Team-BHP - Accidents in India

What worries me after seeing every accident in Kerala is the thought process of adding more "speed breakers to prevent these accidents". As often said in the this thread, its high time that the road infrastructure in Kerala is developed and planned for next 100 years (so with all Indian roads). I have witnessed many gory accidents and been involved in rescuing and helping people many times after accidents, especially in Kerala. I have accepted the reality !

Death is inevitable, but inviting death through accidents is evitable. Watch how vehicles are being driven on the NH and MC roads of Kerala for 30 minutes, you would know what i am talking about. If you talk about 4 laning and 6 laning in Kerala, you probably might get into trouble for talking nonsense !

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Originally Posted by Kris_risk (Post 3086079)

Unfortunately, I had the misfortune to see that ghastly accident unfold infront me and my family. RIP to the family that perished!

Kris, Totally empathize with what you have gone through. Hope you and your family are out of the shock. It is definitely not worth the risk just to save those few minutes.

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Originally Posted by sunishsamuel (Post 3086172)

As often said in the this thread, its high time that the road infrastructure in Kerala is developed and planned for next 100 years ... If you talk about 4 laning and 6 laning in Kerala, you probably might get into trouble for talking nonsense !

Lived there for the majority of my life. I agree totally. Earlier days of driving from Kottayam to palakkad was nothing less than a nightmare. Recent drives suggested that that situation has just worsened.

Just take an example of trucks carrying tons of timber in the Perumbavur area. He cant even see his RVMs. Driving through blind curves they put the lives of every human on the road in the balance. Where is the road for such heavy trucks in that road. ?

Then you have the politicians fighting to make the Highways into narrow 2 lane roads to avoid taking over land. For the density of population and vehicles, kerala by far has the worst infra one can imagine.

Save our souls,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kris_risk (Post 3086079)

The trauma of having witnessed the accident was quite intense and unrelenting and had a tough time driving further.

I know how you feel its really hard to over come these images and will remind you of what speed can do every time you hit the road.

Someone told me once that when you see an accident anywhere which looks serious don't try too peep through the mangled remains you might see something which you will never forget especially when you are with kids and women.

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Originally Posted by sandsun7 (Post 3086465)

Now this is gruesome.
Iron rods sticking out of truck pierce through car in Noida, driver killed, two injured.
Attachment 1069290
Picture courtesy: ndtv.com
Report here: http://bit.ly/ZbQk1n
Could this be the same accident that ntomer reported two posts back? He mentioned swift, but this one is an i10.

Yes, it's the same one. I was driving and car was crowded by cops and other people so confused it with a Swift...

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Originally Posted by cataclysm (Post 3086479)

Just read about this and this is seriously gruesome! I don't know why we can't have some rule stating that objects like "sariyas" should be carried only in an enclosed container? These things are seriously dangerous and life threatening to other road users! This makes me mad:mad:

It was much more gruesome in real. When I passed it the car was still stuck in the roads and poor guy was still on the seat :(

Though I would say, he too was at fault. Truck was parked in the left most lane, so most probably he was trying to overtake something from the left side.

Was headed towards BG road on NICE when I saw this Manza rolled down in to the embankement. Apparently the driver and his friend had parked the car on the emergency lane / the 2W lane with the engine switched off. Two trucks coming out of the EC Toll gate were trying to outrun each other managed to crash and push this car out of the road at the same time. One managed to escape from the scene of the crash and the other one left the truck and ran away. The driver was apparently chatting with his co-passenger on the finer points of learning to drive a car. The traffic cops who came later had a point to make - Expressways are not places where people can chill out on the side of the road - a split second can make a difference between life and death and parking on the sides should be avoided unless there is an emergency. Adding to this scenario, the seat belts of both passengers were not engaged - It is just a miracle that they got out of the car alive, with hardly any scratches (Tata vehicles are built strong) - I got the chills just imagining how my Wagon R and my family would have been if we had encountered this scenario.

I really wish the construction of these expressways is done as per international standards with metal crash barriers put across the length of the road. This would certainly reduce the impact of such crashes and reduce fatality to some extent.

