Accident during a Monsoon Drive from Pune to Mumbai on NH4.

The Incident:
========

It was just about two months ago that I met this accident. I was heading from Pune to Mumbai and it monsoons had still not ended. I had crossed Lonavala and Khopoli and was near the Panvel By-Pass toll.

The road was wet. There was a truck in front of me on the right lane and I was driving on the left. The truck suddenly shows a signal and starts heading to the left. I check my rear view mirror and decide that rather than tail behind a truck on the left lane, I could maneuver to the right lane since nobody is approaching from the rear.

The monsoon has destroyed the road considerably. What normally is a smooth and a clean path has lot of gravel now. The truck, being a huge machine has been very slow in its changing of the lane and my vision of the gravel is blocked. By the time I realize, my bike has lost control and is skidding.

I decide to let go off the handle bars and forget about controlling the bike. I let myself into a free roll which perhaps saved a lot of heavy damage. If I would have stuck to the bike, perhaps things would have become worse.

The Aftermath:
=========
I get away only with scratch wounds, but quite deep. Just to give you an idea of the impact, I was wearing a winter jacket. The wounds on my hand were caused after the impact had managed to tear the jacket. I luckily manage to get up, with some help from the locals and manage to drive with all my injuries to Kharghar where I get my wounds treated.

Lessons Learned:
==========
I believe that a predominant contribution to my incident comes from my experience on NH4!!! I have driven there so many times that I thought for sure that I knew the path. But the monsoon had changed the road conditions and it is easy for Mr. Monsoon to do so because the Maharashtra government collects too many tolls and keeps the quality of the roads way too low! If I had been on the road for the first time, I would have slowed down rather than confidently changed lanes as a response.

The key lesson I learned is that in wet weather it's best not to make assumptions about the road or the machine you are riding.

Two Flying Medics...

This happened in my internship year. I had finished the first quarter of my duty and was posted at a hospital some 240 kms from Ahmedabad. I had a HH Splendor then, which never failed me. I had done a similar journey on the bike twice, to and fro, with a good friend as pillion and loads of luggage.
A friend of mine was reporting to the same hospital and we decided to take my bike there.
By the way, we are the two flying medics in the story.

I decided to reach our hospital by lunch time and start early at 5 am. The road linking the two cities, A'bad to Rajkot, is quite good and also attracts heavy traffic throughout the day.
We got up late, at 6 am, we both were a bit sleepy and weary from last night's work. But we pushed on. First mistake!

We made good time as early morning traffic through city is sparse. I always wore my helmet, my friend didn't. But as it was cold, he borrowed somebody's helmet.

Two hours past, we were almost halfway through. I was driving. We stopped at a motel for breakfast. I was a bit sleepy so I asked my friend to drive for an hour or so. Second mistake!

Well, a few minutes into the neck-to-neck traffic, we were run to the left-most-lane by passenger buses and trucks. It was safe though very frustrating. I told my friend to be careful as buses and trucks don't care about small things like a bike. Tired and sleepless, I was entering quiet state of mind. The noise didn't reach me much, the motion of the bike felt sluggish, and everything had a distant feel. I let my friend drive as he might and tried to relax. Third mistake!

A small lorry was overtaking every bus and truck in sight and was getting near to us from behind. Honking constantly and swerving wildly, it made riding hell for all vehicles for a few seconds. Hurt pride or feeling like that made my friend take a foolish decision. As the lorry overtook a State Transport bus, he pushed the bike into the right most lane overtaking the lorry. Three vehicles running parallel, the smallest on the blind side of the mad lorry driver.

Suddenly, the lorry lurched to the right as the bus moved a little to the right. Now we were just about to be crushed. A passenger bus in front, a truck behind us, and the lorry closing in from the left. The only way was the concrete divider.

At that moment, I knew we were going to crash. Time, it felt, was stopping. My adrenaline was making me aware of all the details around me. I braced my self for the impact and even thought how I would take the fall. Will I be thrown to the other side and be crushed under oncoming vehicles? Or will the truck behind me grind me to the pulp?

Luckily, there was a gap in the divider and he hit the bike right there. I was bracing for the fall, instead I flew over and in-front of him some 10 feet. My friend was lost from my sight as I heard screeching sounds of vehicles from both sides. I had landed on my face, right side. I could feel my right hand as if it had just been sand-papered. The helmet was intact, the visor was gone. My friend flew straight ahead on the tarmac, marking his landing trajectory with bits of his shirt and broken pieces of helmet-visor.

