[silversteed]

Originally Posted by binand

...In addition to what has been pointed out already, your cutting in front of the truck from the left was a dangerous manoeuvre too.

The lorry driver is unlikely to pay a close attention to the LHS during such a manoeuvre, and the probability of a side-swipe or worse, the smaller vehicle getting wedged between the bumper and the edge beam, is quite high.

Originally Posted by binand

In the second video - what is the fault of the truck driver (I can't make out if the indicator of the truck is on or not)?

I couldn't see an indicator, maybe that's the fault. I'm guessing the lorry was being driven on the left lane, and it moved to the right lane to overtake the 3-wheeler puttering away, and once done, it was moving back to the left lane.

[discoverwild]

Ended up being both the victim and the perpetrator last week on a drive back from Chennai. Slow moving trucks on the right lane and I moved left to overtake them when I heard incessant honking. Nothing on the left ORVM and IRVM and I overtook and moved right. No one overtook me.

The same thing happened during the next overtake too. Nothing on the ORVM and the honking. I then spied a little bit of white in my blind spot when I turned to look. Since I already had made the move, I completed it and gave way by moving to the right again behind yet another slow truck.

An i20 pulls alongside but refuses to overtake and is content on boxing me in while other cars were honking at him and trying to overtake on his left. I was more amused than angry. He then overtook the truck and when I moved left to do the same, he cut across deliberately. Wouldn't let me overtake him either. Had to then pull across strongly after several brake checks by him.

It's funny to see people getting riled up on the road and then indulging in dangerous tactics, not to mention being a nuisance to other road users. He didn't make eye contact or else I would have just waved him across.

[sierrabravo98]

Originally Posted by discoverwild

Ended up being both the victim and the perpetrator last week on a drive back from Chennai. Slow moving trucks on the right lane and I moved left to overtake them when I heard incessant honking. Nothing on the left ORVM and IRVM and I overtook and moved right. No one overtook me.

The same thing happened during the next overtake too. Nothing on the ORVM and the honking. I then spied a little bit of white in my blind spot when I turned to look. Since I already had made the move, I completed it and gave way by moving to the right again behind yet another slow truck.

An i20 pulls alongside but refuses to overtake and is content on boxing me in while other cars were honking at him and trying to overtake on his left. I was more amused than angry. He then overtook the truck and when I moved left to do the same, he cut across deliberately. Wouldn't let me overtake him either. Had to then pull across strongly after several brake checks by him.

It's funny to see people getting riled up on the road and then indulging in dangerous tactics, not to mention being a nuisance to other road users. He didn't make eye contact or else I would have just waved him across.

It is always a good practice to check your blind-spot before attempting to change lanes. In your case, the incessant honking should have prompted you to do it if you did not do it earlier. Many a times the vehicle in your blind-spot will not be able to make space due to limitations outside anyone's control (slow moving truck, bikes, big potholes etc.). In such cases, the vehicle in the blind-spot often has to brake abruptly which creates an unsafe scenario for other road users.

That being said, I don't condone the subsequent actions of the i20 driver although I cannot deny that I have also fallen prey to similar temptations in such situations before. But this thread has taught me a lot of on the importance of keeping a cool head while driving. So kudos to you for keeping your cool.

[discoverwild]

Originally Posted by sierrabravo98

It is always a good practice to check your blind-spot before attempting to change lanes. In your case, the incessant honking should have prompted you to do it if you did not do it earlier. Many a times the vehicle in your blind-spot will not be able to make space due to limitations outside anyone's control (slow moving truck, bikes, big potholes etc.). In such cases, the vehicle in the blind-spot often has to brake abruptly which creates an unsafe scenario for other road users.

He wasn't on the left lane. He was tailgating right behind me. I could see the other vehicles in the left lane, so my overtaking was measured. He was in a hurry to get past me.

As mentioned earlier, I was a perpetrator too!

[PrasannaDhana]

Ah these kids!!

https://youtu.be/jM9rvn-DirE

Here, I expected the bus driver to look before merging into the road. I expected him to slow down, look and merge. But then, it's another lesson to self to always expect big vehicles to not slow down, and instead we need to slow down & let them pass even if you have the right of way.

https://youtu.be/m5FoWMnRs_k

[Emvi]

I witnessed an act of utter stupidity on a highway in 'God's own Country' a couple of days ago. This is nothing new, I agree. In fact, people displaying such idiocies on highways have become quite common these days. In the picture, you can notice that there are 4 - 5 kids sticking out their head through sunroof. Not just that, two of them were holding aloft flags(camouflaged in the pic) of some kind!

