[sarathlal]

First of all, kindly excuse for naming places. Nothing against them, just that these are the places that I have seen such instances.

During one of the recent Tvm - Bangalore trip, observed few road construction / traffic regulation mechanism etc that appeared to be horrendously unscientific and potential for fatal consequences.

1. Unacceptable creation of underpasses in the name of easing traffic congestion. An example that left me spellbound was at Kundanahally, Bangalore. I was visiting this junction after maybe two years and I could see a 3-5 storey deep underpass at that very junction. That much earth was dug up to create an underpass. How on earth will water flow upstream from that hole during rain? People will drive straight through it and get trapped in case of flooding. And flooding is 100% sure to happen at such horrendously built structures. If something untoward like that happens, it will be nothing short of murder attempt.

2. Google maps aiding to the horrific scenarios.
What I observed is, during a heavy traffic situation, again in Bangalore, Google maps diverted through a parallel road showing almost nil traffic. Tried it and within a kilometre or so, was staring at a mushy waterlogged road with very scarce vehicle movement. (Mine is a Civic and living with it for more than a decade make me doubt almost every single road) Hesitated and waited a bit to see a vehicle approach and that fellow luckily stopped and told me not to take the car through that road as it will get stuck! That is the reason why local people are avoiding that road. But why Google, why. Why do you re route if you are not sure? If Swiggy can figure out that rainy conditions can change the scope of traffic, why can't you do it Google? It was not outskirts, it was somewhere in Sarjapur Road, Bangalore.

3. Traffic people placing iron barricades in haphazard manner near junctions. This was experienced throughout national highway across Tamilnadu. Not as severe as the other two, but nevertheless can startle cruising vehicles to cause accidents.

Today evening, was quite devastated seeing the sad news of an innocent young person losing her life at a flooded underpass in Bangalore. I have told many of my friends just a week back that something like this can happen, after seeing the horrible underpass constructions in the above roads and now I feel really bad that I also had not done something more in this regard, inspite of having that intuition. I should have at least scribbled it somewhere here in our forum so that somebody else might have read it at least.

A techie died after the car she was travelling in entered a flooded underpass at K R Circle in the heart of Bengaluru Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as Bhanurekha, 22, who was employed at Infosys. The accident occurred after heavy rain pounded the city Sunday afternoon. Seven people were in the vehicle, and six were rescued by locals.

Bhanurekha was rushed to the nearby St Martha’s Hospital but was declared dead by doctors. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah visited the hospital and declared ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the victim.

News Article

If any of you see such horrible road condition in front of you, please don't trust what you see in front as being engineered correctly. They are not. One cannot dig a huge hole in existing surface and expect water to flow upstream, it won't! If you know and have the power, please help letting authorities know that those are not correct or acceptable.

If you as a road user don't feel comfortable, please STOP and take the step back. Reverse and get off it, however difficult or inconvenient it might look at that moment.

[GTO]

And it's a Xylo, no less. Not a low Alto or something. R.I.P. to the deceased, this is an incredibly tragic incident.

With flooded roads, it's just best to err on the side of safety. Linking to my article on Safe Driving in the Monsoons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSYdqMFmAwY

Am seeing it's a yellow plate car. Taxi driver is responsible for this death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9vgIRg3hDY

[PreludeSH]

Someone needs to blast the underpasses. Why cant they spend little more money and build flyovers? Whatever drainage system they design, it will not help heavy rains. The current systems are gravity based and it sometimes has to drain a long way away.

Not just the flooding but they are also an eyesore (the one in madiwala is the ugliest) and at some places are too narrow.

Pay them compensation from public money and forget. No one is penalised for all the traffic deaths due to lack of common sense on authorities' part.

[Kosfactor]

I drive through this everytime I return from work , when there are heavy rains this underpass is barricaded and vehicles are not allowed to enter. I think because of pre-monsoon showers they have not expected such heavy downpour and flooding. It very well could have been me.

[ghodlur]

Really tragic news, very sad to see one life lost due to some serious inefficiency of the municipal authorities. Underpasses are always a questionable means of traffic movement considering the threats they bring with them.

Sewage and roads have been always the biggest spending areas for any municipal corporation and both fail miserably is providing the services to the tax payers.

[silverado]

What needs to be analyzed is how water level rose so suddenly. The Xylo driver had seen couple of auto ricks going through the same underpass and hence he cannot be blamed.

Its a tragic incident ,and my mind is really unable to accept how someone young could die this way when others in the car survived.

[Chetan_Rao]

Take nothing away from crucifying the civic authorities, but didn't the driver have an iota of sense?

If I've gotten the location correct, this underpass is the one that bypasses the KR Circle signal on the Vidhan Soudha-Nrupathunga Rd. carriageway.



Given the horrible weather, could've easily waited at the signal instead of going in there.

