[Eddy]

Guys, lets keep the discussion on track please. No more off-topic posts.

[SS-Traveller]

Being overtaken is never a big (or even minute) deal for me - except on a very rare occasion, like today.

Was returning home on the Hawk-on-fours through the narrow lanes of Green Avenue (about enough space for two SUVs to pass abreast). My speed was about 40 km/h. I was dangerously overtaken by a Hiace with CD plates, squeezing me almost into the trees! There was a tractor coming the opposite way, and the Hiace's manoeuvre was timed very badly. It had black windows, and I had no idea how many people were there.

After overtaking me, the Hiace sped up to about 70 km/h, and ran full tilt over a few bumps on the road. Both sides of the road have farmhouses, with gates through which cars pop out regularly without warning.

I decided to follow the microbus, and managed to overtake it near the main road (D-3/4). I overtook it - and stopped. Stopped for a full two minutes. Every time the bus tried to dodge/squeeze past, I'd gently turn my car that way. The frustrated driver started honking.

Two minutes up, I drove away. No words exchanged. No getting out of the car. No heated exchange. No fights.

All he saw was the T-BHP IDS sticker on my tailgate.

The time advantage he gained by overtaking me dangerously, was effectively cancelled out with interest. Hope the driver learnt. If not, there's not a damn thing you or I can do to a CD-plated car.

[amitk26]

Yes EGO is problem and sometimes or other everyone indulges in it. It is the duty of copassangers to remind that it is pointless exercise.

Once near to Krishnagiri I was driving at around 130 , A Santro full of rowdy looking guys started flashing and honking constantly irritating me. I could see in rear view they were laughing and having fun doing this.

On the left lane was a innova going at similar speed so I increased the speed and moved ahead of innova and took left lane to give them space , again after 20 mins they were there flashing , I indicated them to pass but seems they were at max speed so continued flashing , Probably they wanted I should slow down and let them pass.

So I decided them to give taste of their own medicine . I slowed down to around 100 once they were ahead I started flashing lights maintaining a safe distance. Now driver understood what it means to have reflection in RVM all passenger turned back looking and they were horrified thinking I will do some thing nasty to them. The driver moved to left and then never indulged in this tactic again.

I play and interesting game with my wife on highways in South, whenever we see a car / SUV cutting lanes overtaking from Left or doing such antics we bet if it is a Bangalore registered car ( KA-01, 03,04 etc) or some nearby place like i.e. ( KA-51 / KA-53).
In this part of country some how a notion is enshrined dear to heart that it is safe driving to hog the lane and overtaking can be done from either side as long as you honk and flash. People believe in optimization of road usage and do not want to leave an inch empty.

[jinojohnt]

Originally Posted by canonguy

Last month I drove down to Mumbai from Bangalore. I started at 330 am and was cruising at 140 kph just past Hubli (I was already 450 kms into my journey with another 565 to go) on the lovely NH4 when I overtook a WagonR which was doing about 110 kph.
........
I looked to my left and saw my wife fast asleep as was my 10 yr old kid on the back-bench.
........

Do you use a back-facing child seat for your kid? If not, I would say going at 140 kph with your kid (even if buckled in the back seat) is gutsy

[mykal shoemaker]

Originally Posted by klassics45

Its a very common sight everywhere, even in the cities. When i am in a good mood i enjoy it. i allow them to overtake and just keep tailing them even if i could overtake. This way they will get fed up in a while and leave way for you.

All you can say is, you have a pilot vehicle for free!!

I too agree about the fun part in long drives.I've seen many people do the same on my Bangalore-Trivandrum trips.

Once there was one guy with a fully loaded Maruti 800(4 people), who started following my Ikon. He squeezes ahead on every town traffic areas.

On vacant areas he even cuised at 110kmph to catch up with my car.After around 40 KMs chase,I found him stopping to the side in my OVRM. May be his car got over heated and refused to go ahead.

Its clearly EGO and show off,which pumps the adrenaline when some car overtakes you.

Originally Posted by vasoo

There are also cases where promotions and salary hikes has been affected for people who bought "more expensive" cars than their bosses.

The classic Tata Indigo ad.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

I decided to follow the microbus, and managed to overtake it near the main road (D-3/4). I overtook it - and stopped. Stopped for a full two minutes. Every time the bus tried to dodge/squeeze past, I'd gently turn my car that way. The frustrated driver started honking.

Two minutes up, I drove away. No words exchanged. No getting out of the car. No heated exchange. No fights.

Quite similar to what I do. I drive at 80 on my bullet and around 100 on my Scorp on the highways. In the city, I m usually slower than the rest and stick to left lane as much as possible since it is amongst the least trafficked, at least in Blore.

It doesnt make a difference to me if 10 thousand people, even on cycles overtake me but when some moron does it just to show off, I get ticked on and then I do the same thing, block his way and show him that there is no point in cutting across lanes and overspeeding for no reason.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

Do you use a back-facing child seat for your kid? If not, I would say going at 140 kph with your kid (even if buckled in the back seat) is gutsy

Back-facing child seat for a 10 year old kid? What's that? One can move the kids between 8 and 12 years to Booster seat which always comes front facing.
Can't place a child rear facing once he crosses 4 or 65 pounds. US now recomments front facing after the child crosses 2 years age itself.
My daughter is 1 year and 5 months and weights around 10 kilos. She sits front facing on her convertible child seat.
I will be upgrading to the next level in a couple of months which will be purely forward facing.
Beyond 13 years, a child can sit on the main seat without even the booster seat as it is big enough (and heavy enough).

