Narrow Escape! Out Of Control Maruti Ritz Nearly Slams Man Into Wall [Video]
In India, we often notice an increase in the number of accidents during the rainy season, mainly due to the compromise in traction caused by wet roads. Over the years, we have also come across road-related incidents in which people ended up having miraculous saves and close calls. A recent video from Kerala’s Thrissur district shows a combination of these: a car going out of control on a rain-soaked highway and narrowly missing slamming a man into a wall! The man, who was trying to cross the road, had a close call! A nearby CCTV camera filmed the entire incident, the footage of which was later shared online.
This incident occurred on State Highway 74 (SH 74), on October 28th. This is a busy road that connects Thrissur’s Vazhakode to Alathur in Palakkad. It spans a length of around 34 km and passes through several busy junctions and areas. As can be seen in the video, this unfortunate incident occurred on a rather narrow single-lane section of the highway, near Natianchira Juma Mazjid. A curved section of the road is visible in the video.
The highway seems to be well-built and smooth. The video, however, shows it to be wet. It may have rained in this area not so long before the accident. Soon, we see a Maruti Ritz speeding into the curve. It enters the turn within the left lane, carrying a good amount of speed. However, as it moves further into the arc, we see the car failing to stay within the left lane.
At around the same time, we see a man trying to cross this road from the nearer end (of the visual). He almost reaches the centre line when he notices the car and gets a picture of its speed. He senses danger and is left with two choices- first, to move back and make himself safe or to sprint and get to the other side as quickly as he possibly can. The pedestrian chose the second. From how things unfolded, this was the more dangerous option!
The Ritz driver is seen slipping beyond the median when he takes note of the crossing pedestrian. With the front wheels of his car already beyond the white line, he slams the brakes, further unsettling the car. By this time, the man tries to run and almost reaches the other side of the road. In the video, we don’t see any major steering inputs from the car driver after braking. He likely knew that doing so would make the car go completely out of control. He is slamming the brakes twice, with a few seconds' gap in between- clearly trying to bleed off speed without losing control of the car.
By the time the pedestrian reaches the other end of the road, the car can be seen right in front of him, a few metres away from him. It is much slower now, but still very far from coming to a full hault. The man senses this, jumps to the footpath, and presses his body against the wall to avoid being hit by the vehicle. Just then, the Ritz hits the footpath, its rear lifts off and lands in a way that the front end now faces the wall and the pedestrian. A complete stop without causing a scratch on the man. He was indeed having the luckiest day in life!
The man here, was shocked by the incident. People from around soon showed up with help. The car reportedly had four people from Kurumala, a village in Thrissur. Luckily, no one was hurt in this accident.
Many say that the pedestrian trying to ‘cross the road in an unsafe’ way caused this crash. We, however, find this claim to be baseless! Yes, crossing this section of the highway can be tricky. The curve can blind pedestrians to some extent. He should have ideally moved back, instead of sprinting to the other side.
What about the car? It seems to be more at fault here. Watch the video again and you will realise that it was very fast when it entered the curve. The driver likely realised his speed and how it made him vulnerable around the arc, when he sensed the wheel slipping beyond the median. The wet roads and high speed seem to have made the car lose traction and slip into the opposite lane.
He is likely to have noticed the pedestrian while he was trying to keep things under control and get back to his designated lane safely. Atleast, that’s what the video suggests. Going for two strong brake inputs and avoiding major steering inputs further show that he was well-aware of the speed and how it was making him vulnerable. We don’t know the actual tyre health of brake health of this car, but the driver likely knew it. Going by all these, the car’s high speed seems to have caused this crash!
And if you still feel like blaming the pedestrian, just have another look at the video. You’ll see a ‘Zebra crossing’ (marked pedestrian crossing) near the end closer end of the curve. Ideally, the man should have used it to get to the other side. What if he did? The harder we try to answer this question, the more we realise how fast and reckless the car in this case was...