[NiInJa]

Originally Posted by mohaks19

I blatantly disagree with your naive biological viewpoint. I'm in my early 20s, drive a 'monster' and regularly drive a 911 Turbo to work. However, I have plenty of driving experience on my hand, and do exercise speed limit on public roads, even while driving back in India. And I know a number of people within the similar age bracket who drive monsters (and here I'm talking about cars like GTR/M5/AMG GTS/ Huracan) and yet practice safe driving styles.

On the contrary, I know a fair number of people in their 40s or even 50s, who express total disregard of any sort of limits. I believe it has to do with relative maturity, rather than just age or the number of kilometers clocked.

No, it is a fact, teenagers and people under 30 are at greater risk than older people. You can google it. If I were to give my own example (I am 30 now), when I started driving at the age of 22, my average speed was higher than what I drive today. I used to reach 100 kmph on Mumbai Pune express way in my dads's tiny Zen Today when I drive a much safer car with airbags and all (Linea), I think twice about flooring the A pedal when the needle crosses 90kmph on the same road. Dont ask me why, but it happens !

I lost two acquaintances due to overspeeding, one was a teenager in our society who rammed his dads car on a tree. Other died because some kids racing their dads cars at late night hit his bike from behind. So this aversion to risks takes some time and it is acquired as your age increases.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by shortbread

All said and done Mercedes will keep milking the so called 'cool factor' and who can blame them when there are plenty who are willing to pay so much for this.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=EaRjjWlNbb4

Wonder what is so cool about a car which looks plain ugly, costs a bomb and, as we just discovered, has no crash-safety score, whatever be the logo. We make so much noise if an Indian car fails crash-test and yet remain silent about a car costing crores failing.

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

Driving a Porsche in new York City is a lot different than driving a 500 BHP monster in India. So what you drive in the US is of no significance here.

There are exceptions to all cases. The point is more % of younger people are bound to drive faster and in a reckless manner. Like wise a lesser % of older people will be aggressive drivers.

Even New York is hardly the right place to drive a Porsche. As for young, yes, they do generally tend to be rash riders/drivers. Not all, of course, but most. Most of the accident victims in my town are seen to be bike riders in their teens/20s. It is an age when the consequences of things going wrong don't sink in yet. I think it's perceived same everywhere. Even in US/Canada, you can't rent a car above hatchback or small sedan if you are under 25.

[Asifgrkhan]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

I never said they did not do anything wrong, was simply trying to put an end to some of the speculation.

Thankyou for the kind words, I am sure you can appreciate that not everyone is like whoever almost crashed into you in the Q7. I can assure you Nishith was not. It is not good to generalize (from the looks of your previous posts you tend to generalize a LOT) so much and harbor this level of hate in life that you cannot even sympathize with people who have lost someone known to them or even leave them be. Anyway I am sorry you have such a hard felt hatred towards people in big cars. I assume you have never made any mistakes in your life to be perched on that high horse of yours. Good day to you sir.

Ishaan - Very sorry for your loss at this young an age and do not want to defend what the previous poster has said - one should not speak ill about the departed.

That said, road racing and overspeeding is not taken as seriously as it should in India. We are not talking about somebody driving 80km/hr - which itself would be excessive on that double curve at Rd No 36. If you want to race, go to a track. God know someone who can afford a 2 Cr car can have it trucked to BIC and have all the speeding thrills they can get.

[mohaks19]

Originally Posted by poised2drive

As you said, there might be drivers in 20s who could be meticulously careful and drivers in 40s-50s who'd be ridiculously reckless but that would all be anecdotal evidences.

The Youth is quite an age of 'Fire' and as they say, this flame is a two edged sword with which you could either produce light or char yourself.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Mohaks19: You might be a superbly skilled driver, but it is quite wrong for you to therefore claim that all, or even most, 20-year-olds are good drivers.

