Team-BHP - Accidents in India

Quote:

Originally Posted by india008 (Post 5045431)

Yes indeed i missed honking there. Should have been more careful. But in my defense i will say, the pickup was stationary on road side, near a tea shop. So i might have thought of no unnecessary honking (can't really recall what was in my mind that time).

Problem is with the idiot on the Pickup 100%. You gave an indicator to the effect you are stopping/ turning. The Pickup fellow was merging on to a 4 lane highway from the shoulders. He should have watched out. Further he should have turned on indicatior to let you know he is moving on and you might have then parked behind him in this case. What if that pickup had turned onto the traffic lane when you or someone were at full speed. It would have been a big disaster. For your part you could have given a big honk as an anticipatory action. Our country unfortunately does not deserve no-honk niceties thanks to such idiots who care a damn for the rules. Just be careful even with all these steps you may still face such trouble as I found this the hard way out when a moron on Autorickshaw hit my RE Thunderbird in Chennai even after evasive manoeuvres.. His reason...He was upset that I stopped a few feet ahead of him when he was planning on turning into the highway lane!!! (Without giving any indication that he was making a move)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Candy$Cars (Post 5044548)

Surprised to see people blaming the biker and not the woman, even senior bhpians who make accurate analysis usually!
The woman stopped abruptly in the middle. People like her cross the road all the time and everyone of us just drive across behind them. For anyone driving on the highway, it would look like the woman will simply cross the road and this is why the biker, when collided, was towards the middle of the lane - he had already made course correction and probably why he had not slowed down. Problem arose when she stepped back. All this happened in just 1-1.5 seconds, too little time for the biker to make another course correction.

Of course the pedestrian should be careful for her own safety. However, the problem here is the same that leads to a lot accidents. When faced with an obstacle or potential collision risk, people honk, maneuver and flash lights but DO NOT slow down. All the biker had to do was slow down after seeing a pedestrian crossing. Then the bike would be more under control and he would have had a better chance of avoiding the collision. Whenever you see a person or a vehicle approaching, stop accelerating and slow down a bit. For a pedestrian, the rule is that you can’t hit them. So make sure you have slowed enough to be able to stop in case they decide to come in front of you.

Well said. I my self have faced this while crossing roads many times. I keep looking at vehicles while crossing. It is some times difficult to unsync with the bikes, by unsync I mean to ensure we choose separate paths, otherwise a hit is typically close. I hardly has seen any one slowing down, may be because there are too many crossing the roads. Whether we like it or not, slowing down helps as soon as we see someone crossing.

You probably know unsync is when we avoid crossing other's path.

+1 , while crossing the road if a situation becomes that a biker is close and is confused on from where he should pass me, I always give them a direction, to pass me from the front and I stop OR take a step back, bit give them an indication to move on.

It gives the bikers also clarity on the unhindered path.

The bikers also want to avoid crashes but may get confused and hit the pedestrian by target fixation, showing a direction means then mentally they lose on target fixation, have clarity on their path and avoid the hit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tanwaramit (Post 5044379)

Jaywalking + Biker on a high speed = Disaster

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Always Advisable to keep safe distance from Trucks

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Fortuner - Head on collision with 2 bikers - Both died

Jump to 25 seconds

Before I preach about the need for less powerful cars and two wheelers I confess I am guilty as charged being the owner and lover of two 200+bhp cars. :confused:

More and more powerful cars and bikes will equal higher speeds and more dangerous acceleration. For a moment I am ignoring the deplorable road manners and lack of training. In the pursuit of speed, torque, manliness, vroom-vroom and marketing bull shit we as a market are buying cars which are way way over powered for the job of carting 4 adults and 4 bags at 60 to 70 kmph. For that you need 50 bhp not more. But today we consider a mid-sized C segment 70 bhp car to be underpowered. So it is no one's business that if you hand a more powerful missile* to more untrained people we will have more accidents. And now we have a whole generation of drivers who believe less than 100 bhp is underpowered {that is the old man in me getting cantankerous & waving my walking stick}

Before 1996, in India, our cars were between 40 and 55 bhp or thereabouts. This is before Opel Astra and Cielo came and even those two IIRC were below 90 bhp. The two wheelers Chetak, Super, Lamby etc were all in single digit bhp and trust me they did the job, of getting you from point A to B, just fine.

I for one seriously believe that for Indian road discipline conditions we need an upper limit on the bhp of cars and two wheelers. If such a law should come I would be glad to comply. We lose more Indians each year {about 1.51 lakhs in 2019-20} in road accidents than we did in the 5 wars our neighbours have fought with us since independence. Between 2012-13 and 2019-20 over 1 million Indians lost their lives to road accidents - the young and two-wheeler riders predominate. Safety of life comes before the joy of speed and power.

* a car is effectively a missile weighing 1000+ kgs hurtling at 27 metres per second {100 kmph}. That is more kinetic energy than a 40mm Bofors cannon shell coming straight at you.

Power is dangerous in the hands of the over-confident and badly taught, but any vehicle is a menace in the hands of a dangerous driver. And I do not mean just the arrogant and aggressive drivers of powerful cars.

Sadly, bikes and scooters remain the simplest and cheapest way for an individual, or even a family, to get on the road. They are also likely to be ridden/driven with the least instruction. Thus, a moped may be a more dangerous thing than a 200bhp car.

(Oh... you have two? If you have one to spare, remember me! rl: )

Quote:

Originally Posted by sreenivass (Post 5050665)

True. This indication, etc.. work if the bike is coming relatively at lower speeds. If it is fast, time does not permit us to indicate or get out of the way.

Nothing suits all cases. There are various combinations of the bike going too fast and the pedestrian crossing in a dangerous place or simply not looking.

I do feel that there is an ultimate responsibility that lies in the hands of those who drive "missiles," (as mentioned by V.Narayan) because they are inherently dangerous, even lethal, but if we (we are all pedestrians as well as drivers/riders) cross in front of a vehicle simply too close for the driver/rider to react, we're being suicidal and blame the driver.

So the only answer is for drivers/riders to drive well and pedestrians to walk well.

(And... it would help a great deal if our road designers actually thought of those on foot before they build. Plainly, those who walk are often not given a chance)

While everyone has to agree with what you wrote, it is the lack of education and training that causes most accidents. IMHO we are very slow in shedding those old habits and learn new ones that help all (motorists and pedestrians). It does not need a great speed for accidents, two accidents I had were because of sudden and thoughtless acts. One, a two wheeler appearing across a parked vehicle suddenly right in front of me. My speed was 30-40 KMPH. Another one, a taxi turning across at the last moment right in front of me. The speed was probably 40-50 KMPH. It gets worse if it happens during acceleration. The guys end up claiming you were fast. Make those sudden moves, 20 KMPH would appear like 100 KMPH.

Things have changed from 20 years ago. It is much more convenient for people to drive down than wait for a bus or train for hours or save trouble for elderly.

It does not seem there is a great deal of focus on traffic education from authorities either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sreenivass (Post 5050990)

While everyone has to agree with what you wrote, it is the lack of education and training that causes most accidents. ... ... ... It does not seem there is a great deal of focus on traffic education from authorities either.

I'm afraid that it can only get worse.

Even though there may be sincere instructors, most of the actual learning comes from friends and relatives. Even if they are sincere, they cannot teach what they do not know or understand. And most of the new-on-the-road people are only interested in getting the licence and then being able to more easily reach job, shops, school, etc. They won't be browsing here to learn from our wisdom (and our mistakes: I have had a couple of accidents that were certainly my fault).