How Safe Our Highways Are To Travel With Family?

[ccprakash]

Iam posting on behalf of my friend. Last week he went to munnar with his family for a week a trip. He enjoyed a lot in his whole trip, but while coming back from chennai, he faced some problem with the localates near shulagiri and hosur stretch and ended his trip with a sad note.

He is really disappointed for this thing and he wanted to know wether this is happend to any one in that stretch because it looks like they are looting money by creating such havoc situations on the road.

Following is the incident:

He started from chennai on last saturday on the way to bangalore near shulagiri one biker trying to stop his car as saying he hit his bike and not allowing him to over take on the highway. some how he was able to over take but this guy has called some localates (looks like they are a gang) and they stopped my friends car after few kilometers. They are trying to hit my friend, created a lot of drama and used lot of bad words infront of his family. They are not even allowing my friend to call local police.

Looks like they are trying to collect some money from him, but with the help of some local people some how they have escaped. After this incident also that guy followed my friends car for almost 10 kms.

Even i read some thing related to this near shakaleshpur(karnataka) ghat section last month.

Now my question is how safe our highways? What kind of precautions that we need to take apart from our cars?

 

[Crazy cat]

Re: How safe our highways to go with families.

It is because of these people, hit and run cases happen. The mob is unpredictable. You have to be careful with the younger men especially. It is better not to engage with them and reach nearest police help if possible, that'll be the safest when with family.

 

[bhvm]

Re: How safe our highways to go with families.

This is horrible,
Such Morons put the worst face of India in view.

Did your friend lodge complaint with local police after escaping?

 

[ss80]

Re: How safe our highways to go with families.

2things to do when you are out on the highway -
1. DONT STOP FOR UNKNOWN PEOPLE, NO MATTER WHAT!
2. Always make sure one person who is travelling with you is aware of your location and should be ready to ring cops and describe location if needed.

I have travelled extensively between Bangalore and K.giri and I can guarantee you that if you want to be safe, know to describe your location first and secondly - DO NOT STOP. If you are 100% sure that you haven't hit anyone and that no bad driving from your end. Then assure yourself that its a plought to loot money from you.

Once 2 severe drunk men (cops in Mufti) walked up to me and my friends and demanded money for partying outside McDonald (Shoolagiri). We had a tough time too, all we did that day was sitting next to our car and laughing a bit loud. No music was played, nothing whatsoever, since we had female colleagues with us, we had to keep quite and apologised (despite no mistake of ours) and left the spot.

Always remember, do not engage with verbal/physical assaults on road, without knowing who he is. There are lots of rogues out there, who wouldnt mind doing harm to you for a few hundred bucks greed and a bit of ego.

 

[GrandRk]

Re: How safe our highways to go with families.

Our highways are not that safe. It was very bad whatever happened with your friend and that too when he was along with his family.

* First of all try to get away from these locale goons without stopping.
* Give call to police and describe them the situation and location where this happened.
* Still if somebody stops you then don't get out of your car, keep your windows rolled up and if possible call police.

 

[Sidd7hartha]

Re: How safe our highways to go with families.

Our highways are not that safe. It was very bad whatever happened with your friend and that too when he was along with his family.

* First of all try to get away from these locale goons without stopping.
* Give call to police and describe them the situation and location where this happened.
* Still if somebody stops you then don't get out of your car, keep your windows rolled up and if possible call police.

How one would know the phone number of local police station even if he is aware of precise location? Sometimes events happen in border areas of jurisdiction of two police station. Then it becomes even more difficult to lodge complaint.

 

[GrandRk]

Re: How safe our highways to go with families.

How one would know the phone number of local police station even if he is aware of precise location? Sometimes events happen in border areas of jurisdiction of two police station. Then it becomes even more difficult to lodge complaint.

Some times they are displayed on the boards along highway. Don't know in border areas whether highway assistance numbers are useful or not.

 

[mkrish]

Hi Guys,
I was the victim of this incident.
All i did was, had lunch with my family (6 Year old son & 1 year old daughter along with my wife) in Shoolagiri McDonald shop. After 10 minutes drive from there, observed one mid aged person was driving his bike by blocking my way continoulsy for about 30 - 40 sec. When i try to overtake, he is blocking all the way.
After that i somehow overtook that guy and he was scolding me by showing his hand while crossing him. Still he tried to block my car. After 20 - 30 minutes he again blocked my car and i stopped the car in the side of the road. I immediately came out of my car to check with him (Of course i was in full temper). That guy straight away holded my Shirt and i too holded his shirt. Then i notice another two more bikers (young age person), one i20 new vehicle (no registration) joined with him. He explained them in different languages about the incident and i asked them what is the reason he is blocking my car and shouting at me? They said i hit him while driving. Then i asked if that was case there should be some damage to his vehicle or to him or to my car. Nothing is happened like that.
I told them lets go to police station and discuss. That moron is not ready to go police station and not listening at all.

