[gomzi]

I was calmly following this discussion hoping the sane chaps prevail in the conclusion that what the swift guy did was wrong.

Originally Posted by kiranpashtakar

Yep that's the price for making a wrong decision, one should be aware of what ahead and behind and also the consequences before making manouvers that confuse other people on the road

The price for making a wrong decisionandthen not being able to bail out cos some moron nudged in is likely to be Death.

Bailing out of an overtake is a normal practice on a single lane highway (our old highways)and can happen due to a variety of factors.
I would recommend that people not go completely into the opposite lane when unsure of the overtake, but they have as much of a right to immediately come back in the correct lane to save their life and not find that a moron has sneaked in.
Remember that all this happens over a couple of seconds or less, not over half an hour and a couple of seconds is all it takes to avoid accidents on our highways.

And it just occurred to me that the Swift drivers thinking is so totally described by the writer in that article you shared a couple of pages ago.

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by kiranpashtakar

1) First you took a call to overtake the bus and vacate your current position,

Now the logical thing to happen after event 1 is the swift guy moves to your position to look for his opportunity to overtake.

I agree that it happens on the streets, but certainly it is not the logical or best thing to do. For all you know it has become a habit to all of us which is neither logical nor correct. You do not overtake or make moves unless you are absolutely sure of the road dynamics at that instant. No offenses meant.

[KRRaj]

I have a simple rule for overtaking. If the vehicle in front of me is slower than me, I pass him. If any vehicle behind me is faster, I let him go. I never bother what vehicle I pass or get passed by

[prince_pervez]

Now a days its more like, over take if you want to but don't scratch my car.

[abhinav.s]

Hilarious way to put it!!

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

Now a days its more like, over take if you want to but don't scratch my car.

My rule is similar to KRRaj's when it comes to overtaking.

[aargee]

@KRraj - aptly put; I guess that's what most TBhpians do including me.

Now a days its more like, over take if you want to but don't scratch my car

Not for cabbies I guess; the two-wheelers are the ones who're not afraid at all.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by aargee

Not for cabbies I guess; the two-wheelers are the ones who're not afraid at all.

You can say that again. Specially the 2 wheelers on highways. They dont wear helmets for the life of them and rip their splendor/platina trying to overtake our cars from the left/right/center wherever they can find a small gap at dangerous speeds.

Once i was doing around 85-90kmh in our Spark on the B'lore-Mysore highway. A bloke on Platina without RVM and helmet started his antics of overtaking me. His bike was sounding as if it was ready to explode!! I was afraid that he would come under the wheels of my car, had to slow down to 60kmh and let him pass.. Whew!!

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by kiranpashtakar

common sense.

Now rethink the situation.

You are endangering the life of the other person.

Lets take your example. If the guy overtaking has calculated all risks but suddenly sees a jaywalker lumbering out in a distance, he cant overtake now. God forbid kiranopashtakar is behind him, who will occupy his space immediately not bothering whether the overtaking manuver was completed or not. Now lets add a hundred more kiranpashtakar's who have all occupied the space for a few meters long. The poor guy is cooked.

Remember driving is a previlege not your right. We are humans, considerations need to be shown to fellow humans. We are not out there to try and maim kill the other.

If the other guy got the overtaking wrong it does not give you any right to put him in an obviously dangerous position.

If I was driving instead of sbraj, i could have thought to myself what a scum this swift driver is. Probably lacked a proper upbringing. Pitied him and drove on.

[MX6]

