[aaggoswami]

IMHO, you should have taken the drive to police station. I am sure he wont improve and in future will get more people into trouble by his insane driving skills.
However, it is very surprising that someone actually came to you and talked and even more surprising is the way in which the Police inspector behaved.

The best part out of the entire episode is that no human is hurt. And your reflexes are pretty quick it seems and this basically helped a lot.

However, I am not able to get this:
You engaged 2nd gear and were accelerating, then how come you came to 1st and accelerated again ? Did you stop for a moment ?


O.T. : Earlier also I had pointed out this, and again I am pointing out that I fail to understand what is this " KA " business. What I understand from this is that a person from one state cannot go to another state otherwise it will be troublesome in our FREE counrty. My friend's Zen ( original last generation with Korea type grille and " cat " headlamps ) is MH registered and we dont have any trouble in moving around Gujarat.

[muralisk]

First of all, glad to hear that there are no injuries in this nasty incident. This is quite common with TN private buses. It's always close shave with them. They drive as if there is no tomorrow and today is the last of life on earth.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

O.T. : Earlier also I had pointed out this, and again I am pointing out that I fail to understand what is this " KA " business. What I understand from this is that a person from one state cannot go to another state otherwise it will be troublesome in our FREE counrty. My friend's Zen ( original last generation with Korea type grille and " cat " headlamps ) is MH registered and we dont have any trouble in moving around Gujarat.

Coming to "KA" business, I guess this has to do more with the human mentality. People who are at fault, will and shall try to take advantage of various parameters to defend. One such parameter is language. I am not saying that this behavior is specific to TN or KA or KL or AP (where I have driven), but this I feel is very person/ human nature related.

[esteem_lover]

Narrow escape, HW. You should only thank God for that. There are many maniacs lilke this on the road. Not just bus/truck drivers, even people like us sometimes drive our cars very rash. It is always advisable to be on the alert for such guys. I can feel your pain.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

...To me, my car is part of family anyway!

Same here! Give or take the level, I am sure all of us here share this feeling.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

IMHO, you should have taken the drive to police station. I am sure he wont improve and in future will get more people into trouble by his insane driving skills...

True, I would have preferred that. But with my family, at 6.30PM, with another 200+kms to drive to get home, I made the selfish choice of getting back home! :(

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

...However, it is very surprising that someone actually came to you and talked and even more surprising is the way in which the Police inspector behaved...

Again so true! First a person coming down to help and then the police. That too they talking to me in English, thinking that I am a non Tamilian, was the best thing. I always (based on previous exp) thought they are out for their pound of flesh, no matter where! (I have 2 generations in the family in TN police!!!)

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

...However, I am not able to get this:
You engaged 2nd gear and were accelerating, then how come you came to 1st and accelerated again ? Did you stop for a moment ? ...

I slowed down when I say the truck initially overtaking the other truck. Slowed down to a crawl when they got very close, but did not stop. So I slotted to 2nd to pull out back on road and get going when he crosses me. Thats when the bus became visible. The slow motion of the vehicle, helped in moving the vehicle from the direct path and gave me time to stop to bear the impact and not jump into the dug up area besides the road!

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

...O.T. : Earlier also I had pointed out this, and again I am pointing out that I fail to understand what is this " KA " business. What I understand from this is that a person from one state cannot go to another state otherwise it will be troublesome in our FREE counrty. My friend's Zen ( original last generation with Korea type grille and " cat " headlamps ) is MH registered and we dont have any trouble in moving around Gujarat.

This is what we are all trying to understand!!! I can not drive a TN vehicle here in KA. I cannot drive a AP vehicle in TN. I cannot drive a KA vehicle in TN. All this is because of fleecing by the other road users, who think they have more right in their state road, and (sometimes) by some bad cop elements.

For me, since I know Tamil & Malayalam, I am comfortable. And I drive a KA vehicle. So not much of issue anywhere. But then, the initial reactions are always hostile in some places!

Pray it might change soon!

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

O.T. : Earlier also I had pointed out this, and again I am pointing out that I fail to understand what is this " KA " business. What I understand from this is that a person from one state cannot go to another state otherwise it will be troublesome in our FREE counrty. My friend's Zen ( original last generation with Korea type grille and " cat " headlamps ) is MH registered and we dont have any trouble in moving around Gujarat.

Not going to dwell into this in detail. But there is a slightly hidden dislike between these neighbours, specially when any one is involved in an incident. Considering the political disagreements which have surfaced in recent times, these have only increased. My car (KA registered) had a stone thrown against it shattering the windscreen while passing through TN. This was during the Hogennakkal issue period. Needless to say, this is the work of some anti-social elements, considering most people i have interacted with belonging to either of these states are very amicable.

