Bus crash in India

[Miles O Roads]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sk...india-11422467
It looks more like a rv but still bad deal. That place seems to be a haven for bad wrecks.

[N'om'ad]

Hindus don't seem to view risk like we do. Something to do with the belief in karma I guess - if it's your time it's your time.

You really have to go there and experience Indian driving to understand why there are so many wrecks. Drivers go round blind corners on narrow mountain roads as if they have it to themselves, screeching to a halt whenever another vehicle appears suddenly going in the opposite direction.

Maintenance probably isn't up to Western standards either.

I was on a mountain bus in the 90's that broke a front leaf spring with a huge lurch just as we entered a hairpin bend. If it had happened a few metres further into the bend we might have gone over the side.


I'm not in any hurry to go back there especially now there are as many cars on the road as there are now.

[Rovobay]

double the capacity of people and who knows how much cargo strapped on there. unfortunately just another day in the third world. you make do with what you have. less transportation, less infrastructure, sad....

[Iceni John]

I've been to India twice, the second time on my bicycle. Yes, road traffic there is lunatic, but after a while there you get used to it. When I got back to Western "civilization" (sic) after my second trip I was frustrated at how slow everyone seemed to be on the roads! As N'om'ad says, karma and their many religions may be responsible for the attitude that whatever happens is outside one's individual control, but I've also encountered that in staunchly catholic countries like Mexico where some drivers seem to have no sense of the consequences of their actions. Is it stupidity, ignorance, religiosity, or some deadly combination of those three?

Indian buses are, or at least were when I was there, decrepit at best - one bus I was on had a patch bolted on to the outside of one of its tires, and it was not uncommon to see the wire strands of a tire exposed because it was so worn. In mountain areas of Nepal and northern India it's often best to sit on the roof instead of being packed inside like sardines: it's cooler, you can see all around, and if you can see a crash will happen you can jump off. Greyhound it ain't.

John

[brokedown]

edit: wrong thread!