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Old 9th February 2011, 15:58   #16
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

Quote:
Originally Posted by haria View Post
Also, should one use handbrake for emergency stopping ? anything to keep in mind with respect to this ?
Using the handbrake is a very risky proposition; the brakes will lock and you will not have steerability.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GearOn View Post
Just a question for experts. I had switched lanes while avoiding him without checking my RVM. Luckily there was no one in that lane. So what would be right procedure in such a case, stay in same lane and slam brakes or switch the lane and hope the car behind you notices.
Very risky but unavoidable thing to do. And on the Expressway, please make sure you do look in the RVM. To avoid collision with a biker, you might just end up colliding with another car at 100 km/hr+.
Best way would be to slam the brakes, have a look at the back and then switch. Of course, if you're about to collide with a stationary object (eg. trucks parked on the expressway to water the plants), just get out of that lane!

Unfortunately, in India it's not about who's wrong but who's got the bigger vehicle and who can't get to blows.
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Old 9th February 2011, 16:19   #17
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

With most of the highways becoming 4 laned, its time that govt. should take some serious steps to educate lane discipline to people !!!
The Highways accidents count is getting increased every day, most of them fatal.[/quote]

I think it's high time people stop blaming the government per their convenience! The government is providing 4 laned highways to users & each lane is very nicely marked. If that does not instigate people to follow lane discipline I really don't see what else can!!
Majority of the highway accidents are caused due to overspeeding (read: drivers not knowing the potential of the vehicles they are driving), & ofcourse other factors too.
The government does put up signs about speed limits & other cautions to be observed. How many of us have driven at the stipulated 80kmph speed limit on the Mumbai expressway? I certainly have not, so how can i call myself a responsible driver at all!!
Yes, rules need to be enforced, but it's a moral obligation to protect your own & other lives as well by observing traffic rules.
All said & done, I agree that the infrastructure is not the best, but what different have we done with the improved infrastructure anyways?
Anywas, sorry for the rant. Carry on the productive discussion.
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Old 9th February 2011, 16:35   #18
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

One important point to remember while using engine braking is to avoid the urge of down-shifting too fast or too many gears all at once. Engine braking would be useless if your tires lose traction.
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Old 9th February 2011, 16:52   #19
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

This happened to me yesterday evening, while returning home from office.

Evening slow moving traffic in Mumbai, Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road. I was behind a bike rider; suddenly he slipped and fell down. I braked and my car veered at least one-one and a half feet to the right.

There was some oil spill on the road.

Rikshaw guy behind me braked and stopped (maybe) an inch from my car.

I was plain lucky not to have hit anything.
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Old 9th February 2011, 17:17   #20
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

Quote:
Originally Posted by GearOn View Post
Just a question for experts. I had switched lanes while avoiding him without checking my RVM. Luckily there was no one in that lane. So what would be right procedure in such a case, stay in same lane and slam brakes or switch the lane and hope the car behind you notices.
Depends on the situation. It is always a good practice to scan for any vehicles surrounding you maybe every minute (at least from time to time) so that you can decide immediately to change lanes or not. Looking at your RVM and then changing lanes in these situations is very costly. This was one of the points elaborated in Defensive driving course attended by my friend in USA, which applies to India as well.
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Old 9th February 2011, 17:45   #21
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

This happened when we were travelling by our Non ABS i10 Kappa on NH 44. We were doing speeds of 100-110 and were approaching a junction, so we gradually slowed down. A Bus shot out from a bypass and was steadily approaching the junction. We thought he was slowing down, so we continued at 80 km/h, but we were wrong, he got onto the road to cross onto the opposite side, but abruptly stopped seeing us. Dad braked hard and all the bags in the car flew around, and we came to a screeching halt a few feet from the bus, after a few feet of the brakes in action. Had we been faster than that, or the same had happened 10 seconds after it did, only ABS could've saved the car from getting totaled and us getting a little hurt.

