[] ABS saved my Day and a life []

I have been a strong supporter of the "Get ABS in your car" no matter what segment it falls into. Today, my support has grown even stronger after seeing in practice it's application as against just merely reading about it.

I was driving on a bi-lane road and cruising at a nominal speed of 40kmph (or so I believe) it could be 50 too. I was approaching a 4-way intersection signal. The signal has the usual straight and right green lights but both work individually. I was to take a right turn and hence slowed down to 40kmph. The lane in front of me was pretty empty save for a lone biker (in a suit if that is important). I saw the right green signal flashing and since the road was empty though I could make a turn. Now the "green" blinking light actually signifies a yellow signal, signalling you to stop. However the biker did not budge, he was transfixed there since the green signal had started blinking, although he was at the intersection ever since I saw him. I had already sped up and saw the biker not making a turn. I RAMMED the brakes as hard as I could and the most I ever pushed it. I saw the ABS kick in for the first time. It was intense, I was sweating inside the freezing cold cabin of my car. I felt my heartbeat rise at the thought of the inevitable. The speed was too high and the distance was too short to stop and if I even barely touched the biker, he would fall onto the busy intersection and risk getting hit by another vehicle.

Luckily I stopped just before the bike with a feet or more to spare. I realised how close it was for the turn of events to be a completely different picture. Had the car not been ABS equipped, I would have severely injured someone and be scarred for life with the though of it.

Although it was wrong on my part, do not take it as a way of justifying myself when I say I wasn't going really fast. I have gone faster and been much worser, but at that time, I was actually driving smoothly and at safe speeds. It's just that the distance was too short and I had miscalculated the biker to negotiate a turn. Luckily ABS covered up for my mistaken judgement. This could happen to anyone. I do not think I would have acted differently if the situation surfaced again, such were the circumstances.

So it is my request to anyone and everyone, please choose a car with ABS only. Do not prioritise leather seats, powersteering, windows and heck body coloured bumbers over the safety of ABS system. However expesive it be, it is still less worthy than your life.

Anti-lock braking system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have to learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself -source unknown

Really nice share

ABS should be made compulsary IMO.

I feel the same strongly. It's surprising how a safety feature is optional, that too at the end of the spectrum of choices.

Too bad low range cars do not have them, for ex, my K10 didn't even have that option, btw which car do you own?

Honda City. Mom's car but I use it most of the time

It's got ABS and 2 airbags, that's all i knew when we bought the car. That's all i had asked for. It's a life saver. It saved a cyclist too, now I remember. That was freaking dangerous. I was at 120kmph on the Outer ring road when i saw a cyclist appear in front of me. Slammed y brakes so hard that I felt I will be thrown off the car. Luckily ABS prevented my car from skidding.

a very helpful message by Sarath..

can we install ABS on cars having no ABS?

Zangetsu said:
a very helpful message by Sarath..

can we install ABS on cars having no ABS?

Probably not, specially not on Altos or Nanos, not sure but maybe possible for cars that have an ABS variant.

P

@OP,
eh, you will see magic of ABS when you drive above 100 Kms.

The cycle guy never knew but it was a car that was doing 120kmph on the 3lane road that insane braked behind him to match his <10kmph speed. ABS magic

Too bad govt. vehicles don't have ABS.

ico said:
Too bad govt. vehicles don't have ABS.

Govt is buying lots of good vehicles these days, Cities, Swift Dezire's, even Fortunars(have seen one in kolkata belonging to fisheries I think).

Offtopic:

Dubai police has BMW

serpent16 said:
Offtopic:

Dubai police has BMW

In need for speed HP police have Veyron and Reventon.

In real life the Italian police has a Lamborgini Murcielago. The Lambo factory donates one car to the police each time it releases a new model.

European countries have ABS compulsory in their cars. It will be very difficult to implement that in India as it will increase the price of cars by 30-40K and in such a price sensitive market, it will create problems for the manufacturers. And even the buyer doesn't opt for ABS thinking it a waste of money. But once it is implemented, they will not have any options and will have to provide ABS in their cars and buyers will have to buy those cars.
And yeah..........Italian police has the fastest fleet of cars. I read it in an article long back. But I think its Gallardo not Murcielago(As much I can recall) :mrgreen:

Even I strongly recommed ABS as it saves your life as well as others too. Hence after long thought, booked ZDI which has ABS & EBD.

Nice to know, I feel proud to be a part of such developments.

BTW i work for ESC/ESP or in short ABS ECU's

G

Actually I Knew abt ABS first from my friend who works for Robert Bosch who shared a video long back.They were the makers of the system.Its working mechanism is awesome .I am not sure all cars use this or different one.

@Gopi: Every Car has a segment like Higher End versions. Some might include such features like ABS, ESC, OEM multimedia systems blah blah.