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I can't understand why the Baleno driver is getting blamed here. An opening in the median is not an invitation to barge in as you please. You have to check for oncoming traffic and merge onto the road only when it is safe to do so.

Next, while changing lanes, you first need to indicate your intention using the indicator, and then ENSURE that there is no oncoming traffic from behind, in the lane you wish to merge into, before jumping in. ORVM's and the rear view mirror on your windshield are the tools to be used for this purpose.

The auto is doing one wrong after another in quick succession. They were lucky that it was a Baleno that hit them from the rear and not a lorry. The Baleno driver correctly manoeuvred to the left lane on seeing this moron in the right lane. Its not easy to take further evasive action, as given the speed, there was hardly any time (< 2 seconds) for the same.

Hope the occupants are safe.

Sir, what you said is absolutely right but theoretically on paper! But the problem is that we drive in India where the rules are for fools. We all must have seen a million times where the right of way is happily ignored by cars/bikes/trucks/autos etc. There would be no patience to wait for a clear road and the expectation is that the other vehicle (having the right of way) would slow down or deviate from their path.

Hence in India, defensive driving with lot of assumptions, expectations regarding other road users should be practiced with great care.

While auto can be blamed but I think Baleno was too fast and driver failed to react on time, that too in broad daylight.

You stole words from my mouth, I completely agree with you. When we drive in India specially on Highways one needs to be extra cautious.

I remember once returning from Bandra towards Andheri at around 3-4 am, the C turn between Santacruz and Vile Parle. Everyday travelers from this road might know their is no opening median, but on that day I was cruising around 60 and saw cars speeding past me as the roads were empty. All of a sudden saw a Cement Truck taking a U turn :eek:. He was coming from the oncoming lane in our lane. I slowed down and was in 1st lane, but due other cars near me were fast and had to brake hard, saw some cabs sliding which had families. For a second thought will have to get down to help others for accident. But due to Gods grace no such thing happened and cars came to complete halt without causing any accident.

Moral of the story: Be aware of your surroundings, no matter if you know the roads by heart and travel everyday, anything can change any moment. Keep eyes open, have quick and calm reactions.

I do second your thoughts. The Baleno driver, IMHO, could have avoided the accident with a little defensive driving, but then what is to be will be. The only good thing is that, everyone walked.

Exactly. Considering the relative velocity ( the difference in velocities), the damage is unacceptable for me.

This particular accident has happened when both the vehicles are moving in the same directions. Just imagine the case of a head on collision, that too with a heavier vehicle; the damage may extent to the passenger cabin for sure. :Shockked::Shockked:

This damage on Baleno is not a proof of the crumble zone. It is a proof of how WEAK the CRUMPLE ZONE is.

Very scary.
Which car is the brown car? It seems to have suffered more damage than the swift.

Looks like Ecosport to me based on the wheels. I could be wrong.

Definitely, the 'Share Auto' is to be blamed here. He has no business:
- Being on that highway
- Being on the fast lane
- Changing lanes the way he did

However, the Baleno driver could have avoided the crash had he anticipated such behaviour from the Auto driver. I think we should all look at this as an educational video.

Following are a list of 'dangerous things' I'm always on the lookout for on an Indian Highway:
- Stationary bus
- Auto-rickshaws
- Two wheeler riders without helmets
- Long vehicles, with large blind spots
- Iron barricades arranged in a criss cross manner supposed to act as speed breakers
- Intersections or Gaps in the dividers

Can't think of any others at the moment! Fellow BHPians are invited to add to the list!

Adding a couple more from my experience.

* Tractors and trucks coolly coming in the wrong direction. (Avoid overtaking from the left unless the way is pretty clear.)
* Divider hogging vehicles especially on single carriageways setup to overtake. (They are hell bent on overtaking even if it is at others expense.)

Adding one more (this would have been discussed already multiple times)

# Cattle - goats, sheep crossing the highways and unexpected coming to you.

I had a recent experience of hitting a baby goat somewhere on the way to Chennai from Chidambaram but thankfully I was at low speeds - just pressing on pedal and probably would have been at 20 or 25 KMPH. It limped away and was fine after a while. The locals were initially aggressive (I can speak broken Tamil to some extent) but when they saw that it was fine, they cooled down.

I am driving very defensively these days when I compare with my driving in 2013 or 2014 (esp. after reading lot of articles here) but still had this bad experience and still feel guilty about it :Frustrati . I have archived the dash cam recording of it in my hard disk and will share it here soon.

While I agree to most of your points, I think this is too much of a statement (no offense please:). Even that auto-rickshaw has paid the road taxes. It has every right to be on that highway.

The auto-rickshaw, being a slower vehicle, should be on the left lane, agreed. And I guess he did exactly same after joining the highway (may be he misjudged the Baleno's speed). You can also see someone from the rickshaw signaling with hand, just before the collision.

I strongly feel the Baleno driver should have anticipated that the auto-rickshaw driver would move to the left lane. Hitting someone on the road, just because they made a mistake is no excuse in my opinion.

There is a concept known as right of way. A car travelling straight on a highway has priority over one waiting to join. The vehicle in wait, should continue to do so till the lane is clear to safely merge into, which also means you should only merge into the highway only if there is sufficient distance between your vehicle and the one already on the highway such that you have enough time to reach highway speeds before the oncoming vehicle nears you, else continue to wait till above condition is met, or till the road is clear of traffic.

Vehicles are provided with brake lights and indicators for a reason. That reason is to indicate what the driver is trying to do with leaving any room for doubt to the traffic around. You need to indicate before you start the manoeuvre, not half way into it. Unfortunately most yellow board drivers haven't the faintest idea of what these bulbs are used for. They spent more energy and resources in fitting multi colour comic bulbs than fixing what is essential. At 90 kmph, you need approximately 80-85 metres of road space to bring your average car to a halt. Looking at the video, my estimate is that he had not more than 50 metres of road space to bring the car to a halt. I don't think he banged into the auto on purpose, at least it doesn't seem so from the video.

Thanks to Neeraj RM for sending this video in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

A Toyota Innova caught fire on the Mumbai-Pune expressway yesterday afternoon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9uR...ature=youtu.be