[arjithin]

Originally Posted by RaguHolla

Bizarre accident involving KSRTC interstate bus, driver explanation baffles me!
It shows how attentive the driver is; not knowing he hit human or speed breaker!
Lame excuse he give is "lots of speed breakers on the this route", while bluntly admitting he doesn't stops at speed breaker!

Not sure if you read the article correctly. However attentive the driver is, accidents can happen, as there is another party who may not be so attentive involved or pure bad luck. No details are there to point out its the drivers fault from the article (imho).

Lame excuse he give is "lots of speed breakers on the this route" -> Some other driver told this, and knowing this route, I think its a very possible scenario.

Lets not judge the drivers without the facts. The article states- "the driver has a accident free history of 10 years", which is not easy. One possible thing the driver could have done is to stop the bus and check everywhere.

[Vysakh]

Originally Posted by RaguHolla

Bizarre accident involving KSRTC interstate bus, driver explanation baffles me!
It shows how attentive the driver is; not knowing he hit human or speed breaker!
Lame excuse he give is "lots of speed breakers on the this route", while bluntly admitting he doesn't stops at speed breaker!

It's a speed breaker, not a stop sign or a red light. Why would anyone stop at a speed breaker?

[hemanth.anand]

Body dragged for 70kms! Really!

Originally Posted by RaguHolla

Bizarre accident involving KSRTC interstate bus, driver explanation baffles me!
It shows how attentive the driver is; not knowing he hit human or speed breaker!
Lame excuse he give is "lots of speed breakers on the this route", while bluntly admitting he doesn't stops at speed breaker!

Originally Posted by Vysakh

It's a speed breaker, not a stop sign or a red light. Why would anyone stop at a speed breaker?

But it looks you both have misunderstood the article. There is no mention that the accident took place at speedbreaker. It is reported that the driver told that he heard a loud thad sound and he thought he hit a stone and continued since there was nothing in his ORVM. Some other driver has told that it is surprising that even with so many speedbreakers, the body has not fallen off but was stuck to the undercarriage for such a long distance.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by RaguHolla

Bizarre accident

New version of the story here

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

... really bad habit of people to stand by the roadside and even on the road with no regard to safety..... people stopping their cars and bikes on fast moving expressways and then standing around for a chat like they were in a garden,
....Why can't people think of their safety and have a chat at a proper place like a restaurant, park, someone's home or at least in a safe place away from traffic?
..... Such lack of concern for safety from citizens and the authorities is deplorable.

Originally Posted by lawdgawd

A basic sense of one's own safety is seriously lacking in a large segment of the population...

No point blaming people if they haven't been groomed to be aware of road safety right from their school time/growing up years.
Majority of the people are simply ignorant of personal safety and the right road safety precautions.

We come across such frequent sightings of a large number of 'educated' Indians sitting in the front seat with their child on their lap. They are blissfully unaware of the danger of the front airbag on the child should it inflate explosively on impact, or the child could get crushed between them and the dashboard just on a hard braking scenario.

Would people endanger their own kids if they were aware of the danger? Certainly not.

Such is the state of education in our country, there is absolutely no emphasis on civic sense and responsibilities, personal safety awareness, road rules and traffic sense.
How will people act responsibly if their safety awareness level is so low?
How difficult is it for the education minister to immediately implement civic sense, road safety and traffic rules into every school curriculum right from the tender age? Only the will to do so is missing.

[500ContyCruiser]

Saw this accident somewhere after Kittur on NH4 (towards Belgaum).

Not sure what happened. Looked like the truck cabin was burnt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkD0vPsq_Ck

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

No point blaming people if they haven't been groomed to be aware of road safety right from their school time/growing up years.
Majority of the people are simply ignorant of personal safety and the right road safety precautions. ... ... ...

Hard, fast thing hits soft, fragile thing and guess what happens. How much training does it take to realise that?

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Hard, fast thing hits soft, fragile thing and guess what happens. How much training does it take to realise that?

