Call center cab jumps light, hits school van, one dead

[tsk1979]

In yet another accident involving a call center cab in delhi, a child lost is life and 5 are injured when a Call center cab jumped a red light and hit their school van(Omni)
Once again, call centre cab the culprit-Delhi-Cities-NEWS-The Times of India

[suman]

Saw the article this morning in HT, the picture of the Omni is shocking. Again, some innocent children suffer, can you imagine the state of the parents? One child dead & another on the ventilator....jeez!

No one is safe from these killer cabs, you never know when its going to be your turn.......This morning, there was a Qualis that swept out from under a flyover U turn on NH8, OVERTAKING another one & in the process almost knocking off anything that was on the main road legitimately going straight & minding their own business. Just that I didn't have the time else I would have probably stopped the b****r & taught him some road manners

[Boom Shiva]

This just boils my blood. I'm seriously beginning to wonder if citizens themselves must do something to stop this menace since the administration is useless.

[NIP]

there should be a mandatory law for call center cabs to install 'governors' to limit their speeds to 40kmph or so. its the only sane and implementable solution i can see...

[rks]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

In yet another accident involving a call center cab in delhi, a child lost is life and 5 are injured when a Call center cab jumped a red light and hit their school van(Omni)
Once again, call centre cab the culprit-Delhi-Cities-NEWS-The Times of India

This article doesn't state that the cab jumped a red light. Probably that info comes from elsewhere. I suspect that the dead/injured kids were in the front seats of the Maruti van, whose driver also sustained grievous injuries. Shows that Maruti van is not a safe vehicle, especially for transporting kids. Almost any car with a hood in front would probably have saved the driver and the kids. If I were the parent, I would never have agreed to let my kid be transported to school in a Maruti van or auto or other unsafe vehicles *as a matter of routine*. Once in a while is unavoidable.

[benbsb29]

Without going Off-topic, isnt it expected of the passengers travelling in these cabs to ask the driver to slow down when they realize he's driving like a maniac???!!

i remember when we were going for a project party, and had to travel in a Qualis, when the driver began his stunts, we asked him to keep them under control, lest we complain to his higher ups.. needless to mention, he obliged.

[suman]

RKS, the call center cab DEFINITELY jumped a red light & hit the van - you may pick up the Delhi editions of Times of India or Hindustan Times for confirmation on this fact.

Just FYI, the van was hit on the LEFT SIDE, no hood in front would have saved the persons inside from the impact. Also, FYI, there were 5 people (4 kids & driver) & I'm sure you'll agree that all could not have been in the front seat!

Hindustan Times say (and I would tend to believe them after seeing the picture of the mangled remains of the Omni) that the Sumo was doing around 100 kmph when he jumped the light & hit the van.

Do you think that ANY CAR would have survived this impact?

I'm surprised by your summary dismissal of using vans as means of transporting kids because they are not safe......isn't the main culprit that b*****d of a call center cab driver who was (I may add, AS USUAL) breaking all norms & driving recklessly?

I'm not sure you have any idea of how dangerously these call center cabs drive in the NCR & how many accidents they are responsible for - I doubt you understand the seriousness of this problem that we live with.

@Benbsb29 - there was no one else in the Sumo, the guy was returning after dropping people home

Here are a couple of photographs from The Times of India - SHOCKING

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[rks]

@Suman, I obviously never said that the cab driver was not to blame. All I pointed out was that that particular quoted link did not state that the cab driver jumped a red light. There is no point in getting highly emotional about this. If our police do not enforce the law, then the law will be broken. That is where the problem lies. From the fact that the van driver sustained grievous injuries, I assumed that the impact was at least towards the front side of the vehicle. In any case, I maintain that the Maruti van is not a safe vehicle for transporting kids when other vehicles are doing high speeds on the wide roads of Delhi. I certainly would not want kids sitting in the front seat of a Maruti van; at least an adult has a better chance of surviving a frontal impact.

[tsk1979]

Agree with you rks about the van part.
The maruti van has no side impact protection. Most modern design cars have thick circular beams in the door to protect against side impacts, but the 800 and omni do not.
Nevertheless, if you look at the condition of the Sumo, this was a very high speed impact.
Even in a safer vehicle serious injuries would have occurred at such speeds. Something needs to be done to the motor vehicle act to make sure that such killers do not walk free after 3 months in jail.

