[rks]

Originally Posted by Dolphin

My Uncle, Aunty and 3 of my friends (one was a girl) planned a trip to Malai Mahadeshwara Hills, which is about 200 KMS from Bangalore.

2 of my friends were sitting in the front with me, and the other friend, Uncle, Aunty were at the back.

Soon it was dark and I switched ON the headlights and also the fog lights. Lighting was average. We passed the big arch at the bottom of the hills, which meant that we were entering the hilly forest area.

Then I shifted from 2nd gear to 3rd. I saw a straight stretch ahead and accelerated close to 80km/h in 3rd and was about to shift to the 4th gear, suddenly I saw another road to my right, it was a curve. I got confused for a second, and without applying brakes, in 3rd gear, taking my foot off the accelerator, I went for the curve.

I turned the steering wheel full flow to the right. Now, I was shocked, as it was a hairpin bend!! It was too late

There are a couple of lessons to be learnt here. You were committed to a straight stretch, and hit 80 kmph; in itself, not a major blunder, considering that you were an experienced driver. But you apparently missed the fork in the road, which you should have been able to see from some distance if your headlights were good enough, and if you were alert enough. I don't think fog lights are going to help here. Hope you were on high beam; if not, that is certainly a major error, namely, not maintaining enough visibility for the speeds you were doing.

Second lesson: Never, ever make panic moves with your steering. You can panic-brake and get away with it most of the time, but very rarely will you get away with sudden and violent steering maneuvers, especially in a big, heavy car like Cielo. Steering manevers in an unanticipated situation (e.g. swerving) will be done out of sheer necessity or only when relatively safe, with plenty of time in hand. If I were in your shoes and missed that fork, my first instinctive reaction, like that of any experienced driver, would have been to slow down, i.e., take the foot off the pedal and then brake if necessary. By that time I would have realized that making the turn was not on. Newbies, on the other hand, make this common mistake of reacting violently at the steering wheel first, and then thinking later. On a hill road, that can be fatal.

Also is the Cielo a rear-wheel drive? If so, doing high-speed cornering would require some expertise and lots of practice. In a FWD, you can always attempt to correct errors by the instinctive reaction of slowing down the car, but that may not necessarily work in a RWD.

After reading through this chilling experience, all I can say that you and the people in your car were lucky big time. Someone up above was looking after you guys.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by rks

Someone up above was looking after you guys.

Someone up above in the north of the country does wish very well for this guy, lol. I think this 'guy' is quite OK - gall, gumption, great writing skill and a rare willingness to tell it all as it happened! Dolphin rocks!

[bmdesai1987]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

Someone up above in the north of the country does wish very well for this guy, lol. I think this 'guy' is quite OK - gall, gumption, great writing skill and a rare willingness to tell it all as it happened! Dolphin rocks!

i was expecting some a r rehman type songs in the story and some pictures. i dunno when will this story end!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Sheesh, Dolphin... I just sat up reading your story when I should have had an early night. It's 2.20am now! And still we didn't get to the end!

But it's a great story, and well told, so I'll certainly be back for the next instalment.

[Dolphin]

Originally Posted by rks

You were committed to a straight stretch, and hit 80 kmph; in itself, not a major blunder, considering that you were an experienced driver. But you apparently missed the fork in the road, which you should have been able to see from some distance if your headlights were good enough, and if you were alert enough. Hope you were on high beam; if not, that is certainly a major error, namely, not maintaining enough visibility for the speeds you were doing.

Also is the Cielo a rear-wheel drive?

I think I had the highbeams on. The lighting was not that good I must say. I just didn’t have a clue that there was even something on the right side ahead of me, until it actually was on my exact right. Maybe I was wearing blinders, like a race horse. LOL

On a serious note, maybe this was because of the speed, as you have said.

The only reason I went for the curve was that I never guessed that it would be an hairpin bend. There was ample space around that spot, if I had braked hard, it would have saved the day.

It was really foolish of me to go for the curve even if it was a normal curve, which could be cornered at high speed. In contrast, I could have moved further, braked and reversed.

I also didn’t notice the hairpin bend signboard. Later my friends told me that there actually was one. But it was battered a bit. Maybe this proves that I was not alert.

Cielo is FWD.

[Dolphin]

After discussions with the 407 driver and some villagers, it was known that, the only way to move the car onto the truck was to use a ramp built to help elephants get on trucks when they are transported. I think you guys would have seen these along roadsides in forests.

The villagers said there was a ramp nearby, about 200 mts from there. So, with some villagers joining in, we started pushing the car towards it. We came to the ramp soon and pushed the car over it with a lot of difficulty, as the space was less and the steering was rigid. Finally we somehow aligned the car with the body of the truck and pushed it in.

The car exactly fit the body of the truck widthwise but lengthwise just the rear wheels managed to get in, the boot could not. Because of this the small rear door of the truck could not be closed to secure the car.
Hmm another problem (We actually knew this would happen).

Luckily, the truck driver had lengths of strong rope. We decided to secure the car with that from all sides. 4 people (including me) got into the car (we had to, because there was no space for all in the cabin of the truck and discussions about some people catching a bus did not work out) and with all the windows lowered, the car was tied to the body of the truck from all sides, ropes running inside and outside the car to make sure that it does not roll out of the truck.

Saying good-bye to the villagers who helped, we left. The time was 10.30 P.M., I think.
I was a bit afraid at the beginning, thinking what if the ropes came loose and the car slid onto the road! But as the journey progressed I was OK and everyone in the car began dozing off. I could not sleep, was thinking about everything that happened since we started this trip. Also, was observing the ropes rubbing all over the car due to vibrations as the road was bad. Knew that the paint would be screwed up by the time we reached Bangalore. I was just hoping that we reach Bangalore as soon as possible. But it wasn’t to be.

