Honda City Overtaking A Bus From Left Crashes Into Median: Who’s At Fault? [Video]

The number of vehicles on Indian roads is increasing every day, and so is the number of accidents. Every day, hundreds of major and minor accidents are reported online, and some of them go unnoticed too. Accidents caused by heavy vehicles are also common on our roads. Here we have one such video where a Honda City overtaking a bus was hit by the bus and crashed into the median on the highway.

The video has been shared by Prateek Singh on his YouTube channel. It was recorded on the dashcam of a car that was passing through the Delhi-Jaipur highway, just like the Honda City which was in front of them.

The highway is quite busy, and as usual, there were slow-moving heavy vehicles that had invaded the overtaking lane or the rightmost lane. The six-lane highway was actually crowded, and even the middle lane was occupied by a state transport corporation bus.

The Honda City and other vehicles on the highway were maintaining speeds of 100 kmph and above. The dashcam car was also doing around 117 kmph at the time of the incident. The Honda City driver saw that there were no vehicles in the left lane, so he decided to overtake the bus from the left. Just as the car was about to overtake, the bus driver changed lanes and moved into the left lane. The Honda City driver tried his best to slow down and swerve the car away from the bus, but it was of no use.

The car narrowly missed getting crushed between the bus and the crash railing. The left front side of the bus hit the rear right of the Honda City, causing the driver to lose control of the car. The car spun off the road and moved into the middle and right lanes.

The dashcam car was right behind the City, and the whole incident was captured on camera. The Honda City spun and crashed into the median on the road. The car hit the median with such force that the wheels went airborne.

Thankfully, the dashcam car driver also managed to slow down by the time they reached the spot. The occupants of the Honda City escaped with minor injuries. They were extremely lucky because if the car had crossed the median and gone to the other side of the road, it would have crashed into a truck that was coming from the opposite direction.

That would have made things very different. The chances of the occupants getting seriously injured would have increased in that case.

Who is at fault?

In India, the law is very clear that overtaking on the left is not allowed. This rule is specifically to avoid instances such as this. So it was the overtaking of the Honda City that caused the accident. The car driver also failed to understand that he might be in the bus driver's blind spot, or the bus driver may just be careless.

The bus driver is at fault too. The bus driver is supposed to signal that he was about to move into the left lane, but as we know, buses rarely have functioning indicators. If he gave the appropriate hand signals, the car driver who was already on the left would not see it anyway.

Despite the City breaking the law, the bus driver is also supposed to make sure that he makes such lane changes carefully.

Legally, just because the right lane is blocked, you do not gain the right to overtake on the left. Others breaking the law is no excuse to break the law yourself.

He should have checked for vehicles on his left before changing lanes. He suddenly changed lanes without looking, just to overtake a trailer that was moving in front of him. This carelessness is what caused the accident. People driving heavy vehicles should ideally stay in the leftmost lane.

Those planning to overtake such heavy vehicles should also ensure safety by confirming that the truck or bus driver has seen their vehicle before overtaking. These vehicles have large blind spots, which often become a reason for accidents. Always honk or use the pass light to ensure that the driver has seen your vehicle before overtaking.