[apocalypse]

I've usually travelled in groups of 3-4 people, so I haven't experienced this fear. I once went on a solo trip from Chennai to Kanyakumari, in my Accord V6. I started off at 5PM, and found myself sipping tea at Kanyakumari, waiting for sunrise, at 6AM. The road was fantastic.

Although safety-wise the trip was spectacularly uneventful, a month after I returned, I was riding in an Ola cab to the airport, talking about my trip to the driver. He seemed astonished that I went alone for the trip.

Apparently, highway theft is common around Kovilpatti. He told me that until a few months ago, he used to be a truck driver on that route. He got stopped at night by a bunch of thugs, they stole everything he had, and he got beaten up as well. The trauma made him exit his line of work, and he became a cabbie in Chennai.

Another modus operandi I've heard is that a guy along with a "medically-ill" friend stops your car on the road, and solicits your help in moving his semi-conscious friend to a nearby hospital. The semi-conscious friend either wakes up on the way, and they both overpower you, or they have a reception party waiting for you at the hospital, with another bunch of goons.

I feel it's an important rule to follow to travel only during the daylight if travelling along with vulnerable people (family, kids, women). It is sad and sexist for it to be this way that women in our society feel physically more vulnerable, and I hope this changes soon. Although the probabilistic expectation of a bad event happening is miniscule, from the vast number of trips I've done, even one bad event can ruin the entire experience of the journey.


On another note, it's better to be as independent as possible when traveling. One is most vulnerable when one's car is stranded. For example, I've learnt is that it's a great idea to know how to change your car's spare wheel. In my early years, I've been stranded along with friends with a punctured wheel, and we didn't know how to change the wheel. We had no choice but to solicit help from some very nice and helpful passing by truck drivers. I've come a long way since then now, although I would suggest that everyone with a car should, on a free weekend, try changing their spare wheel.

99% of people have a baseline level of decency, but unfortunately it's that 1% that we need to account for. Moreover, with a level-up of our skills, we can increase the number of decent people on our highways who are in a position to help someone with a stranded vehicle.

[RiderZone]

I've experienced nothing but generosity on the highways. Some people get a bit too curious which can get annoying, but nothing more serious.

I'd once ridden from Mumbai to Himachal on my KTM via the Rajasthan route. On the solo return ride everyone suggested I stay away from MP, so that's the route I took.

Google maps took me through some random backyards, but found only nice people, happy to go out of their way to help a stranger.

[Artyom]

Folks i am travelling from Bangalore to Punjab with family in the first week of October.
This is the first time i am travelling such a huge distance, 2600 Km one way

Below is the route planned:-

Bangalore to Hyderabad(Night Halt)
Hyderabad to Bhopal(Night Halt)
Bhopal to Agra(Night Halt)
Agra to Punjab

Folks i would appreciate any suggestions/tips/advice from the forum members to ensure that i have a safe trip.
In particular any suggestions for this route will be helpful.
I will start the trip from every point early morning by 5Am to avoid driving post-sunset
Thanks in advance.

[Akash_1806]

I would like to narrate one instance on the Delhi-Jaipur highway service road, somewhere 6-7 kms after Dharuhera. My family belongs from Haryana and we have a lot many relatives here and there but as we live in Noida, our car bears a UP 16 number plate. It was approximately 1:00 am when we were passing that area to go to Rewari due to some emergency. My dad's office was just few hundred meters ahead and everyone knew about our car as it was quite regular there, but suddenly a black Bajaj Pulsar and Mahindra Bolero (both without number plates) came on our sides asking us to stop. I was not able to see any knife or anything but they were carrying rods and sticks (lathis). The guy on pulsar hit the left side door with the rod and my dad sped up the car as he was able to see his office at a distance. We didn't stop till the time we entered the office gate. The Bolero stopped right outside the gate but it sped off after he saw me and my dad with the locals of that place who work with dad. My dad's colleagues were quite helpful in finding those goons. It was a gang which used to attack private number cars which were not from that particular area as they are 'easy' prey. I think that's why they attacked us, seeing the UP 16 plates on our car. No one was injured in this particular incident, but it was scary as hell. This happened sometime around February this year.

