[wanderlustindia]

It remains my first and only crash and hope it is like this forever.

Exactly three years ago, a chilly December morning in Pune (yes Pune was so much better 3-4 years ago!). I had an Enticer back then and commuted Pune-Mumbai umpteen number of times till then. An office colleague offered to join me (he too was from Mumbai) on one my visits to Mumbai.

We start at 6 am and head towards Mumbai. By 7:30 am, we had reached Khopoli and had a sumptuos breakfast at a roadside dhaba. My colleague asks me if I was tired, he could ride the bike for some distance. I ask him if he has riden bikes on highways. That part of the old Pune-Mumbai highway was a 2-laner back then. I was initially apprehensive to give my bike to him but since he insisted he has riden bikes for good distance, I obliged. Turned out to be a big mistake eventually!

He brings the bike to life and I am the pillion now. Sets the bike in motion and shows a lot of discomfort handling it initially. I thought maybe he is not used to over-sized handle bars, so we continued. After gathering some momentum in the 4th gear, he was having fun. I suggested we do not go beyond the 70 kph mark and he was okay with it.

Now, comes the horrible part. We are hitting the odo between 70-80 kph mark and there is a steep bend approaching. Mr. colleague's inexperience of riding on the highways came to the fore then. A speeding truck (looked like a demon to me at that moment) coming from the opposite direction and my colleague could not handle the bike to get out the way and goes dangerously close to the truck. I shout on top of my voice and he panics and hits the brakes real hard. The bike skids, true filmy style and floats a good 30-40 meters on the other side of the road and comes to a halt. Fortunately there is sparse traffic and the death-truck had passed by without causing any harm to us.

Luckily for the both of us, we stood up on our feet. I could feel discomfort in my thighs. Oh, that burning sensation and I realise my jeans is totally worn out on the left side. Mr. Colleagues brand new shoes are shred to the core. Because of the early morning chill, I was wearing a T-shirt and a sweater over it and on top of it a wind-cheater. That saved the day for me. No bruises on the hand! Bring up the bike and see that only a rear-view mirror is broken. Kick-started it to life and rode to Mumbai from thereon.

Promised myself never to give my bike to a friend/colleague, no matter what! Had to cook up a story at home about the accident. I had bad bruises on the left leg and it took a week to heal.

[bblost]

lots and lots of crashes on my bikes.
I would keep trying something new.
I would have read up on a new technique.
will try that and wham.
I heal fast.

but before anyone jumps on me, most of these attempts would be on deserted roads.
I would always be in good protective clothing and gear.


I had been riding my bullet for well over a year and on my visit back home, borrowed my Dad's Ki Ho.
Went to Elliots Beach and it was almost 10:00 PM by the time I was coming back home.
This happened in front of the Mary Brown restaurant in Adyar.
My house is like a stone throw away from here.
No street lights and the Ki Ho lights are dim.
I am looking into the rear view mirror and this Amby is getting bigger and bigger in it.
I am safe as I am quite on the left off the road and at about 30 kmph.
Suddenly this Amby is overtaken by another car.
Amby swerves into me.
I can feel him crash even before he hits me.
Jump off the bike and continue rolling to the straight and left.
My hands covering my head I let myself roll well and away.
and I get up feeling really pissed.
There is a lot of dust in the air and I am staring into the Amby's lights.
A lady jumps out of the car and tells me almost moaning that she is sorry her son has killed me.

yeah thats what she said. I am sorry my son, killed you.

I burst out laughing.
off all my crashes this was the funniest ever.

[HappyWheels]

@bblost - so was she thinking that she was talking to a ghost! (It might have been the dust that was covering you!) - Just kidding bud; good that you were able to laugh at it.

Last week, 17th Dec, was driving down to work in my car. 9am, usual traffic. I use a back road to get to my office, so the crowd that I face is usually the village traffic, meaning, mostly people with no traffic sense.

There is this person, on a Honda Activa, who comes from a lane on the right side of the road and gets on to the main road without even looking if there is traffic. I brake and let that guy on the road and he moves to the left of the road. I then proceed to overtake him and BANG, that guy was trying to move back to the center of the road and hit my car's back door!

