Team-BHP - Accidents in India

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Originally Posted by jalajprakash (Post 4022457)

I'm guilty of trying to set up Google maps sometimes when I'm lost but I usually slow down to crawl and stop towards the side of the road to do so. I guess I didn't convey the right meaning when I said us, I meant us as the Indian public not TeamBHP members. And that exact lack of care for safety is one of the issues forums like ours are trying to fix.

Gotcha! Sorry for taking you too literally there: gave me a bit of a panic. As you saw! <Blush>

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As for Pokémon Go, it's a virtual reality game that requires people to move in the real world. It has caused massive highway pileups across the world and I often see videos on YouTube of people playing the game while driving even in India.

That should be hard to believe, but... of course... it is only too easy.

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I have personally tweeted at the creators to put the game on standby if the game detects a certain speed faster than walking but haven't received a response yet.

Good idea. I guess it won't happen, though.

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Originally Posted by suresh_gs (Post 4022657)

Many a time I have seen people just loose patience and blindly overtake. Private bus operators drive like maniacs with scant regard for the vehicles coming in the opposite side and if that vehicle happens to be a car, then in addition to braking and pulling to the left, the car driver has to pray to god that something untoward does not happen.

Agree to the same. More so since this section of road is comparitively good and well marked. You can see pic from my drive on this road few years back.

Also, if you notice the first pic. On the left side you can see a signboard mentioning a right turn. Most probably, TT overtook some bigger vehicle during the turn and came in path of bus.

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Originally Posted by suresh_gs (Post 4022657)

The bottom line is OVERTAKING ON UNDIVIDED HIGHWAY. Considering the fact that accidents are alarmingly increasing even on 4/6 lane highways with road divider, my guess is people do not know the basic rules while overtaking on undivided highway.
It is a test of one's patience if you are following a slow moving vehicle and you have vehicles coming on the opposite side. Many a time I have seen people just loose patience and blindly overtake. I can quote the Old Madras Road on the AP side. Private bus operators drive like maniacs with scant regard for the vehicles coming in the opposite side and if that vehicle happens to be a car, then in addition to braking and pulling to the left, the car driver has to pray to god that something untoward does not happen.

Absolutely no argument there. I've seen perfectly sane people and reasonably good drivers lose patience and indulge is risky maneuvers.

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"He is going so slow, what am I supposed to do"?

"Find a safe spot to overtake or keep following him".

"How long"?

"As long as it takes".

Most people seem to drive by the absurd logic 'Everyone driving faster than me is suicidal, everyone slower than me is a moron who needs to be overtaken ASAP'.

Let's change that to ASASP (As Soon As Safely Possible).please:

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Originally Posted by suresh_gs (Post 4022657)

The bottom line is OVERTAKING ON UNDIVIDED HIGHWAY. My guess is people do not know the basic rules while overtaking on undivided highway.

Dear Suresh GS - hello to you. Your quote is absolutely correct. From safety point of view, last week I conducted two training programs titled "Vehicle Bahavioral Feel" inside the company where I work. I was not surprised to know (from fairly large audience sizes) that the basic awareness was very poor. The good thing was that people realized that they also go on the expressway, that there was a gap in what they knew to what they ought to know (nothing wrong there), and they were willing to learn. On the subject of overtaking on an undivided highway, I took around 45 minutes to explain to them what to do to build the margin which is so important to conduct this manoeuvre with 100% safety.

I have received feedback from many people that they feel safe on the road now, as compared to before.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

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Originally Posted by chevyman (Post 4023016)

These people belong to a well known family of my home town Kurnool.

What do you guys think ?

Disheartening to know that !

Coincidentally, I just came back from a trip and as I was travelling from Kurnool to Hyderabad, I perceived it to be a very safe road with sufficient pavement width, negligible curves and well-defined dividers that shield the pedestrian traffic.

Now I am sad to know that this ghastly accident took place in the very same road.

The report says that the victim tried to overtake from the left which sealed his fate. To my horror, I remember myself to have undertaken such manoeuvre to overtake a truck from the left and I shudder to think about it now.

