Aptly said Aryan da...

Another major problem I did notice here in Bangalore is jumping red lights in hordes on the Outer Ring Road. Even if a rider wants to stay in his place, constant honking and yelling around him forces him to jump the light. On top of this, if you have a huge vehicle right behind you, it will keeping inching towards you, all the while honking until you have let him jump the light or yourself move ahead. This has lead to quite a few accidents , when it was easily avoidable.

truely said Aryan da, i have witnessed an accident which happened at unmanned railway crossing in amritsar between train and a auto-rickshaw, luckily the driver was safe, but still everything came back to normal after 10-15 minutes, everybody started crossing as they used to, as if "kisi ko koi fark nahi padta"....
its totally the fault of government....

accidents are increasing day by day due to these unmanned railway crossing...

God knows when the government will wake up to take some serious steps regarding it..

Another cause for these accidents is the lack of knowledge of personal limits or pushing them at wrong times...

ppl have to know what is the limit for them and their machines....understand them...know when to push them and when not to...its imperative that youngsters who often wanna test these limits know that they can do so in controlled environment and dont need to prove them to every person on the street....

(My 2 cents...)

Though my initial reaction to this thread was to instantly retort to the claim, if i were to slightly pause for a bit i would say the accidents that i had to experience could have been avoided had i made a small and largely unnoticeable change at the time, the outcome would have been different.....or would it? See that's where the equation blows out of proportion, take any accident under the scanner and no matter how many times you repeat it, you'll still never know the outcome, the ratio between the variables you control to the ones you cant simply won't match at all. The largely cliched chaos theory wouldn't be out of place here, the culmination of events start from a very tiny action that slowly generates momentum, snowballing till the energy it releases explodes upon itself. And that's why all manufacturers research vehicles or for that matter anything upon it's destruction.

Though i understand that under this context people still don't control variables that they can and should, like proper driving manner and maintenance of the vehicles, even then the accidents caused by these factors would only contribute to the overall figure caused by accidents, never actually be the figure itself. But if we go a little deeper, we find that the major killer and cause for accidents would be a something so small, that i might be even laughed upon for saying it. It's loss of concentration that ranks the highest among all the other causes, a momentary lapse even a time interval of less than two seconds can cause a mile long pile-up. Sleep and fatigue is such a dangerous thing, that the US has stated it the cause for most deaths occurred on road.

One of the major points that Aryan has brought up is the case of long haul truck drivers. In ALL of Western Europe, they had introduced a system in the early 90s of an automated disc, something like a black box, that keeps noting the number of continuous hours the truck is being hauled, the number of hours it is at rest and other details. This not only monitors the behaviour pattern of the driver but also how the truck has been driven. They enforce strict laws where no truck or bus can run for more than 7 hours in a day.

Besides this, there is another point that cause accidents is the silly practise of us Indians of driving in High Beam. And no matter how much we discuss this here, come night and when we take out our cars, we will keep our beams as high as possible!

Thread moved to General Biking Discussions.

Interesting article Aryan da, but I have a slight disagreement on one aspect! I have been fortunate enough (or was it supposed to be my misfortune) that I had a crash riding in 10KMPH speed when a dog appeared out of nowhere and torpedoed itself and go caught between the front and the rear tyre and throw me off the bike into a 'empty open drain'
Yes I can blame the Government for the free dogs, or the open drain, but then I can thank my luck as well for that! Just a freak accident that happened and was not made!

For everything else I agree, branding accidents as always an error will only deter a lot of people from riding and might add to the panick! At worse it would empower people who brand bikers as insane people!

Riding safety is something that I have been advocating to everyone begining from the kids in my locality, and the latest being pinning up the ridesafewith.me portal at my office! I know the change might not be drastic, but am hopefull that it would surely bring a slow and steady change!

While we can all complain, make noise about the Governments failure in providing basic road safety to us, we must also understand that like Ken said, we ourselves are at fault as well!

This was a an experience that I had shared on xBHP long ago..


and am sure, even now, most of us would not stop and help someone in need!

My veiw of road safety is simple, I will be sane enough and will 'infect' others with this sanity.... I will not complain all the time, I would rather go upto someone and tell him that using highbeam all the time blinds the people coming from the opposite direction! Hoping they understand!

I would really expect a lot of us xBHPians to carry the good work from ridesafewith.me ahead and help 'infecting' others

The problem lies mostly within us. Some of basic driving principles like,

a. Indicating before turning.
b. Giving way to the faster vehicle
c. Being aware while crossing the road
d. Consideration for smaller vehicles

are missing in us as a culture. Agreed that the Government has to do much more, but take Delhi for an example. The infrastructure here is fairly good with subways and over head bridges at roads like Ring Road and NH8. Still we see people putting their lives on the line and crossing the road in the heavy traffic.
How to change things.. By setting an example, not just for our families, but for friends and colleagues too. Surely most of us here have stories here of how somebody at work/friends/family bought a new riding jacket or atleast a better helmet after seeing us. A mindset change takes time coupled with strict governance. The helmet rule in Delhi ensures that commuters wear it, but we all know what happens the moment they cross the delhi border
So, only a people effort at an individual level will gradually lead to safer roads.
An initiative like ridesafewith.me by OF sir and Sunny needs to be promoted and replicated on the road. Something i liked about this was that non Xbhpians were forwarding me the link

good stuff Aryan. Another point i feel is that in India we dont value life, its only when it personally affects us do we stand up and take notice, though this is for a short time and then we get sucked into the regular rigmarole of life and totally forget about it

I am lost. Its a well meaning, interestingly written article ... but what's new - what's the point??

Because they wanted you to ride sensibly
I agree , we all know about these issues and problems and what can be done to avoid them. What is needed is initiatives , and as Mik pointed out , initiatives like these need to be promoted and implemented by us.

Yes, the accidents are man made. One has to suffer because of others. People need to have some common sense while doing things.

Daily I encounter people(especially women) crossing the roads, without bothering to look out for the approaching vehicles. Any amount of honking wouldn't attract their attention. It's only me, who has to brake hard for these idiots.

Then, there are people who don't have the basic riding/driving sense. They feel that they are playing a video game and can ride/ drive in any manner. These people are the major cause of road accidents.

There's nothing much we can do to correct these idiots. The only thing which we can do is to ride in a proactive manner and not reactive. We should be prepared for any untoward situation beforehand.

Only if all of us at XBHP can follow rules to the T can we bring about a change in anyone else's riding/driving habits.

For example,since the day i got the xbhp sticker on my bike,everytime my immature brain tells me to jump a signal,i hold back,thinking that if people who represent a community i.e. the members,dont follow rules n regulations,how will we be able to bring about a change in the motorcycling scene in India.

Im glad India dsnt have super sexy roads like some other countries because till the common man's mindset changes,faster cars n bikes will only lead to disaster.

Nice Write Up Aryan DA....!!!
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For example,since the day i got the xbhp sticker on my bike,everytime my immature brain tells me to jump a signal,i hold back,thinking that if people who represent a community.
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Thats the Spirit of biking.... At least we guys should follow the rules and road disciplines... I have seen lot of guys honking and speeding through the traffic.. I don't know where exactly they are going ... Coz in a Cities you go on 80/90 or 100 you will be caught in the next signal...