[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by vivek95

Completely agree with all of you above gentlemen for accusing this Manjha crap as a major culprit in this particular freak accident than the sunroof thing. With due respect to others, these were the only posts that seemed to have balanced practical views and laid emphasis on the perils of both - people peeking through the sunroof in a moving car and flying kite in public places. Most importantly pointing out this stupid Manjha as a direct causation of this accident and a major blame to be put on, since it could have happened to any person who was riding on a two wheeler with or without helmet or simply walking down or jogging along the road or the kid who is enjoying the ride in a roller coaster or giant wheel or anything of that sort in that local fair in your town. No brainer this, since a kite thread can land anywhere and everywhere when people fly kite in public places and on top of this, using the manjha which is sharp and explicitly dangerous. I too had tried preparing this manjha thread at home when I was a kid, but my parents intervened and dealt with me sternly for doing that nonsense and never allowed me to fly a kite with such a dangerous thread....

You've pretty much nailed what some of us have been trying to say here.

Somehow the message that seems to be going across is that we are saying the parents were not at fault or its ok to stick your neck out of sunroofs. Please understand that NO ONE intends so say that.

In fact having both a sunroof and a kid, I know for sure that I'll never let him do any such stunt. But the whole thread was veering towards the sunroof aspect so such an extreme that some balance was necessary to make those not exposed to this menace aware that this problem is much much worse than just these two deaths. The total count of fatalities each year would easily run into hundreds, and thousands injured/maimed.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by avisidhu

.......
Somehow the message that seems to be going across is that we are saying the parents were not at fault or its ok to stick your neck out of sunroofs. Please understand that NO ONE intends so say that......

Given I'm one of the 'don't stick yourself out of a sunroof if you don't want to get hurt/killed' brigade, let me ask you a simple question to better illustrate the point:

Do you lock your car/home to keep them safe, or do you insist that all thieves/miscreants in the vicinity be eliminated (as they legally should be in an ideal world) so there's no risk to you/your property at all? Or do you do the first and hope/strive for the second?

[blackasta]

People are not doing the correct SWOT analysis in this thread.

Strength & Weakness are internal agents.
Opportunity & Threats are external agents.

You have full control over internal agents.
You can only have mitigation & contingency plans for external agents.

Your Strength is in controlling how you drive your car, in buckling up and staying safe.
Your Weakness is road rage, lapse in concentration, peeping out of sunroof.

Your Opportunities are clean road, good traffic flow, well behaved motorists.
Your Threats are rash drivers, potholes, manjha.

Your strengths can help you maximize your opportunities and minimize the impact of threats. Your weaknesses can jeopardize your car, or worse, your life.

Criticism welcome.

[King_pin09]

Well such unfortunate events are bound to happen unless people turn responsible. During my recent trip to Lonavala, I have seen young ladies and boys sitting on window sill of moving cars (with upper part out of car and legs inside) and lost in their own world of screaming. Forget sunroof, such practice are far more irresponsible and dangerous and can easily turn fatal. I am attaching crop of an image where one such nuisance is recorded.

[Tanveer_2558]

Originally Posted by King_pin09

Well such unfortunate events are bound to happen unless people turn responsible. During my recent trip to Lonavala, I have seen young ladies and boys sitting on window sill of moving cars (with upper part out of car and legs inside) and lost in their own world of screaming. Forget sunroof, such practice are far more irresponsible and dangerous and can easily turn fatal. I am attaching crop of an image where one such nuisance is recorded.

Thanks for the picture, I have seen this too several times, People do this soo casually these days without thinking about the consequences, Even Kids! Also drivers tend to think its pretty cool to drive fast when you have a couple of girls hanging out from the windows, Money can buy you car's not brains unfortunately.

Coming back to the topic, Surely an unfortunate incident, Cannot even dare to imagine the scene of what must have happened after the kids throat were slit, How would their parents be reacting, Man! Scary! My frequent visit's to Gujarat i have seen bikers adopting a desi jugaad where probably a metal wire is rounded off and is in front of the biker's handle in a U turn shape to avoid getting hit by the Manjha's, What all can can we expect the Government to do, Isn't it a bit of our responsibility to not use such manjhas for flying kite? Man you can kill someone while your just having some fun!

[vivek95]

At the risk of going extremely OT, let me caution you about another nuisance that happens on the lines of this manjha kite where enjoyment and thrill of one causes grave consequence to another. Certain practices and sport as part of traditions/festivals across the world have always resulted in great mishaps when some brainless people start crossing all the lines of safety. Ahead of the upcoming Ganesh chaturthi, I would like to remind you all of the fireworks/cracker menace. If noise and air pollution is one thing, what with the morons throwing crackers and sutli bombs randomly on a busy road showing utter disregard to the safety of pedestrians/ bikers/cars moving around ?? They actually display a clear demonic behaviour. I have dealt with poor victims of such cases too in my medical career and have myself had a very narrow escape from a chain of crackers falling on my body while riding a Dio few years back. Do watch out especially when you are with kids !! 2 years back when I was once walking down a busy road in Pune, a bunch of guys tried to launch a rocket on that road in a totally hurried manner and instead of going into the sky, the rocket fell and ran straight parallel to the ground only to blast by a small margin in front of two girls who were walking along. Now talk about Puneri girls after all, though they were startled and panicky to the core, as expected they walked back all the distance and gave a piece of their mind to those guys at the top of their voice in the typical pure Marathi.

Moderators can delete this post if found inappropriate, no issues.

[SS-Traveller]

The first step has been taken, towards safer kite strings.

The next step is to make people use cars safely. Traffic police need to stop and penalize head-popping through sunroofs. The law has enough provisions in it to allow them to stop and penalize drivers.

