[srvm]

Originally Posted by Amit_breakfree

Also teaching about road safety in schools will be a welcome move. Why can't we have a 30 mins class per week/month on road safety so that the idea of safety is inculcated in the minds from a very young age.

While I agree with this idea, I believe it will be of no use while many parents themselves bend/break trafiic rules even while driving with their wards to/from schools. Education starts from home, does'nt it?

Originally Posted by Amit_breakfree

More than government regulations, self regulation will be important here. Government can't install cameras and traffic policemen all over the country. They are meant to enhance the security rather than checking every other user.

[Amit_breakfree]

Originally Posted by srvm

While I agree with this idea, I believe it will be of no use while many parents themselves bend/break trafiic rules even while driving with their wards to/from schools. Education starts from home, does'nt it?

True that, many parents don't follow these rules. But at least we need to start somewhere.

So we should start educating our friends and families first. If for example you and I will follow these rules and also push our near ones to do the same, we can bring some change. Something is better than nothing as bringing such a change in mentality and driving style or people across India will be a Herculean task in itself.

[StepUP!]

Fair amount of advice, education, training is what you can do at the most. If it doesn't work, after that it's all useless.
I may sound rude here but seriously I think why to waste time after such people? They die out of their own deed until they are lucky.
Just like a person who smokes is aware of it's consequences; same applies here. No amount of videos, advice can convince them as they "think" not wearing seat belts proves their manhood.

Sometimes I think we shall display disturbing pictures of mangled bodies or cars at every 10kms on roads/highways just like a cigarette packet warns about the mouth cancer.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by Amit_breakfree

One of the easiest way to do this will be creating videos like they have done for tobacco use and they showcase it in movie theaters and television sets. The gruesome images can at least change the perception and mentality of few people and hopefully it will be a welcome move.

I think videos should work a lot. In fact, just like those tobacco videos, we could showcase something like the crash test videos. Dual screens showing the same crash with and without seatbelts, with and without seatbelts in an airbag equipped car, etc with some audio description, can be eye opening probably.

Also, just like the Govt. has banned on screen smoking, we could ban onscreen driving without seatbelts and emphasize scenes where the actors are belting up.

[centaur]

Originally Posted by Amit_breakfree

One of the easiest way to do this will be creating videos like they have done for tobacco use and they showcase it in movie theaters and television sets. .

Also teaching about road safety in schools will be a welcome move. Why can't we have a 30 mins class per week/month on road safety so that the idea of safety is inculcated in the minds from a very young age.

There was video which I saw in which such a trick was done in a Southeast Asian country in a Movie Theatre. As soon as the theatre was full, there is a POV video of a person driving a car. Suddenly all the people in the theatre get an SMS and habitually all of them check their phones. Almost instantaneously, the car in the video on the screen meets with an accident and they are told how a minutes distraction can prove fatal to them.

Actually there are plenty of ad videos all around but how much impact it makes is something I am not sure of.

Even when it comes to teaching in schools, all the teachers can do is teach but the kids will always learn looking at the parents/relatives/friends drive and if these people dont follow the things, nothing will change.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ashis89

I have heard many people argue on the importance of safety features such as ABS, airbags or something as rudimentary as a seat belt. Their argument: "I have been driving for x/xx years and I never had any accident".

What people fail to understand is the element/concept of "risk", they are not aware or never acknowledge that. It's like wearing a helmet when riding a two wheeler, umpteen excuses - short distance, low traffic on the route, I ride slowly, etc

Few people change with advice from others, many others learn the hard way but still many others learn when they see/hear/read about an accident that badly injured or took life when it could have been better if seat belts or helmets were used.

Couple of years ago, in my friends circle a couple met with an accident and one of them lost their life while the other was seriously injured and survived after multiple surgeries, it was a harrowing time for the families - and yes, they were both not wearing seat belts and the car had airbags

This was an eye opener for many people who knew this couple and ALL of them started wearing seat belts and using helmets after this incident.

[ashis89]

Another problem that an informed user is facing today:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ust-paper.html

My colleague is looking to buy a Swift and he specifically booked the VXi (O) inspite of a 1 month waiting period. Now, after 45 days, the dealer was still pushing for a plain VXi.
Finally, he upgraded his booking to a ZXi and the car is still nowhere in sight. Every call to the dealer for an update results in them pushing for VXi.

This is the kind of patience that you need to buy a safe car.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by ashis89

Another problem that an informed user is facing today:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ust-paper.html

My colleague is looking to buy a Swift and he specifically booked the VXi (O) inspite of a 1 month waiting period. Now, after 45 days, the dealer was still pushing for a plain VXi.
Finally, he upgraded his booking to a ZXi and the car is still nowhere in sight. Every call to the dealer for an update results in them pushing for VXi.

This is the kind of patience that you need to buy a safe car.

Just move to some other car - Maruti obviously doesn't care about the lives of its customers.

