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Originally Posted by aargee God!!! wouldn't like to see ME 1979 like this. |
Aah yes. KA 04 ME 1979. Paid Rs. 3000 for this number. 04 is my birth month, 1979 is my birth year and ME stands for either "me" or Mechanical Engineer. I have a tough time remembering numbers - so Rs. 3000 on this number plate was worth the money.
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Originally Posted by mpksuhas OMG. I remember you mentioning about one accident in which car got thrashed but luckily no one got injured in your first post of this thread. |
While removing the cracked windshield, one of my friends had a tiny cut on his thumb.
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Originally Posted by sushrutha Also I would be interested to know abt the accident repair cost for the Optra |
Total damage: Rs. 1.48 Lacs
Insurance paid: Rs. 1 Lac
Friend paid Rs. 48,000
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Originally Posted by addyhemmige Where did this happen? As sushrutha says, this might have crashed into a truck from behind. |
Bus. We picked a bus!
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Originally Posted by sushrutha It's not Vaibhavi palace , it's VAISHNAVI Palace, |
Vaibhavi, Vaishnavi, Bhairavi all sound the same!
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Originally Posted by mpksuhas No, I guess in Rajasthan they hit a two wheeler, regarding the accident on the first page he hasnt not mentioned any place. |
Bingo. I will be having a quiz at the end of this travelogue, with exciting prizes for the winners.
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Originally Posted by MX6 That photo of the optra looks terrible. Dude. What happened? Don't tell me this is where you kill off Jagga in the script. |
What? No way. But even if I kill off a main character, he will come back
Om Shanti Om style.
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Originally Posted by KESriram I hope you'll keep this alive by adding more such experiences! |
Woaah man, I hope not this particular kind of experience - I don't like to be a crash test dummy.
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Originally Posted by ampere Looks like more than Jagga, he almost killed the lead ! (I meant the Optra) |
After this incident, the Optra did a fairly troublefree 95,000 kms. All Izz Well. All Izz Well.
MUNNAR TRIP (First Attempt ) PICS Pic 1: Those were the days when we were doing 120 - 160 km/hr on highways. Rains didn't dampen our enthusiasm, and in this case, we were doing around 120 km/hr on the Bangalore - Krishnagiri road.
Pic 2: Around 20 Km before Krishnagiri, we saw a bus taking an U-turn (after putting the indicator) on the Golden Quadrilateral. My friend who was driving couldn't gauge the speed with which we were going. He first removed his foot off the accelerator, but Optra was still speeding. Then he slammed on the brakes. Since 2004 Optra didn't have ABS, the wheels locked up and we skidded on the road for what looked like eternity - and then slammed into the back of the bus.
Pic 3: Inside the car, to me, it was like a 10 year old computer car game. When you slam into a something in the game, the windscreen cracks. That's exactly what we all felt sitting inside the car. Screeeeeeeeeeechhh! CRACK!! And it was like in slow motion.
Pic 4: Because of the height of the bus body, the bonnet simply peeled off and broke the windshield. The A-Pillar of the Optra basically stopped the car. I would estimate the impact speed to be about 40 km/hr. The driver side airbag did not activate. That is quite logical because impact speed was low, and the chassis did not crumple (required for airbag activation). All of us were wearing seatbelts, and we felt a big "tug" - that's about it.
Pic 5 & 6: We parked the car on the side of the road, while the bus completed the U-turn and parked on the other side.
We admitted to the bus driver that it was our fault and paid him Rs. 1,500. The bus driver gave us a nice lecture in Tamil (which no one understood) on safe driving. We all nodded our heads like children and thanked him. A mechanic was close to the accident spot - he towed the Optra with an Ambassador all the way to Bangalore Sundaram Motors for Rs. 1,500.
The dealer took 2 months and Rs. 1.5 Lacs to repair the car. There was no engine damage - the bonnet took the hit. However, the peeling bonnet chopped off the top of the engine (a plastic piece). Sourcing that plastic piece took atleast 20 days for the dealer.
In hindsight, this accident was the best thing that could have happened to us. Had this accident not happened, we would all have died either during the Himachal Pradesh trip or the Rajasthan trip - that's how reckless we were in the beginning.
This bystander holding his own face was as devastated as I was. For me, the 2 month wait to get my car back was unbelievably painful.
Lessons We Learn't After This Accident:
- Never drive on an empty stomach. We didn't have breakfast before leaving. Empty stomach reduces concentration.
- The person in the passenger seat has to watch the road too. And warn the driver about dogs, buses & trucks, old men & women trying to cross the road, suggest slowing down, keep an eye on potholes and so on.
- Driving at 160 km/hr is downright dangerous on our roads. We now drive at 90 km/hr and we still reach the destination pretty quickly (mostly with the help of aggressive gear changes). In rains, we now drive at 70 km/hr.