[noviceDriver]

Completely agree with the original statement as put in by tsk and seconded by suman. The call center cab did jump a red light and hit the Omni's left side. No car's left side would have survived a 100 KMPH Sumo's hit.
In my opinion, these call center cabbies are a wretched lot, without any sense of driving. They all are still on roads, driving, only because of the lack of implementation of Indian traffic rules.

[iraghava]

The Call centre cabbies are a menace & these incidents are becoming more & more commonplace nowadays esp in the NCR area. If any of you have travelled at night on the roads leading to Gurgaon from Delhi it's more or less a free for all with these guys driving maniacally. Have tought a few of them a lesson or two but the plain fact is that these guys are hardly imparted any training before handing over the cabs. Plus, some companies link their driver's pay to the number of trips they make so the drivers drive absolutely recklessly.

Also majority of the vehicles being Sumo's & Qualis's it also plays a part on their mindset of having the "bigger" & "stronger" car which leads them to thinking they are invincible. And as is apparent from this case I think the Sumo driver would have escaped without any injuries or very minor ones at the best.

I think its high-time they got fitted with CNG & Speed Limiters to limit their speeds & pollution. But knowing Delhi Police it's gonna be a tall task until they cause some MAJOR mishap.

[suman]

RKS, my point is, if you are going to have a Sumo do a crash test at 100 kmph on your car, irrespective of the make, do you think the end result would have been much different?

I agree with you on the fact that the Omni may not be a car that I would take my kids to school in.....but what if it was my Fiesta, side beams, ABS et al.......I would think the damage/loss of life possibility would have still been high.

As TSK says, guys like this need to be put away for years & years & the keys thrown away....knowing the judiciary, the scoundrel will be out in a few months with "brake failure" & who knows what else being touted in his defence.

Let us not forget reality - how many people can afford to send their kids in "safe" cars to school; with resources being scarce & "pooling" being advocated, second best options will always be used.....at the risk of lives.

Its just that I feel that our NCR police do not believe in the concept of "feet on the street" in terms of being there in person to pull up & discipline these rash death merchants. How many of us have actually seen call center cabs being pulled over by police for a walloping? I've NEVER seen one.....our cops are too busy hiding behind bushes in their INTERCEPTORS training their radars on unsuspecting motorists who are probably 5 kmph over the limit on four lane roads but they are never around to haul up guys doing 100 kmph & breaking red lights & being potentially more dangerous than suicide bombers.

And as for being emotional RKS - definitely emotional thinking of the loss of life of an innocent youngster who was happily on his way to school to enjoy his day....and of his parents who are wondering what they did wrong, that van had been ferrying kids to & fro for 12 years according to the newspapers.

[tsk1979]

Well said suman,
NCR police are out to make revenue.
I see so many buses break red light but are never pulled over, but if a car/bike guy is stuck in slow traffic and light turns red, the cops jump in front waving dandas.
The situation is bad in Delhi and even worse in Noida/Gurgaon due to traffic police focusing elsewhere.
On empty roads you will see them challaning motorists who are probably doing 1kmph above speed limit. I have been challaned for doing 81kmph in a 80kmph zone. But I see so many buses take right turn after parking in the leftmost lane on traffic lights and so many of them jumping lights.
NCR roads are full of trucks going the wrong way in fast lane too, but they are never challaned!?
So unless the police realize that their job is not to make revenue, but ensure orderly traffic, such incidents will remain as frequent as they are now.

[2L8uLoose]

Now here's a case for CAPITAL PUNISHMENT if there ever was one....

[yogesh sarkar]

In most cases not only the driver of these call center cabs are to blame, but also the call centers themselves and the cab operators. Most of the call centers impose fine on a cab that arrives late and to escape this fine most drivers drive beyond their limit. A fact echoed by many cab drivers when I was working for a call center. A driver even admitted to have driven for another call center where the fine was Rs.800 that had to be paid by the driver and thus he had to drive at 100+kmph on the Gurgaon highway at 4am in January when the visibility was hardly 100mtrs due to fog!