[sudev]

In the latest trip posting at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-of...ic-places.html I mentioned about a incident that I am describing in details here.

I was one of the the invited volunteers at the Raid-de-Himalaya which was to start on October 2nd. As usual a day before the event we have to be in Simla to receive all our instructions and collect all things that are needed for setting up time controls on the route to be followed by the Raid. I was to do duty as the first control on day one and two. Therefater I was to go to Leh as area in-charge while the Raid did a loop around Kaza and then headed to Leh.

So on evening of September 30th after finish office for the day myslef along with my son and a friend of his strapped our selves in our Grand Vitara. The journey to get out of Delhi took two miserable hours from Okhla.

Once past Delhi border things started becoming easy and we enjoyed zooming through the Painpat overbridge. This has really cut down driving time through Panipat by 30 minutes and well worth the Rs20 toll. A halt at Karnal dhabha for dinner and we were looking for target time at Simla 0100hrs on 1st October.

Just beyond Pipli we were crusing at 140+ and having a great time talking for upcoming days and listening to music and chatter on the Karnal radio Mantra 91.9 FM. This is when I noticed a car ahead of the Tavera upfront breaking. So did the Tavera and I. It was a sudden and heavy breaking but with ABS I came to full stop without a thought. Just as I came to a full stop I looked up into RVM and uttered "OH **** HE IS GOING TO RAM US"

The trailer truck behind me was not stopping in time and I had no place but to roll forward few feet between me and Tavera to lessen the impact and ....BANG! The truck hit our rear door. Consequently we also hit the Tavera in the back.

A second or two later i opened the door and jumped out at the same time cuationing my sone and his friend not to come out on left side withouut watching out for traffic streaming past on left. We were in the right most lane.

The front damage was minor with only a broken bumper - it held up as such for next ten days to Leh and back) and relatively minor dent on the Tavera. The qunatum of impact here was not sufficient to damage radiator or even mis-align head beams.

Now the back side. If you have noticed all truck have a small ramp in the middle of their bumper (Ralph Nader would have railed againt this as unsafe at any speed) used by helpers to clean the windshield. This had hit the rear mounted tyre of the GV and had pushed the door in. The door fastner had held on and slight bending (twisting) of the door pillars occured. Rear glass was intact and so were the rear lights!!

In the meanwhile passengers from Tavera - who were going to Mata Vaishno Devi - also poured out and strated berating the driver of truck for causing all the damage. I on the other hand was stunned although mechanically inspecting the damage etc.

I was stinned imagining the impact if i had not moved forward those few feet and ofcourse hurting for the GV being bent out of shape.

Anyhow after exchanging all vehicle numbers and phones and getting apologies from the truck driver we all moved on. I was driving my vehicle keeping look out for any heating or vibratiions. None. The car did 140 without a problem except roar of wind over the damaged rear door.

So the lesson is while you may be able to to break or maneouver better watch out for the other guy CAN HE?

[FlyingSpur]

Ouch! That's really bad. Great that your car held up all through the raid. Just yesterday my friend was telling me about how an emergency stop by 5-6 people on the highway was uneventful till a truck behind him couldn't brake on time and totaled his Accord from the back as well as pushing his Accord's nose under the Safari in front of him. 2 cars ahead of him were also damaged. Almost 3 lacs worth of damage.

[Samurai]

Ouch, ouch, ouch! It really hurts to hear an accident like that. I guess that's the downside to having great brakes, you can stop too quick for the guy behind you. Glad to hear GV wa able to carry without issues.

Now I noticed the rear door, looks like it took the hit pretty well proving it is no tin can as people tend to believe.

I had a similar situation once with the Acura, I managed an emergency stop thanks to ABS on a wet snowy road, but the car behind me couldn't. I too moved forward after stopping to give more room to the rushing car from rear, but that was not enough. Thankfully the lady driver of that car did have the presence of mind to swerve to the side and ended almost parallel to me. She averted a nasty accident. God bless her.

[sudev]

Regretfully did not get any snaps of door till after the repair job. The guys at MotoWorld Simla have them Will try to get them here.

@Samurai: Yep I was impressed that the door did not rip off even after getting bent by almost a foot inside. It took us better part of day next day to get it pulled out in to a working shape.

[low_bass_makker]

A similar incident happened with me on the NH-2 Highway. I was sandwiched between a Scorpio for the behind and the Zen in front, Had a Viva petrol at that time...

Few pics of the same...