[pypkmsrikanth]

The bus drivers work on a simple assumption - the guy in the opposite side would be scared for life so would slow down sufficiently enough for me to complete my overtaking. There are some stretches which are horrible, in my experiences driving / travelling in TN/Kerala/Karnataka over the last 13 years they are listed down not necessarily from the good to bad.

Salem - Erode
Erode - Coimbatore (including Coimbatore - Tiruppur)
Palghat - Trichur
Ernakulam - Guruvayur
Kozhikode - Kannur
Palghat - Kozhikode
Mangalore - Udupi
Salem - Karur
Coimbatore - Palladam

If you notice most of these stretches are ones which are high density routes for Private buses hence this issue of starting late to pick up more passengers and trying to finish the trip earlier so that he gets more time in the end terminus to pick up passengers in the return trip, this process continues through the whole day.

Also strange is the theory in Kerala where if the bus you hits with his last 1/3rd on the right then he is not responsible but you are irrespective of how the accident happened.

At one point when I used to travel every month to Mangalore, I used to sit in the middle of the bus on the left side as that was the least risky of all. Have never seen Tata buses driven faster than the guys from Mangalore.

[Hurrycane12]

Happywheels relived to know that all's well with your family and you; Thank god a bigger tragedy is averted by some quick thinking on the wheel.

[Surprise]

Thank god.

Heavy lorry traffic and these morons always keep right and wanted to overtake everything at one shot

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

The bus drivers work on a simple assumption - the guy in the opposite side would be scared for life so would slow down sufficiently enough for me to complete my overtaking

Thats perfectly right.

Most of the times they succeed in overtaking and in some cases both the vehicles has to brake hard to stop against each other before the bus driving back to left lane after the vehicle ahead passes off.

In rare cases they end up in such situation and the worst is they run over if the small vehicle does not get out of the way as much as they could.

Have attempted once to scare back the drivers by edging them bit closer not allowing them to do a free overtake.

But in another incident I braked hard and stopped well ahead, even then the bus has missed my cars fender by few inches at 40 km/hr. I could sense that overtaken vehicle refused to budge and kept accelerating resulting in such a bad situation for me. From thereon I always wanted to play a safe game in such situations.

[dadu]

Start using the dipper as soon as you can notice that the overtaking will be done by an opposite vehicle and it will not be able to complete it with you moving towards that vehicle. Slow down as HW did and anticipate their moves.

A smaller vehicle always have to be more cautious of the bigger ones, the food cycle -> Big fish eats small fish applies to human behaviour too.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Suresh! That was very close indeed and thank heavens that all are fine and safe. Bus drivers commuting between cities in particular those privately owned and driven are a big menace in our part of the world. They are idiotic and many a time they drive so horrendously that they should be deemed to lockup.

Good to see a good Samaritan coming upto you and your family to check how you folks were. Damn the maniacs on roads when will they ever learn that life is much more valuable than the adrenalin rush.

[ph03n!x]

Close call!! Thank God everyone is safe.

Why don't you get the bus owner's details, and make him pay for the entire repair??

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

Salem - Erode
Erode - Coimbatore (including Coimbatore - Tiruppur)
Palghat - Trichur
Ernakulam - Guruvayur
Kozhikode - Kannur
Palghat - Kozhikode
Mangalore - Udupi
Salem - Karur
Coimbatore - Palladam

You couldnt have summed up those routes any better. I have driven down those roads and agree with you.

This is quite common on these routes and is really frustating.

But whenever they see me coming they brake hard and get into their lane as soon as possible - guess why?



I drive a Bolero

Lot of police jeeps are Bolero's so it helps.

[snaronikar]

Phew!!! that's pretty close shave, HW. Good that you and your beloved ones are safe and sound. You did the right thing asking the driver to pay up for this.

I feel you can claim the insurance for repairs and painting.

[santhosh_kumard]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

T
Erode - Coimbatore (including Coimbatore - Tiruppur)
Palghat - Trichur

.

I have driven on this roads and i totally concur with your thoughts. Oh I always soo much hate to drive in the Erode-Combi stretch whenever doing BLR->CBE & back. And on top of that I have seen these bus guys driving near 90 Kmph endangering the life of every road users. I hope somebody puts speed governors into these machines.

[Dry Ice]

Thank heavens that you people are safe. Indeed, was a bone chilling experience just reading through it. But glad to see that you kept your cool and did not panic!! Proves your mettle.

About these rogue bus drivers, all I can say is that they should be slapped with more serious charges than just rash and negligent driving. Maybe causing hurt or trying to hurt intentionally and all these offenses should be made non-bailable. In case of the private buses, even the owners should be charged. This will ensure they give their buses in competent hands. Until that happens, these dare-devils aren't going to slow down, cause they already know the bus owners will get them out in no time at all.