[pkumar]

Hi T-BHPians,
We were two guys going to Hyderabad when we met with an accident, which i would rather call natural calamity. We started @ 4am from Hebbal flyover in bangalore. i was driving at a low pace given the bad road conditions uptill Ananthpur, was waiting for the darkness to vanish before i could punch in hard. As expected lots of diversions every few kilometers, but no problems at all, thanks to the Philips rally i had put few days back. After crossing Chikballapur the road was getting intermittently converted from a 2-lane to a 1.5 lane road with all the construction work going on.

I was well prepared for all of this along with unrly Volvos overtaking and all that stuff. Suddenly @ 20 kms after Chikballapur i felt like i saw some piece of the construction heap (continuously present along the roadside) falling. All the vehicles going in front of me, the nearest one being as far as 100 meters) were going in straight lines with an average speed of not more than 40-50. Suddenly i saw this large rock, sized 2x2 feet lying in the dead middle of the road. My first reaction was it is some garbage lump because all the vehicles ahead were not swerving at all. But after a split second realized that indeed it was a big rock waiting for me. UnLucky me, i was the first one to reach that point after it fell on to the road. I realized this when it was hardly 5 meters away. did not brake at all, instead tried to swerve hard. I could manage to not hit it in the middle of the car but it banged real hard on the right side of the front bumper. The Tyres blasted immediately and probably the axle also broke right away. The car dragged the rock for a meter or so before it actually climbed onto it. At this point we were on two wheels and the car had lifted by atleast 45 degrees of the road surface. I thought we were going to almost topple when my steering correction worked and we landed bang on the road again. The car slided for another 2-3 meters before it came to a halt.

My alsmot asleep freind was in shock, i myself did not realize much had happened, so i was pretty cool and tried re-starting the engine so that i could park it more far from the highway. The engine obviously didnt start and we got down. There was absolutely no physical damage to us.

When we got down we saw the engine oil tank was leaking. so stayed away from the car and called the ford helpline. Good response from them and they started with a towing vehicle from bangalore right away @ 5 in the morning. Waited there till 7 when the vehicle arrived which pulled us all back to bangalore. i got a rough estimate of 1 lakh as the damages :(

While i was standing on the highway for 2 hours after the accident, i was thinking what better i could have done. Could not really think much.. Could not have done much with that kind of situation. The only take away was that i would probably avoid driving on bad roads during night. Had it been day i could have easily got the visibility 1-2 meters in advance and could have swerved away successfully. The other thing i would do, though it is wrong to do so, is that i would no longer be a strictly diciplined guy driving on low-beams whenever a vehicle is approaching from other side. With extra visibility if high-beam, it would have been much better.

Depsite all tha care that i could have taken of, i am really angry at the way Nationl Highways are managed especially when the road construction is going on. No reflectors, no markers to indicate sudden contraction of the road.. And certainly some body has to be responsible for a big rock rolling on to the highway putting atleast one guy's life on the hook. In US i could have sued the NHAI successfully but here i understand the best i can do is Crib :( and hope that all the NH construction work going throughout the country finishes as soon as possible.

Hope this experience of mine would persuade ppl to be extra alert while driving on this road in the night.

[Samurai]

Join the club...

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...ocks-road.html

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...terrupted.html

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Sorry to hear about it kumar and the menace of badly maintained roads will never stop haunting indian highways and it was really unfortunate i should say for the unwarranted financial downswing for repairs and also the pain and agony caused lest for a nice ride to Hyd.

[diabloo]

Sad incident. But why not sue in India also?

Originally Posted by pkumar

In US i could have sued the NHAI successfully but here i understand the best i can do is Crib :(

Note: I feel this would be an interesting case to follow and would like see the judgment.

[TSEA]

That's sad. The value for LIFE is very less in our country. Maybe things will improve in future.

Originally Posted by pkumar

In US i could have sued the NHAI successfully but here i understand the best i can do is Crib :( and hope that all the NH construction work going throughout the country finishes as soon as possible.

On a lighter note, you cannot sue the NHAI in US (National Highway Authority of India). But you can surely take your frustation out at Welcome to NHAI. (Though there will be hardly any reaction).

[manziee_crusier]

Oh god scary man.Thanks god that you are safe.Thanks for sharing the same.

May be you should have braked also damage might have been less.But yeah put such panic situvations decisions are not in our hand!

If the stone just fell down then no one is to be blamed here.You should think that you are lucky that you just came few min late.

[benbsb29]

@pkumar : Sorry to hear about your car. You didnt mention which car it was, though.
Guess there's not much else that can be done, other than driving slowly and being more careful.

[theMAG]

Very sorry to hear abt that. Trust your car comes back fully restored.

[csentil]

Take care man. Its a car and can be replaced. Don't worry about what could have been done better. Probably you did the best possible thing at that moment. We cannot make a judgement sitting on our butts.

Hope everything goes fine from now onwards.

[pkumar]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

@pkumar : Sorry to hear about your car. You didnt mention which car it was, though.
Guess there's not much else that can be done, other than driving slowly and being more careful.

Sorry for not mentioning earlier. It was Ford Ikon 1.3.

[dadu]

You made an instinctive move and are safe, thats what matter.

Although damaging the car is also a sad part, but it can be repaired, so dont worry.

[mobike008]

Kumar, sorry to know about this incident. 1L is a lot of money for repairs. So assuming too many components got damaged. Keep us posted of the repairs cost.

[tsk1979]

did you take pictures at the spot.
I recently read in a newspaper that in such cases you can file a civil suit against the govt to claim damages.
for your kind of damage expect 20K out of your pocket(I presume damage is 1 lakh?)
For such a huge amount filing a court case is a good option.

[akroy]

pkumar, Sorry to hear about your incident. It looks freak and unlucky but on a positive note it teaches you how to use your high/low beams.

Request you to always keep high beam on highways, it is really essential. Whenever there is oncoming traffic, use dipper, dip to low beam and again back to high beam when the vehicle is passed by.

Abhi

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

did you take pictures at the spot.
I recently read in a newspaper that in such cases you can file a civil suit against the govt to claim damages.
for your kind of damage expect 20K out of your pocket(I presume damage is 1 lakh?)
For such a huge amount filing a court case is a good option.

Very sorry to hear about your mishap. Thank God there was no bodily injury.
AFAIK, such matters pertain to law of Torts,and in India it is not enforced. It is strongly enfoced in western countries.