[ram1980]

Below are my ideas
1. All learner license folks to get a small book of driving basics which includes topics on safe driving skills on highway, rains, fog etc. (content from Team-BHP advice section can be taken)
2. Test (prometric or online) in RTO for driving license needs to be mandated and stringent with 80% correct answers to pass. The content of the questions should be high quality so that the options are not straightforward to choose ( I have seen some Skillsoft training material which are really good in topics like fire safety; the same approach can be applied here).
3. In cars, make the seat belt warning sign and sound mandatory for all models. We will have few more people use it to avoid that irritating sound at least

[Amit_breakfree]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Just move to some other car - Maruti obviously doesn't care about the lives of its customers.

Have already shifted my booking to Swift Zxi but still the car is nowhere to be seen. The recent fire in Maruti's plant and their annual maintenance has made matters worse.

Also, the dealer attitude in Hyderabad has been quite below average here in Hyderabad. I was at Gem Motors in Kondapur and wanted test drive of Swift Petrol. The SA got me a Swift Diesel for test drive and when I pointed out, the answer was "Both are same cars sir, the only different is that when petrol one runs at 30 km/hr, diesel one will run at 20 km/hr". And I was like

Originally Posted by centaur

There was video which I saw in which such a trick was done in a Southeast Asian country in a Movie Theatre. As soon as the theatre was full, there is a POV video of a person driving a car. Suddenly all the people in the theatre get an SMS and habitually all of them check their phones. Almost instantaneously, the car in the video on the screen meets with an accident and they are told how a minutes distraction can prove fatal to them.

Actually there are plenty of ad videos all around but how much impact it makes is something I am not sure of.

Even when it comes to teaching in schools, all the teachers can do is teach but the kids will always learn looking at the parents/relatives/friends drive and if these people dont follow the things, nothing will change.

That's a real good idea which they are followed in the South-East Asia country that you visited.

We can choose not to do anything, but that won't improve anything. It's like charity begins at home. So the minimum which we can do is start wearing seat belts ourselves, buying the safest car available in our budget, following the rules in every circumstances, and educating our near and dear ones to do the same.

One has to start somewhere.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Just move to some other car - Maruti obviously doesn't care about the lives of its customers.

Sorry for going off topic.
We don't really have much options in petrol. The requirements are a good driver's car which is manual, should have good resale 5 years down the line and costs less than 8L OTR. If the Maruti twins are ruled out, we have nothing else there. The below were ruled out by him due to following reasons:

1. Figo: Not a very enthusiastic petrol engine, though better than the previous gen. He is also skeptical about the resale.

2. Polo: 1.2 MPi is nowhere good and TSi is automatic. It's much beyond the budget too.

3. i20: Neutral handling and poor performance in petrol.

Are we missing out on any car?

[akshay380]

I have used this trick to great effect. Moral/Immoral I dont care.

I catch hold of kids of offending parents and show them some accident videos/seatbelt safety campaign videos where situations with/without seatbelt are depicted with some blood etc thrown it. In 99% cases kids force parents to wear belts next time

[libranof1987]

I make it a point to tell everyone in my car or other cars in the group to wear seatbelts; often resulting in people being very annoyed.

Same with helmets or advising buyers to go for the variant loaded with safety features.

Beyond a certain point, you can't reason or force or threaten. They either learn the hard way or are blessed to not have any untoward incident, thereby reinforcing their belief that these safety features are unnecessary.

The reality is, safety features come at a cost (over the variant without one). And you can never enforce your opinion on how someone spends their money.

What you can do, is enlighten them. Whether they take it or not, depends solely on them. Or a really bad experience.

Originally Posted by akshay380

In 99% cases kids force parents to wear belts next time

Smart move; for better or for worse, kids are impressionable. So, if you enlighten the kids, they'll force the parent to be more conscious.

This will light you up!

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/02/us...ight-911-call/

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Smart move; for better or for worse, kids are impressionable. So, if you enlighten the kids, they'll force the parent to be more conscious.

This will light you up!

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/02/us...ight-911-call/

I was a kid upon a time and am still one for my parents. But I am still unable to convince my father to change his 'habits'. He wears the belts when he is travelling with me or in cars which have audible warnings for passenger belts too. Rest of times, he ignores them and I can't be around every time he is travelling in a car. People, after aging up, do turn a bit rigid too (because of their xx years of experience).

My above reply reminds me of an observation. Audible warnings in cars are irritating and they force people to belt up (personal observation). Once they do it a few times, they will be accustomed to it. These should be made mandatory (and ban the sale of blanks).

[manishkapadia]

Originally Posted by ashis89

The requirements are a good driver's car which is manual, should have good resale 5 years down the line and costs less than 8L OTR.
Are we missing out on any car?

Yes you are missing one out. People might laugh when I say this but go check the Honda Brio. You have to drive it to see how much fun that car can be. We tried almost every hatchback till 10 lacs and if there is anything that comes second do the GT TSi in the fun factor its the Honda Brio.

Ofcourse interiors are a dated, and to many it looks awkward. But Driver oriented. A Big YES. Driving it will give a big smile on your face.

Sadly the car does not sell and the dealers are not keen on pushing the vehicle at all. Imagine no dealer even in Mumbai has a decent demo car to sell Brio.

Off Topic but had to reply. Mods please excuse or move the post if needed.