My 2 cents: Please avoid parking on expressways / highways unless absolutely essential. Use a lay-bye wherever possible or use the nearest exit to move out and move back in again. And please engage your seat belts at all times - enough has been said about this, but few take it seriously.

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Originally Posted by ukamath (Post 3086839)

Ouch! The first pic, it looks like it is an Indica Vista. That's a bad crash, the car is gone for good. What you say is very true, parking on expressways should be absolutely avoided unless it is an emergency. But I have seen so many people parking in the emergency lane with the doors wide open, for a loo break by the side of the road :eek:

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Originally Posted by hemanth.anand (Post 3064081)

I just now saw an accident after the NICE road entry toll at EC.
A truck had hit a black manza from behind.
The manza's rear has been crushed and bumper fallen apart.
The car had fallen into the drain on the side.
Don't know if the car was parked or it was a case of sudden braking at high speed.
No one seemed to be hurt badly.
Anybody has pictures?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ukamath (Post 3086839)

I really wish the construction of these expressways is done as per international standards with metal crash barriers put across the length of the road. This would certainly reduce the impact of such crashes and reduce fatality to some extent.

My 2 cents: Please avoid parking on expressways / highways unless absolutely essential. Use a lay-bye wherever possible or use the nearest exit to move out and move back in again. And please engage your seat belts at all times - enough has been said about this, but few take it seriously.

This was the same accident. IIRC one of the persons in the Manza was a lady and she was shivering after coming out of the car

She/he sure would've learnt the finer points of driving that day. With a huge area available where the car could've been parked just around 50mtrs behind this spot, it was not a right place to park

The left most strip is actaually an emergency shoulder(checked the NICE website).
But its now designated as a two wheeler lane. But many cars and trucks(in this case also) drive/overtake on this road which is nothing but inviting trouble.

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Originally Posted by sunishsamuel (Post 3086172)

As often said in the this thread, its high time that the road infrastructure in Kerala is developed and planned for next 100 years

While I agree that a lot of people drive like maniacs on Kerala roads which needs a law enforcement solution, the other problem of road infrastructure development is a lot more complex.

- Of the 14 districts of Kerala, 8 are coastal and have population density of 1124 people per sq.km. The remaining non-coastal districts have population density of 587. Compare this with: TN - 555, KA - 319, AP - 308 (take the capital metropolises of these states out and these numbers drop further). Note that the non-coastal districts have large areas in the western ghats which is mostly protected forests.

- The average Keralite has a lifelong ambition of owning a piece of land, on which he or she wants to construct a house. This mindset has resulted in government projects like "One Lakh Houses" and "EMS Housing Scheme" where government surplus land is allocated to the homeless - they are given what is locally known as "pattayam" (equivalent to patta in TN or khata in KA), and financial assistance to build houses. The point being, high-rise apartment complexes where 10x or more number of familes live in a plot of land as compared to individual houses are rather rare in Kerala.

The high population density and the affinity towards independent houses result in a lot of land being in the hands of private citizens. To develop roads, government needs land - which is simply not available (I am looking for data on per-capita land ownership in these four states, though I'm sure it will be a lot skewed in Kerala than elsewhere).

Now, this is a problem than needs creative thinking at the policy-making levels. Unfortunately, politicians being politicians simply aren't capable of thinking beyond the evening's TV chat show. The closest I have seen is in the present Oommen Chandy government's initial days, when bonds for land owners was mooted - but I am not sure what happened to this proposal 18 months on.

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Originally Posted by binand (Post 3087140)

Now, this is a problem than needs creative thinking at the policy-making levels. Unfortunately, politicians being politicians simply aren't capable of thinking beyond the evening's TV chat show. The closest I have seen is in the present Oommen Chandy government's initial days, when bonds for land owners was mooted - but I am not sure what happened to this proposal 18 months on.

:OT I think the govt should announce that land owners who give up land for road development will be given a percentage of the toll collected for the road. That would give land owners a chance to get yearly returns on their land and reduce their resistance and also kill the anti-toll agitation - Killing two birds with one stone stupid:

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Originally Posted by hemanth.anand (Post 3086982)

Most of the educated motorists are of the moronic species. Even after this hit the lady might blame only the trucker and her own fate. She may never realise that had she parked properly she her car might have stayed undented.