I have heard this attitude from the young many. many times. Sorry: it doesn't wash, it is not true, and whatever you think, the world's insurance companies know better. Youth at the wheel, statistically, is dangerous.

.

Perhaps you got me wrong. I'm not even trying to argue if people in their 20s are excellent drivers or not. All I'm trying to say here is that it is wrong to generalize people driving supercars or high performance cars in their 20s, just based on their age and wealth. Supercars are dangerous at the hands of all people, regardless of age, experience, or gender. A dab at the gas pedal for just two straight seconds can lead to extreme amounts of violence, whether when driving in India, or even on the safest roads in the world.

[poised2drive]

Originally Posted by mohaks19

Perhaps you got me wrong. I'm not even trying to argue if people in their 20s are excellent drivers or not. All I'm trying to say here is that it is wrong to generalize people driving supercars or high performance cars in their 20s, just based on their age and wealth. Supercars are dangerous at the hands of all people, regardless of age, experience, or gender. A dab at the gas pedal for just two straight seconds can lead to extreme amounts of violence, whether when driving in India, or even on the safest roads in the world.

The trend of 'Generalizing' could appear 'Stereotyped' but it, actually, is a better way to predict the outcomes and trends based on the numerous tangible factors.

And most of the bhpians are simply trying to state that the 'Young' drivers are more dangerous than the 'Elder' ones regardless of the exceptions and this has been proved right by many of the automotive studies.

Young drivers are considered more dangerous simply due to their lack of experience in judgment and their overconfidence in undermining the dangers, where the elder try to be more careful.

In addition, the elders are more capable of keeping their whims inhibited while the young cannot which generally could lead to road rage. [ there are exceptions here again because I myself [28] was involved in one of the instances recently. An elderly man in his 40s almost intimidated me physically where I kept my cool even after being at the receiving end of barrage of expletives in spite of his wrongdoing]

Teenage drivers are more dangerous than the drivers in 20s and the drivers in 20s are more dangerous than the drivers in 30s and so on, assuming their physical and mental states to be typical. This trend begins to falter after 70s when the persons start losing their motoring skills and slowed reflexes.

One study in the US suggests that the drivers over 85 are 4 times more fatal than the teenage drivers and cause bigger human losses and this can be attributed to their weakened physical and mental reflexes. It is just biology. [http://www.voanews.com/a/elderly-dri...8/162760.html]

And a person being sober in his personal life does not mean he'd be the same behind the wheel. There is an interesting social psychological process we all undergo behind the 'Vehicle Driving' - 'Deindividuation'

A person behind the wheel of the vehicle, briefly, might begin to lose the self-awareness under the garb of perceived anonymity and ergo, a mild and sensitive persona can temporarily acquire the traits of heightened aggression, social apathy and feeling of invincibility which are all misplaced and perilous and the young are more susceptible to it than the elders.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health...otionally.html

[hkanitkar]

Going by the kind of posts discussing the G Wagen accident, isnt it time to close the thread for some time ? After Rehaan's post, the topic should have died down - but now We are way too off the lines in my opinion.

Mods - do the needful ?

[noopster]

Mod Note: Please keep emotions in check and avoid repeating the same arguments over and over. Also no discussion on politics please. Some posts have been deleted.

[Travelling_Monk]

For all the people speculating the speed of the Benz while it crashed, here's the video of the accident at actual speed. Now you guys can assume the speed it might be possibly doing right before the collision. Irresponsibility comes at a cost.

Sad accident though! RIP!

https://youtu.be/7Pc7w4NWpjc

[The Rationalist]

So the reckless fellow was not trying to save any biker. He just was driving as usual thinking of his invincibility. I'm not against someone loving speed, but on public roads there are so many hapless people who are trying to reach their homes after a gruelling day to meet their family. I'm shivering at the thought that some moron who has money to buy a powerful vehicle can result in my daughter being unable to meet her dad on his way back home.

