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It may not be always possible for the oncoming vehicle to stop in time. Plus buses and (especially) trucks have massive stopping distances and with non-ABS vehicles any sudden braking could result in loss of control of the bus / truck.

If you mean the ones doing the overtaking manoeuvre, yes, they try to bully others in stopping / giving way despite being on the wrong side themselves.

If you mean traffic coming in the opposite direction, they have done nothing wrong. The car overtaking should have been more careful. Also on twisties, thanks to relative motion of vehicles on both sides and curvy roads, it is difficult to estimate how far away is the other car / or if it is safe enough to overtake, especially for someone who's not familiar with the roads.

Unfortunately yes, but in this case, it's the Alto guy's fault for sure.

+1. It is the responsibility of the vehicle overtaking to ensure there is ample clearance for a safe overtaking move.

Malayalam media reports that the bus driver braked hard, but the driver of the car couldn't control his vehicle.

We must also consider that it isnt easy to slow down a bus compared to a car, especially if it is loaded or there is a downward slope. As long as the bus was in the place it was intended to be, its not fair to expect the bus driver to accommodate the misjudgement of the car driver. Had it been otherwise, then yes we would have to drag the bus driver for this discussion. There is also a feeling that lies inside some drivers that if they are overtaking then the vehicle being passed must give way or even slow down. I am not sure about this, but have faced this on many instances where people are hardly doing my speed and cant go further, and they drive beside you without being able to get ahead and still try to signal you to slow down. I am not obliged to slow down AFAIK. If the other car can go faster, then they are welcome to overtake.

It isn't so much as "wouldn't" as "can't". Heavy vehicles are a completely different kettle of fish when compared to cars. Ever driven one?
Firstly, it is entirely possible that the Alto driver pulled out from behind another vehicle literally a few feet in front of the bus, thus taking the bus driver totally by surprise.
Secondly, buses simply cannot "turn on a dime" as the saying goes - the vehicle itself will not react to control inputs the way a car does. So even if the bus driver had braked and/or applied steering input, the bus might not have managed to get out of the way. In this scenario, it is dangerous to simultaneously brake hard & steer hard in that ordinary bus that does not have the sophisticated electronic stability systems to keep it on even keel. If the bus driver had even tried such a maneuver, he would be endangering the lives of 50+ passengers.

Benefit of doubt goes to bus driver here.

I get the moving mass part but these same buses defy the laws of physics when they see passengers to pick at unscheduled stop. :)

If I see a car wrongfully in my lane, wouldn't I stop? Of course I would and not go hit it only to win 'who's lane is it' argument??

Again guys, the point is not who is right or who is wrong; that's for all to see. The point is could the bus driver have slowed down in time to at least minimize the impact? But then that's where my other point comes in i.e. they themselves won't be humanly bothered unless they see something of their own size. That's it.

Any bus/truck driver will do the same. However, they have much more limitations as explained by blackwasp. And that may seem rude or aggressive to smaller vehicle drivers.

Most of the bus and truck drivers are very well bothered about getting involved in an accident. As they very well know that they will be blamed first even if they are on the right side of rules. Your post is kind of testimony to that. There is absolutely no scope to find bus driver's fault in this case but still we have 4-5 posts on it already. They know this better that anyone.

Hence "most" of the bus/truck drivers run away immediately and surrender themselves to police if they are involved in accident (with no fault of theirs).

Even after this their livelihood is kind of lost forever. Sad but true.

Believe me, 99% of people would not want to be involved in an accident, irrespective of driving a bus or riding a bicycle. As I described in my earlier post, the driving habits in my state leaves a lot to be desired. I personally had to take evasive action, umpteen number of times (hard braking, going out of the road etc.), on the 2 lane roads where people just dart out from behind the vehicle in front without seeing, as if on a suicidal mission. Going by the laws of physics, a bus may not be able to take such an evasive maneuver within such a short time. That doesn't mean that they don't care about others on the road.

Spotted this video randomly on my phone's YouTube feed:

https://youtu.be/FXAI9j1K3c8

Thankfully the rider in the video was cruising at a lower speed than is the custom on highways. Even then he had virtually only a second to react.

OT: the name Bunny Punia (the one who uploaded the video) seems familiar...

Those double solid lines were there for a purpose, but in India "who cares? I have done such overtaking 'n' number of times". Unfortunately, sometime luck runs out. :deadhorse

Very sad to see any accident anywhere. But whom to blame?

As always fingers get pointed in all directions including the parked cycle on the side of the road to the pan shop that has encroached the road a little bit or the authorities for the poor condition/design of the road etc.

Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate when on our roads. Keep running a real time 360 degree video in your minds ready to react to all the potential mistakes/next moves by all the living/non-living beings/objects.

I am sure all of us agree that it is not difficult to judge what a bus/truck/trailer can do or cannot do even though we would have never driven one. That is where judgement comes in.

This KL incident involving the alto v/s bus could be one of two common errors drivers make on single undivided roads
1. Playing with probability and just pulling out onto the overtaking lane, hoping that nothing would be coming opposite
2. Driving without knowing that cars which have small engines, small amount of power and small amount of weight, though they can fly at 100+ speeds with only one occuppant, will get heavily paralysed with full load of passengers and luggage. The added weight would be close to 50% of the car's unladen weight and it will massively cripple acceleration, braking, cornering - everything. There is no way the car will behave anywhere close to how it behaves like what the driver would be used to, while hooning it alone.

people in KL mostly grow up driving on single lane highways, so only the biggest of morons make error 1. However, error 2 is quite common.

Drivers of Trucks and buses do brake hard in such situations, only thing is that they brake in a straight line, and do not try to swerve out of the way. This behaviour may be dictated by the high center of gravity and the fact that they have 40+ passengers whose life is more precious, and risk of toppling over should not be taken.



He is likely to be braking hard or trying to use maximum possible acceleration to accelerate out of the way.

On December 27, a bus belonging to a private operator ploughed into a lorry from behind near Kunigal, around 100kms from Bangalore, in the wee hours. My colleagues' in laws were travelling in the bus and were injured. FIL had a cut on his head whereas MIL has a small fracture. 17 people ni the bus had injuries and were treated at the Govt. Hospital in Kunigal.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/stat...t-1742158.html

5 out of 11 occupants of a new car died when the driver swerved trying to avoid a girl crossing the highway and ended up hitting a parked truck. This happened on new year day in Kunigal, KA.

RIP.

What is this car?
1. Overloaded car. Paisa vasool concept of stuffing every cubic millimeter of car with people. The quoted points apply here too.

2. It is better to brake hard in a straight line without any steering input and let ABS+EBD do the job of stopping in time. Swerving is more dangerous than hitting in slow speeds. (Exception is when the car has Electronic stability control and the driver is an expert/professional.) For an average person, braking hard has better outcome than swerving.

3. It takes time to get used to a new car. Testing the limits in a new car. This was in a new car bought a week ago.

4. Pedestrians, motorcyclists, animals crossing the highway as if they own it. The plants in the median hide them until the last moment. There should not be any plants in the median. The risks of having plants in the median outweigh the benefits.
:deadhorse

Sad. 2yr 6yr and 16yr old among the dead makes it much more sadder. That's an Ertiga.