[Fulcrum]

Never experienced an incident but have felt the combination of fear & thrill of such a situation once.
I remember an incident from my childhood in the late 1990s, when the road between Mathura & Jaipur was not a 4 lane highway and goons were actively robbing the passing vehicles every other day.
Once we were traveling with my Nana Ji on that road and the weather turned very cloudy. It got very dark, even our taxi driver was scared to drive on that road in those conditions. That was the time when my Nana Ji turned RAMBO and pulled out his loaded licensed Pistol and said to the driver “Tu gaadi chala, aage jo hoga main dekh lunga“ (You drive the car, I will see what happens ahead). For the next 3 hrs, my Nana Ji kept his finger on the trigger of his pistol which he covered with his shawl and the 10-year-old me was trying my best not to sh!t my pants in the meantime.
We reached home safely and I got to brag to my friends about how tough my Grandpa is.

[JojyKerala]

Originally Posted by Stribog

In so many threads I have seen comments about Highway robbers, and how it is unsafe and yet in all my and my collective (close friends, family) experience, not even 1 person has been robbed by Highway robbers, that I am wondering if am some exceptionally lucky soul.

A close friend went missing a few years ago in rural Karnataka and there was no news about him. The Police gave up too soon.

His brother took leave from the Army and came along with two friends to investigate. They traced his path through the highway (by accessing video footage at toll booths). They travelled the same route Prabhu should have taken that fateful night.

Finally, they zeroed in on a location (he passed the toll booth but didn't reach the next one) and scoured the area. Locals pointed them to a location where a car was burnt recently. My friend's brother made some queries and realized that a local goonda is aware of the incident.

They cornered him and after repeated questioning, he blurted out the events. So this is what happened (as per the goonda):

1. My friend was driving at night and he became very drowsy. He stopped the car and dozed off in the front seat.
2. The goonda approached with his associates and took custody of the car. He made my friend drive to the nearest ATM.
3. At the ATM, my friend refused to give the passwords. This angered the goonda till no end.
4. For quite some time, the goonda tried to get the passwords but my friend was adamant that he wouldn't provide it.
5. The goonda drove him to a secluded spot and burnt the car along with him inside it.

He left behind a young daughter who is in her late teens today. Many "what ifs" like it was better if he had provided the passwords. But I'm sure the goonda would have killed him either way.

[pjbiju]

I never have had a mugging experience in all my drives.

However, we have had to spend the whole night at a place just before Sendhawa ghat (Agra - Mumbai highway) once while travelling from Indore to Pune by bus with our then 6 month old son. This was in 2002. The place was quite notorious for mugging. And police used to send the buses in batches. As we approached the ghat section we got the news from other vehicles that some of the buses that had gone ahead of us were robbed. So all the trucks and buses stopped there and resumed the journey only in the morning. Instead of reaching Pune by morning, we reached it by evening. That was our last trip by bus to Indore.

Both the Sendhawa ghat and the Indore to Khandwa road used to be a bit scary to drive early morning.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Never!

On similar note, there is another thread where I had posted about best practices to adhere to whenever driving at night from my experiences of driving on our highways at night. Since I do not want to take the effort to type it all over again, I am quoting my own post:
...

I have never driven at night. All my long trips have started at 4:30 a.m. or after. Until sunrise, I usually follow some vehicle or the other. It is usually never one vehicle all the time unless there are no other vehicles on the road. In my experience that always helps to drive more safely because you get some indications if there are speed breakers, diversions etc. But I usually keep at least 100m or more distance so that the headlights of my car does not cause an issue for the vehicle in front. Also if the vehicle in front is too fast for me, I give up following them.