The moment you drive dangerously and ignore speed limits, you are making a conscious decision that can have implications for many others too. If you haven't learned that after finishing college, well you have wasted the whole point of education. It must be made sure that accident videos and people who are left quadriplegic should be shown to children of all classes every year. You can't wait for law enforcement to do all the work in this country, where they are understaffed. In Kerala 1 in every 10000 die in vehicle accidents and I doubt whether there is any place more worse than that. And we are supposed to be a state with high literacy rate!

[CarJunki]

The most unfortunate person in this entire accident was the co-passenger.
For no active inputs of his, he lost life.

On the other side, there should be some kind of incentive program for inducing safe driving habits. Ex: if you are certified for safe driving, your insurance premium should come down. If not it should go up by significant amount. (Most rich people will probably still ignore the increased cost.)

[Eyas337]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

The reason this (and the Accidents in India) threads exists is so that we can learn from others' costly mistakes, rather than it being a thread to release anger, jump to conclusions and play blame games.

I think the lessons here are clear for all BHPians. Drive within your limits. Speed is dangerous, regardless of how cool your car is. Expect the unexpected. And be consistent and disciplined in following this to do your best at staying safe and keeping others safe on the road.

Hope more people start to learn these things!

Very well said Rehaan, learning is the key and below are my thoughts:
- Early mornings or late nights, on empty stretches of roads when the traffic is very sparse, its always safe to drive on the left side of the lane (be it a car or a bike). We never would know when some unsafe driver doing crazy speeds might bump into you, leading to a fatal crash.
- Those riding bikes in group (or two), especially during early or late hours -> don't occupy the complete lane / road, driving side by side. Would be safer to ride on the left lane, one behind other.

Can't imagine the situation, if the car in discussion here would have bumped into the bikers ahead (instead of the pillar).

It could have been one of the reason, probably the driver chose to avoid a collision with the bikes ahead and rammed into the pillar.

[sunishsamuel]

To me it looks like the driver of the Mercedes was not focusing on the road or sleepy or suffered a momentary lapse. Its natural instinct to brake or slow down if you see obstacles in front - especially at the last moment. I do not see any of that by looking at the video. At the max he would have drifted on sudden braking but would have reduced the impact. Or was he under stress to reach home fast? Or panicked and froze for some time ? There could be many factors.

The initial reports suggested that the driver was under the influence of alcohol but later i saw the updated reports mentioning there was no influence of alcohol. So ruling that possibility out.

Let's hope Nishith's tragedy serves as an eye opener to everyone. For the few moments of thrill you get by exceeding the limits, do not sacrifice life or limbs. But then I spotted couple of super bikers on the Jubilee hills road today, enjoying their rides without helmet. A Fortuner was seen rushing near Film Nagar junction..What did we learn ?

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by sunishsamuel

To me it looks like the driver of the Mercedes was not focusing on the road or sleepy or suffered a momentary lapse.

Sleepy at 160+km/h - i doubt it. My guess, he was ambitious, made a sudden correction which the car could not undertake

[rajathv8]

This reminds me on an incident where a BMW x5 came storming down the road and kicked up all sort of dust and leaves while I was walking on the road at 10 am. This wasn't a main road but a residential lane opposite to Nagarjuna in Indiranagar with many pedestrians walking on the road since foot paths were encroached with debris/construction material.
I could not fathom why anyone would drive that way on such a road for such a short distance of about 100m before hitting a T junction.I presumed it would have been some valet parking driver having fun at the owners expense.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by Travelling_Monk

For all the people speculating the speed of the Benz while it crashed, here's the video of the accident at actual speed. Now you guys can assume the speed it might be possibly doing right before the collision. Irresponsibility comes at a cost.

Sad accident though! RIP!

A rough calculation shows that the Benz took 3-4 times less time to cover from first point to second point.

Assuming the bikers are doing 30-40 kmph, that shows the Benz was travelling at 90-160 kmph.

Can anyone with a media player to show milliseconds or frame rate do an accurate relative velocity of the car ?