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Interesting thought, it actually depends on the ADAS system used. In the case of XUV700 most likely not as it is primarily a camera-based system and fog anyhow decreases the visibility. However, a proper radar-based system should help in such a scenario. I am thinking MG Astor forward-collision warning might work here, just a guess. However, there will still be high chances of getting rear-ended.

I thought it was the opposite for the XUV. I saw this video by Gagan driving in thick fog at 80kmph to showcase how well the ADAS works. The car was able to detect what the driver couldn’t and slow down if there was anything at a distance.

https://youtu.be/JQllw_Oj_9Q

My friend met with an accident on Sunday. We were returning from a Kodaikanal trip, me and my wife in my Rapid and he with his family, in his Verna automatic.

Location:

Pazhani ghat, around 25kms from Pazhani.

Incident:

We both started from Kodaikanal by around 12PM. I was several cars behind him and was following a pick up truck at a good distance. Suddenly after a curve, the pick up came to a sudden halt. I didn't have to panic brake since I had left sufficient gap. A TN state bus came in the opposite direction with a few of its side windows smashed. I thought that some bigger vehicle ahead must have sideswiped it. But then I saw several people running towards the front, some in panic. I moved the car to the side and walked forward and saw this:





Heres what happened. The mini-bus was being driven quite fast. The driver saw the approaching TN state bus and swerved to the left to make space. But he mis-judged the space available. There was a rocky protrusion on the side and he drove straight into it. The rear fishtailed and sideswiped the TN bus. My friend who was following (maybe a bit too close) was caught off guard and crashed into the mini-bus.






No airbags were deployed.





Injuries:

Everyone in his car were wearing seatbelt, including his wife and 2 young kids. Minor injuries only, mostly seat belt bruise and some cuts.

Few passengers of the mini-bus were injured. I think a few were bleeding from cuts and bruises. My wife is a doctor and checked on a few of them to make sure they were OK. An ambulance arrived about an hour later and took the more injured passengers towards Pazhani.

It was starting to get dark, so we took his family with us to have them checked at a hospital. A doctor friend guided us to a hospital in Pollachi where they ruled out any major injuries. Painkillers were deemed sufficient.

Damages:

Once the backed up traffic was cleared, I moved my car next to theirs. We called up Chandra Hyundai to request for a tow truck. There was barely any signal and we had a tough time connecting. Finally they arranged for a truck, but it had to come all the way from Coimbatore. Took about 3 hours for it to reach. The vehicle was towed to their service centre. The repair estimate was around 4 lakhs, and so the vehicle was declared a total loss.

That really looks like a nasty accident for all involved and glad that all made out with just minor scrapes and bruises.

Thanks for sharing.

It's pretty scary to see a speeding bus (not wanting to lose average speed) coming on the opposite side on these narrow winding roads up in the mountains.

Glad to know.. seatbelts surely helped

I'm surprised at the extent of damage to the car, compared to the almost negligible damage to the sheet metal on the rear of the bus. I agree there was probably some 5x difference in the laden weight of the two vehicles when the accident occured, but to see a jugaad construction mini-bus made on a van-chassis suffering so little but causing a total loss damage to the verna, is hard to swallow.

Out of curiosity, how much did you have to pay? A friend hit a cow in Mangalore highway near Kunigal about 4 yrs back and was asked to pay Rs. 1 Lakh. Similar incident where a 407 truck in front of him swerved to reveal a cow. The Rakshana Vedike people came and started badgering him. Finally settled at 30K. But my friend felt very bad for a long time (even now) for hitting an animal he considers as a mother.

Also remember and incident a few years back. Cows in city roads are a common sight in Bengaluru. So was driving in Malleshwaram on a narrow 2-way road. Very slow because of the traffic and the pedestrians and a cow was being led by an old lady in the middle of the road. An idiot taxi driver on the opposite side comes close to the cow and honks even though he had sufficient space. The cow jumps on my car and damages the driver door, mirror and fender.

Have also seen kids chasing cows onto vehicles in some areas. Pretty sad state here.

Thanks for the video. My assessment regarding the XUV700 was solely based on the below screenshot from the manual. I have highlighted the part that I think is important.

ADAS system has to detect the rear end of the preceding vehicle. In the video, it even detects a truck at one point without any functioning rear lights which is commendable. Also, the scenario in Gagan's video may not be the one that causes a series of accidents.

I was lucky - did not have to pay anything (See the original accident report linked in that post for details)

A bit of information worth knowing & remembering - most cows are insured.

The cowherds get about 40-50k if the cow dies. Look for a tag on the ear of the cow. This will help during negotiations- you are compensating for loss of income, not capital.

I did not know this at the time of the accident.

