[binand]

Originally Posted by sunishsamuel

Saw another accident being reported by manoramaonline @ kerala. 8 people in an autorickshaw were killed in this unfortunate accident when a speeding bus rammed the auto.

Well, in this case four of the eight were children - aged 8, 7, 4 & 1 respectively. It doesn't sound (very) overloaded to me.

I am quite familiar with the area - when I was living in Calicut, I used to do Calicut-Tirur quite frequently (sometimes multiple times a day) in private buses. Tirur, while lesser known here, sees as much traffic as towns connected to Calicut via the usual NH routes (Manjeri, Vatakara, Malappuram etc.). There are three bus routes from Calicut to Tirur:

- Via NH 17 till Chelari, cut across to the coastal road at Chettippadi and then Parappanangadi, Tanur and Tirur; or
- Via NH 17 till Feroke, turn off to Kadalundi, Vallikkunnu and the route above (this is the one that follows the Calicut-Tirur railway line closely); or
- Via NH 17 till Edarikkode and then Malappuram-Tirur road (via Vailathur) to Tirur.

The last is the longest and hence least-preferred, so the maximum buses are via the two remaining routes (of these, the first is the most popular route - shortest, least time and least number of railway gates). In any case, bulk of the bus traffic between Calicut and Tirur go via Chettippadi-Parappanangadi-Tanur - nowadays I think it sees a bus every 2 minutes or so.

The road condition is like any non-NH road in Kerala - barely two lanes, curvy to the extreme, pothole-ridden and overcrowded with pedestrians, cyclists, two-wheelers and all sorts jostling for space. Whatever soft shoulder space available is taken over by political parties, religious outfits, movie publicists and the ubiquitous jewellery/clothing store hoardings. Words can't describe it - one needs to take a drive along the route to understand the extremely hazardous nature of this road. With buses struggling to do the 45 km route in their allocated 1 hour (if you don't, the RTO and police will start harassing you), I am only thankful that accidents aren't reported more frequently on this road.

(Also note that this road takes you to Tirunavaya and Guruvayur (and onwards to Ernakulam) from Calicut in the shortest distance)

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by binand

The road condition is like any non-NH road in Kerala - barely two lanes, curvy to the extreme, pothole-ridden and overcrowded with pedestrians, cyclists, two-wheelers and all sorts jostling for space. Whatever soft shoulder space available is taken over by political parties, religious outfits, movie publicists and the ubiquitous jewellery/clothing store hoardings. Words can't describe it - one needs to take a drive along the route to understand the extremely hazardous nature of this road.

My wife's home is not far away from this spot where the accident happened. She says she has traveled in this bus (which caused the accident) multiple times and is one of the fastest buses in the Tirur-Kozhikode route. She herself has seen many near misses while on this bus. The same bus was involved in many many minor accidents before and according to the people in that area is one of the most dreaded one on the road! Its a shame that it was still allowed to continue service amidst so many complains. No wonder the people vented their anger!

The roads around Tirur-Tanur-Parapanangadi was relaid around a year ago and is now a superb surface, this adds to the confidence of these bus drivers to do even triple digit speeds. There is danger lurking at every turn every stretch on the road, you never know when a over-speeding bus overtaking another vehicle comes right onto you on your lane.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by RIC.BURNS

The A/B pillars seem ripped off by the force. Seat belts cant make any difference here , common sense would though.

I agree, our roads are not yet safe for high speeds. The car rolled over a few times after impact. The B pillar though is somewhat intact, so maybe the seatbelt could have held them in place during the rollover. The lorry in question, seems to be on the wrong side!

Full report here (NOTE: Images are graphic) - http://www.deccanchronicle.com/13082...cer-driver-die

[saurabh2711]

Found these pictures in my mobiles' camera today.

No casualties in the pics i have posted here. And No offenses meant to anybody.

First three are of a Fortuner, I was traveling from Pune to Mumbai, when this Fortuner zipped passed me somewhere near Nerul. Was all over the road. Driver was playing extra smart, tried to squeeze pass a overloaded truck. The truck who in-turn was trying to cross another truck. Dashed the Fortuner on left side. The poor fellow landed his rear on divider . Lead to approximately 45 minutes of traffic Jam with some Hot Shot Netaji inside. I guess Netaji would have learned the lesson; a hard way, though.

