[Nikhilb2008]

Mom drives a bright red Getz 1.3. The one with ABS and all that.

Yesterday my exams got over. My engineering was almost over. Only the project viva is left and after 4 years of torture, we are ready to party.

From the college, we all go to Downtown pub. I of course am a teetotaller and a non-smoker. After everything, we are wondering what to do to continue the celebrations. No one is in a mood to go home and sleep!!

I offer everyone my house for a night out. Even though my parents and sister are at home, I know they wont have a problem with 10 high spirited(some of them literally!!), loud boys screaming, shouting and laughing loudly through the night.

My mom allows me to use her car to go for dinner. We go to a place very close to my house. After that, another guy gets his car and we pile into the two cars and plan to go for Ice Cream to Koramangala Corner House.

On the way there, we are all in high spirits and are playing music loudly. I am driving the Getz. I am not driving fast. Maybe faster than normal as it;s 11 in the night and there is no traffic. However, I am well in control of my car and senses.

I take a left at Sagar Apollo Hospital to go towards Dairy Circle and I am soon doing about 40kmph or so. Suddenly, I hear a loud bang and instinctively turn the wheel left. The driver's side view mirror is shattered!! No one knows what happened. We pull to the side of the road and look behind and see those damned barricades placed on the road!!

No signals, no warnings, no stickers, nothing!! None of us saw it.

There is shattered glass all over the interior of the car. We hit the hazard lights button and start cleaning up as much as we can. The rest of the car is perfect. There is a slight scratch on the rear right wheel arch.

I am so miserable. The first time my mom gave me use of her car on my own and this happens. On what was supposed to be a very special day for my friends and me.

We continue to Corner House and I call my dad and tell him. He takes it calmly and tells me not to worry as such things happen.

This still doesnt help me. A cake fudge later, I feel a bit better and realise that I probably should have been going slower and paying more attention to the right side of the road. Then I realise how ridiculous that is. When you are driving at 40kmph or so at 11 in the night, you dont really feel like going any slower when the road is empty. I guess the only way to avoid such accidents is not to drive at all.

This morning I told my mom and she was quite upset as she had hoped to maintain this car without any damages for one year at least.

I had to have my first accident sooner or later. Why couldnt it have come in the old Santro and not on such a special day?

[musicmanaman]

Things happen Nikhil, by the sound of it, it's a minor one, so just forget about it, there will be many more car's in your life,and things like these just happen, best is not to blame yourself and move on. Just be a little bit more carefull next time around and take this as a learning expirence.

[bottle]

really sorry to hear that nikhil. service centers are pretty good these days so i dont doubt that they will have it looking like new in no time.

These barriers are a huge menace though. you are lucky to have got away with just a damaged mirror since here there have been a huge number of deaths as well when unsuspecting bikers ram into them in low light conditions.

overseas i think it is mandatory to have a flashing light as a warning on top of barricades. dunno when our enforces will learn common sense

[condor]

Nikhil, I'll say - relax. It is not as bad as it could have been.

Remember to stay away from barricades & dividers. Atleast when traffic is light & esp at night. These have a habit of losing alignment, jutting out, and even popping out of no-where.

[srijit]

Thank God that this was a minor accident. You were really not to blame. People would say that you should have been more careful, but you were going at 40km/hr at 11pm. Cant get more careful than that.
In Trivandrum, we had a couple of guys on bikes lose their lives after falling inside an unmarked construction pit in the middle of the road. Shows you how callous the repair people can be

[Rehaan]

Hey Nikhil,

Man, i know the terrible feeling you get when you scratch or bang a car for the first time. Especially if you are still in the stage where your parents have trusted you to take the car!! That bad feeling you get in your stomach - and you wonder how you are going to convey the news to the parental authorities

Luckily the damage was only a mirror. Not a big deal at all - so dont worry too much about the physical damage to the car.

However...

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

...I take a left at Sagar Apollo Hospital to go towards Dairy Circle and I am soon doing about 40kmph or so. Suddenly, I hear a loud bang and instinctively turn the wheel left. The driver's side view mirror is shattered!! No one knows what happened. We pull to the side of the road and look behind and see those damned barricades placed on the road!!