He falls down and I, between a choice of driving away and stopping, with better sense stop my car on the side and walked back to the place where he fell. By that time he has managed a good crowd and they all were shouting at me in Kannada. And me, all dressed up, smiling at no understanding a word, walk up to the person who fell and asked him in English if he was OK. He continued in Kannada which I ignored till he responded in English. By that time I noticed that he was having a good amount of scratches in his arm.

Told him that we will first go down to the hospital and then discuss everything else. The word 'hospital' got the crowd all singing 'Yeah, take to hospital'. So off to the hospital with my poor victim (who happened to be a college professor).

The OP doctor gave some pain killers and said he was fine, but the person complained about pain in his arm. So decided to wait for the Ortho. A scan revelead a fractured arm!

Got his arm sligned, got the medicines that were prescribed. By that time his wife came down and she was sad, but then thanked me for bringing him to the hospital and not being a moron and drive away.

Dropped them all back at their place, had a tea, some talks and then went down to my office. That person has to be on rest for 60 days and then few physio visits.

Really felt sorry since this is the first time, touch wood, someone was injured in an accident because of me. Pray that this is the worst I will ever get to be.

[ak916]

@happywheels - Man you are the either the epitome of patience or a good liar... lol.. cheers: just kidding about the latter, Sire.. I really appreciate your patience of getting down, and inquiring about him and taking him to a hospital... it it was me I would try and fracture his other arm on the way to the hospital for what he did to my car .. all cos he doesnt have the sense to ride a bike properly :-)

[Nitin]

Good job,happywheels. Not many people go out of their way to help the injured. All the more commendable,since you were not at fault.
I hope the professor apologized after the incident. Hope he wasn't preparing for the day ahead at college..

[druva]

This remains my only accident... so far!
This happened in 1998 @ South Africa. <<Fabulous country>>
I learnt to drive car there (though I had a license by Indian RTO )
I had a company given brand new Corolla and used to commute to office daily and was used to the highway driving. After taking a few nearby sight seeing trips and comfortable with the new car, we (me and my friends) decided to drive for a long distance during weekend.

Drove to a place called Drekensburg about 350 km from Jo'burg. Real scenic place and on the return leg got over confident. Started driving the car to 180 kph in some stretches at about 150 kph on average. << Policing is very poor in SA >>. Saw toll booth signals about 750 mts ahead and started slowing down without applying brakes. Saw that all the toll booths were busy (red lights on top). The left most booth was empty with green signal. Started moving to left most lane and bingo.. I saw a huge mound of gravel on the road. Didnt realize that it was gravel and turned my wheel sharply towards right.. Still my wheels got on the gravel and the car started spinning. We had a 3 full spins and went to the other end of the road (crossing six lanes!!).

1. Luckily - I was driving a manual transmission and not automatic. In the panic I had taken my leg completely off the accelerator and the car stalled because of 5th gear. I still shudder at the thought of it being automatic!

2. Since it was near toll gate, the divider in the freeway had ended. So I had ended on the opposite side of freeway! traversing 3 lanes on my side and 3 lanes of opposite side.

3. No vehicle was behind me nor on opposite side.

4. All 4 of us wearing seat belts...

I still thank my stars - now I am a more sober driver!

[Nitin]

Scary incident,Druva... What's sheer luck is that there were no on-coming cars that would have meant disaster.

Drive safe!

[Vinaygv]

I have had two accidents one major and another 2 days back, the first one was in 1998, was riding my RX100 near Jhansi in up, on the country roads, the roads are a single lane affair with a huge drop on either side, came upon a light truck one of the 407's honked and he moved to the left, I though that he was giving me space to overtake, I started to overtake him, suddenly the truck swerves back onto the road, to avoid being run over by the rear wheels I am forced off road, the huge drop off from the tar to the side below upsets the bike and it flips me over the handlebars, I find my self somersaulting in from of the truck, my bike skids and comes under the front wheels of the truck which get stuck on the engine and that stops the truck a foot from me.
I escaped with a broken collar bone and a fractured skull. later I find out, the truck drive moved off the road, because he was lighting a cigarette and was not concentrating on the road.