Unaccountable civic authorities, terrible driving sense, disregard for personal and passenger safety. Fatal combination. Cost the poor young lady her life, and could've been worse if the rest hadn't been rescued in the nick of time.

[SS-Traveller]

While this is an extremely sad incident where a young life was lost due to a gross error in the judgment of a taxi driver, underpasses worldwide are known to flood during heavy downpours, and it is common sense not to drive into flooded roads, bridges and underpasses without actually verifying the depth of water.

For those drivers who are devoid of the increasingly rare faculty of common sense, there are simple solutions, such as depth gauges painted on a wall, or complex solutions like an electronic board that lights up automatically as soon as the water rises beyond a minimum depth.

In Delhi, which perhaps boasts one of the best road infrastructures amongst all Indian metros, flooding of underpasses is common, and there's no dearth of mindless people who would drive / ride / walk into them and get stuck, and a death or two due to drowning is common every year.
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That does not mean underpasses are a road safety risk all year round; they serve to ease traffic flow where building an alternate or wider road, or a flyover, are technically impossible or not feasible / cost-effective. So we need to learn to live with the limitations of underpasses, and not dive headlong into the ones that are waterlogged during a storm.

[MyLife_MyCar]

Originally Posted by silverado

What needs to be analyzed is how water level rose so suddenly. The Xylo driver had seen couple of auto ricks going through the same underpass and hence he cannot be blamed.

This is exactly what baffles me! If the driver sensed that water is rising and could trap the car, why he kept driving?

On the auto rickshaws, is there a proof that Xylo driver saw those going through the underpass or he is just trying to save himself by coming up with this?

[locusjag]

When you hold a single, intense thought in your mind sometimes, you tend to act on it to the exclusion of all other thoughts. "We think in fragments but act in totality", as has been rightly said about humans in general by Jiddu Krishnamurthi.

The taxi driver must have sought to get to his destination as quickly as he could, paying no mind to the water-logging in the underpass. We tend to also overestimate the abilities of bigger cars and he might have intended to wade the Xylo across.

Last year, a Jeep Compass was similarly trapped beneath one of Coimbatore's flooded underpasses - https://www.newindianexpress.com/sta...0-2483162.html

Note that in this instance as well it was a Jeep Compass - a perceived rugged SUV, that was trapped.

Reminds me also of how my joint family found our UVs bogged in thick slush inside of a remote tiger reserve 10 days ago; our only thought at the time was to drive quickly and make it to the temple we were getting to, as we were late. We should've ideally parked the cars and walked after seeing the slush pits en route, but we rushed in anyway...and we had to toil to free ourselves with rudimentary ropes and tow hooks.

[KPR]

This incident looks like a case of driver's carelessness even if barricades are missing. Can't he see danger there!? Is he blind?

There's an underpass near my home. I'm seeing many SUV, Pseudo SUV owners drive into it when flooded with water to show off both their own and their SUV skills. I've never got the courage (rightly so) to take my so called 195mm GC car there.

[Nalin1]

Now the driver very well knows that the question he will be pounded with 'Why did you enter? Did you not see the water logging"?. Expect all kinds of crap from him to justify his entry.

Siting on a Xylo gives you king of the road feeling. Another reason is if you have travelled through the same underpass a million times, there is the tendency to go through even if you see danger ahead, " I know the road like the back of my hand" blah blah feeling in mind.

I have even crossed flooded underpasses by bike!. But not blindly entering it. Only after I saw a few vehicles crossing and I noticed the depth.

[madhukarmohan]

The reason for this unfortunate incident is a chain of mistakes

1. People (most of them) who throws all their garbage to either drainage or road which blocks the normal flow of water.
2. BBMP for not cleaning the drains and not learning from the previous rain related incidents.
3. The driver who exhibited risky and irresponsible driving.

It is very sad that the girl has lost her life for other's mistakes

[anjan_c2007]

The incident is both tragic and gory. As rightly concluded by many, its the Xylo driver's fault. The city administration too must share a major part of the blame. It was a miscalculation and grave error of judgment. There could have been alternate routes for this driver who perhaps wanted to show his daredevilry.

A thumb rule here we all as driver's need to think always, while behind the wheel:-

"Things are not as simple as they seem to be."

And this further elaborated quote by Phaedrus:-

"Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden."

[ninjatalli]

That underpass is useless - all it does is allow a "free left" while bypassing the signal wait time. The only road that goes over the bypass is an entry gate to Cubbon park which isn't accessible to traffic 24x7 (cubbon park access to vehicles is only for limited hours).

Really sad to see a loss of life for something so insignificant. That driver should also be hauled up for his mistake but he's just a cog in the whole incident. And the most unfortunate part is the poor lady had absolutely no fault in this other than being caught up in the middle of this unfortunate event. My condolences to her family members who were (I believe) in the same car.