Originally Posted by ObsessedByFIAT

I have had my share of experiences on the road.

...

Now, while returning, due to Holi, I noticed a lot of small kids every 100/200 mtrs were asking for money. Since it was a new place for me, I thought it better to avoid any issues and happily gave a couple of such groups some money.

...

Luckily, the road ahead was clear and I sped away only to stop after a good 100 km run.

Which place did this happen?

[HTC]

Originally Posted by Artyom

Folks i am travelling from Bangalore to Punjab with family in the first week of October.
This is the first time i am travelling such a huge distance, 2600 Km one way

Below is the route planned:-

Bangalore to Hyderabad(Night Halt)
Hyderabad to Bhopal(Night Halt)
Bhopal to Agra(Night Halt)
Agra to Punjab
.

Though you are taking GQ road, still passing UP and other states famous for unruly drivers. They dont need a reason to pick a fight or show off their katta ( not generalising or targetting any state). Dont stare at any one. Give way to local registered vehicles and keep an eye for nearest police station.

Not scaring but bad things can happen day or night. Read this as example

Better to be safe than sorry.

[Ranabegins]

The only incident I remember happened when I was a kid and this was around 2005, We had to travel in Night as we had to drop someone to a railway station in Deoghar, Jharkhand. We had to travel around 70kms after dropping that person to the station. When we were halfway a car coming from the opposite direction indicated us using his dipper a few times, seeing this we stopped and he came to us and told us that a truck has been parked ahead blocking the road by goons and they are looting cars. Hearing this we were scared and luckily the car that signaled us was of the same locality we used to live in. Both of our cars stopped at a Dhaba and we also stopped a few cars going that way. After sometime we were able to stop a Police car and then we followed them for next half an hour or so. By the time we reached the said location the goons were already gone and I think we were very lucky that day.
I believe situation has improved many folds now.I have traveled a lot during night time in Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, UP & Jharkhand but never faced any issue after that but I won't deny the fact that there is a constant fear in back of mind as we keep on hearing stories. When I am alone I prefer starting my drive after 3.30am.

[amit_arya]

From my experience, unless there is a reason to goto HYD I would recommend Bangalore-Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Jaipur-Punjab route than cutting across MP route. Roads condition and night driving is much safer in this route as compared to MP route.

Depending on your driving speed and mood there are N number of safe cities/town you can take breaks / night halts like pune , mumbai, Vapi, Surat , Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Udaipur, Jaipur...

Originally Posted by Artyom

Folks i am travelling from Bangalore to Punjab with family in the first week of October.
This is the first time i am travelling such a huge distance, 2600 Km one way

Below is the route planned:-

Bangalore to Hyderabad(Night Halt)
Hyderabad to Bhopal(Night Halt)
Bhopal to Agra(Night Halt)
Agra to Punjab

Folks i would appreciate any suggestions/tips/advice from the forum members to ensure that i have a safe trip.
In particular any suggestions for this route will be helpful.
I will start the trip from every point early morning by 5Am to avoid driving post-sunset
Thanks in advance.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by Artyom

Folks i am travelling from Bangalore to Punjab with family in the first week of October.
This is the first time i am travelling such a huge distance, 2600 Km one way

Below is the route planned:-

Bangalore to Hyderabad(Night Halt)
Hyderabad to Bhopal(Night Halt)
Bhopal to Agra(Night Halt)
Agra to Punjab

Mods: sorry for the off topic reply.
@Artyom, let me share some points based on your query.
1. As the thread itself suggests, keep the driving for the day time only.
2. Blr to Nagpur all the way the Roads are great. Again Agra expressway, Delhi - Punjab all good.
3. Why are you stopping at Hyderabad ? If you are starting at 5 in the morning from BLR, you can reach Nagpur or somewhere close by 8:00pm - 9:00 pm in the evening. But your wish, I feel the driver should decide always how much to drive in a day specially if you have not done such long runs before.
4. Roads from Nagpur to UP are somewhat ok-ok with diversions and potholes in between and keep an eye for the stray cows and other animals on the road who suddenly appear out of nowhere.
5. For stay, take good hotels on or near highways and only in Major cities for safety (COVID).
6. If you feel tired, stop at Petrol bunks and park the car and take rest.
7. Compared to the Mumbai route, this route has lesser options for good food joints so best is to keep some dry snacks for the journey on the way or get packed food from the hotels where you will stop over.