No signals, no warnings, no stickers, nothing!! None of us saw it....

... I'm going to say what noone has said so far :

You were going slowly, at 40 - and you still did not manage to see an inanimate object that was placed in the middle of the street and wasn't even moving ?

I understand that it was hard to see and that the traffic police really needs to do a better job of making it visible (quite sad on their part), but what if there was a person crossing the street? - since people do not come with signals, warnings or stickers - and they move too.

I hope you dont misunderstand this as me hitting you while you are already down, but maybe you need to pay closer attention to the road. With experiences like this you will learn that when there is loud music, a stressful environment, people yelling in the car, your mother asking you difficult questions about your life plans etc happening in the car - its easier to get distracted and therefore you need to pay more attention to driving or curb the distractions somehow.

Im saying this because they say that humans are the only animals who can learn from other peoples experiences without having to see them or experience them themselves - and most people here have been through something or another on the road, so sharing experiences here might help.
Hopefully this will give you some food for thought - and once again - just something to think about. I know mistakes happen and sometimes its just bad luck that takes over.

cya
R

[hemanthisgreat]

i feel if you had the high beam on, you would have seen the barricades. Its always a good idea to have high beam on, if the roads are not properly lit.

[reignofchaos]

Bad luck dude. These barricades are a complete menace. Thank god it was just a mirror and nothing else. If the scratch is minor, it can be fixed by polishing.

[Nikhilb2008]

Thanks for the encouraging words guys.

@Rehaan --- Hindsight is always 20-20 . I guess I should have seen it. Maybe I wasnt concentrating enough on the road. What you have mentioned is very scary indeed. I just need to drive with my eyes open wider.

[Sam Kapasi]

Ahh there's no sorrow that cake fudge cannot take away...

[snaronikar]

Good that nothing happened to you and your friends. Yeah, 1st accident do worry us a lot. But once you get used to it, then you will not feel the punch. I think you were quite busy chatting with your friends and with loud music, you may not have noticed the barricade and "thud" the sound would have come. Do continue driving and you will feel much relieved.

[HappyWheels]

Nikhil,

Good that it was just a minor one. Just hope that your mom comes over it soon.

Regardless of time of drive and speed, if one is driving, the primary concentration has to be on the road and its surprises.

Since Rehaan already pointed this out and you did have your fudge cake, nothing more to be said.

PS: You had a cake, what did you do for your mom???

[anurag_p80]

Nikhil, good that you were safe. My view is that you would probably benefit from this small and harmless scrape. It must have been scary for sure, but it will make you be more prudent and you will be able to avoid potentially more dangerous escapades. That is the positive side. Having said that though, these barricades placed anywhere and everywhere without any rhyme or reason are a menace. So are dividers, with lose boulders jutting out into the right lane.....God save the motorist in low light conditions!!!
Rehaan, IMO the human eye is more attuned to identify movement. So, if it was a person crossing the road, it is better than an even chance that Nikhil or one of his friends would have spotted it. Inanimate objects in the shadows are actually more likely to be missed than moving objects, stray animals or people crossing the road.

[condor]

Rehaan : However... You were going slowly, at 40 - and you still did not manage to see an inanimate object that was placed in the middle of the street and wasn't even moving ?

To be fair to Nikhil, that stretch is mostly without a barricade. I passed through the same area an hour back, and not yet able to figure out where it could have happened.

hemanthisgreat : i feel if you had the high beam on, you would have seen the barricades. Its always a good idea to have high beam on, if the roads are not properly lit.

And blind the drivers coming in the opposite direction ? High beams are a bad idea - and that area is quite well lit.

Nikhilb2008 : I guess I should have seen it. Maybe I wasnt concentrating enough on the road. What you have mentioned is very scary indeed. I just need to drive with my eyes open wider.

Nikhil, was it the 'company' that you had that made you distracted ?

I'll say it again - the damage is not bad. Just, pls be careful.

Btw, I have seen much worse - an auto-rick toppling over on Kasturba Rd, in broad day-light.

[finneyp]

Nikhil, whatever has to happen will happen! So relax!

Just learn from this experience, when you are driving in night on City roads you need to be more alert & careful since some objects are not easily visible unless you come very near!