Team-BHP - Accidents in India

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_sharon (Post 5727514)

a motorcyclist with a 6-year-old child passenger attempted to bypass a stopped car by passing on the left.

I just don't understand what some people gain by squeezing through non-existant gaps.

Something similar happened to me last weekend. I was waiting at a signal. A motorcyclist tried to squeeze through the non-existant gap between my car and an Eicher LCV to my left. Just as he was squeezing through the gap on my left, the signal turned green. The Eicher guy started rolling and at some point, the bike's handle supposedly made contact with the LCV. I did not notice the impact since a cabbie was trying to squeeze in front of me and I was preoccupied watching my right fender. I only noticed what had happened on my left when I heard a thud followed by crushing sound of metal. The motorcyclist lost control and was squeezed between my car and his motorcycle while the Eicher continued to move ahead in spite of people shouting at the driver to stop. The initial impact happened just behind my rear wheel area. The truck driver did not stop and continued to drag the motorcycle for a few more meters where it somehow got dislodged from the truck and ended up just beside my front wheel.

The motorcyclist was extremely lucky since he escaped with only a few bruises. He was not wearing a helmet and if he fell to his left, things would've been very different. The truck probably ran over the front wheel of the motorcycle since the fork was bent. My car ended up taking some impact from the handle bars which made contact with my vehicle. There are some dents and scratches. The plastic cladding took most of the impact though. Although I felt angry at the motorcyclist for trying to squeeze through a gap barely enough to fit a motorcycle, I was relieved when I've noticed that he escaped with minor injuries. This could've been worse, much worse! The truck driver ran away without stopping.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AutoNoob (Post 5727847)

Sir, my situation yesterday would have seemed exactly same, hit from behind, lying toppled.

A providence as a blessing for you and also must be treated as good luck. That's also the fruit of your defensive driving.

But as road users we always need to keep a thumb rule on our minds. If we have sat through criminal trials where a person has been seriously/ injured or has died in an accident, a good judge always questions:-

"the other person was breaking the rules, laws and whatever and was wrong. What driving techniques did you use or not use to save the errant person?"

It simply means that even if the other traffic user/s was/were fully at fault, what was done to save him? Even if other traffic users are doing all sorts of gimmicks, are drunk or are flouting traffic rules and laws, we cannot simply have the licence to injure or kill them.

Hence, we all as good drivers need to practice utmost caution on our part as and when we encounter such errant drivers piloting any vehicle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AutoNoob (Post 5727847)

Again, I don't know who was at fault in this accident, but from the information that you posted, seems more like car to be blamed. Further, the act of police of not collecting blood samples in timely manner raises suspicion on car driver.

An update from today about the Mercedes-Activa accident in which two Activa riders were killed on 25-26 February night at 1.30 am. There were no CCTV cameras on that bridge stretch and hence the investigations have hit a speedbreaker. The cops are zeroing upon CCTV images elsewhere to understand more about the way the car and scooter were being driven. Also there is no mention about any dashcam on the Mercedes. And as the news below from today also says, rumours are afloat that liquor bottles were found in the seized Mercedes car. This may or may not be true, but the press report states about it.

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The cops from Tehsil police station are trying to gather footage from other CCTV cameras too, to calculate the speed of the car and the scooter.

The investigation is drawing a lot of attention with rumours doing the rounds regarding liquor bottles being found in the seized Mercedes car. Questions were also raised over the women abandoning the vehicle and being allowed to leave the accident spot, which prompted cops to rule out any bias in investigations.

The link:-

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../108058305.cms

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6PjxKNpHyYA

If you observe our dash cam video, my wife was doing 100+ KMPH coolly on our way to Bangalore from Pune two years back. She even overtook the truck from left side as the guy is driving on extreme right side since it comes in our vision. As she tries to go back to extreme right lane which is supposed to be the overtaking as well as faster lane, the small carrier on the centre lane decides to take the right lane without indicating or any need to go in that lane.
If you see the highway ahead it is all clear and later on when he stopped after we hit him from behind, he mentioned that " I was going to stop on the right side to drink water". Can you believe that? Right side and not extreme left. We approached the police right one KM ahead and looking at our MH12 Number he asked us to go on with our journey without filing complaint as we won't be able to attend the enquiry / court going ons in case it goes ahead. I too realised that I believe the cops with harass him for quick buck than actually doing anything about it.
Lesson learnt: Always analyse the intention of the vehicle moving ahead of you to know in which direction they can move in the Free Highway World of ours and move accordingly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doge (Post 5726365)

I don't understand the Maruti bashing on this one though I personally would never buy their car for the safety aspect.
The crash happened at high speeds as evidenced by the stuck speedometer and the passenger apparently had bypassed seat belts. A crash at 100kmh is very high speed, most crash tests are done at around 65 km/h.
You could be sitting in a Model 3 Tesla and still may not make it out alive if you crash at 100 km/h without seat belts.

This was into a guard rail which are structures that are purposefully constructed with the intention of absorbing crashes as safely as possible.

This was a glancing side impact crash, not a head on-crash.

No one would be blaming Maruti if this was a 100kmph head-on crash into a wall or another car.

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Originally Posted by Rohitthebest (Post 5727910)

If you observe our dash cam video, my wife was doing 100+ KMPH coolly on our way to Bangalore from Pune two years back.