Now my dad's trying to practice down-shifting while 'emergency braking' and slows down to a greater extent at some junctions.
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Old 9th February 2011, 23:58   #22
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

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Originally Posted by libranof1987 View Post
... the brakes will lock and you will not have steerability.
Hand brakes does not affect steerabilty. They brake only the rear wheels, so at the max, you will fish tail.
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Old 10th February 2011, 02:19   #23
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

As far as I can remember I have had to use emergency braking twice. Once on NH4 where a huge State transport bus was taking a U turn and got stuck in the middle. I was under the impression that by the time the bus took a turn in one go, I would be able to go ahead. I checked wife's seatbelt status and checked the ODO and looked in front and the bus was right in front horizontally doing nothing.
I applied brakes and to avoid locking pumped it till I stopped very close to the bus.
My wife woke up with the bus very close to us. An Innova was also there in the left lane which stopped pretty much the same way we did. We looked at each other and nodded our heads in disgust.

The other time just months ago where I was merging on to a highway and after merging had to swtich lanes. I had to look behind over my shoulder to check for traffic behind me in the same lane and I heard a screech in front of me. A female had braked hard as there were quite a few cars waiting for the light to trun green. It was one of those days where we don't expect traffic to be held up at that spot on any day. Since she braked, I too braked behind her and I positively felt the ABS kick in with its churn and grind. I was inches behind her. That was very close.
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Old 12th February 2011, 21:17   #24
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

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Originally Posted by Surprise View Post
Remember with every moment, I was closing in on the gap. I do not have confidence to give such sudden variation/correction to the steering. On top of it, being a highway, we do not know which vehicle would pass on the left side to avoid this mess at high speed. Good that I have not even attempted it as getting in to their lanes might be even more disaster.
I mean no disrespect, but if you have even the internal rear view mirror why wouldn't you know who is behind you? And you could have braked much earlier as soon as the Indica got onto the road. This way you could have avoided panic braking and alerted anyone behind you by braking slowly. Anyways whatever happened is now past.

If you want to practice safe driving you must be aware of who is following you at what speed, including cars in the nearby lanes, their models, their colours, their drivers and if there's any overhead luggage. There are many blindspots around the driver, and I have always found that being able to track all the vehicles in the immediate vicinity helps a lot when changing lanes. I am always trying to track each vehicle that I see, ahead or behind. For the vehicles which are behind me, in whichever lane, I try to identify them using the above characteristics and try and predict their behaviours. If I lose sight of one of the vehicles and I don't remember seeing that vehicle stop or turn off the road, I get very suspicious. And in majority of the cases I have found that missing vehicle has been trying to overtake me and has been in my blind spot for some time (a few seconds is quite some time when you are on the expressway). As much as you want to see ahead and plan your movements, you absolutely must be watching your rear equally well.

I, for one, make it a point to drive with all three mirrors (internal, right and left ORVMS) working and opened. Specially in the city, but also on highways, I make it a point to be checking all three in rotation to make sure nobody will sneak up on me. This has helped me avoid getting my car scratched no matter how heavy the traffic.

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Old 22nd February 2011, 12:48   #25
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

Yesterday, I "experienced" ABS for the first time (or so I think). I had turned right at a signal and was just picking up speed. I wasn't the first one at the signal. There were 3-4 cars infront of me, with an Omni being imm in front. About 50 or so meters from the signal, a parallel road joins the main road and there was some PWD work going on there. I guess somone or some vehicle came in front of the Omni, so he braked. The guy had no brake light and so it took me a little longer to realise that he's slowing down. I jumped on the brakes and stopped without hitting anyone. There wasn't anyone too close behind me, so no-one hit me either. I heard a "tak-tak" sound when I braked, but at that moment I was busy checking my mirrors to make sure no one is close - so I didn't pay too much attention to it. It was when I replayed the incident in my mind that I realised that the "tak-tak" was probably ABS.
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Old 22nd February 2011, 16:07   #26
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

I have had many emergency braking experience a couple of them listed below:


Year 2001: Car Tata Sierra: Time dawn : From Mumbai to Hyderbad (Solo) : Location of braking Satara Ghat just after Pune.

I had left early morning (read late night) and crossed pune when the dawn was breaking. I had decided to do breakfast at satara, just after crossing the satara tunnel, I was overtaking a truck, suddenly out of nowhere there were three drums placed in the middle of the road used as dividers and a car came from opposite side. I was doing speeds of 80kmph when I braked hard, the road had a slight curve to it and the rear wheels lost traction. I managed to avoid the drum and the truck, spun 180 degrees and the opposite car managed to stop. I was scary there was lot of dirt on the road too which didn't help my braking effort.

Tires were upgraded Goodyear just 2000 kms old and new alloys. Without those drums there was enough room for 3 vehicles to pass. On my way back the drums were not there and the road had no dirt on it.


