Team-BHP - Accidents in India

I hope this wasn't the case with the crashed Harrier.

From the official review -

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Get out on the highway though and you'll find the stupid steering to be way too light & sensitive...so sensitive that it's outright dangerous at 110 - 120 km/h! The steering is simply too quick - at 110 km/h, even a small input from the driver results in a larger-than-expected direction change. This light + sensitive steering makes the Harrier's front end dangerously twitchy. Vid6639 drove the orange Harrier on the expressway and said that we'll be seeing a lot of crashed Harriers on Indian highways. A layman won't be able to handle an emergency manouveur; Tata needs to fix this ASAP. All we can state for now is, maintain a firm hand on the steering and be gentle + slow with your inputs.

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Originally Posted by humyum (Post 4592790)

You know, sometimes I think its the ego, 'How dare he come onto me like this, let me pressurize him to move back to his lane by going head on onto him, he will either brake or go back in his lane fast, it will teach him a lesson to not do it again'

I have seen people instead of giving way to the overtaking vehicle, most of the time, end up going into them and move out at the last second when they realize its either a collision or they move out.

On our roads I think passenger buses are the ones most guilty of this offence. They commit themselves to overtaking other lorries, buses and long vehicles even after they spot oncoming fast moving vehicles. They feel they can bully the oncoming vehicle to brake and let them complete the overtake. Even when they don't have the momentum they will pop out of their lane with lights on and then bully the oncoming vehicle. They will even stick their hand out and hurl abuses if the oncoming driver does not back out forcing him to brake.

Just last month I was driving on the (in)famous Shiradi ghat to Bangalore and saw some crazy blind overtaking by Govt buses on the curves. Literally there is nowhere to go if there is another idiot like him coming from the other side. Yet these guys drive like this and they do this every day!

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Originally Posted by humyum (Post 4592790)

In my hundreds of highway trips some even on single lane roads, when someone comes over my head on the highway from the opposite side, I behave like I care about my life, the life of its its passengers and my car the most, brake, move out of his way, go down the road too and just let them pass without even trying to put any kind of pressure on him to move out of my way, why should it be a touch and go at all when I can help it otherwise?

I am not saying that you are doing the wrong thing nor advocating that you hold your ground for a dare match. But the bus drivers behave in this manner because they know they can bully the life fearing car driver 9 times out of 10!

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Originally Posted by Santoshbhat (Post 4593017)

This situation is very familiar to anyone in Kerala, the state and private buses, other heavy vehicles don't care a damn about overtaking rashly and unless you are in a tank it's wise not to take them on.

Car crashes into a lorry belonging to NHAI which was watering the plants in the median near villupuram on Chennai-Trichy highway. 2 persons including the driver died while 2persons are undergoing treatment. From the video, I guess the lorry did have the crash bar.

It's very important to have a vision of the road ahead before going for lane change or overtaking move, especially on a highway and on high speeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGJ0PjYlWt8

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Originally Posted by Nimalan (Post 4593089)

It's very important to have a vision of the road ahead before going for lane change or overtaking move, especially on a highway and on high speeds.

I had written multiple complaints to NHAI regarding the tankers/tractors with hardly any signage/reflector/blinking lights watering plants on the highways. Some of them stay bang in the middle of road. I understand the school of thought that we should anticipate and drive. Sometimes these trucks appear to be moving and can result in accidents like these.

And isnt that a design problem with the median and plants grown inside them ? If median + Plants are a norm then why can't they have some kind of underground or maybe piping system above ground within the median so that the plants get watered regularly ? Lot of efficient technologies exist today. This water tanker system is too vintage. :Frustrati

While driving in the US and Australia I have noticed that such trucks and maintenance crew do work on highways. But they make sure there are enough attention seeking signages/barricades well in advance so that road users can slow down or divert accordingly.

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Originally Posted by Nimalan (Post 4593089)

Car crashes into a lorry belonging to NHAI which was watering the plants in the median near villupuram on Chennai-Trichy highway.

THe bare minumum, I repeat, the bare minimum such NHAI contractors can do is to place warning cones atleast 500m in advance. I have seen them do it when workers are planting the plants or painting the median etc. Why can't they do it when a water tanker is on the fast lane ? (the water tanker shouldn't be there in the first place, that itself is wrong, however, this is india and such things will be done anyway). How hard can it be to fetch some traffic cones from the nearest toll both and use it ?

Utter, utter, disdain.

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Originally Posted by Santoshbhat (Post 4593017)

On our roads I think passenger buses are the ones most guilty of this offence. They commit themselves to overtaking other lorries, buses and long vehicles even after they spot oncoming fast moving vehicles. They feel they can bully the oncoming vehicle to brake and let them complete the overtake. Even when they don't have the momentum they will pop out of their lane with lights on and then bully the oncoming vehicle. They will even stick their hand out and hurl abuses if the oncoming driver does not back out forcing him to brake.

..........

I am not saying that you are doing the wrong thing nor advocating that you hold your ground for a dare match. But the bus drivers behave in this manner because they know they can bully the life fearing car driver 9 times out of 10!

I can attest to that. I have an extreme outlier as an example to share - one of my earlier memories from the 1990s on a bus trip from my grandma's village (Watrap) to Krishnankoil was like this - a private bus operator with flashing lights and blaring music ("John F Kennedy Travels", no less!) was taking us to Krishnankoil. There were two lungi-clad men sitting on the engine, egging the driver to bully everyone else on the road.

They swung onto the oncoming lane once, to overtake a slow Ambassador. A lorry was stuck in the rampaging bus' path. The two lungi-clad men and the driver all laughed aloud at the look on the lorry driver's face as the bus swung back into its proper lane after missing the lorry by a whisker.

The mirthful trio were clearly Biblical imps incarnate or perhaps even the Devil himself. And the lorry driver would have probably gone on to hate John F Kennedy.

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Originally Posted by SS-Traveller (Post 4593239)

Another fatal crash reported from Arunachal Pradesh.

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Originally Posted by blackwasp (Post 4591447)

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

That's the 5th or 6th Harrier crash I've seen on the forum itself (God knows how many are there offline).

Don't want to sound too presumptuous, but am just wondering if & how many crashes that dangerously sensitive steering has caused. From our Official Review:

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If you make one mildly strong flick of the steering at speed, you'll lose control of the Harrier. It's that bad at 120 kmph.

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Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4593299)

That's the 5th or 6th Harrier crash I've seen on the forum itself (God knows how many are there offline).

If you make one mildly strong flick of the steering at speed, you'll lose control of the Harrier. It's that bad at 120 kmph.

I did experience this when I test drove the Harrier and also the official review is spot on.

What would it take for Tata to recall and recalibrate the steering ? How difficult is this?