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This should be a tutorial video of how not to approach a junction.
First, the car with the DVR is following the bike too closely.
No perceptible decrease in speed as they approach the junction.
The truck seems to be loaded and carrying too much momentum for the brakes to control.
All 3 share the blame.

Indeed a very disturbing sight!
Going by the situation; a fast car, 5 young boys and rushing towards hospital - I won't be surprised to discover that they were speeding like anything. I have been through one such situation in which I once ended up covering Jaipur - Gurgaon distance in an impossible sounding time in early hours; thankfully I am alive to share this and even i myself sat and thought how many mistakes I made on that morning.

Looks like the truck wasn't under the driver's control for any reason.

I agree. No sign of any defensive driving at all.
As per above, yes, but probably only one of them deserves imprisonment. And the bikers certainly did not deserve death
Unless the brakes failed that very second, which I would find hard to believe, what to do with a vehicle that you can't stop? Drive it straight out into a busy road? Or into the hedge, wall, ditch etc. No: this is reckless/drunk/asleep and criminal driving.

Really sad.

There is only so much one can do driving defensively, if someone like the truck driver above decides to barge in to a junction at good speed, no amount of defensive driving can help you. It is about being at the wrong place at the wrong time. My heart goes to the bike riders, for no fault of theirs, they and their families had to pay the price.

This was death catching them by surprise.
Atleast a life may have been saved if those bikers were wearing helmets. But hey! Isn't that a taboo in most parts of our country?

Defensive driving on a junction usually involves braking gently, say from 70s to 50s (Stopping when you actually see someone crossing/attempting to cross), something which won't be as perceptible from a dashcam footage even if they did it. Plus no one expects a truck to appear at breakneck speed like the one here. I feel sorry for these people involved in this tragic accident.

The truck driver is definitely at fault here. For the brakes to fail at such speed, one needs to reach such speed first. Any heavy vehicle driven at anything above 40-50 (except 4-6 lane highways maybe) is itself calling for a tragedy.

Whether it's a break fail, just plain carelessness or lack of driving skills - it's a death due to negligence of driver. He should be tried for culpable homicide.

It's driver/owner who is responsible for maintaining the vehicle in working conditions, other should not die for his penny wise pound foolish approach in life.

Looking at government's apathy about deaths on Indian roads, I feel perhaps they see it as population control measure :Shockked:

Starting from road design, license process, road worthiness of vehicles, information of road rules, to the enforcement of same - we have huge gaps, all pointing towards Govt.

The whole problem lies in the general mindset "I'll drive the way I want, let others take care and manoeuvre accordingly " Safety and defensive driving is others business, not mine.

Few everyday examples of the above mindset:

1. Bikers or car drivers cutting into another vehicle's lane thinking "let him brake and allow me to cut in, I don't give a damn".

2. Barging from a side road to the main road without stopping and looking "let the fellows on the main road stop and give way, why should I?".

3. Accelerating while seeing a pedestrian crossing the road "stay clear or I'm going to run you over".

4. Maintaining the same high speed while crossing junctions and intersections "others better watch out and slow down because I'm not going to stop" Gujarat is notorious for almost none of them stop at a red signal.

5. Stopping right dead in the middle of the road without any indication asking for dieections or to alight " those behind me better watch out"


This mindset has to change, by bringing awareness, by rigourous tests before issuing licenses, by strict enforcement of rules and severe penalization for repeat offenders.

Cynical pessimist (or realist?) here. I see the mindset that you describe getting stronger every day.

But how we drive is just a facet, at least, of who and how we are. Doesn't look good, eh?

Of course, there has been an huge growth in all vehicle numbers over the past decade, but my unstatistically-supported observation is that there has been an explosive growth in the number of bikes in recent years. It doesn't take much to get on the road in any vehicle here, but the entry bar for 2-wheelers is... well, there isn't one: if they can balance, they ride.

My own biases admitted on this one, but let me say that I always give credit to good driving, whether it is on two or eighteen wheels!

And, let me repeat: these bikers did nothing, apart from lack of helmets, to deserve death. We can almost always say that an accident could have been avoided, even by the person[s] not at fault. They were not at fault here. Defensive driving is something that has to be taught; real defensive driving is probably not that common, after passing the test, elsewhere in the world either.

I don't think helmets would have saved lives here. I'm afraid they drove under the wheels of the truck.

The biker should have been riding in front/behind of the car and not beside it in such a constrained road. I think he was focused on how to ride safe in parallel to the car and may have had some valuable (milli)seconds to take evasive action in case he didn't have the car beside him.

I wonder whether this accident could have been avoided. The car and the bike were not really speeding (yes, the bike could have been a tad slower, but not that he was riding rash). There was a bridge they were due to go under which constrained their view to the approaching truck. Had this been a plain road, without that bridge, they could have at least seen the truck approaching. The moment they actually saw the truck was about 1 second before the crash. Now here too, the first reaction that people have is "Hey. I am on the main highway, hence this person is going to stop". The time wherein they would have realized that the truck is not going to stop would be when they were a fraction of a second away. Then they had the car on the right AND on the left. So you can't go right, you can't go left, you can't go straight and you have too little time to stop.

If the truck did not have mechanical failure then this person SHOULD have stopped. Not just because he was crossing a highway, but also because his view of the highway too was blocked by the bridge. he should have anticipated a vehicle coming from the right.

I thought the car was not driven in the correct lane rather than the bike. However, considering a junction coming up, they both should have reduced their speeds. The car was more at fault compared to the bike, from he video.

True Thad. Infact the motorcyclist were at a pace that is normal for such roads, but had they expected a "mythical" oncoming vehicle across the service lanes by the sides of the bridge and just (may be just as an anticipatory effect) loosened on the throttle, they could (just may be) save themselves from such gory event.

Being a biker, helmet in these cases are just vanity. They cannot stop bodily crash and if anyone wants to understand what I just said, review this video frame by frame, the last 15-20 frames capture the twisted body of the bike driver as he comes face on with the metal body of truck.

Sir, In addition to what you have said, the CROSS ROAD / Slow down warning sign is missing at the intersection. As bike approaches the underbridge, the cross service roads are very much a surprise ,, but a routine user of this road should know that...sad

https://youtu.be/USveHuGfpPc


A video I came across today. This is one of my major fears while riding a 2 wheeler, getting sandwiched between two vehicles. Luckily the guys in this clip walked away with minimal injuries.

Looks like they are lucky to have legs, let alone walk away.

As ever, the biggest lesson here is not to tailgate. Next, be aware of how close the vehicle behind is: if it is too close, increase stopping distance.