*snipped*

The response by the mini truck fellow should be engraved and framed in the hall of "Top nonsense thoughts/actions on road"!!!

That said, just curious as to why no brake was applied and car didn't seem to slow down either till point of impact.

Also just thinking aloud, after one overtaking on the left (thanks to lumbering behemoth on right), swerving onto right lane to overtake the mini truck on the middle lane seemed a bit circuit race style to me :)

Again, just thinking aloud is all.

Glad nothing untoward happened and guess the behemoth you overtook had enough time and space to brake and slow down after your accident.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deathwalkr (Post 5728267)

The response by the mini truck fellow should be engraved and framed in the hall of "Top nonsense thoughts/actions on road"!!!

Yes totally agree, it was the most unbelievable response from the Mini Truck guy, we both were dumb struck as how to react to it. My wife was driving the car and she did apply the breaks and even ABS kicked in, if you. raise the volume you will hear me on top of my voice "Break Break Break" and her immediate response "Meri Galti Nahin hai". We were mighty happy to have a VW Polo GT to our rescue, the car is so sturdy that we drove it to Bangalore after the incident of course after duly having a video call with my RSA and inspection, drove all the way to Coimbatore to attend the marriage and back to Pune. Of course we were fully belted and secured in our seats. Only grudge - I had to drive the car with a stick on number sticker for next one week.

VW worked on our car for 3 days and it was fantastic with Bumper to Bumper cover as all I had to pay was a bare minimum charge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007 (Post 5727313)

On the intervening night of Sunday- Monday (25-26 February), two ladies on a Mercedes Benz, one among them driving the car MH 49 AS 6111, knocked down two riders who were on a Honda Activa MH 37 Q 2948. Both were in their 30's.

The accident happened at 1.30 am on the Ram Jhula, on this very newly renovated bridge passing over multiple rail tracks very near the Nagpur railway station. The ladies were returning after attending a party at the elitist C.P. Club while the two youths on the Activa were returning home after their weekend, late night walk near the old VCA cricket stadium.

The question of law debated was why did the police not book the Mercedes driver under Section 304 of the IPC which is non bailable? To book a driver under Sec 304, the investigating officer has to back up his contentions to prove that the driver was drunk. Even rash and negligent driving and overspeeding invites culpability under Sec. 304.

Some new revelations from police investigations have been highlighted by the local press today. The police recovered a C.P.Club bill paid by the two women on the Mercedes, dated 25/02, that listed purchase of 240 ml alcohol and food by them.

Accidents in India | Pics & Videos-nagpur-city-line_20240229.jpeg

Accidents in India | Pics & Videos-nagpur-city-line_20240229-1.jpeg

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Originally Posted by AutoNoob (Post 5728250)

Land Cruiser was following the curve and also avoiding barricades around the pillars. Seems like biker didn't turn the handle along the left curve and drifted to right into the blind spot of LC.

Actually there are no lane markings on the road due to the perennial Pune Metro that has been going on. So there is no lane discipline which is followed and you have to be careful while negotiating the curves. The barricades which are just lying about are an additional hurdle in the road width.

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Originally Posted by Rohitthebest (Post 5728318)

Y top of my voice "Break Break Break" and her immediate response "Meri Galti Nahin hai".
.

I am afraid a part of it was your wife's "Galti" too .

Regardless of that driver's careless veering to the right, continuing to be at 100 + kmph as you were approaching that vehicle (which never left the right most lane completely) was a judgmental error! Also I think she honked a bit a late to make that fellow realize the gravity of the situation!

You should have slowed down a bit before trying to overtake !

2 sec rule is gold standard especially at that speed!

I am glad everything went okay .

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Originally Posted by poised2drive (Post 5728556)

I am afraid a part of it was your wife's "Galti" too .

Yes totally agree with you. After that incident she has been over conscious for quite a few weeks but later on understood where she went wrong and it became a great lesson in learning without much loss at our end. We almost do regular 1500+ KM drives almost every quarter to our home towns - Ujjain and Bhopal respectively, touchwood it has all been amazing travel experiences and nothing untoward that we recorded in our Dashcam :).

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Originally Posted by Rohitthebest (Post 5727910)

I am not defending the tata ace guy here. But the poor guy didnt have your car on his ORVM till he initiated the lane-switching. It was only after he initiated, you guys appeared on his mirror out of the blue. Scary. If i was in his place, i would have made the car guys pay a heavy price.

The only suggestions that i have for both the vehicles is:

For tata ACE:
1) Keep an eye on IRVM too if possible. Cars disappearing suddenly on one mirror and appearing on the other at high speeds are always riskier.

For car :
1) Always make sure that you stay on the front vehicle's ORVM for few seconds before overtaking them from any side.
2) Before initiating the overtaking, make sure that the front vehicle driver has seen you in the ORVM. This can be done by honking or flashing. But if you have followed the first step properly, you dont need this step since the driver would have seen you already before initiating the lane-switching.

In other words, 'Be predictable' for the driver in front of you.

Wishing you guys safe driving. :thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rohitthebest (Post 5727910)

Sorry to hear about your experience, may I know which model car were you travelling in? As it remarkably shed speed, less than 3 seconds to halt. Also, you seem to have a well-maintained car, it just slowed down in a straight line, with no dramas, no sideways/one-sided pull etc
Also, how did your insurance claim process go?