I was just returning from the airport after dropping my father. The time was around 10:30 pm. It's a nice 4 lane road from Airport to Nagar road. I was in the right lane doing 65 kph as near Symbiosis, there were loads of students walking (couples ofcourse) on the left lane.
Here comes a Baleno flashing his lights, tailgating me and honking madly. I was like, "What the. Did some one set his bottom on fire?". I couldn't pull to the left lane as I saw a black alto parked there near the platform. So decided to continue a bit further in the right lane and then giving this low life way after crossing the alto. But this bugger was in no mood to wait. As I see in the rear view mirror, the guy tries to hit the gas and over take me from the left, only to find an alto parked a few feet ahead. He has to slam hard and swerve back. He still doesn't realise that this is the reason I couldn't pull over and let him go. So he tries the trick again. I've already put my indicators now to show I'm trying to pull over to let him pass. But the moron is determined. So after crossing the alto, he launches again, tries to overtake me from left though I have my indicator on and am moving to left lane. I knew that this low life will end up killing some poor student of symbiosis at this rate, so I go to extreme right and let him overtake from left after cutting off the indicator.
While overtaking me he momentarily slows down and I know that he's going to give me the glowering look. So being prepared, I turned and gave him a big grin and waved at him. He was shocked. He zoomed past me and would have hit atleast 80 in that short stretch (hardly 250 meters to Nagar road junction. Normally I slow down, but I thought, let me accelerate a bit.
My wife was tensed and she just started saying, "Leave it. Let him go". I gave a tongue in cheek response. I'm not chasing him. I want to go home quick and put this up in T-BHP.
At Nagar road junction, he turned left and I turned right towards kalyani nagar. He looked again, I waved yet again and parted ways. The look on his face was priceless.

@Kiranpashtakar, Why do you want the person who made a wrong estimate of overtaking to be killed? That's sad. I'll tell you how it will end. The guy who tried this manouver will mostly get killed not because he didn't clearly estimate whether he'd be able to make the manouver or not, but because, there's a moron who pulled in to take his place.
And trust me, in a panic scenario, there's more chances of the driver squeezing between the oncoming vehicle and the one that took his place there by endangering all three.

What the swift guy did is not just wrong, it's terrible.

[aargee]

Hear this Abhinav;
We were a group of 18 guys group riding with helmets, jackets, gears & what not? And here comes our special uninvited guest riding on some Bajaj family, forget the helmet, without even a shoe & sneaks into our group; looks like he wanted some attention from us. The joker tried breaking our lengthy group, but didn't know that we could adjust among ourselves to accomodate him. Anyway, he couldn't keep pace with our speeds for even a KM. Finally I remember seeing him in the RVM making fun of our riding signals.

[Xehaust]

Originally Posted by MX6

the glowering look. So being prepared, I turned and gave him a big grin and waved at him. He was shocked.

He looked again, I waved yet again and parted ways. The look on his face was priceless.

Classic! Now i know what to do in such situations & keep myself smiling for the rest of the drive

Originally Posted by MX6

@Kiranpashtakar, Why do you want the person who made a wrong estimate of overtaking to be killed? That's sad. I'll tell you how it will end. The guy who tried this manouver will mostly get killed not because he didn't clearly estimate whether he'd be able to make the manouver or not, but because, there's a moron who pulled in to take his place.
And trust me, in a panic scenario, there's more chances of the driver squeezing between the oncoming vehicle and the one that took his place there by endangering all three.

What the swift guy did is not just wrong, it's terrible.

I agree completely with your views. It may become a hazard for all three instead of just the car trying to overtake. The guy was wrong to fill in the gap before the car ahead had safely finished the overtake.

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by MX6

So being prepared, I turned and gave him a big grin and waved at him. He was shocked. He zoomed past me and would have hit atleast 80 in that short stretch
...
He looked again, I waved yet again and parted ways. The look on his face was priceless.

Ego, isn't it?

Your post reminds me of this post.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

The guy driving wouldnt look at me, but his face appeared as if he had eaten a lizard.

[MCR]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Once i was doing around 85-90kmh in our Spark on the B'lore-Mysore highway. A bloke on Platina without RVM and helmet started his antics of overtaking me. His bike was sounding as if it was ready to explode!! I was afraid that he would come under the wheels of my car, had to slow down to 60kmh and let him pass.. Whew!!

This has become very common now on BLR-MYS highway. I have seen people with small kids doing this antics.

Originally Posted by MX6

I was just returning from the airport after dropping my father. The time was around 10:30 pm. It's a nice 4 lane road from Airport to Nagar road. I was in the right lane doing 65 kph as near Symbiosis, there were loads of students walking (couples ofcourse) on the left lane..

In April I faced a similar situation. I was driving on NH4 towards Bangalore. I was overtaking a truck which was on the left most lane. Suddenly a Honda CRV appears and tries to squeeze in between the truck and my car, but realizes its not possible. After I overtake I move to the left lane, but this CRV is adamant to overtake me from the left. He starts flashing. I stay put on the left lane and later the Moron in the CRV realizes and overtakes from the right.