Last is of a Ford Icon i guess, Icon rammed into a Yellow Cab (Santro) from behind. No more details of this crash.

[bisasa]

Originally Posted by binand

Well, in this case four of the eight were children - aged 8, 7, 4 & 1 respectively. It doesn't sound (very) overloaded to me.

The drivers of all buses including KSRTC drive like mad. They attempt to overtake on two lane highways even if there is a vehicle approaching on the other lane.

Regarding overloading in small vehicles, this is not just about overloading. The humble autorickshaw which we all use for commuting is itself a dangerous vehicle with an unsafe design. Time the govt. did something about such unsafe vehicles. Not saying that all other vehicles are safe. But this is definitely unsafe.

[ad3952n]

Originally Posted by saurabh2711

I was traveling from Pune to Mumbai, when this Fortuner zipped passed me somewhere near Nerul. Driver was playing extra smart, tried to squeeze pass a overloaded truck. The truck who in-turn was trying to cross another truck. Dashed the Fortuner on left side. The poor fellow landed his rear on divider . I guess Netaji would have learned the lesson; a hard way, though.

I must say, the guy and the driver had a lucky escape. High time he should learn to drive safe and i always believe that "Car should never control driver's mind rather driver's mind should control the car"

AD

[darklord]

Originally Posted by sunishsamuel

Saw another accident being reported by manoramaonline @ kerala. 8 people in an autorickshaw were killed in this unfortunate accident when a speeding bus rammed the auto.

Killer bus used to cover 55 km in 45 min

I am not sure how this will end up legally. The auto was overloaded as well. I presume even insurance claims can be difficult?

[binand]

Originally Posted by darklord

I am not sure how this will end up legally. The auto was overloaded as well. I presume even insurance claims can be difficult?

Third party claims are not affected by the legality of the vehicles. MACT will award compensation to the victims, and will direct the two insurers (of the bus and the auto) to share it based on some measure of culpability of the two vehicles/drivers.

[SS-Traveller]

I.. have to... park. Where's err.. the park... parking? Park? Oh... there... must park in the park... Damn!! Now who put that lamppost here? See the sign on the left? That says, "My head is going round and round and round..."

Found this morning, at the crossing of Shantipath and Satya Marg.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by darklord

Killer bus used to cover 55 km in 45 min

Local buses on the mangalore - Udipi (60kms ) route used to do this in 50-55 mins , when it was 2 laned earlier. This a compulsory 2 min stop at major stops in between where these buses couldn't leave till the bus behind them reached the stop. Such was the driving that these buses used to overtake each other inspite of these mandatory 2 min stops. There were atleast 4 stops ( suratkal, Mulki , Padubidri and Kaup). Add another 5-10 mins to get out of mangalore city. Which means these buses used to do 60 kms in around 40-45 mins of driving time !! And they were consistent no matter how heavy it rained or no matter what time of the day.

These drivers do it due to the absence of any strong law acting as a deterrent. Also , things will not change till passengers continue keeping quiet in a rashly driven vehicle and continue saying " we have to reach on time " or " we are in a Volvo / bus ... Nothing can happen to us in an accident ".

[vvb8530]

Yesterday evening read posts on the Mumbai bhpians watsapp group about a verna smashed up quite bad from the front outside Cafe Mangii in Powai on the JVLR. SInce i was crossing the same area decided to check it out and yes there was this verna parked on the side of the road with an immaculate rear and completely smashed front.





Since i couldnt get a clear shot decided to park on the side and then click the pics. As soon as i got out i realized something was not right i could see a broken side wall, uprooted sign boards and an almost uprooted guard post. Then i saw an ertiga parked inside the Cafe Mangii compound almost into the outside seating area of the eatery. Moved a little further and this is what i see





According to eyewitnesses the accident took place at 6am Saturday morning, the Ertiga was coming out of the lane on to the JVLR, the driver of the Ertiga came out too wide and at a good speed, at the same time the Verna was coming down the JVLR at a very good speed and Ertiga came out all of a sudden onto the Vernas path and smash. The impact was so great that the Ertiga was spun around and thrown inside (read:flew inside) the compound of Cafe Mangii smashing the stone wall, uprooting sign boards and the guard post. Both drivers were apparently inured along with an innocent by stander who was thrown across a few meters after being hit by the Ertiga.