The second one, was the day before yesterday, on my way back from Mysore, was doing around 90 on the Bng - mysore highway, when suddenly a moron on a bike spots a break in the divider and heads for it from the extreme left of the road, he does not even give a glance to see if there are anyone behind, I was about 50 feet behind him, I slammed on the brakes, was not able to turn left or right, as there was an Innova to the left of me who was also on the brakes. To the right was the divider.
For 50 feet both of us are in a skid, trying to avoid colliding into each other and stop before hitting the idiot on the bike. the Innova was fortunate as he was on the left, the bike guy was moving from left to right, I was not so fortunate, hit the rear of the bike, damaged my right headlight and the bumper of my car.
The bike guy walked away with a few scratches and a flat tire, my car 30k in damages. the fun part, both the innova drive and me were accused of not looking where we were going and order to pay a fine to the bike guy by the local toughs on the scene. We left the scene before they could do anything further, did not pay any money
Go figure, it happens only in India, where you have pay for saving the life of an idiot who is careless and a menace to himself and others, because you own a bigger vehicle.

[HappyWheels]

ak916, as said, I was tempted to just drive away since he was the one who hit me (and also caused a dent on the door!) but then, felt sorry for him (and fortunately, didnt regret that!)

nitin, the person did not apologies. atleast, he had started out by accusign me of hitting him, but later said thanks for taking him to the hospital.

infact, when he was being treated, i talked to his wife and told her that he hit me when he came back into the road; i also told her that this is my version and her husband has a different one. she just said that accidents happen and that we have to be thankful that nothing major had happened!

[HappyWheels]

@vinaygv,

this is the worst that can happen. a moron does his s*** in front of you, endangers himself and also you and finally you end up paying for it!

dam man, when will these people learn.

and add to this the local *wise guys* - their motto is : Big vehicle at fault small vehicle always right (Big vehicle does not include Bus / Trucks / Vans)!!!

[ak916]

Part of the reason why i am very apprehensive on driving on the TN highways.. the GQ or Hosur krishnagiri... I am sorry to say this and apologize in advance to all my friend from TN... but out of the 4 southern states, the people on these highways are the most ignorant... most of them are capable of walking right in front of a boeing 747 which is in the middle of a runway and pretend they dint see it ... I nicknamed these people "suicide bombers"...

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by ak916

... most of them are capable of walking right in front of a boeing 747 which is in the middle of a runway and pretend they dint see it...

well said mate!

[druva]

Originally Posted by ak916

Part of the reason why i am very apprehensive on driving on the TN highways.. the GQ or Hosur krishnagiri... I am sorry to say this and apologize in advance to all my friend from TN... but out of the 4 southern states, the people on these highways are the most ignorant... most of them are capable of walking right in front of a boeing 747 which is in the middle of a runway and pretend they dint see it...

No offence taken. My only guess is you havent had your full salt yet :-)
I dont know what you would say after experiencing the auto wallas and two wheelers

These fellas will spring on your way out of every possible corner and ofcourse give YOU a look... like you snapped their mush!


Amongst the metros, I think mumbai seems to be better.. (only experience is in cab.. so far good.) .. Delhi was also manageable.. atleast the roads are wide... the traffic crawls in Bangalore.. so it doesnt matter

[ak916]

Originally Posted by druva

the traffic crawls in Bangalore.. so it doesnt matter

you are exaggerating about the pace of the traffic in bangalore.. It is a little slower than that ;-)

[Zappo]

What a time for this thread to come up.

Yesterday evening at around 9.30pm I came out of the City Center Mall in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. Was driving at around 30kmph. My left indicator was on as I was to take the left turn towards Panjagutta.

A nut on his bike who was to go straight and stop at the red light about 20 feets ahead came like a rocket tried to overtake me from the left. I could not even realize what was happening before I heard a crash boom bang! I screeched to a halt. By that time the biker was flat on the road. I came out cursing as I was sure he would have caused a major dent on the front passenger side door and probably even the left fender.

Thankfully the bugger had only caused a minor dimple just below the glass on the door with no scratches or anything but the left mirror was hanging limply. The stalk of the mirror was broken. I was not even sure whether to holler at him before a few guys helped him (and his bike) to get up. Before I knew he just got on his bike and zoomed away.

Can't help it. Hyderabadis will never learn road etiquettes. As for the poor mirror I have mended it temporarily with duct tapes. Will have to change that.