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Why should this "jeopardize lives of people" (at par with all the other things mentioned)?

Happened on Dehradun - Delhi Highway near Muzaffarnagar. Uncontrolled truck entered service lane & crushed around 10 vehicles - some were repairable, some not - some totalled.

Good thing was that no one was in any of the parked vehicles.

A couple of things about tail lights on stationary vehicles at night. No question, of course they should have working tail lights and the should be on. But please remember:

1. Especially in an older vehicle, if it has been there a few hours, the battery may die.

2. Many, many things don't have tail lights anyway. Like cows.

I’ll tell you why it matters.
A friend of mine was returning home after visiting a relative who stayed in a different city.

My friend was driving, his wife at the front passenger seat, and his parents at the rear. It was already past 10pm and he was still about 80km from his home.
To fight tiredness and keep his energy levels high, he was sipping a canned juice, held in his left hand, while the right hand was on the steering.

At some distance ahead, he realised traffic has slowed down, for reasons unknown to him. His first instinct was to apply brake and shift down the gear.

However, as his left hand was not free, there was a lapse in his judgement for a couple of seconds. As a result, he couldn’t slow down enough and ended up hitting the car ahead of him. Luckily, both the cars were moving forward when the impact happened and the relative speed was less (situation would have been much worse if the other car was stationary or moving very slow).

I won’t go into the details of the injuries to his family, but all is well now. Both the cars took the impact and had to be sent to workshop for repairs.

In the hindsight, my friend could have simply dropped the can of juice in the car to free his left hand. But engaging the mind in doing two things simultaneously proved costly for him.

Generally, these things can happen to anyone and takes just a split of a second for the situation to go out of control.

Hence, when driving or doing any other work of a critical nature, one should ensure they have their full focus on the task at hand, and refrain from indulging in other non-critical activities.

Sounds to me an accident caused by fatigue of the driver. The can of drink is probably only incidental to the story. After all, reducing speed (braking) is done by the right foot, not the left hand.

Of course fatigue played a role as he was tired. He could have simply depressed the brakes followed by the clutch to prevent the stalling. This wouldn’t even require the use of hands.

But, his mind was distracted due to the can that he was drinking from. I’m just saying that driver should refrain from eating/drinking or doing any such activity that takes their focus off the driving.

Another day, another fatal case of wrong side driving :(

"Car Enters Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway From Wrong Side, 6 Dead In Horrific Crash"

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/car-...-crash-5993899

How are these cars even able to enter an access controlled highway from the wrong side? Something is seriously wrong with either the design or enforcement on these roads.

I think it matters because while driving we need to have both hands on the steering wheel at all times.

-If you’re using one hand to eat while driving, one hand is off the steering wheel, reducing control of the vehicle.
-With two things being done simultaneously the concentration reduces and reflex time increases.

Eating can be done by parking the car somewhere or at a restaurant, but not while driving.

It sounds as if this was actually a situation for a true emergency stop. In an emergency stop, procedure is to stand on the brakes, forget the clutch as one needs whatever engine braking (albeit not much in high gear) there is, and don't care about stalling.

Even if he had done that, tiredness and thinking about the drink might have delayed the reaction. That is why thinking distance is such a big part of stopping distance.

Many of us may be surprised at just how much braking it takes to stop or even slow a vehicle at high speeds. I remember being almost caught out that way by a slow vehicle ahead on a British motorway. The gap was closing far faster than I expected, and "ordinary" breaking was just not cutting the custard. Or biscuit, or bacon, or whatever it is ;). It's not the sort of thing one practises, and to do so safely would mean having a whole highway to oneself.

As a by the way, I find it psychologically almost impossible to properly practice an emergency stop: of course, I know what I am about to do and cannot help myself from using the clutch.

As a final thought for this post, but an important one...

I have always understood the need to monitor myself and drive accordingly. If tired, or otherwise mentally/emotionally affected, drive slower.

After decades of driving, I made another step forwards in this thinking. Not only are are responses slower, but they are of lower quality.

Our egos like to think, OK, maybe I should allow for longer response, but I can still rely on the response. Not necessarily. Tiredness (etc) not only delays decisions, it can cause worse ones too.

https://youtu.be/uZmkKA5b6Ks

Just gonna leave this here.

No, it wasn’t an emergency stop situation. It’s just that vehicles ahead had slowed down.

As per my friend, at the time of impact he was doing about 80 kmph and the car ahead maybe 60-70 kmph. Since both the cars were moving in same direction, the relative speed at the impact was low.

My friend did mention that he had good 3-4 seconds to react, but those were lost as he fumbled with the can.

I met with a minor accident yesterday where a Tata Zest taxi rear ended a Swift Dzire taxi which rear ended my car(i10 Nios).

This happened in a very slow moving traffic where the Swift and myself were waiting for the signal and the Tata carelessly or probably not looking head-on missed to notice the stopped traffic and rear ended.

Luckily, everyone from all 3 vehicles were fine and the crumple zone of the Dzire cushioned the impact. But, after seeing and hearing tonnes of news about Tata vs Maruti vs Hyundai and experiencing it first hand in person was quite an experience(not to be experienced in the Maruti nor Hyundai)

There was absolutely no damage nor dents in the Tata but the sandwiched Dzire had its both bumpers damaged, hood popped out(by striking my boot), boot fully dented and popped out. My car(i10 nios) fared pretty well compared to the Maruti and got a good dent in the boot lid and bumper got a few scratches along with a very minor crack.







*note - damages in pictures looks very understated compared to actual

Now that it happened, the Tata driver felt no remorse nor guilty about what he had done and simply asked us to claim insurance and saying that he braked but the brakes of his car didn't work. The police were not of much help apart from giving him a earful and impounding his car for next 4 days for inspection and they provided us with a CSR copy for filing insurance.

I visited the svc yesterday to get a quote for repairs and unsurprisingly, the entire boot needs to be replaced as there's a huge horizontal dent from the left side to the right end of the car. But, the svc also suggested to replace the rear bumper instead of repairing as the cost for replacement should be +1500~ rs only as I'm going through insurance.



This minor crack and bulge is the only prominent damage to the bumper apart from the minor chipping here and there. Now is it recommended to go with the replacement as the svc suggested or to just get it repaired and repainted?

Also, would this affect my insurance premium next year apart from the lost NCB? (This is the first time in my 10+ years and 100k+ kms of driving, I'm going to file an insurance claim)

This accident could've been avoided if only the Tata driver would've been a bit more proactive and not distracted. Luckily, the traffic started moving just when this happened, so my car didn't bump the vehicle in front (holding the brakes also helped a bit)

Your insurance exists to ensure that the car is ship shape for your next road trip or commute. Do not look at things like NCB or the net effect to the yearly premium (which should be minimal at best for an i10 - given how only your NCB becomes 0). Please get the entire thing replaced. It is totally worth the penny.

Is an FIR or CSR an absolute necessity for filing an insurance claim? I am currently filing a claim but have not been specifically asked for a police report.

A motor-biker behind me had lost his balance & his mirror hit my car's tailgate, creating an awkward looking dent. This happened when I had slowed down to negotiate a speed hump & the biker braked too late, losing his balance in the process & crashing on to my tailgate.
But even before I had moved my car to the side & parked, the biker had fled the scene, so no police could be involved, couldn't get the bike's registration number either.

I mentioned all these details (on the claim form). An inspection was completed at the body-shop. Necessary papers have been submitted & I'm waiting for claim settlement.