I can remember a saying in Kannada for such a people "alpanige aishwarya bandre ardha ratrili kode hididanante" which means if a lowlife fellow gets money, he will open an umbrella in the midnight.

Originally Posted by aargee

Hear this Abhinav;
We were a group of 18 guys group riding with helmets, jackets, gears & what not? And here comes our special uninvited guest riding on some Bajaj family, forget the helmet, without even a shoe & sneaks into our group; looks like he wanted some attention from us. The joker tried breaking our lengthy group, but didn't know that we could adjust among ourselves to accomodate him. Anyway, he couldn't keep pace with our speeds for even a KM. Finally I remember seeing him in the RVM making fun of our riding signals.

. I think he wanted to prove he was a hero and did not need any protection / safety gear.

[kiranpashtakar]

Guys,

Only conclusion i can make is, opinions are like our backsides every one has one, so some think that the swift guy was wrong ,, great,, had the swift the swift guy written the blog the outcome may have been different. Because he would have described his predicament.

And how come no-one is talking about

what if the swift guy had overtaken sbraj to pass the lorry and at the last minute decided that he will not be able to make it, what should happen then should sbraj be accomodating enough to slow down and give the swift guy place to get in?? would sbraj or anyone else for that matter really do that. I dont think so. Its something else that one would abuse and give way to avoid collision.

@Sbraj
Like i metioned earlier i was not on the scene to say what you/the swift guy did was right or wrong and the intention is not to get personal

coming to your comments, please find mine in bold

If the Swift guy behind me wanted to overtake, all he needed to do was flash/honk.

My Assumption was the swift guy did not want to overtake you but just pulled in closer to the truck to look for his opportunity to overtake. If he was righ behind you overtaking the truck along with you then he was a complete moron.

Is that the practice seen on the roads? I have not seen it so far (p.s. only driven roughly 50K kms so far). Had that been the practice that I as aware of, I would have happily complied.

I have logged almost thrice as much as you have driven and i am sure there is no implicit practice that everyone understands, what you had to eventually do, i.e get behind the swift was the most logical thing to do in such a situation.


Not sure whether you got the point. The moment a driver goes against the followed practices, it creates uncertainty. And uncertainty leads to accidents.
Please introspect, who created uncertainity in your situation.


@Spitfire, my comments in bold

If the guy overtaking has calculated all risks but suddenly sees a jaywalker lumbering out in a distance,

This guys luck ran out,my sympathies

he cant overtake now. God forbid kiranopashtakar is behind him, .

True, god forbid kiranashtakar is ever behind some one who is indecisive.

God forbid kiranopashtakar is behind him, Who will occupy his space immediately not bothering whether the overtaking manuver was completed or not. Now lets add a hundred more kiranpashtakar's who have all occupied the space for a few meters long.
Oh right, because of this poor guys dilema lets risk every one else's life for no fault of theirs



Remember driving is a previlege not your right.

Please remind yourself that privilege comes with responsibilities and yes of course everyone has rights on the road, as long as one is under legal limits,

We are humans, considerations need to be shown to fellow humans. We are not out there to try and maim kill the other.

Agree, the key word is humans and not morons who act indecisive on highways, no pity from me for such morons behind wheels.

If the other guy got the overtaking wrong it does not give you any right to put him in an obviously dangerous position.

Sorry my freind, no-one would have urged the guy to dangerously overtake, puting not only his life in danger but also jeopardize other lives on the road. Regarding rights, All i am talking of is the right of way.
If you have the right of way then sorry the other guy has to look out for himself.

If I was driving instead of sbraj, i could have thought to myself what a scum this swift driver is. Probably lacked a proper upbringing. Pitied him and drove on.

Ya the swift driver was likely to think the same, what a indecisive moron cant even make up his mind on what he wants to do.

Like i told earlier opinions are like our back side everyone has one

14th July 2010 22:23

[kiranpashtakar]

Guys

Forgot to mention that I truly value the difference of opinions that are shared. I believe that such varied perspectives will enrich our comprehension of our fellow human beings. And most of all i am not being judgemental here but only arguing for what would have been the right thing to do. As you can note I have some spare time on hand and the value of my argument may not even be equal to the amount of space this text occupies on the server.