[diabloo]

In this country, its OK if bikes, buses do anything. Its the car which is at fault always.

Originally Posted by dadu

From what I read they were mostly putting emphasis on the speed and rash driving and I want to go and ask them as to what was the bus doing travelling in the wrong lane and opposite to the flow of traffic on the GQ.

Swift hit a stationary truck and so the impact is less. This hit a bus coming in opposite direction and hence more impact.

Originally Posted by mjothi

Just a week back we had similar incident on swift.

I agree. Picture makes an impact.

Though the picture is disturbing, i am not sure if it has to be removed. Truth is always bitter. This is something like what Dr.AnbuMani (health minister) trying to put pictures on the cigar packets...

Unfortunate for the families..

[dadu]

Some very young people lost their lives in this, no matter who was at fault.

Mohammed Nazir Sait, 24, — who died in the road accident in Krishnagiri — was the son of city-based businessman Yunus Mohammed. He was on his way to Chennai with friends Jayaraj (25), a resident of Wilson Garden, and Megha Trigha (21), BBA student and resident of Sanjaynagar.

Let me post a less disturbing picture, although I agree with Jothi, this should remind everyone to drive safely on the GQ, keep your speeds low.

I have saved the earlier picture as a reminder for myself.

Originally Posted by mjothi

Though the picture is disturbing, i am not sure if it has to be removed. Truth is always bitter. This is something like what Dr.AnbuMani (health minister) trying to put pictures on the cigar packets...

All Sources: TOI

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by rks

When I made that observation, I did not intend to imply that *only* Tamil Nadu was like that. It was just an observation based on my experience.

You should have been more specific about that if you did not want to hurt anyone's sentiments.

Originally Posted by adc

The picture is gruesome to say the least. Trucks, busses, cars, motorcycles on the opposite side of a highway is so much becoming common nowadays - and with no highway police, it is becoming the norm to take the sameway shortcut rather than a turn at the median divider.

I guess it will take many more accidents & many more lives before the govt will wake up to this fact & start doing something about it. Until then watch out & drive slow.

[spadival]

Probably the reason why most people stick to the rightmost lane on the highway, even if they are dead slow!! I have kind of forgiven these people and normally overtake after switching to the left lane.. but very very carefully indeed - never on a curve, never at a junction and when there too many vehicles around (i.e in a highly dynamic situation).

[tsk1979]

esteem_lover, statistics(official govt statistics from accident fatalities) report that the largest number of roadkills in India are in the state of Tamil Nadu, and a large number of those involve heavy vehicles.
Having seen south and north India, I have seen the rashest bus drivers(driving on wrong side, overtaking on blind turns) etc., are in Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Kerala
I have myself driven on this highway(GQ) many times, and have seen buses coming in from the wrong side, with policemen at the checkpost stopping only car guys to make quick buck and ignoring the buses who are blaring pressure horns.

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by mjothi

So, guys it does not matter if you have ABS, Airbag etc... Just make sure you are within your control. Because, eventhough its clearly a BIG mistake from the Bus guy who came in wrong direction, we wont be in this world to argue on that. Its our life. Lets take this deep in our thought before sitting behind the wheel.

Well said. That's where defensive driving comes into picture.
Guys, please don't test your ABS and Airbags on public roads. They'll work when they need to.

If they hadn't been that fast, it would've have turned out different.

Another GRIM (I wonder for how many!) reminder NOT to drive rash.

:(

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

esteem_lover, statistics(official govt statistics from accident fatalities) report that the largest number of roadkills in India are in the state of Tamil Nadu, and a large number of those involve heavy vehicles.

Thats true. They drive like crazy. I've seen buses overtaking small vehicles in narrow roads at breakneck speeds, and their rear wheels drifting out of traction!! They all use high beams during daytime, and they think that if they use high beams, the traffic rules & the law is auto-bypassed.

I, myself was the victim of one accident that happened on the GQ, the car I was driving was hit by a truck. What happened was nothing usual. The truck guy who was going in the front suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, and started taking reverse. All I could do - with around 10 meters gap between the car and the truck - was to honk and wait, hoping that the truck guy would stop. But he didn't, and he came right onto my car, the hood of the car went underneath the chassis of the truck, and then the truck dragged the car around 15 meters. Then one guy jumped out of the truck, came running alongside the truck and noticed that there is a car stuck behind and he ran back and asked the driver to stop!! Thanks to FIAT's rock solid built, nothing happened to us, and to the car except major dents on the bonnet.

[adc]

Driving slow is very subjective, rash definitely not. It is now all watch out, watch out and watch out - you will be safe almost all the times.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by clevermax

But he didn't, and he came right onto my car, the hood of the car went underneath the chassis of the truck, and then the truck dragged the car around 15 meters.

Thats scary. Why not you jumped out of the car to save yourself and appear before the driver to tell him the tale?

Last week I travelled in this GQ and was to see 3-5 lorries doing good speeds one behind other at the wrong side of the road and trying to overtake each other.

They do this to avoid few extra kms travel to get into other side of the road

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Thats scary. Why not you jumped out of the car to save yourself and appear before the driver to tell him the tale?

We wanted to... but didn't feel like jumping out of the moving (being dragged backwards) car and probably fall down and you know the rest...

Apparently it was the second accident of the day, for that truck driver! and in the first accident, he lost his rear view mirror... so he couldn't see anything from the back!

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Last week I travelled in this GQ and was to see 3-5 lorries doing good speeds one behind other at the wrong side of the road and trying to overtake each other.
They do this to avoid few extra kms travel to get into other side of the road

yes. I agree. I do travel this GQ often. And i have noticed that the BUS fellow usually go on the wrong side when there is a eat out on the other side. So, these guys (usually the regular bus service like vellore, kanchi etc) know very well where these eat outs are. So, they take the wrong side before that to avoid doing a U-turn.

One place I dont forget about this is the one just before the Baluchetty chatiram (after crossing kanchi & going towards ranipet). You can easily see atleast one bus coming in opp. direction here during each trip.

So, moral is, if you see a eat-out, then better watch-out.

[Hemanth]

Please be on your own when driving on the highways since i drive every weekend between Bangalore and Madikeri and i have seen lot of young chaps newly wed with small cars with a big "L" sticker on the windscreen driving in the middle of the road happily at around 100-120 kms least bothered about other vehicles plying on the road.

[esteem_lover]

@TSK1979 i am not debating the point about TN having the max no. of road accidents. It might as well considering that there are 2 very busy ports, extensive roadways & quite a lot of industries. I was referring to rks' comment about how tamil women have the habit of jumping in front of vehicles on the highway.

[Surprise]

Deccan Herald - Largest number of road accidents in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra

Maximum road accidents were reported in evening during 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. with 15.7 per cent (62,023 accidents) followed by the time period of 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. (60,584).

I was under the impression that most of the accident occur during early morning 3 a.m to 6 a.m

[gopinathann]

My advice would be when travelling in GQ road, always try to stick to middle lane even though the road is clear, so that you have enough time to react and to move either left or right.

Indian government publish ads to pay the taxes and spend money on lot of other things, why don't they do some documentary on these things and create awareness to the people, especially on the highways.