I lay there for full minute trying to notice any sign of brain trauma. Funny how my brain was trying to assess if it was hurt. I checked if I could breathe and move my legs. Then rolled over and sat up slowly. The sound of the crash was loud enough to get the farmers from the side of the road running to us.

The lorry was gone, so was my friend's pride. The bike didn't suffer much, some scratches. A kind farmer dragged the bike to his farm. We washed the blood under a big water pump and changed our clothes. I took the bike and we made it to the hospital by the reporting time.

Lessons learned:
If you think your mind is wandering or tired: Don't ride.
If you think there is too much heavy vehicle traffic ahead: Let them pass.
If you are the pillion and the driver is taking risks: Talk some sense into his thick head.
If you don't know your friend as a good rider: Don't let him ride.

Reply to "kettitude"'s post.

Hi.

Nice narrative. (Strictly from a literary point of view, no sadism intended. )

Your post brings out a very important quality that young blood drivers of today are missing completely. The instant you mentioned about your friend not being patient about a dominant lorry driver, I could not help but think about my drive along the ghat road from Khopoli to Khandala on NH4 (old road).

The trucks and the buses are painfully slow when scaling up the ghats. I notice many of these young riders have no patience to tail behind them and take undue risks trying to overtake these heavy and slow vehicles on a turn. This is not at all a good idea. For once, you have no idea what might be coming from that side. Since you are overtaking, you are bound to be on the verge of speeding up really fast which means the chances of you reacting well enough to save yourself also go down. I always believe, reach late but reach safe.

this happened some 5-6 months back when i used to ride my RTR-Fi . It was weekend and i was out for small round i was still in city and was ridin behing 1 rikshaw and in right lane all of sudden i noticed that a lady on her Activa came between me and divider (which was on my right ) we wer still crawling @ some 20-30kmph speed all of sudden lady saw a gap in left lane and i think she forgot that i was riding parallel to her ( on her left side) she leaned her bike to her left and i saw our handle mixed up with each other i got panic and i too leaned to my left and some how gained balance by doing some bnharatnatyam on road itself . The lady wasnt so lucky and lost her control ..and crashed on divider though it happend @ low speed she was hurt badly . Soon huge crowd gathered and when asked why she acted like this she explained SHE WAS'NT AWARE THAT THERE WAS A BIKE RIDING NEXT TO HER AND WHEN SHE SAW A GAP IN TRAFFIC SHE DECIDED TO CHANGE LANE ' .

Lesson learnt never ride parallel to any vehicle and since then either i overtake such people or just ride behind them .

Thanks.


Ain't that the truth!


Nice one.

Reminds me of a one-time accident that my dad "caused". I was riding pillion, and we were passing a calm road near out city lake. No traffic, evening mellows. A lady on her scooty was riding behind us and tried to overtake us from the left. She did not seem to notice our bike.
Anyways, somebody was in front and my dad had to honk. The sound of the horn startled the lady so much that she lost balance and started "chasing snakes" on the road. And then she fell down. Expression on her face was priceless!!

Bird Hit!!

All this happened 5-6 months ago. Day was bright, nature seemed happy, felt like a good day for having fun on bike.
So after having classes while coming back home I choose the longer road.. The road with two wide twisties, where i can hang of & corner.. All the way. (Been doing that, always gives awesome, top of the world kinda feeling)
so as planned, I checked the path by riding at normal speed; road was clean, traffic was clear. I turned back and charged.. First corner @ ~70kmph.. Aimed for the 2nd.. Same speed.. Same throttle.. Same gear.. I was looking at the exit from 2nd corner near the divider, meanwhile spotted a crow flying towards me from the left(!!) I honked and reduced the speed by slightly closing the throttle.. (what else could I've done??) the very next moment it hit my head (Sh!t) because of it i lost my balance & my bike literally started drifting.. Did some counter steering.. (wasn't able to find traction at rear) all this happened all along.
the next thing i noticed that my bike is turned by 90 degrees!! Performed all this sideways drama for some 20-25 meters i guess. Then the front end came off-road, lost traction as well (till this time it felt like I'm going to kiss the tarmac*)
*and it happened. Got the kiss-y & hugg-y from the curve-y road.
My bike kept dragging after dropping me & got hit and struck on a drain.
Damages: bent handle bar & swingarm, broken RVM's, dented silencer, bent brake peddle, bent crash guard. (luckily nothing happened to the fairings)
Fatalities: peeled forearm near right elbow & amazingly, very light scratches all over the body. Btw, the bird was dead on the spot.
Lesson learnt: Race track is the only safe place for these kinda things & beware of birds too.

On a lighter note... i would have preferred fairing then all that......

my dad dont know about that accident till date.. If it was (broken) fairing, i would have lost my love, my bike.
Btw, technically you're right.

