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-   -   Safe Driving in the Rains (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/41953-safe-driving-rains-26.html)

It's not just water logging that is a problem these days. Given how even brand new roads are spectacularly destroyed by a few hours' worth of rain, there are huge ditches almost every few metres. And in Gurgaon, we don't talk about ditches in cms but in feet.

I saw many cars with an entire tyre sunk into a ditch; and when the entire street is flooded, it is extremely difficult to gauge the condition of the road surface itself.

In the same segment of vehicles, I don't see a reason why old/new cars would handle flooded streets any differently.

I was out boating yesterday as well and for about 5kms on Sohna road, my City's tyre was submerged under water. I managed to get home safe without stalling but did have a scare once.

Slightly OT: Looks like those two days of rain in NCR have started taking a toll on vehicles. I was at Pearl Honda, Gurgaon (A.S.S.) and there were 4 cars (two Amaze, one Brio and one Accord) with seized engines from the weekend.

Since I had driven through a lot of water myself, I asked the technician if I need to worry. He said, the City won't face such a problem but the Civic, Accord, Brio, Amaze and Mobilio can be prone to a seized engine from water splashing. He couldn't really explain why but mentioned nearly every car from the Honda lineup!

It's not just safe driving, safe parking is important too.

Knowing which parking lots, stretches or residential roads are low-lying can be critical. A mere 20-50 metre difference can make all the difference in the world when it rains heavily. Else you'll be stuck like this:



Photo taken from the great deluge in Bombay on 27.07.2005. It is grainy but you can make out the difference in water level across the (old MMRDA) parking lot that must be about 100 metres x 40 metres. After 24 hours and 1000 mm of rain, some cars are waterlogged till half way up the windscreen. Others have it just till the tyres.

Logically I would think modern cars less capable of tackling waterlogging, for two reasons : 1) they are more 'low-slung', with smaller wheels+tyres (except SUVs), and 2) they have more electrical and electronic circuitry, with sensors and gauges at all heights, while the earlier cars had only the distributor and ignition coil which were placed quite high. Even the air intake was placed quite high in older cars.
But practically we see even compact cars fording quite high water bravely, and as long as they do not stall with the exhaust pipe submerged, seem to survive the dunking ! Probably because of better insulation, water-tight connections.

But I think well maintained older cars, with leak-proof joints/seals/gaskets, high air intake, and well insulated circuitry, can do well on waterlogged streets.
So there you have your answer, or not !

Just thought I should share this experience of mine for the sake of other members.

Had a narrow escape last week when my car almost aquaplaned. I was on the Thrissur-Angamaly highway nearing Chirangara. It was raining pretty heavily. I was not exactly sticking to the speed limits, as the road was free (my mistake 1). Soon, came across a TN registered Skoda Rapid which was driving on the middle of the 2 lanes. Even after flashing lights and repeated honking he wouldn't budge and occupied the right most lane trying to speed away. So I decided to overtake him through the left lane(my mistake 2). The road was also slightly turning to the right. My frontal visibility was reduced, though I could make out that the road ahead was clear. So I decided to go ahead with the overtaking maneuver (my mistake 3). Just when I was about to finish overtaking , my car came upon a rather wide water stream running across the road (due to improper rainwater drainage) I could feel the loss of traction and ended up doing an unintended drift, with my car's nose pointing to the divider. I was too scared to even press the brakes, and somehow my instinct was to steer to the left. By God's grace, I was able to regain control, and all was well again. All this took barely 3 seconds. But those 3 seconds have made a lifetime impression.

What can we do in such cases of losing traction on a wet road? Are there other counter measures we can employ to regain control?

Always remember...an empty highway doesnt guarantee 100% safety. This is India, after all !!😓

Note to mods : If this is not the thread to share this post, kindly move it to the appropriate one.

Good that you shared your near miss accident. I make it a point to never overtake on a curved road. You never know what is in store for you. Cut down your speed during rainy season and if possible try to reduce the air pressure in your tyres so that they get better road grip.

Firstly aquaplaning and safety on empty road is not based on Country. Its basic science in action and is applicable on all roads in the world.

On a wet road and water puddle the only thing that will give you safety is speed. Reduced speed and rolling over them. Multiple reasons, you have no clue what the road looks like under that layer of water.

No, not India, try New Jersey. Half the roads are some of the worst patch works i have seen all my life.

So there is no safety guidance once you speed irrespective of conditions. If you want more control, rain or not, stay safer riding at safer speed.

Remember you may hardly save minutes over a 50 km stretch and may be an hour over 500km stretch. The difference between sometimes life and death is this one hour.

