Team-BHP - A scary experience

Last Saturday was returning from a visit to a temple along with my parents + wife+ kid and had completed 250 kms of return journey with still just 60 kms left out.

Got into a 50 meter long bridge that connects the SH into NH with a lorry and a state transport corporation bus before me. Have maintained goods speeds throughout the empty neatly paved SH's and have somehow lost patience to follow those two heavy vehicles, at least wanted to overtake the heavily loaded lorry.

Squeezed into the left hand side of the lorry with horns blaring, my left tyre was at the edge of the road, which was 1/2 ft elevated from the mud on the sides. When I was almost through with overtaking the lorry, gap got tighter as the road is bit curved towards right. As I took the curve, I should be doing somewhere around 40-50 kmph when my left tyres got away from the road (1/2 ft depth).

Continuing with my prediction from here....
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Car was directed towards the side railing as I got into the mud, instantly I swerved towards right and as the tyres were negotiating from mud to road, I felt as if someone lifted the car to place it between the lorry and the car.
----
I could not believe that I did not ram my car into the lorry which was just few inches away from my car as I saw in the rear view mirror. He should have braked hard to let me in between. None of the passengers were able to understand the seriousness of the mistake I did. This unnecessary life threatening effort made me feel bad.

As I settled down, continued with higher speeds in NH-4. Entered a bridge with no traffic ahead in the speeds of 120 kmph, as I was about to exit it, I hit a slight uneven road surface and felt as if the car was in air, though not sure. Could hear the passengers shout as their head got hit against the roof of the car, I slightly applied brakes to get the car into the control.

Thanks to my stars as I reached safely after these incidents. Even now I was not able to digest the way I tried to overtake the lorry and thanked him for not crashing onto my car

A day that I have to remember to fill more discipline onto the driving from now on

@Surprise, how many lanes on that road ? Trying to understand why you overtook from the left. As they say, "Overtaking from the left ain't right". Ofcourse if you had more than 1 lane and the slow moving bus & truck were chugging along on the fast lane, I can understand your action.

Yeah, such scares happen and then you wonder whether the small time saving or thrill is worth it all. I think I am getting old. :-)

BTW, what is this SH and NH ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by condor (Post 1164640)

@Surprise : seriously man, what was wrong with you ? After the first escape, I would have thought that you would have slowed down a bit. Alteast on a bridge.

Anyway, good to know you are all safe.

+1 to that. Don't you think it's kinda little bit stupid to do high speed on a bridge and that too after you were just plain lucky to survive something very very bad. It's because you were already shaken by that incident and with that shock your thinking might go bit awry too. So better to slow down or even stop in such situations and regain your composer. Actually I feel that you got a second chance and you even tried to ruin that too within minutes. Sorry to sound harsh but that's what I felt and well, I want to scare you also:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno (Post 1164515)

Its just a big single, bit of steep road, around 20 ft wide that joins the state and national highway. I was not supposed to overtake in that small stretch, but just follow the vehicle till I hit the national highway

Quote:

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno (Post 1164537)

Did not quite understand this part.

I felt as if someone lifted the car to place it between the lorry and the car

inbetweeen the lorry and the bus, not car as mentioned earlier

@ surprise,

Glad to hear that it was limited to a scare (or two) without any damage. In addition to all the sage advice by other friends here, remember -

1. "Horns blaring" dont really work with trucks. If you have ever sat in a truck cabin you would know - they just cant hear it!

2. The driver cant see you when you are on the left of the truck you are overtaking.

3. That "someone lifted the car" is your left tyre(s) getting back onto the tarmac. When the shoulder is much lower than the road, the whole trajectory of the car changes on the tyre(s) getting back onto the tarmac.

4. Majority of the bridges have a bump at either end from difference in height of bridge and road, these lift and throw the car up. If you see a bridge - it is best to slow down.

5. The last leg or the home stretch is dangerous as we get impatient to get home + having got used to all those long empty stretches, we get irritated with the heavy slow moving traffic. Best to take a break somewhere there and tell yourself that driving is going to be slow for this last stretch.

Cheers and happy driving,

@ surprise: glad that you are safe!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra (Post 1164821)

1. "Horns blaring" dont really work with trucks. If you have ever sat in a truck cabin you would know - they just cant hear it!

2. The driver cant see you when you are on the left of the truck you are overtaking.

3. That "someone lifted the car" is your left tyre(s) getting back onto the tarmac. When the shoulder is much lower than the road, the whole trajectory of the car changes on the tyre(s) getting back onto the tarmac.

4. Majority of the bridges have a bump at either end from difference in height of bridge and road, these lift and throw the car up. If you see a bridge - it is best to slow down.

5. The last leg or the home stretch is dangerous as we get impatient to get home + having got used to all those long empty stretches, we get irritated with the heavy slow moving traffic. Best to take a break somewhere there and tell yourself that driving is going to be slow for this last stretch.

Cheers and happy driving,

Nicely summarized Ravveendrra.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra (Post 1164821)

3. That "someone lifted the car" is your left tyre(s) getting back onto the tarmac. When the shoulder is much lower than the road, the whole trajectory of the car changes on the tyre(s) getting back onto the tarmac.

that's a good example of snell's law.

Refraction of Light

(Above: Wheels on axle rolls along a smooth
sidewalk and onto grass. Which picture
path is followed? What happens if the
motion is reversed?

Right: One side of wave front slows down,
and the entire train of fronts twists.)

Glad that you and your passengers are safe. Do take a bit more care in future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by condor (Post 1164640)

@Surprise : seriously man, what was wrong with you ? After the first escape, I would have thought that you would have slowed down a bit. Alteast on a bridge.

Anyway, good to know you are all safe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaushik_s (Post 1164664)

+1 to that. ... Sorry to sound harsh but that's what I felt and well, I want to scare you also:)

Same thoughts. Surprising that you were doing that speed after that incident and that too on the bridge.

But then, we all have our own slips once a while.

Drive safe, @Surprise.