyota in Chennai and the initial estimate was about Rs.1 lakh. They promised me to give the vehicle in 5 days but got it back on 7th day. They did a pretty impressive job considering that it was a long week-end due to Shankranthi holidays. The final amount was Rs 1.1lakhs out of which I paid Rs.30k from my pocket.

The worst part is that my parents were traveling with me; my mom got scared a lot.

The stretch between Krishnagiri and Vellore is infested with stupid two-wheeler riders. I drive down to Chennai often, at least 3 to 4 times a month. Yes I drive fast but extremely careful. I had close calls involving bikers almost every singe trip and this time I was just unlucky. My advice to all users of Chennai – Bangalore GQ highway,
Try to avoid using this road, use the alternate Kolar – Plamaner - Ranipet route. It is also a national highway. If not at least avoid using this route during evening times, travel during early morning or late night.

- Novice.

[speedzak]

OH No!!! It's sad to hear that.
Man, Hold on strong. Don't let this leave you all shaked.

The problem is we never can't predict what the bikers are upto. Some are out there looking for a suicide too. So, we have to be very careful and don't ever expect any kind of support from the locals or Police in this type of scenario.

The only possible solution is to keep a good margin for any sort of errors.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by novice

Try to avoid using this road, use the alternate Kolar – Plamaner - Ranipet route.

Doesn't really help. Though this road is interesting with lot of curves/winding stretches...you have way too many open villages all through. Bikes, cycles, pedestrians, livestock’s..you name it. Any which way this road meet the same highway at Ranipet.

No road is safe in this country and you need to keep that in mind.

Sorry to hear about your accident.

[goldsun]

I feel very sad about the accident. Glad nothing major happened to you and your parents and the bikewala.

[quote=Rudra Sen;362124]
No road is safe in this country and you need to keep that in mind.
quote]

Well said. It is all in the hands of road users.

[headers]

yeah the new Bangalore- Chennai highway has a lot of idiots jaywalking and biking totally unconcerned about the speeds at which we travel..

I've had a close call once in my accent CRDI and had to look wheels from 140Kmph..

A better suggestion to fellow users is to always stick to the left lane..or the middle if the road permits so that we have more space to play around in that time..Its really bad under panic braking and sometimes the MIND does not work!!


My condolences to you Novice..

The crowd also gathers in the area only to create trouble..the belt between Sriperumbudur till krishnagiri is great roads and GREAT PEOPLE waiting to catch the sucker who hits his COW / DOG / SHEEP / CYCLE etc..

Happy motoring!!

[novice]

Originally Posted by novice

I slammed the brakes and steered to right.....
The left side of My Corolla took the full force of the impact, the parts damaged are,
Front Bumper,
Right side Head and Fog lights
Right side ORVM
Right side Fender
Boot Lid
Radiator Grille,
AC Condenser bed
AC pipes
Front Grille
Right side door and lot of other small parts in engine compartment.

I steered to left not right...otherwise he would have come under the wheels. Also it was hood that got damaged not Boot lid. Sorry for the typo mistakes.

-Novice

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by novice

The stretch between Krishnagiri and Vellore is infested with stupid two-wheeler riders. My advice to all users of Chennai – Bangalore GQ highway,
Try to avoid using this road, use the alternate Kolar – Plamaner - Ranipet route. It is also a national highway. If not at least avoid using this route during evening times, travel during early morning or late night.

Sorry abt your accident - it must have been high-BP stuff. But neither route to Chennai is safely motorable. The route you took might be infested with 2-wheelers, but the other route - the old Madras Road is quite messy too (memo45 had his car totalled on this road); this route is infested with villages all along - there's no truly open motorable stretch.

Sometimes I wonder whether all cops/transport departments arent intentionally allowing this unjustifiable situations on highways fester for their personal gains.

[maxbhp]

Thats a really bad accident but thank God everything were in control except for the Moolah's you had shelled out for no apparent mistake of yours. Yes as you had pointed out NH's are indeed getting more congested and its a pain in the *** when its filled with bikers who have little idea of the term ' R H D ' . I am saying this coz even I face the similar situation as yours as I have to do frequent trips and always involve some close calls.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by novice

Try to avoid using this road, use the alternate Kolar – Plamaner - Ranipet route. It is also a national highway. If not at least avoid using this route during evening times, travel during early morning or late night.

- Novice.

Thank goodness you are all right. It could have taken a bad turn as the villagers are so dim witted and would have attacked you out of some feelings for the biker.

I drive to blore and back to chennai once a month and my average speed is b/w 120 and 150 kmph.... Trick i use is anticipation... every time i overtake someone i ensure to honk my @$$ off till the person is aware of my intention to overtake.

It is not just bikers but vehicles in the opposite direction, driving in the wrong lane that can cause nasty and sometimes fatal accidents.

The only solace on this road is that there is a median dividing traffic in opposite directions... but be wary of idiots who would rather drive on the wrong lane than go half a km more for a U turn....

Ranipet route is good as speed is limited to 80-100kmph but again has its own cons as there are bullock carts with no lights, tractors with no lights carrying loooooong wooden logs... and all these ppl drive in the center of the road.... I used to take this route until i almost slammed into one such tractor.... this is far too riskier than the Krishnagiri route...

Wonder what the highway patrol does ???

[akroy]

Thats unfortunate Novice, Just as Rudra Sir told, no road is safe in India....
We, the car owners have to take care of our drive, cars and also of this elements....Hence, even if you are overtaking a bike do some more honking and then overtake....dont neglect the bikers...maximum car accidents happen due to two wheelers not four wheelers in this part of the country....since the present generation cars dont make much noise, the careless bikers dont often realize about anything coming from behind...

We alone cant change this mindset and also the location of the villages, so we should nothing but to take of ourselves....

Drive safe!!!
Abhi

[Samurai]

Thank god you survived the accident and the lynch mob. The behavior of police is as expected, if not for the political pressure your brought to bear, you would have coughed up much more. It is really sad that police don't pay even lip service to law anymore, they have become the medium for negotiation and just collect their healthy fee.

[jkdas]

Glad that alls fine. These median jumpers are a big problem. Educated people also do this daily after they leave from office from Honeywell, HSBC etc. and I sometimes feel like stopping them and scold.And imagine riding on ur left side towards you with high beam $%^&
I think its the fuel pump guys/ hoteliers who make small gaps like this so that people can take short cuts....helps business na.

and did you sign an agreement that he is fine and wont register a complaint etc..in a stamp paper?

[esteem_lover]

Tribute to the build of your car that there were no major damages to it inspite of the bike getting crushed.

[faithless_1984]

sorry to hear that novice ,but glad to hear that you and your family came out unscathed.!

[rjstyles69]

Hey novice sorry to hear about the mishap. Thank God that you and your family have had no injuries.As for the biker, hope he too has a speedy recovery.