By that time my son started crying inside CAR and my wife is also literally down and don't know how to react. (Of course she called me inside the car to leave the place, but those guys blocked my car already). Since my son was crying and it disturbed me a lot and i explained other members that how can i do rash driving with family & small kids. Some local guys came for support finally but that Moron is still yelling at me in bad words (scolding my family in Tamil words) also he raised his hand till my face as if he is going to hit me. I knew that he was trying to tempt me and loose my patience. But i didn't give chance for that.

Then i asked him to share his Phone number so that i drop my family in Bangalore and will take deal with you in the same day. But he is not ready to listen my words. He is just yelling at me using bad words.
Atlast with the help of local support , i was able to leave the place .
In that situation i forgot to take the picture of the person and vechile number.
But his Vechicle number is TN 70E (other numbers i cannot remember) and observed there is sticker saying that Tamilnadu educational department in back side of bike.

I was totally upset becoz this incident happened in front of family members. I took some days for me to get out of that shock.

Also thanks for the suggestion provided by some members. What i learnt was
1. Not to engage with them (but don't know what to do in this situation without engaging with that idiot)
2. Need to take video / photo during that situation (may be by someone inside the car)
3. Approach police after the incident (but since it was too late that day, i wanted to leave the place and reach home safely)

But i will be travelling to chennai once in 3-4 months and i will be very carefull in that strectch.
And hoping that one fine day i will see that guy again during my travel.
May be he might be doing same thing to other members or even once again with me also.

And thanks to my friend for posting this issue in right forum. I was looking for this kind of forum for past few days to express my frustrations :)

 

[RKKOLLIPARA]

Even I have the similar experience on highway, but to my luck narrowly escaped from that situation.

Recently during the month of April, my family(mom, dad, self, wife & son ) visited Kumbakonam as per my dad’s wish. While in return we had our dinner at Neyveli town at 9 PM and started heading towards Chennai. When we were nearing Cuddalore (may be 20 KM before Cuddalore), in a small village a group(aprrox 10) of drunken guys were sitting in the middle of the road just after a bumpy speed breaker. As soon as they saw our car coming, one guy among them stood and came before the car and acted as if he was throwing something towards my windshield.

Because of bumpy speed breaker expect my son others were out of sleep and noticed this guy. My dad & wife immediately suggested not to stop the car at any cost, I followed that. That guy has nothing in hand but pretends as if he has a big stone, I went till him and took left in a cinematic style and pushed my pedal to the extent I can.

That guy started shouting and then throwed a stone towards our car, it hit my car boot and a left a small dent.

If I took right at that time I should have run the car on the guys sitting on the road, but my intentions worked correct at that point of time and took left.

 

[TSIVipul]

That's one horrifying incident, things do get tricky in such situations if you have family or females accompanying you. In such cases what exactly happens:

• They stop you and start making a drama (My phone got stolen once after I was out of my car to see the person who claimed that my tyre ran over his feet, got back though after we took the idiot under our custody)
• Their local support comes up and they will overpower you for sure. NOTE: If you have a weapon then better protect your weapon instead of taking it out and trying to shoo such people off; things do turn ugly in no time if weapon is involved.
• They will demand money; better try to resolve things and if anything goes out of sync then better let the money go; it can be earned back.
• They leave and you are left banging your head around

What police does?
If you have no contacts and there is no one to put a bamboo up their a$$; they won't do anything except writing a complaint, in fact half of the times they won't even file a proper FIR and put a note of incident in their general diary.

What we shouldn't do?

• Take unknown or poor reputation carrying routes during late or early hours
• Keep driving slow and steady even after you observe something fishy (This is done in this case)
• Ignore someone following you (Better stop at some populated place or speed away)
• Don't stop even if someone is forcing you to stop, I have a technique which I myself follow and it works for me at least. At max you can get a dent on your car but the safety of yours as well as your family should be your top priority

What to do then?