Beautiful. Now let's ask ourselves a question. You are following a state transport bus or the local municipal transport bus on a busy and wide city road. The bus moves to the left side of the road to make a stop and you move to the right, preparing for an overtake.

People get down from the bus. From where will they cross the road?

You got it! From in front of the bus! Neither they nor you can see each other. That's the exact way they intend to cross the road.

There are safer options, the best one being let the bus pass and then decide a safe time to cross the road. Or pass from the rear of the bus where they in clear sight of the traffic and vice versa. But most of them will choose the riskier and potentially deadlier option.

Common sense is uncommon. The pedestrians too have the same mentality: 'It can't happen to me!'

[sushantr5]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Beautiful. Now let's ask ourselves a question. You are following a state transport bus or the local municipal transport bus on a busy and wide city road. The bus moves to the left side of the road to make a stop and you move to the right, preparing for an overtake.

People get down from the bus. From where will they cross the road?

You got it! From in front of the bus! Neither they nor you can see each other. That's the exact way they intend to cross the road.

There are safer options, the best one being let the bus pass and then decide a safe time to cross the road. Or pass from the rear of the bus where they in clear sight of the traffic and vice versa. But most of them will choose the riskier and potentially deadlier option.

Common sense is uncommon. The pedestrians too have the same mentality: 'It can't happen to me!'

this type of good behavior of passengers alighting from bus is not also expected in Germany. But in Germany, drivers of cars are specially trained to consider passengers crossing from front of bus.

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

this type of good behavior of passengers alighting from bus is not also expected in Germany. But in Germany, drivers of cars are specially trained to consider passengers crossing from front of bus.

Unfortunately we lack in both pedestrian awareness / training as well as driver awareness / training.

Often as I am trying to pull out from the roadside into the traffic, I shall have pedestrians coming from my right, blocking my ORVM and then wait for me to pull out, which I can't do safely. Or pass the car from the right, getting into the vehicular traffic themselves, even when ample space is available on the left.

And just forget about footpaths or signals.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Beautiful. Now let's ask ourselves a question. You are following a state transport bus or the local municipal transport bus on a busy and wide city road. The bus moves to the left side of the road to make a stop and you move to the right, preparing for an overtake.

People get down from the bus. From where will they cross the road? ... ... ...

That particular lesson is one that I learned the nearly-very-hard way as a school boy getting off the bus, and then as a leaner driver. There are tips and tricks, like looking for legs, expecting someone will do the stupid thing and slowing down. There is common sense and uncommon sense!

Today, my wife crossed the road outside our house, right in front of a building labourer carrying scaffold poles on her shoulder. Quite apart from the fact that the poor woman with the difficult load had to "swerve," I asked said spouse: "what if that had been a bus?"

Of course, we all make mistakes. Road injuries and casualties will probably always happen, but, towards a better future, they key is in common sense: the sort that is not actually road specific, but general awareness.

(The wife I mentioned wishes to remain anonymous and does not like being discussed on the internet. Oh well, I guess I blew it this time!)

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by Vysakh

It's a speed breaker, not a stop sign or a red light. Why would anyone stop at a speed breaker?

Really? Are you reading the literal sense?
I think everyone here means to say "slow down at a speed breaker".

Or do you mean to say that one should just drive over speed breakers at the same speed?

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by Vysakh

It's a speed breaker, not a stop sign or a red light. Why would anyone stop at a speed breaker?

Oops, I was always stopping before them.
What are they meant for otherwise?

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Really? Are you reading the literal sense?
I think everyone here means to say "slow down at a speed breaker".

I would really like to slow down at speed breakers. But most of them are not visible, not scientifically built, have little to no visible warning signs and keep popping up every few 100 metres at whim and fancy.

As a driver of a bus for which maintenance costs are borne by someone else, I doubt they care a jot for the comfort of passengers or the state of the suspension.

[Vysakh]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Really? Are you reading the literal sense?
I think everyone here means to say "slow down at a speed breaker".

Or do you mean to say that one should just drive over speed breakers at the same speed?

No, I meant that one should not stop at every speed breaker, get out and check if one ran over a human or a speed breaker. Obviously one has to slow down.