When I just started riding I had few slow speed crashes, my very first crash was when I entered a corner with a higher speed and in the mid corner I realised that the speed is greater than what I can handle, I applied the front brake while the front wheel was not straight and the wheels got locked (not to mention the behaviour of disc brake) and I hit the tarmac. I just suffered from few road rashes here and there as I was wearing just the helmet.
The things that I learnt here are:
1. In order to make a bike to go right one needs to turn the handle left and vice versa (counter steering) unlike bicycles where we turn the handle left to go left.
2. Never ever apply the front brake when the front wheel is not straight.
3. Complete all the braking and shifting before entering a corner. (beginner stage)
4. Slow entry and fast exit
5. The bike goes where we look
6. Always ride with all the safety gears on
7. Enter a corner with a lower gear and maintain the same speed throughout the corner. (Do not open or shut the throttle)
During all these years of riding I have met with few accidents, the only difference is when I was learning to ride I had crashes due to lack of skill but now I crash due to over confidence, fatigue and lack of concentration.

Another thing you should learn is to wear riding gears all the time.
for over confidence you know what to do (i believe)
fatigue can be overcome by talking to yourself, talking to your bike, caring & respecting other road users and enjoying your commute.
Lack of concentration?? Arre baba concentrate on road, road users (including birds & animals too) try to read (sign) behaviour of other vehicle user so that you can escape accidents. Also many people say yoga helps in concentration & other abilities.

Car.

Last year, was with a friend who owns a SS80 and a real good one which could do 140Kmph on the speedo if ridden by someone who knows what they're doing. And when I said I could do better than that with my ZEN Estilo he said he needed proof. So took him for a spin in my ride. Here are my usual clockings.

1st - 40Kmph.
2nd - 100Kmph.
3rd - 140Kmph(Could do more but road usually ends.)

So we were doing 140+Kmph and then there was a 90degree wide left turn leading to a new road and as usual without letting go of the accelerator gradually applied the brakes with my left foot and was maneuvering brilliantly, OMG you should've seen the look on my friends face. For a moment I felt like something big but god had something different planned for me, a second everything was ok and the next when I let go of the brakes the car lost traction due to the road being wet. On one side was the Ashtamudi lake and on the other side a deep swamp where a textile company releases its waste the car was going in circles and everything happened in slow motion, have had mishaps before so maneuvered the car and finally after spinning the whole length of the road the car front ended into am pit. Me was safe due to seatbelt but my friend was abit bruised and still had his eyes closed and was screaming like a girl which made me laugh like anything. The police came.. pulled us and the car(with the crane) out of the pit asked for my licence and I showed him my college ID and he let us go. My friend was abit shaken but after a while he was ok and left riding his SS80, damages were that my car would'nt go above 3rd gear and oil was profusely leaking from beneath my car and yeah there were some scratch marks on the upholstery made by my friend in panic.

Bike.

1. After college went to visit a temple and when returning without a Helmet a state transport bus came from the wrong direction, Jammed my front.... Fell hard but due to gods grace my head missed em concrete slabs on the side of the road. My bike went ping ponging hitting both sides of the road. I was merely scratched. Bike had a hole on the left side fairing, gear shifter bent, RVM scratched, saree guard scratched, front fender scratched, engine cowl scratched and foot pegs scratched.

2. A guy was showing off his K&N ZMA when I got pissed and WOT'ed my ride in 1st gear with a pillion. The bike took flight and went for a while like that then slanted to the right and I had to bounce it back to position with my right leg everything went well and I became the hero of the day everyone said I was a pro cause I had my chest on the tank during lift off and I went so high as to scratch my rear fender.

Now the fact, both me and my pillion knew it was an accident and after the incident I couldnt walk properly, later that day had the doctor diagnose it and found out to be a ligament tear. And it hurt so much that I had to limp for more than a month till the pain became bearable.


Lesson learnt = Every time I think of doing something stupid, I get a foresight of, "What will happen if???..." And then I back off, cause ride's will come and go, but our limbs wont.

2nd gear 100?? seems like I should pay you a visit sometime

No need bro. I believe you're having an Alto(Non-K10), take your instruction manual and check the per gear top speed and I bet you'll be shocked .

Actually till recently I thought only my ride could do this, but when I was going through the instruction manual to gather information regarding oil change(Was using stock oil till 9K Kms.) I saw a page which mentioned the per gear top speed and dumbfounded. Give it a try and let us know.

Dude its my family car and I love to see it in one piece .

You use your left foot to brake on a right hand drive car?