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Trucking companies are responsible for the safety features of their vehicles, and they should be prosecuted for not fitting side and rear bars. Hit at speed, though, it is still quite likely that deaths or very serious injury may occur.

It is very sad that this driver [perhaps] fell asleep, but nobody else is to blame for that, and falling asleep at the wheel causes accidents and deaths worldwide.

There may have been a good reason that truck was there: there may have been only a trivial reason. The last time I broke down, I could not push my own car without help. I'm not strong, but, whilst truck drivers almost certainly do have more muscle, they are not going go be able to push a truck.

There is every reason for the unexpected on every road. It should be expected!

The people are dead, they are not going to be the last to die like this. The law will not be changed overnight, not will its enforcement. But we can change, and stop driving like maniacs into we don't know or see what. What if he had hit another SUV, broken down, with a family and children on board? Who would you blame for the deaths and injuries then?

Drivers looking beyond their noses is what will prevent these accidents. Otherwise they will be dead anyway.

Most of the drivers do not even appreciate the fact that they are responsible for vehicle breakdowns and hence "chalta hai" attitude. And only now I have started seeing few of the commercial vehicle drivers using RED TRIANGLE and/or hazard blikers to warn other of vehicle breakdown. I do not think RTO chaps do random checks to see if they are carrying all compliance equipment - first aid kit, triangles, extinguisher etc.... All they are interested in is collecting pictures of Bapu ji for their personal albums!!!

Driver fault entirely. Even more critically why the hell he hit left side of the truck? Was there a right curve before the accident site? Culpability of truck increases even more to have parked (broken down???) at a spot where visibility from rear is compromised.

PS : Looked again at the picture. It appears that the truck have under run protection on the right hand side and there seems to a one (bent) support visible at the back. Not very sure. But given the speed of the XUV these would have offered only a little protection. Also remember the under run bars are supposed to be at a level so that air bags are activated (sensors are behind bumpers in vehicle design) and only protect up to certain speed smaller vehicles from running under.

I have read few posts on the truck & XUV incident, but not all.

First thing first, the truck was NOT supposed to be parked over there, period. But lets go to some other probabilities.

# What if this was a single lane road, with a HCV approaching from the other side and the driver dozing off?

# What if in a two-lane road (with divider) the XUV driver dozed off and the car steered itself on the other lane (I recall Saheb Singh Verma, veteran BJP leader's accident in Delhi) or worse, might hit the divider & flipped itself on to the other lane, with no steering input, I can't rule this out.

# What if it went off the road and fell into a river/gorge?

# Considering the speed it was doing, it might have rammed into any slow moving lorry as well.

Point is, any body who isn't feeling 100% alert and isn't willing to drive, should not. Either hand over the wheel or take rest. But please do not risk your and other road users life sharing the road with you.

MY GOD, I don't get why anyone on this planet would blame the truck driver because his ran out of fuel ? Has happened to all of us at some point in life and yes our cars and scooters had a fuel gauge too. He parked it on the side of the road ( there are no bylanes in India so we park on the extreme side of the road which the truck guy did)

The XUV driver falling asleep is entirely his fault.Why was he driving when he was feeling sleepy ? The XUV driver KILLED people, yes its murder.

RIP to the departed.

I don't get how people doze off behind the wheel? Sleep gives plenty of warning, and if you have sense enough, you would not drive once you've got the warning.
Most people I've met who've survived a 3-4 second shut eye behind the wheel have said they knew they were tired before they started, or even while driving, but carried on,god knows why.
Coffee, or a break, that's what I've heard of to drive if sleep, not driving.

I was travelling to UP and Rajasthan for about 10 days back-back in a taxi ( innova ) in their respective states.

The rajsthan trip involved driving 400 odd kms each day on bad to very bad which invariably made us reach destination late in the nights at around 00:00 Hrs midnight.

The driver on most of the days was not able to control his sleep even beyond 10 PM. He would stop for a tea break every 50 kms or to wash his face. The last 50 kms - 70 kms was always a problem for him.

I used to have my heart in my mouth all this while. I made sure this guy was awake and kept continously talking to him on varied subjects to make sure he responded to me logically and that he was fully awake.

It is the most stupid thing I have ever done on night drive to put at risk 6 lives on the hands of a so called professional driver ( I wonder ! ) simply because the destination was not too far off and secondly that we were travelling in lonely desert roads where there were no options to pull over.

I do not know what such emergency or restrictions the people in XUV had for the driver to doze off at 8 in the morning. Perhaps they were travelling all night long. Thats really a stupid thing to do,if they did so.