[dadu]

I know stopping from 140 is a difficult one and it needs real presence of mind and quickness of a cheetah(watch it catching a prey on discovery) to maneuver.

But the real benefit of an ABS is in maneuvering(whereever possible) and not a straight line stop.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Thankfully the lady driver of that car did have the presence of mind to swerve to the side and ended almost parallel to me. She averted a nasty accident. God bless her.

[abhinav.gupta88]

Ouch
It really hurts to hear about a car accident that bad.

Do show us pics if you have as it would show us the clear view.

how much is the repair et all?

[nitrous]

I noticed the deformed tailgate in your Raid pics. Didn't want to ask you then.

I had a similar experience back in 2002 when I was driving to college with my mates,back then. This was a signal I have to cross almost everyday ,even today.

I just slotted to first after the green came on and just when I was about 30-40, a fiat uno braked abruptly. I used the exact amount of braking required to use maximum distance upto the uno and also as slow as possible for the guy behind to brake comfortably. Just when I'd stopped a couple inches before the uno's rear bumper. I hear this loud bang at my rear. It was a blue omni.
I got out to check the damage(trunk caved in slightly.God bless FORD build quality) and well,*damage* the omni driver, 2 of the passengers got out of the vehicle.

One was my principal and the other was the brother of my friend who was riding with me in the car .

I had mixed emotions. One was to scare the daylights out of the driver and the other was to smile and say hi to the acquaintances.
I did neither. I just got back into the car and drove to a body shop instead of college.

[ashthedivx]

It actually hurts when you aren't at fault. These type chain accidents on highways are actually very dangerous.

Thank god that your senses worked and you shifted a bit forward else the damage may had been extended too much to ruin the overall trip too.

Pics of the damages ??

[sudev]

@all: As I narrated this was at night say ~2100hrs and the camera was tucked in a bag in the boot. So no pics from the site. Some pics of the vehicle "after" on the move repairs.


At night after repairs moving out of Simla.


Looking cool but damaged. The hund spare lost its plastic cover (inner and outer) and is not in vertical plane.


All the inner plastics had cracked or broken. The door was pushed back and hammered in to shape but the lower frame had a inch wide gap from where we ingested huge amounts of dust in to the drive cabin. Last year for the same route there was hardly any dust inside.


The floor pan of boot is also bent in. Being examined from below.

[Dry Ice]

After such an enjoyable thread by you (the one you have quoted), its heart breaking to see the vehicle in such a shape!! and that too for no fault of yours! Really sorry to hear the incident mate!!
Hope she comes back as new after the repairs.

Do keep the thread updated about the repairs.

[ashthedivx]

Originally Posted by sudev

@all: As I narrated this was at night say ~2100hrs and the camera was tucked in a bag in the boot. So no pics from the site. Some pics of the vehicle "after" on the move repairs.

Arghh... It looks bad !!

[bonobashi]

Originally Posted by sudev

Regretfully did not get any snaps of door till after the repair job. The guys at MotoWorld Simla have them Will try to get them here.

@Samurai: Yep I was impressed that the door did not rip off even after getting bent by almost a foot inside. It took us better part of day next day to get it pulled out in to a working shape.

A silly question to you, and to the other experienced drivers:

In the old days (read, very old, we're talking 60s and 70s here), the maxim was one car-length distance for every 10 mph speed. Let's say about 1.5 lengths for every 10 kmph.

Nobody's going to allow that now. For instance, for you, maintaining 14 * 1.5 = 21 car lengths, Delhi to Panipat, for that matter, anywhere up to Chandigarh, is preposterous.

So what do you advise should be a good driving norm? Bearing in mind that any norm will be of no use with a trailer truck behind you out of control.

[sudev]

@bonobash: (what kind of tag is that??) The problem is not about keeping distance ahead of you. Here the problem was did the guy behind you keep enough distance?

The old rule still applies. 1 car length is 15 feet and if you are doing 100kmph 150 feet is good safety. Traffic conditions not letting you maintain this is in your hands. If some one cuts in front then you step off the gas for a moment. Problem is that most of the cutting in happens not at high speeds but at low speeds in high traffic density areas.

Another issue to consider is why did the other guy cut in? Did you not let him pass? Easy to blame others but I have seen many road hoggers who will not let go of right lane even with ample road space available on left.

[suman]

Originally Posted by sudev

@bonobash: (what kind of tag is that??)

OT: Its actually bonobashi as in one who lives in the woods (as in exile so to speak)?