Thanks for sharing.

This reminded me: several years back, a neighbourhood milkman's cow died due to cardiac arrest, and he mentioned that he would get an insurance payout for the same.

Hi All,

Driving on Indian roads for years has taught me one very important lesson. PRAY. Pray before you start driving. Doesn't matter where you are. What time of the day it is. If destiny has decided to sock you in the gut so be it. Lately, I have heard of umpteen cases of accidents, each weird in its own way. I tried to decipher the causes to the best of my abilities and promised myself to learn from these seemingly avoidable mishaps.

But how does one prepare from getting a brain freeze?

Or

how can one avoid getting rear ended by a drunk driver?

Or

Anticipate a stray animal walking right on to your driving path?

The probabilities are endless. No matter how much care one takes while driving, if something has to happen.... It definitely will.

Accidents on the road, especially in a chaotic country such as India, where driving licenses are dished out like a ration card, one needs to be fatalistic to say the least. Otherwise might as well keep you vehicle in the parking lot. This doesn't mean one stops being circumspect. Thats critical. But after a certain period of pondering and worrying on needs to move on and get behind the wheel and on the road.

I have known of incidents where in supposedly expert drivers with aeons of driving experience have gotten themselves into accidents. Its like Virat Kohli getting out on a seemingly bad ball which 99 out of 100 times he would have dispatched for a sixer.

Bottom lune: I have had my share of accidents, each time a new experience. Vowed to myself not get in one ever again. Try to follow all the safety regulations as often as possible.


But I have also grown wiser over the years. I pray more. Reach out to some higher energy to watch over me and possibly keep out harm's way. There is a limit to human thinking and endurance.

In these Covid-19 times I have turned towards spiritualism. This helps me tide over the vicissitudes of life, which importantly includes driving on India's treacherous roads.

So I pray and wish for the welfare of all the drivers on this forum. Hope we all are in tune with our cars and also our body, mind and soul.

One of my biggest pet peeves is bikers wearing those half helmets.
Now I know that in this ungodly heat, people prefer those half-helmets or beanie helmets. Just by looking at my own family members, I see that the beanie helmet is generally prefered by the ladies.
What it does is help the bikers bypass the mandatory-helmet rule.
What it does not do is really mitigate the impact in the case of an accident.
In an accident I was involved in last year, where a scooter rammed into me, the rider could have avoided head injuries, if she had a full helmet AND also had the straps fastened. A traffic police SI told me later that the chin generally faces the maximum impact in a head-on collision for a biker and a solid 3/4ths of the head injury cases recorded are due to frontal/facial impact on the tarmac. I am not sure about the statistics he quoted, but it sounded plausible enough.
With that, I'm silently steaming in rage whenever I see someone wearing a half helmet.
And don't even get me started on folks not wearing even that in the first place. I have a massive and probably justified loathing for folks who don't even bother wearing helmets.

What SI said about chin getting impacted in a two-wheeler accident is right. Here is Dr.Otte's helmet diagram. As you see, the impact on the chin is 34.6%

IMO the error was driving too close to the XUV. Ideally wait for the car infront to completely overtake & get into the other lane and then make a move.

A few things I usually keep an eye out when on a highway & slow down/be very cautious when I see -
1. Guys/kids with animals around the highway - they have a knack of chasing them onto incoming traffic on purpose.
2. Kids - on bicycles or on foot.
3. Tractors - specially with trolleys - they are literally capable of launching into outer space!
4. SRTC bus & empty dump truck

I know he is testing the ADAS capability and he may need speed to show the vehicle's cabilities but I feel the 80kmph+ speed of the vehicle in those conditions are very high. I wouldn't have been able to cross 50 or 60kmph.

How many of us drive would have crossed 80+ in these conditions? Put your hands up for the answer.

This is a tough one. I would say the XUV could have done a better job as it had a clearer view of the field and need not have taken such an emergency manevoure. From your end the 3 count rule could have put some additional layer of margin for error. The Dzire did the right thing as I might have done myself. Slow down and no emergency lane shift. I would have put on the Hazard lights ON to indicate to vehicles behind to WATCH OUT.

In this case the driver of the damaged car has to take lions share of the blame. There were cattle roaming on the median just 5-10 seconds before the crash. That is a BIG RED FLAG to slow down and take the left lane to be on the defensive (like that other Swift did).

Defensive driving aside I do have my share of such a hit when a cow was standing in a middle of poorly lit wet road 2-way lane. Thanks to the rain and powerful headlights of an oncoming vehicle I noticed the cow only after I hit it. Thankfully since it was city roads and the speed was in low 40s the cow dusted itself and moved on. I had a 25K bill post insurance :Frustrati