I guess the main reason why most people don't stop for a break when they feel sleepy during long drives is that they think they might lose time or there is no proper place to take rest on the highway or I dunno but may be something similar. I have done a lot of long drives alone. I prefer mostly day travel but at times situation demands night journeys too. There have been a few instances where I felt sleepy. All you have to do is, pull over and park safely. Leave park lights on. Lock all doors and roll up windows. Leave engine running with AC on. And Sleep! A power nap of say even 20 mins gets you refreshed for the complete journey. If available, have a coffee once you wake up and resume journey. I realized this after doing it myself once. You might have been damn sleepy and tired but this short nap can refresh you unbelievably.

I am aware that certain highways are not safe these days due to robbery and other crimes. But if you are sleepy, I would say this is a better chance to take with own life than try driving with the sleepy head without crashing into something.

Another big savior during long overnight drives is Redbull. Keeps you awake like an owl! Just keep 2 cans of Redbull handy. Even that works but that is to keep from feeling sleepy. The moment you feel sleepy, PULL OVER. That's it. Take all precautions and take a power nap. Then get back on the road safely to continue your journey. Have done this and proved very effective.

Disclaimer: Not making any commercial endorsements for Redbull or any road side coffee stalls! :p

Totally agree, I usually do 1100 km around trips regularly in a day, sometimes its from Mumbai to Junagadh, sometimes Mumbai-Bangalore and I stop the car the very second I feel sleepy. STOP at a safe place, windows up, AC on and good bye world for half an hour or hour. Until I am not content that I am fresh as an energizer bunny, I don't start.

When on trips, time should be irrelevant, only safely reaching should be of paramount importance

Sorry, had missed this point earlier, but on a drive, count the number of trucks you see parked on the road (on the road means, blocking traffic & at places, you can't overtake). Be it at dhabas, temples, checking, border crossing etc. So, anybody blaming the truck...sorry, it was the XUV's fault, but as said earlier, it is illegal to park that way, but there are no run off areas & if there are, they don't park it off the road because of heavy load & that on the kacchha surface, a lorry can be trapped.

So, it is the same as signal jumping, wrong side driving or many other illegal driving techniques which no body notice's or cares for.

Completely agree. Power nap does wonders.

Slightly OT but with the rise in cases of CO poisoning within a car, I would urge everyone to keep the circulation mode to fresh air before sleeping.

IMHO in open area CO build up is not a problem. You can leave windows open and inch. It is in a closed garage it is a hazard.

very valid point this.
More so for closed or confined parking and less to open parking.
Nonetheless better to switch to fresh air mode or leave car window (front passenger side preferably to prevent intrusion to reach car keys) a inch down. Personally I do prefer to adhere to 3 rules whilst on long drives
(1) plan route and coordinate journey time and include refreshment breaks
(2) check hotels enroute and note phone # to hole up if required
(3) we are driving for pleasure and not for money hence speed and time taken to reach destination should never be the prime issue but a mere side aspect.

The drowsiness and falling asleep behind the wheel is dangerous and I can attribute this issue and it happens more when there are passengers in the car.

The driver keeps on driving whereas the passengers mostly sleep so the environment in the cabin is gloomy, music isn't played so that the passengers do not get disturbed.

Now the driver too gets carried away and that drowsiness sets in quicker and there is no one to alert the driver or keep him awake in case he looses sight for a few seconds, those few seconds in some situations are too late to react hence such accidents happen.

Sleep / drowsiness behind the wheel doesn't happen instantly, it happens over a period of time giving many indications to the driver. It is the responsibility of the driver to stop and take a nap / refresh himself with a tea or coffee. Many ignore these indications and keep driving like Le Mans 24 hour challenges.

Such incidents take the toll!

Anurag.

Agree with what Ajay had to say. Power nap works wonders on long trips.

Toll booths and roadside dhabas are relatively safer than empty stretches with bright street lights, vehicle movements and people around 24 x 7. :thumbs up

Anyways, we noticed a Palio completely burnt on the middle of a road yesterday around 11 PM while returning from dinner. No snaps since I was driving and wifey wasn’t too curious about clicking a snap in the dark. We had also noticed an ambulance (Tata Winger types) on the Surat-Bombay NH 8 which was up in flames, last Friday. Looked like it happened just minutes back. I had a 1 kg firex stowed in the car but was too scared to step out and try my luck dousing it. It was a CNG vehicle.

With due respect, I beg to differ.
Checking the road-worthiness of the vehicle before bringing it onto the road is driver's responsibility, towards other commuters who are also sharing the same road. This includes, and not limited to, checking the fuel, brakes, emission, tyre preassure and a host of other things. [Did you ever see commercial pilots doing rounds of the aircraft before embarking? Same thing is expected from each of us drivers. If not for our sake, for the sake of fellow road users at least]