[jinojohnt]

Whether the kid can be accomodated in a forward facing seat mainly depends on how strong the kid's neck is. In the case of frontal collision, only the body is restricted by the seat belt, and the head moves forward. If the neck is not strong enough to prevent this, the neck would break (resulting in spinal injury). This is the reason why it's advised to keep young infants rear-facing in the child seat. Regulations may allow you to keep your kid forward facing after 2 years of age, but it's advised to keep your kid rear-faced for as long as possible (you may find it difficult to find a child seat for 10 year olds, but still you can try).

I have been through a head-on collision some time back (with only the seat-belt, and no air bags) when I was going at a very low 30 km/hr. I know how big is the pressure on the neck in such cases - I had an aching neck for a full week.

And imagine the pressure on a buckled kid's tender neck if you have a head on while going above 100 km/hr.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

Whether the kid can be accomodated in a forward facing seat mainly depends on how strong the kid's neck is. In the case of frontal collision, only the body is restricted by the seat belt, and the head moves forward. If the neck is not strong enough to prevent this, the neck would break (resulting in spinal injury). This is the reason why it's advised to keep young infants rear-facing in the child seat. Regulations may allow you to keep your kid forward facing after 2 years of age, but it's advised to keep your kid rear-faced for as long as possible (you may find it difficult to find a child seat for 10 year olds, but still you can try).

I have been through a head-on collision some time back (with only the seat-belt, and no air bags) when I was going at a very low 30 km/hr. I know how big is the pressure on the neck in such cases - I had an aching neck for a full week.

And imagine the pressure on a buckled kid's tender neck if you have a head on while going above 100 km/hr.

I understand the kinetics involved. What I don't understand is how do I fold the legs of a 10 year old in a rear facing car seat? My neice is roughly 4 ft tall with real long legs for her age. I really don't thing there are rear facing far seats designed for children above 2 years.

[jinojohnt]

1. If you want the rear-facing child seat to be accomodated in the front passenger seat, you could 'slant' the seat-back to form a 'flat bed', to provide space for the back-facing kid to stretch the legs.

2. If you want the rear-facing child seat to be accomodated in the back seat, you could move the front passenger seat to the maximum forward position. You could also 'slant' the front passenger seat-back to create space for the rear-facing child at the back

The disadvantage for both the above methods is that one additional seat becomes un-usable because of the child seat.

If you want the child to be forward facing, you could atleast try to limit your speed.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

1. If you want the rear-facing child seat to be accomodated in the front passenger seat, you could 'slant' the seat-back to form a 'flat bed', to provide space for the back-facing kid to stretch the legs.

2. If you want the rear-facing child seat to be accomodated in the back seat, you could move the front passenger seat to the maximum forward position. You could also 'slant' the front passenger seat-back to create space for the rear-facing child at the back

The disadvantage for both the above methods is that one additional seat becomes un-usable because of the child seat.

If you want the child to be forward facing, you could atleast try to limit your speed.

Guess I've not asked my question correctly. What I meant was most of the convertible car seats that can be placed rear facing can accomodate a baby of maximum 35 pounds or 16 kilos in weight. (the standard one's are around 20 pounds). Now for any child that crossed 2 years, they should definitely be crossing that 16 kilo mark as well. Which means that I'm left only with options of higher car seats with higher weight carrying capacity which can be placed only in forward facing.
Added to it a 10 year as in above case will have legs which can't be kept folded in a rear facing position, no matter how you fold the seats.
And beyond 8 years of age, it's the booster seat that comes in to picture.

[Gansan]

What are these booster seats? Can someone post a picture? My son is 10 years old, 37 Kgs and 4' 9" tall. He sits in the front seat wearing the seat belt.

[jinojohnt]

I understand the difficulty in getting a child seat for grown ups, I was only suggesting that we should try for rear-facing seats for as long as possible.

I asked opinions about 'reversing' the front passenger seat of my alto (mine is a small family anyway, so number of seats doesn't matter), but have almost dropped the idea because of the following negatives cited by the mechanic:
1. Very difficult to fix a seat belt to the 'reversed' seat.
2. The floor on which the seats are placed, are of different heights. So I would need lot of 'height adjusters' if I need to reverse my seat.

[mykal shoemaker]

Originally Posted by Gansan

What are these booster seats? Can someone post a picture? My son is 10 years old, 37 Kgs and 4' 9" tall. He sits in the front seat wearing the seat belt.

Hope you already got from google.
Else here are few:

[jinojohnt]

Originally Posted by Gansan

What are these booster seats? Can someone post a picture? My son is 10 years old, 37 Kgs and 4' 9" tall. He sits in the front seat wearing the seat belt.

If I understand correctly, booster seats simply act as cushions that 'raise' the child in a seat.
Small children, because of their lower hieght, would have the seat belts running through their neck (rather than their chest) - A booster seat is used to increase the height of the kid so that the seat belt correctly runs through the chest.

Pic of a simple booster seat is attached.



Note from Mod : The child-seat discussion can be continued in this thread if need be - Child seat for kids