The truck started giving problems probably after completing half the journey. Found out that the radiator was leaking and heating up. The driver used to stop, wait for sometime for the radiator to cool down and then top up and start again.
This was really testing my patience as we were hardly covering 25 KM per hour. It was very frustrating. The truck driver said he didn’t know about this problem as it was not pre-existing, it was just our bad luck. Without any other option, we continued our journey.

After daybreak, people began to notice us. You guys should have seen the look on their faces. 4 people sitting inside a car, which is tied up from all angles on a truck. It was like prisoners being transported in a weird way. Maybe they thought we were crazy.

Around 6.30-7A.M. we reached Harohalli, a small town 30 KM from Bangalore. Uncle had a farmhouse there. It was decided that I and Uncle continue and the others end their journey. We parked and the ropes were loosened. All the 4 of us in the car climbed out of the windows and came down. After a few minutes, I and Uncle were on the road again, now in the cabin with the driver.

The truck became worse, the engine was knocking wildly and was stalling frequently. The time spent at each stop was increasing. I really doubted that we would get to Manipal Motors on this truck. Bangalore felt so near, yet so far.
The driver was trying all different tricks with the radiator, like making a sticky paste with soap and waste (it is those threads which is commonly called waste) and applying it to the leaks. We didn’t want to stop on the way for repairs, as we were really tired and if we stop it certainly would take unlimited time for the repair.

[phamilyman]

Come on man. Hope it was smooth sailing from then on, atleast!!!

[vnabhi]

Wow, each episode you narrate makes things more interesting! Dolphin, why dont you put this into Readers' Digest's Drama in Real Life?

[esteem_lover]

How many more episodes left dolphin ? I am sure there is one for the estimate at Manipal Motors & one where you decided to sell the car. right ?

[hemanthisgreat]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

How many more episodes left dolphin ? I am sure there is one for the estimate at Manipal Motors & one where you decided to sell the car. right ?

till he becomes a bhpian

[DirtyDan]

Put in an episode about getting kidnapped by aliens and you have a movie! And a sequal! But, by the time he finishes this there won't be movies and computers anymore.

[Dolphin]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Wow, each episode you narrate makes things more interesting! Dolphin, why dont you put this into Readers' Digest's Drama in Real Life?

I think that's too much of an expectation. Thanks for rating this high.

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

How many more episodes left dolphin ? I am sure there is one for the estimate at Manipal Motors & one where you decided to sell the car. right ?

Originally Posted by DirtyDan

Put in an episode about getting kidnapped by aliens and you have a movie! And a sequal! But, by the time he finishes this there won't be movies and computers anymore.

The last episode coming up soon.

[emkay456]

Originally Posted by hemanthisgreat

till he becomes a bhpian

I agree with you. Dolphin has decided to complete the story only when he creates the sufficient no. of posts. Maybe administrators may waive the pre-qualification condition so that we are spared the agony !!

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by Dolphin

The last episode coming up soon.

Boom! you broke the suspense. Now it would be tough to sell your last episode, better make it the best of them all.

[Dolphin]

We somehow managed to reach Manipal Motors around 1 P.M., and I was like Thank God, phewwww. Almost 6 hrs to cover 30-35 KM!

We were approached by a service engineer, told him everything and without any delay the truck was let into the service bay and around 7 mechanics untied the ropes and using different equipment moved the car out of the truck very easily. Away went the car for damage assessment.

We paid the truck driver and he left saying sorry for the trouble caused due to the truck. The people at Manipal Motors said they need about 2 hours to give an estimate. So we left to have lunch and came back after 2 hrs. The estimate was ready. It was Rs.59K!

They said they would contact the insurance guys and get in touch with us after all the preliminary processes. All this went on for about 15-20 days and the repairs were also started in the meantime. (i.e., after the insurance process was completed, like photos, inspection, verification of all the associated documents etc, etc.)

As the repairs went on the bill also began running into pages. There was enormous damage to the car, many new issues popping up as the repairs progressed. Also, the whole steering column had to be replaced.
I was advised to give away the car as a total loss. But I didn’t do it, I wanted it to be repaired. I loved this car.

The car was ready in about 45 days, but I didn’t take delivery until the insurance was settled. The experience with Oriental Insurance was horrible. There was a slip-up on my side. They conveniently highlighted it as an important contributor to the claim and offered Rs.12K only, against a claim of Rs.1Lakh!

As days passed, I was getting very frustrated with these insurance guys and after a lot of negotiation they agreed to pay 30K. I just took it. I was fed up. My Uncle was with me throughout, and he was the main reason for the increase in the reimbursement amount.

The car was ready, and the final bill was a whopping Rs.1, 36,000. There were around 12 A4 size pages printed with almost all the parts used to build a car, labor, taxes and what not. This was a lot of money, under any circumstances. Parents bailed me out here.

After going through the bill very patiently, we asked for some discount and they obliged by reducing Rs.5K.

The car repair was supervised by one Mr.Raghavendra Rao, a very nice person who knew his job well. We went for a test drive and everything seemed good, it was repaired very well. I could not find any issues. Also, I had the whole car repainted except the top, and it was done very well. Paid the bill, said thanks to everyone, and drove the car out of the repair bay accompanied by a friend.

So much for immature irrational exuberance. Got myself and everyone into a bleak situation.


Lessons learnt:
1) Drive with confidence but never with overconfidence.
2) Be extra alert and watchful when driving.
3) Think about other people, whose lives would be in danger due to your reckless driving.
(Not to forget the misery and financial losses.)

The End