• Always select a route like a good highway or the route where you have people known to you (Like say the way to our native village where even if you don;t know anyone; people know you from the name of your family and village)
• No matter you run over someone, hit their car or bike or have to drive with a flat tyre. Just don't stop in a secluded place at any cost (I have driven even up to 20-30 kms on highways with flat tyre during midnight waiting for right place to stop every time)
• If someone is following then either stop at some restaurant for a tea/coffee break or stop your car at some police check post in a way that the way of the follower is also blocked. Don't approach police but give a hard one on the cheek of the follower; cops will come to check out themselves (Will share an incident like this one)

Note: Such people normally stay away from local vehicles, cabs, rashly driven vehicles, full size SUVs (not these puny sub 4m ones), over speeding vehicles (No one will ever dare to block your way by overtaking if you are doing 100+) and the vehicle stuffed with young guys

Small but funny incident to share:
I am a contractor and we frequently carry cash in my car; especially at the times of clearing payments of my suppliers. At such times it's always 4-5 guys in the car (at least for me) who just keep on having fun in a quick driven car (Normally SUVs) en route. Now the area where I reside is not known for such incidents of minor extortion and is more known for large scale loot and murder type ones (NCR-UP and Uttarakhand connecting area; BTW Uttar Pradesh has highest crime rate in India of which Distt. Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore, Meerut, Baghpat and Saharanpur top the lists).

Now we were heading to a place called Bijnore on a near empty highway in a PB (Punjab) registered Honda City at around 9 pm. The road is a dual carriageway (In distt. Muzaffarnagar; known nationwide for it's high rate of crime) and is actually known for the incidents of loot etc. The empty dual carriageway is well laid so our car was also doing 100 kph consistently. This is when we noticed a Zen which we overtook 2-3 kilomeetrs back is now closely following us and not overtaking. The friend who was driving, sped up to 120 kph and the Zen was again at our tail in a minute.

All of us decided to stop this car in next village and sped up for 2-3 more kilometers. As soon as the village is reached; my friend simply slowed down to 60 kph and then slammed hard brakes right in the middle or road. As soon as the car stopped, we were out and ran towards the Zen taking hold of it's driver and front passenger just to find out that it was a family in the car who was just following us because they weren't feeling safe driving alone on this stretch. In the mean time the friend who was driving already gave the zen driver a hard slap even before looking at the occupants of the car. Without wasting a minute we left the place apologizing and let them follow us for the rest of their route.

 

[joni_rajpura]

there is no such type of problem in punjab i think punjab is the safest place when we talk these type of things.even non of my friend report me these kind of stuff

 

[Prads]

Well disturbing stories guys never knew so many people had such experiences, i have heard such stories,i guess i have mentioned this before somewhere on this forum.
When i was a kid while traveling at night on the highway a guy came rocking left to right looking to be drunk & alone blocking the car,my dad dodged with aggression & drove off. A week later we found out same thing had been done to one car & when angry driver got out to yell at the drunk, suddenly people appeared from the bushes & robbed them.

So only solution for most of the incidents on this thread seems to be a pepper spray for defense & on board cam for evidence.

There was also one incident where one person dressed as a creepy ghost tried blocking someone(Qualis) we know but it was a weird situation & no robbery too place & the occupants had fever for the rest one week out of fright but you never know the level of creativity criminals will go to!

 

[ss80]

I also had another similar incident where in 4 of us (all guys) were returning from Velankanni (TN) and we passed the dreaded 70km Thiruvanamalai stretch.
It was past 11pm and we found no vehicles behind or ahead of us.

We drove for close to an hour and stopped at a small village with just 4 or 5houses on road side.
Shortly a truck arrived and parked right behind us, the truck driver casually spoke to us and explained that this place is full of thieves & petty robbers. And not to stop anywhere till u see a handful of vehicles parked.

Also not to stop where only trucks stop, as likely place of prostitution.
We closely followed the truck till we hit the krishnagiri highway.

If I remember there is a old bridge across a river in that route, that was told to be the usual mugging spot.

Following a large vehicle at a distance and sticking to their tail seems to be a good option on seriously dark/ secluded stretches.

 

[TSIVipul]

@joni_Rajpura
You are spot on when it comes to Punjab, Himanchal Pradesh and Rajasthan (let me add Himanchal and Rajasthan too).

I have extensively travelled to Maler-Koltla (Near Ludhiana) and from my experience; travelling in Punjab is always a bliss any time and any place, in fact what is even better is the attitude of people who are most of the time available for helping if you need it. I never got into any issue there but have seen seen people doing their part quite well when it comes to helping others.

 

[Srinivas M]

wow on a serious note this is going to be one of the best thread i have ever been to; so very useful.
Plz be kind enough to share your stories. Anything noticed in Telangana or AP state highways????