I think my generalization on the exceptionally unpredictable behavior on our roads wasn't clear stupid: Till now, I thought I only had to watch out for ignorant animals, even more ignorant pedestrians, idiotic drivers, obnoxious motorcyclists, supposedly oblivious auto rickshaws and the like. And when I did see a road devoid of all these factors, I got a bit carried away and got the scare of my life!!

Spot on! agree:

Actually in India while riding all the factors you mentioned have become predictable. I mean u can predict that there is something unpredictable waiting to happen on indian roads. Thats the way i always ride. My rule is having a view that gives me atleast 100m of road conditions to try increasing my speed. Else i am sticking to safer speeds all the time. In fact unless its outside the city i stick to speed.

Only place i enjoy mildly speeding up even inside city is those beautiful winding roads, flyovers where i can enjoy the Bike dynamics :)

But yes, its all the more reason to be safe and protect not just yourself but another human life there.

What was the condition of the tyres?How are the tread depth? Were they inflated to correct pressure? What tyres are you using?

Apart from the fact that you have to be careful in rains , the above mentioned questions also determine the extent to which you can avoid/reduce aquaplane


My car is shod with Yoko C-Drives and they are excellent in rains compared to the older apollo aceleres. Even i have hit patches of water at around 80 kmph on NH4 and they tyres resisted aquaplaning. I could feel them working to channelize water out so that the tyre has contact with the tarmac.

So first thing you should do to prevent aquaplaning is to switch over to quality tyres if you do not have already. If you have, check the other quations above .

Nope! I had my share of experiences with selfie-addicted teens trying to get a snap atop one!

I'm using Michelin XM2 195/60 R15. They are only 9000 kms old and have adequate tread depth. I usually inflate them up to 32 psi.

While I agree with you about rodents sniffing out eatables in your parked car, I make it a point to carry a bottle of water and some snacks, particularly biscuits, with me on my daily runs to my office and back during the rains. The reason being that I had been stuck in my car for 23 hours during 26/7/2005, without any food or water. And there was no way I could find something to eat during that period, since I was trapped on one of the flyovers at Amar Mahal in Chembur. You can easily keep your emergency stash in your office bag, if you commute, or any other carry-bag, and not leave anything in the car overnight, like I do.

+1. Thanks, MunnabhaiMBBS! My car is ten years old and the windshield has some scratches. Proklear helps quite a lot - driving in the rain is less worrisome now.


My experience have been different -

(a) Yes, initially it felt a little odd, but I found that in light rains wiper use is not needed, as water doesn't stick to the windshield.

(b) Yes - but it is much better when compared to spraying fluid for wiping - plus, the cleaning is done within two or three passes of the wiper

(c) I have stopped cleaning the glass - what I found was : pour water over the windshield, run the wiper a couple of times and presto! the glass is clean. The areas not cleaned by the wiper is left to dry, which I then polish after the glass is dry.

(d) Haven't used it on the windows - yet.

Thanks to all the BHPians for the excellent suggestions on safe driving in the rains. Despite taking all the precautions and measures, still there are certain unforeseen circumstances that crop up while driving in the monsoons and this mostly happens in the trans himalayan regions. In mountainous regions, its the nature which throws up unpleasant surprises during the rainy season.

In most of himalayan states the roads conditions turn from bad to worse during the rains owing to landslides and sinking of the road surface. Deforestation and faulty road engineering is to be blamed for this, wherein fragile mountain sides are cut to carve out roads without taking into consideration the geological aspects of the area. Its very difficult to predict the landslides and land slips as many occur out of the blue.

The classic example of this is the landslide which occurred on NH-22, also known as the Hindustan-Tibet road, near Shimla on August 21. Vehicular traffic on the national highway remained disrupted for around 14 hours following a massive landslide between Shoghi and Taradevi, 12 km from Shimla. A huge boulder came down crumbling around 5 am and blocked the highway. Luckily there was no vehicle plying in area at that time on otherwise a very busy highway, lest the consequences would have been worst. The whole incident was unexpected and a big shock for the regular commuters, as the entire stretch of NH-22 between Parwanoo and Shimla is amongst the best maintained mountain highways in the country.

Photograph of the landslide on the highway:


So unless and otherwise its absolutely necessary, it's always advisable to avoid travelling on himalayan roads during the monsoons.

Returning to Bangalore yesterday night got caught in the rains. Roads were flooded and huge puddles of water were formed. Got caught offguard twice when an overtaking car sprayed water all over my car and the windscreen and the wipers were running in interval mode and not continuous. I was doing decent speed and suddenly could not do anything for a couple seconds and then put the wipers to the fastest. I was so scared for a few minutes post that imagining what could have happened in those few seconds. Have decided that will keep the wipers running continuously during even light rains as this sort of blinding can happen suddenly