[v1p3r]

Cows are bad for health. Unless barbecued.

Curries are fine too.

[alias]

This happened a couple of months back i and my brother were going to mysore in my dad's 2005 esteem some where near maddur if any ones noticed there are big bushes on the divider
it was doing close to 160km/hr suddenly a herd of goats jummped off teh bushes and distance was so less that i couldnt even think of braking
killed(god forgive me) 4 goats and seriously injured 1 which dies later
i didnt wanted to stop so i sped and went to mandiya while crossing mandiya at a single a cop came and asked my bro who was sitting next to me to sit at the back sat in his place looked around in the car spotted a cigrette packet and slipped it in his pocket and asked me what i did
since i was nervous i told him i hit gots and he was thinking i had hit a man asked me to come to the station went there sta the whole eveneing till my relatives both fronm mysore and banaglore arrived paid the goat owner 4k and took me home

the car was a mess luckly the goat when i hit it didn fell on the windscreen apart from that every thing else was.....

total cost of fixing the acr came upto 1lakh where we paid 10k and claimed insurance

well since than while driving on the mysore road i keep my eyes always open while passing the bushed divider and am not even allowed to touch
literally, my dads esteem...

[PRADEEP KUMAR]

Originally Posted by alias

This happened a couple of months back i and my brother were going to mysore in my dad's 2005 esteem some where near maddur if any ones noticed there are big bushes on the divider
it was doing close to 160km/hr suddenly a herd of goats jummped off teh bushes and distance was so less that i couldnt even think of braking
killed(god forgive me) 4 goats and seriously injured 1 which dies later
i didnt wanted to stop so i sped and went to mandiya while crossing mandiya at a single a cop came and asked my bro who was sitting next to me to sit at the back sat in his place looked around in the car spotted a cigrette packet and slipped it in his pocket and asked me what i did
since i was nervous i told him i hit gots and he was thinking i had hit a man asked me to come to the station went there sta the whole eveneing till my relatives both fronm mysore and banaglore arrived paid the goat owner 4k and took me home

the car was a mess luckly the goat when i hit it didn fell on the windscreen apart from that every thing else was.....

total cost of fixing the acr came upto 1lakh where we paid 10k and claimed insurance

well since than while driving on the mysore road i keep my eyes always open while passing the bushed divider and am not even allowed to touch
literally, my dads esteem...

Hi, I had a similar experience on the chennai-Bangalore GQ just before vellore the divider has tall bushes and a cow literally jumped out of it, fortunately i was driving in the middle of the road and @120 in my scorpio, that fraction of a distance helped me to swerve slightly and avoid it,it really sends shivers down my spine,lessons learnt-Always drive in the middle-not in the edges(in roads with dividers), dividers with bushes are dangerous,and never cross 100 in the highways as they are not fenced expressways!.

[rkbharat]

Originally Posted by alias

it was doing close to 160km/hr suddenly a

Don't you feel where is the problem.. I think its us who put our and other's lives on risk. 160.

Please don't mind but I have no sympathy words for people driving at that speed.

Originally Posted by PRADEEP KUMAR

Hi, I had a similar experience on the chennai-Bangalore GQ just before vellore the divider has tall bushes and a cow literally jumped out of it, fortunately i was driving in the middle of the road and @120 in my scorpio, that fraction of a distance helped me to swerve slightly and avoid it,it really sends shivers down my spine,lessons learnt-Always drive in the middle-not in the edges(in roads with dividers), dividers with bushes are dangerous,and never cross 100 in the highways as they are not fenced expressways!.

erm...driving in the middle of the road just creates trouble for the other road users. I'd suggest picking the safer lane and sticking to it. of course the ideal thing to do would be stick to the left lane.

[praveen_v]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

erm...driving in the middle of the road just creates trouble for the other road users. I'd suggest picking the safer lane and sticking to it. of course the ideal thing to do would be stick to the left lane.

Hmm... you are in india and driving a car in the left lane is not a great idea. Mostly the left lane will have the cycles/mopeds and even god cant predict when they'll cut lanes to the right. Imagine you are in the leftmost lane and a cycle/moped cuts suddenly as you approach it. You dont have much choice than to cut into the right lane yourself and if another vehicle is overtaking you, then you are in a very tight spot.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

...was doing decent speeds on NH near salem, when i spotted a little goat crossing the road. after calculating the speeds of my car and the goat, i continued without lifting off the throttle or braking. the goat had almost gotten out of my path when the goat got spooked, then turned and ran back the way it came. ....

Hmm, almost had a similar frightful experience 11 years back, on my first long trip to Bhubaneswar from Vizag on my M 800. I was cruising at 85 kmph when a pack of dogs suddenly came onto the highway from shrubs on the left of the highway.They appeared to be in a friendly fight with each other. I braked hard, and then released the brakes when the last dog in the pack seemed to have gone out of my right fender's line, but alas, it turned around in a jiffy and got hit by my car at a speed of around 40 kmph. I could hear some glass shattering and the dog yelping (though I could see in running away in my right door's mirror). I did not dare to stop for fear of retaliation by its comrades. I inspected the damage after a km--all I got was a broken headlight. Luckily it had missed the radiator.
I continued on my journey, though a tad shaken, and changed my headlight at Berhampur for around 450 bucks.