There are a lot of BHPians who have shared their long journey experiences along with DO and Don’ts. Go through them once for ideas.
All the best and safe journey.

[pd_scorpio]

Not really got robbed, but yes, there was a chance of getting robbed on the monthly trip to Ambaji in Gujarat, via Khedbramha on Poornima.

We usually take the Gandhinagar-Himatanagar-Idar-Khedbramha- Ambaji route and had planned to start from Gandhinagar around 9 PM. But one day, due to sudden work, we started around 11.30 pm. So to reach Khedbramha, it was later than normal (around 2.30 am). We were 3 friends + driver.

We saw concrete blocks lying across the road and one of the luxury buses had gone over it. But, either it didn't suffer any damage due to its high GC or did not stop over there. We were in a Bolero and told the driver to run over the blocks and whatever damage would happen to the car, we would get repaired as that area was known for robberies in such a way. The tribals will rob everything and break your bones. They will make sure that you can't move an inch to ask for help and also rob your communication devices so that you can't contact anyone.

At last, we safely reached Ambaji and when we were asked for any casualties from the police on duty (as there would allow few personal cars only to enter at night). We told them that we were safe. Then they told us that there was a robbery reported a few hours back and the family was badly injured.

In the morning after doing pooja and all, when we checked the car, we found that the oil chamber had a leak due to a stone (concrete block) and it had become a heavy leak overnight. We did not start the car. We called a mechanic from Mahindra and got a new chamber. We also made sure at the Mahindra A.S.S. that there was no damage to the car's engine and we are good to go back home. We reaching our respective places happily in the afternoon.

Thereafter, we decided not to start after 10 pm under any circumstances. We experienced this incident only once in 8 years of travelling every month and we continue to travel every month on Poornima (full moon night).

[adwaith]

Originally Posted by JojyKerala

A close friend went missing a few years ago in rural Karnataka and there was no news about him. The Police gave up too soon.
…
He left behind a young daughter who is in her late teens today. Many "what ifs" like it was better if he had provided the passwords. But I'm sure the goonda would have killed him either way.

This is extremely unfortunate. My condolences. Hope the goon was brought to justice.

[ObsessedByFIAT]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

Which place did this happen?

Unfortunately, I don't exactly remember the name of the place. We had planned to visit Purna Wildlife Sanctuary, if my memory serves me right. It was either this or Saputara. So must have happened in one of the villages on these routes.

[jkaushik]

Not on the highway, but in the middle of Bangalore city.
The year was 2013, I was returning from my office at around 9PM on my R15, (bearing Assam regn no) through the outer ring road. As I entered the service road I noticed a bike (maybe Pulsar220) following me, after some time on a deserted stretch of a by-lane, the bike overtook me and asked me to stop. I was not that suspicious and so I stopped beside it. The rider asked me for an address in broken hindi. By their accent I guessed that they must be locals. As I was looking at the rider, through my peripheral vision i could make out that the pillion came down from its bike and extend its arm towards me/ my laptop bag om my back. My sixth sense kicked in and without a second thought I zoomed away (as I was already in gear).
Later when I think of it, i analyze it in two way:
1. Worst case scenario: They thought about me to be any unhelpful jerk who ran away when asked for an address.
2. Best case scenario: I saved my laptop, wallet and mobile that day by acting on my instinct.

So, whenever in doubt, follow your instincts and get out of the situation.