BHPian Mustang Sammy recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Others might have posted about this before, but this is a culmination of observations after numerous highway drives and reading news articles about horrible accidents caused by trucks.Common Issues Seen On Indian Trucks1. Non functional tail lights and brake lamps. On a recent drive on the Mumbai – Pune expressway, by my count < 20% of trucks had both rear lights working. A combination of zero to one out of two tail lamps functional across all types of trucks 2. Poor maintenance. See below for an all too common example of badly worn out tires. Can't even imagine how the brakes are maintained. No wonder we have such horrible crashes on downhill sections of our highways. Bald tires 3. Rash driving: Truckers have a reputation of being safer drivers than the reckless car and bike drivers, but they need to be held to a much higher standard simply because of the potential to damage and kill their large vehicles pose. Too often I see large trucks suddenly swerve out of their lane to overtake, without giving any indication. The power steering on newer models probably helps them do these Schumacher like moves. If not this egregious, then they often simply start drifting out of lanes to overtake, again without any indication. Alert drivers can usually detect the beginnings of such a lane change, but again it is very bad driving practice. Any other such examples? Here's what BHPian saket77 said regarding the matter:Also, I have said on this forum before and at the cost of repeating myself, I would say that in reckless dirving, the bus drivers trump the truckers by a mile. The buses are mostly driven so fast and rash in a rush to pick up passengers before other buses and to adhere to a tight travel schedule and timings that they are literally risking not only the lives of passengers but also that of the others on road. Swerving, over-speeding, rashly driven, closing in gaps too much and getting too close to oncoming vehicles and while overtaking- these are classic trademarks of most private buses. Needless to say, whenever, I have them in my rearview mirror, I give them the way. Next in the line whom I generally keep distance with are private cars whom I find are becoming more and more reckless on the highways with time, esp. those pseudo SUVs. In contrast, I find truckers to be much more patient if we keep their vehicle condition aside.Meanwhile, BHPian jigar1791@gmail added this to the discussion:The most common trend of these truckers is to drive in the fast lane (right most lanes) on our highways. Apart from the above, I generally do find our long-haul truckers well behaved and drive within their vehicle's limits. What boils my blood is on seeing how rashly the tippers, cement mixers and intra-city hauliers drive on our roads, be it on highway or within cities. They drive like they own the road, breaking every possible law meant to be adhered to, intimidating everyone else driving in their way, as if they ought to be given the right-of-way for them to move past you. Also, do observe how the local ST buses, eg - MSRTC's Lalpari type, is driven on the road. These buses operate multiple short-haul trips in a day, and the compete with local truckers in almost every aspect when it comes to lawless driving, even trumping them when it comes to abrupt lane changes and intimidating smaller vehicles all alongCheck out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
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