Originally Posted by praveen_v

Hmm... you are in india and driving a car in the left lane is not a great idea. Mostly the left lane will have the cycles/mopeds and even god cant predict when they'll cut lanes to the right. Imagine you are in the leftmost lane and a cycle/moped cuts suddenly as you approach it. You dont have much choice than to cut into the right lane yourself and if another vehicle is overtaking you, then you are in a very tight spot.

agreed, you have more obstacles in the left lane. but that just means you travel slower there. straddling both the left and the right lane is just inconsiderate to other road users who might want to overtake!

what is more dangerous is, by blocking the right lane , you are forcing the faster cars behind you to brake/ swerve and even overtake you from the left. please keep left! its the most basic of road rules.

[susan3004]

The problem of animals(all kinds-I have encountered wild boars and blue bulls also) coming on road is nothing new. Six lane roads are a little safer as far as animals surprising you are concerned.
I would not be too inclined to drive on the left as that is the first place where intruders will enter your domain. If one is driving in the right most lane, any intrusion in form of an animal or a cart which may want to cut across on to the other side has to tackle other traffic before encountering you.

But alas, the above is not the ultimate solution to the problem!
We all understand the bovine menace on the roads yet we allow them to plonk in the centre of the road and also give them the due respect of 'Gai Mata'! I am agast on such statements of people! I ask you; if it was the 'mother', then why not take it home and keep it there? One does not leave ones own mother on streets!

[praveen_v]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

what is more dangerous is, by blocking the right lane , you are forcing the faster cars behind you to brake/ swerve and even overtake you from the left. please keep left! its the most basic of road rules.

Blocking the right lane?? Here in india right lane belongs to the trucks/buses and they will be crawling without giving any space to overtake forcing you to overtake from the left. Keep left is what we are supposed to do but IMO the left lane is quite dangerous for cars as the chances of your reflex and driving skill getting tested are pretty high.

And if I see a faster car approaching, I'll gladly give way unless of course he irritates me with long horns/impatient swaying at my tail

Originally Posted by praveen_v

And if I see a faster car approaching, I'll gladly give way unless of course he irritates me with long horns/impatient swaying at my tail

if we meet, it will be an interesting contest.
BTW, I dont honk and tailgate if the other driver sees me and lets me pass voluntarily.

cows, dogs and goats have no lane preference. but i do agree the left lane has more traffic. goats are the worst. absolutely no road sense at all.
luckily in kerala, the animal problem is not as bad as elsewhere in india.

[praveen_v]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

cows, dogs and goats have no lane preference. but i do agree the left lane has more traffic. goats are the worst. absolutely no road sense at all.

You are right about goats. Once when I was travelling in NH45, in a stretch with no divider, I saw a goat well ahead crossing the road from my right to left. So i slowed down and took to the right lane since there was no traffic in the oppositte direction to let the goat cross the road. But the goat had a sudden change of mind and started to get back to the right side after crossing almost 80% of the road.

The result - it got hit on the right edge of my front bumper and flew for a couple of feet,fell down, got up and ran away. Thank god I slowed down well ahead otherwise it would have been curtains for the goat.

[rks]

I have not killed any animal on the road so far in my long years of driving. Had to brake many a time, though. One instance where I was driving a 1960's model Fiat and while overtaking a truck at about 80-90 kmph comes to mind. Just as I was about to cross the truck a stray dog darts across from the left, trying to cross the road. Braked hard, the front left of the Fiat hits the dog. Feared the worst, but the dog gets up and runs away, limping and howling in pain.

The thought that this could so easily have been a (stupid) human being came to mind and that was one of the many lessons I learnt: do not overtake too aggressively on our roads. The lorry blocked my view in this instance and that is one of the reasons why the speed should not be too high when overtaking slow-moving vehicles with little margins.

Off-topic:
Yesterday on the way to Mumbai from Pune, I saw what appeared to be a dead man lied sprawled on the road, just prior to the last flyover (Trombay?) on the approach to Chembur. Was doing about 100-110 kmph and had to swerve to avoid running over him. This was at about 10-45 PM. Looked like a hit-and-run case and strangely, no crowd had collected yet (maybe it just happened). Pretty shocking sight.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by rks

Off-topic:
Yesterday on the way to Mumbai from Pune, I saw what appeared to be a dead man lied sprawled on the road, just prior to the last flyover (Trombay?) on the approach to Chembur. Was doing about 100-110 kmph and had to swerve to avoid running over him. This was at about 10-45 PM. Looked like a hit-and-run case and strangely, no crowd had collected yet (maybe it just happened). Pretty shocking sight.

And you didn't stop either? Beautiful.

[narayan]

i find it strange why we say " the cows are unpredictable " ???

guys - cows were never made to cross roads !!! not that humans are any better...

blame it on the careless people who rear the cows near the roadside and let them cross without bothering about roads, traffic etc etc...