Year 2011: Car Honda Accord just 2000 kms old: Time afternoon : From Mumbai to Bhavnagar (Me and Wife) : Location of braking near Vapi.

The Mumbai - Ahemdabad highway is being converted from 4 lanes to 6 lanes. I was overtaking a truck with trailer where my speed was around 100kmph. There was a swift in front of me overtaking the truck as well, both of us were cruising suddenly the swift cut hard towards the truck managing to overtake it, thats when I realized that the lane was closed and I had no time to avoid hitting the diversion. I slammed the brakes, luckily the divider was broken and I had the risky option of going towards the oncoming traffic on the opposite side. Everything from here on happened in slow motion, I could realize that I wont stop in time, also I had of option of slamming into the side of the truck, but I also realized there was no traffic on the other side, so with brakes slammed, ABS working, I went on the opposite side. All this happened in split second. The car didnt feel out of control at any point, went in the direction I wanted it to go and stopped just 4 feet after the diversion line on the opposite side. Quickly shifted from D to R and got back on the road. My wife was asleep that time and she didn't even realize how serious the matter was.

Two different examples on where I was saved once by luck and once by presence of mind and technology.

There are many more but I felt these 2 are the ones which highlight the importance of technology with our cars and highways becoming faster and faster.
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Old 24th April 2011, 19:57   #27
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

Just can't recover from the freaking incident that happened a couple of minutes ago

Was on the way to drop somebody for a B'day party in the neighborhood. It was a typical <1km trip thru' one of the most crowded streets in our locality. As always the streets were pretty dark and it was drizzling too.

When we were almost close to reaching the place, a small kiddo (should be 1.5 ~ 2 years old) ran into the road from nowhere. We were barely a yard away from the kid. Immediately, checked the RVM and pulled to the right, slamming the breaks hard. By God's grace the emergency breaking did work and stopped just a feet away from the kid.

Just can't imagine what would have happened only I was driving our other car with ABS equipped? I am sure the breaking distance would have been longer, turning the incident into an fatal accident.

Just a couple of thoughts that emanate from this incident
  • Does ABS really make sense for cars that do a lot of Intra town/ city trips where the speeds are usually in the 25 ~ 40kmph region?
  • Had a similar experience with our ABS equipped Innova. Emergency breaking did not work and car just kept moving forward and hit the biker who had a fall on the road due to a tire burst.
  • Is it possible to have a sensor that triggers ABS only when you break hard at particular speed and above [say 50 kmph and above], akin to how airbags work.

Would it be wrong to conclude that ABS equipped cars are not safe for a person who does more intra city/ town rides?

Please chip in with your views!

Last edited by Warwithwheels : 24th April 2011 at 20:03.
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Old 24th April 2011, 20:03   #28
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

Warwithwheels, I was under the impression that with ABS, you should be able to steer the car out of harm's way. What you did with the non ABS car, that is steer away from the kid, you should have bee able to do with ABS equipped car as well. No?
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Old 24th April 2011, 20:10   #29
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

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Warwithwheels, I was under the impression that with ABS, you should be able to steer the car out of harm's way. What you did with the non ABS car, that is steer away from the kid, you should have bee able to do with ABS equipped car as well. No?
Well... In this case, luckily there was no oncoming traffic on the right. So I was able to steer to the free space on the right.

Just imagine if it was a real tight spot where there was no allowance for a free steer?

PS. Fortunately, the kiddo entered the road from the left. Just wondering if I would have been able to repeat the same if the kid had entered the road from the right.
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Old 24th April 2011, 20:37   #30
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Re: Emergency braking - Share your experiences

Delhi-Jaipur highway - I was overtaking a truck from the correct side when he moved into my lane. I was at about 80 in third gear, passing him rapidly, he would have been doing about 30 at the time, and I was pretty much halfway past him. Road was slightly gravelly and must have suddenly narrowed as it is wont to do with work continuing on the six-laning. Any other car and I was toast - I just pushed the brakes hard as I could.

I felt the ABS working, the situation was really that drastic. Since it was my first time experiencing ABS in action, it was pretty unnerving as I felt the pedal kicking back at my foot as the pressure released and re-engaged, but the car tracked straight and true and stopped within 10 meters, narrowly avoiding the accident that would have happened for sure.
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