[AtulC]

1. Parents walking on the road, not the footpath, keeping their kids like a shield towards the road which makes kids dangerously exposed to the vehicles while the parents themselves are in a safe space. What are the grown-ups thinking?
2. Group of people walking side by side on a busy road. Again not on the footpath but on the road. Sometimes they take up as much space as a four-wheeler. Most of them don't even move after the courteous honks until you are right up their behind and blast their ears out with the honking. And you get the stares too.
3. Most of the restaurants in Electronic city have too many 2-wheelers parked on the road (Thanks to Zomato, swiggy, and personal too) blocking one side, and to top it off cars stop in the middle of the road for the patrons to get out since 2 wheelers have taken up the space in front of the restaurant. One of these notorious places is A2B on the road to Ajmera Stone Park from Neeladri road. The situation is so bad that the residents have a tough time going out of this society. I have been stuck here while visiting a friend and it's that kind of a situation I don't even wish for my enemies.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by AtulC

1. Parents walking on the road, not the footpath,.

This is a problem caused by encroachments, debris and vehicles occupying the footpaths if at all footpaths exist. Indian cities are amongst the least friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. Yet, considering the chaos and the financial situation, we cannot be a ‘car based’ or ‘vehicle based’ society. This is a fact of life.

[AtulC]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

This is a problem caused by encroachments, debris and vehicles occupying the footpaths if at all footpaths exist. Indian cities are amongst the least friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. Yet, considering the chaos and the financial situation, we cannot be a ‘car based’ or ‘vehicle based’ society. This is a fact of life.

I agree with you Shankar. My point was to keep kids exposed to danger while keeping themselves safe. That mentality is difficult to digest.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by AtulC

1. Parents walking on the road, not the footpath, keeping their kids like a shield towards the road ...
2. Group of people walking side by side on a busy road. ...

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

This is a problem caused by encroachments, debris and vehicles occupying the footpaths if at all footpaths exist...

Sometimes, yes, but how often have you seen this:-

There is a pavement, a perfectly fine, clear, wide pavement; there is a line of parked cars; and outside of this, on the road, people are walking.

Bad pedestrian-ing is also a problem, as well as bad driving.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Bad pedestrian-ing is also a problem, as well as bad driving.

Yes they are. And we do have a smaller thread for them

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ot-them-8.html (Bad Pedestrians - How do you spot them)

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Yes they are. And we do have a smaller thread for them

Good idea. But it doesn't seem to be very active.

[AtulC]

A couple of months back, I encountered an aggressive and bad driver who happened to get the instant result of his bad driving. I felt bad for some time not being able to help him but since I was travelling with family including a small kid and didn't want to get into a bad situation for us. I am not sure if I did the right thing or not by not stopping to help.

My wife, me and my kid were travelling from Goa to Bangalore via Dharwad. After leaving Goa, once the ghat section is finished there is a road through the jungle which is a single-lane road. It had rained very heavily when we were at the Ghats so I was travelling a little slower than usual because of the wet road and the forest area. I must have pissed off someone driving an Ape on the way that I did not realize.

From the driver's window, I saw this Ape come blazing through my right-hand side from behind and it tried to push me to the edge of the road. Since it was a single-lane road, he was right on to the oncoming lane. There was no oncoming vehicle so I assume there was no other reason other than to try to purposely push me off road. I applied enough brake to slow down enough not to hit it. This guy tried, even more, to slow me down totally by applying more breaks. The road was really really wet and I guess this guy lost control totally and turned a 360-degree skid right in front of me. And then I saw him in slow motion in front of me while I was trying to apply thoughtful braking as I was aware of the slipperiness of the road, Ape going off the road to the left and hitting a tree on the side that was away from me. The vehicle was shattered totally with the glasses flying all around and the rubber beading coming out. It all seemed to happen so slow that I could remember all these details vividly. I guess this was one of those times where you just have escaped something between life and death so your brain records each detail for future reference. I have become an even more sedate driver after that.

I could have stopped to see if he was alright but with the aggressive behaviour this driver had shown earlier, I was not sure he was going to be in a position to appreciate me stopping for help if he was alright. I had my family with a kid with me and it could have been a stupidity to stop in the jungle area when it is getting dark and you are dealing with an aggressive driver. I only hoped to god that he gets help from someone passing by after us and we moved on. My wife and I were speechless till we reached Dharwad. And my wife was so scared she kept looking back to see if an Ape was coming towards us with a vengeance barging in with even more speed.

This incident taught me many lessons. Not to bully anyone on the road. You have equal chances of a mishap as the other person. It is not needed for us to deal with a bad driver. The person will get the punishment. Sometimes instant and sometimes delayed but eventually Darwin will catch up.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to narrate this incident after reading about so many kinds of bad drivers.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by AtulC

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to narrate this incident after reading about so many kinds of bad drivers.

You did the right thing by not stopping especially since you had your family in the car. Also given the fact the other driver tried to run you off the road, he deserves no sympathies. As you rightly said, you never know how he would have reacted due to the accident and the situation could have turned ugly in a second.
It's always good to practice defensive driving. Self preservation should be a priority.

[PrasannaDhana]

Autowala on phone, makes a u turn without any signaling / looking for oncoming vehicles. Felt sad for the kids ge was ferrying.

https://youtu.be/z7BoAlK4r20