The cars do seem to have performed well as when you see the place where the accident took place which is quite a wide road the impact would have been way greater than the damage that you can see to both vehicles in the pictures. The cabins of both the cars were almost unaffected.

Regards,
VVB

[girimajiananth]

An unfortunate event that took place a few years ago .

My father and my uncle had to travel to Belgaum from Bangalore to meet a business client . Our indica was at the garage for a periodic service and hence they decided to travel in my Uncle's fully loaded innova and my uncle was driving .

My father is a very sane driver and has clocked more than 8L kms over decades of driving . My uncle on the other hand is a very rash , arrogant driver who competes with cab drivers on the roads (according to him a distance of 300kms = 3 hours because he can drive at 100kmph at least).

They both left Bangalore around 4 pm , by the time they reached Haveri it was pretty dark . NH4 was under road work and this time around one could see all road workers returning from work. These construction companies have created illegal u turns by removing the medians here and there so that their trucks can take short cuts where ever they like . There were no road signs too .

My middle aged uncle was "driving" at 130kmph + speeds on a road that he was not really familiar with. he kept ignoring my father's warning and ranted about his "experience" on highways .

My dad suddenly shouted "look out a truck ! brake hard ", nope there was no chance of stopping . Despite hard braking , the car did not have enough time to avoid the disaster . As a result this happened .


The truck belongs to a construction company . The driver decided take a u turn in one of the above mentioned u turn without even indicating . The truck was parked on the extreme left side of the road .

The car hit the truck and got dragged before hitting the road divider and the entire rear wheel assembly was damaged badly leaving the car motionless . All this happened in pitch dark.


People nearby gathered and the truck driver panicked and ran for his dear life . Surprisingly the air bags were not deployed despite a huge damage.

Fortunately uncle and dad were wearing seat belts. SEAT BELTS SAVED THEIR LIVES. Except for minor shoulder pain , nothing happened to them. Not a single scratch and they were lucky to come out alive .

The morning after .

My father and my uncle reached a nearby police station to file a report . Guess what , the battery , CD player and the speakers were stolen from the police station (of course least of my worries ). They contacted Shodha Toyota from Hubli and their Road side assistance was 5 star . They helped them tow the vehicle all the way till Hubli , helped with the insurance report and FIR etc .

Thanks to seat belts and Toyota's robust build quality their lived were saved.

[Swifdeep]

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

An unfortunate event that took place a few years ago .

Thanks to seat belts and Toyota's robust build quality their lived were saved.

Its time to thank their stars.

At high speeds one should always have their eyes planted on the road, distraction for even a fraction of second can be fatal especially with pedestrians, law-breakers, cattle, dogs, cats..., crossing our roads at will.

Good to know they have come out unscathed. I'm sure your uncle will be a different driver going ahead, its unfortunate that we mostly learn from our mistakes, while we have so many examples/incidents.

[saket77]

Unfortunate, but to be frank, the damage looks very controlled reading out the magnitude of the incident. Heck, even the wind-shield is intact!
What is even more surprising, rather shocking is that why the airbags did not deploy? This issue needs a look about.

[girimajiananth]

Originally Posted by Swifdeep

Its time to thank their stars.


Good to know they have come out unscathed. I'm sure your uncle will be a different driver going ahead, its unfortunate that we mostly learn from our mistakes, while we have so many examples/incidents.

Nah.. he is the same old rubbish driver .

Originally Posted by saket77

Unfortunate, but to be frank, the damage looks very controlled reading out the magnitude of the incident. Heck, even the wind-shield is intact!
What is even more surprising, rather shocking is that why the airbags did not deploy? This issue needs a look about.

Nope , believe me even I was surprised that the wind shield was intact . But believe me it could be have been quite a serious one . The previous night they had plans of taking a wagon r , but changed the car in the last moment .

According to Toyota , there is some sort of a sensor which needs to be triggered for air bags to deploy . In this case , it never happened and hence no airbags.