Some years ago, during a drive to Shimla, a car ahead of us with a photographer and his camera protruding through the sunroof, was stopped by Himachal Pradesh Police on the highway and fined. Haven't seen similar action being taken in other places.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by SDP

This is classic! Reminds me of the gun-control debate in US - "Ban the guns. Guns kill people". Guns or manja are mere tools, the real killer is the human-stupidity. What next, ban curves on roads because speeding drivers can lose control in turns and thereby cause accidents? A driver/rider has to be aware of his/her surroundings and react accordingly so that all occupants remain safe. I firmly believe that, although a few accidents happens just because of sheer bad-luck, most happen due to driver error.

You do have a point. This is the usual knee jerk reaction that our government is famous for

3 women get kidnapped and molested and 1.1 billion people have to remove sun-film and suffer the heat of the summer

From their point of view, its much easier for govt to ban something altogether than worry about enforcing a regulation

In this case, I don't see it really having an effect because its not like some multinational corporation that is manufacturing manjha thread (unlike Maggi)

Firstly its a mostly small & unregulated industry and many are simply home made and secondly the practice is more common in rural, semi-rural towns and low-income neighborhoods of big-cities where education & awareness about safety is lacking

But having said that, the regulation is a step in the right direction and is long due. The challenge now is to enforce it

[pgsagar]

It's time govt. banned this killer string called manjha. People in cars are safe but what about two-wheeler riders? I think two-wheeler riders need to wear a thick protective bandana around their necks with a thick padding that can ward off manjha or even fallen electric wires. Because helmet can only take care of head and neck is still exposed. However bizarre or funny it may sound, only this can save life in the event of any such mishap.

Coming to sunroofs, it is very common to see parents letting their kids stick their necks out through the sunroofs. It is so dumb of the parents to let their kids do that. Leave aside this killer string manjha. What if suddenly the car crashes into another car or is rear-ended by another. Parents will remain belted in while their ward will fly off the car aggravating injuries that could be fatal. Actually, it will almost certainly be fatal. About time police booked such parents who let their children do this.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by SDP

This is classic! Reminds me of the gun-control debate in US - "Ban the guns. Guns kill people". Guns or manja are mere tools, the real killer is the human-stupidity. ...

Yes, they are are mere tools; it is the humans that kill, but that does not justify putting lethal tools in the hands of people.

Yes, I agree, manja is a menace that has to be controlled. But even at the risk of sounding like an insensitive jerk, I would say that the stupidity of the parents is the real culprit here.

No risk of sounding like a jerk. It is no more than many people have posted already. We have to weep for the loss of the child in such a horrible way, but was it the driver/parent's fault? Absolutely and definitely yes.

[rselva]

It is very difficult to restrain a child from doing what he/she enjoys. Parents do weigh in the risks and if the risk is minimal, they allow the child to do what he/she enjoys. Popping head out of sunroof would definitely be considered low risk, as both Sanchi (in Honda City) and Harry (in modified Dzire) had done it multiple times without incident. I am sure if parents were aware of manjas, they would have not allowed their child to pop their heads out of sunroof.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

The first step has been taken, towards safer kite strings.

The next step is to make people use cars safely. Traffic police need to stop and penalize head-popping through sunroofs. The law has enough provisions in it to allow them to stop and penalize drivers.

Some years ago, during a drive to Shimla, a car ahead of us with a photographer and his camera protruding through the sunroof, was stopped by Himachal Pradesh Police on the highway and fined. Haven't seen similar action being taken in other places.

We have too many laws, more often than not obeyed in the breach. I suspect the same may happen here.

Originally Posted by Mpower

You do have a point. This is the usual knee jerk reaction that our government is famous for

3 women get kidnapped and molested and 1.1 billion people have to remove sun-film and suffer the heat of the summer

From their point of view, its much easier for govt to ban something altogether than worry about enforcing a regulation

In this case, I don't see it really having an effect because its not like some multinational corporation that is manufacturing manjha thread (unlike Maggi)

Firstly its a mostly small & unregulated industry and many are simply home made and secondly the practice is more common in rural, semi-rural towns and low-income neighborhoods of big-cities where education & awareness about safety is lacking

But having said that, the regulation is a step in the right direction and is long due. The challenge now is to enforce it

I have an issue with your comment about sun-film. See how many people confessed to having sun-film way beyond the 70% and 50% limits. Soem claimed that they were not aware of the original tint, which when added to the film pushed it over the limit.

Ditto for the HSRP story. Despite clear laws just see the number of cars/vehicles with illegal plates. UP is worse, a ruling party flag is all it takes to break the law. Then there may be a plate of 'Block Pramukh' or 'Union President' in place of the registration. Happens all over. So this is worse, no registration plates at all.

Kite fighting does require Manjha, you cannot just use 'saddi' so what is needed is tighter regulation of both the kite flyers and the vehicle drivers. Sunroofs are recent phenomenon, mostly in the top of the range cars, so one can assume that the car owners have some gray matter.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by rselva

It is very difficult to restrain a child from doing what he/she enjoys. Parents do weigh in the risks and if the risk is minimal, they allow the child to do what he/she enjoys. Popping head out of sunroof would definitely be considered low risk, as both Sanchi (in Honda City) and Harry (in modified Dzire) had done it multiple times without incident. I am sure if parents were aware of manjas, they would have not allowed their child to pop their heads out of sunroof.

Very bad risk assessment.

[swiftnfurious]

I think the issue has caught attention because a human life is lost. I had read the nuisance of the manjha years back when someone had raised an issue with it killing birds & also causing accidents to two wheeler riders.

[Dry Ice]

Caught this on my dashcam while returning from a trip on the long Independence day weekend. This is NH1 - a national highway. Probably within a day of the accidents that were reported in the media. Lucky guy, this one.

https://youtu.be/F5SGR8eC1Q0