As they say - Patience is a virtue and I say Patience is Panacea while driving !

My thoughts and prayers with their family !

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Originally Posted by poised2drive (Post 4023028)

Yes it's a safe highway. I travel at least once a month between Hyderabad and Bangalore. The stretch between Kurnool and Hyderabad is really good. Overtaking from left is a bit risky but not life threatening. In this case the car must have been zigzagging and hence suddenly encountered the truck ahead and had no other option but to collide.

Like to see what other tbhp members think how this accident happened.

Regarding the Suzuki Ciaz accident involving the death of 6 college students, the police claim to have found marijuana in the car.

The owner / driver was an eighteen-year-old with a learners license, reportedly driving rashly and overtaking from the wrong lane. The car somersaulted twice or thrice before turning turtle. They were flung out of the car thus it seems they were not wearing seat belts and were cramped too.

All 6 were studying in three different colleges in Pune and were football buddies. My thought are with their parents, surprisingly none were aware about of son's whereabouts and the fact that they were in a car on the expressway at 3 am !!

Below photos were pulled from various news websites, Courtesy of NewsSX, Midday, TOI etc.

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In a terrifying incident, a passenger bus operated by private transport company Durgamba Motors caught fire at Varur near Hubbali in Karnataka, leaving three burned to death and 9 others critically injured.
The bus was on its way to Dharwad from Bengaluru, and the accident is reported to have happened between 5am and 5:30am, according to the police. It was a non-AC sleeper bus. According to Hubballi SP Dharmendra Kumar Meena, there were 15 passenger and three crew members (2 drivers and one cleaner).
Meena said that they had found some substance in the bus. "We cannot say whether it was flammable or not. We have sent it to the FSL."
The fire is believed to have started at the back of the bus

Accidents in India | Pics & Videos-hubli20bus20fire.jpg

Accidents in India | Pics & Videos-hubli20bus20fire2.jpg

Source

Another day, another sleeper bus. High time the AIS052 norms are implemented, and they're revised based on safety needs periodically.

OT: This news item mentions the name of the operator, and doesn't hide it as is the usual practice with most of the popular media houses

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Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM (Post 4023007)

Hello Sir, Thanks for your compliments. As a driver, I usually prefer driving on the 2 lane SH as against the 4/6 lane NH due to less traffic and greenery of the SH. Of course lack of eating outlets is a drawback.
The SHs that I have travelled across have many twists and turns and it is in these junctions that utmost care has to be taken. If you are travelling on a straight road and if some moronic driver coming in the opposite direction overtakes the vehicle ahead of him blindly, you still have time to take evasive action by pulling your car to the left and if required even stop the vehicle so as to give room for that moron to cross. But this is not so when blind overtaking occurs on a curved path and this is where many people prefer overtaking.
Whenever i near a curved road, I usually slow down, honk thereby ensuring that no one is coming in the opposite direction. Of course I have also encountered situations wherein the moronic driver blindly overtakes while coming in the opposite direction thereby putting our lives at risk. Even though we are right but if the other person is wrong, the end result is still an ACCIDENT. IMO people need to be taught driving on undivided roads first before hitting the divided roads.

Not sure where this would come under so have put it here as it is technically speaking an automotive related incident. Mods, please shift this post if needed.

Petrol pump catches fire

The synopsis of this news is that an car pulled up for fuel at a pump where some maintenance/repair work was going on. When he was told to move the car away from the pump, he started his car which sparked an fire in the pump which burst into flame along with the car.

While i have always heard that one needs to be careful while filling fuel, it is the first time i have heard of such an occurrence. I guess we need to be very careful and follow prescribe rules when filling fuel. (Times of India has this story as well, but it says it was a bike that was the cause (biker was starting his bike after being to to go to another pump) and that there was open fuel lying in a bucket which caused the initial fire. I somehow doubt the Times's version of the news. No pump employee in their right sense would leave fuel in an open bucket!)

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Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM (Post 4023007)

DB Sir requesting you to please share your talk by doing a video recording and uploading to Youtube. This would help a lot of folks.