[rohanjf]

When it comes to luxury cars, there are two types of people who own it:
1. someone who has just managed to lay her/his hands on a 3-series.
2. someone for who a 3-series is a secondary car, whose father has a 7-series for regular commute.

It is the latter that do not care for anything, not even their own lives, and end up crashing into someone and killing them.

Off-topic:
As far as Indian media is concerned, I remember this incident. When terrorists kept shooting everyone in Mumbai, the media so nicely covered the actions and broadcast them live. It was so easy for those sitting in foreign soil to watch how the defence forces were planning to stop the terrorists, and guide them accordingly.

When asked about it, a very well known journalist said there should be some kind of rule in place that prevents the media from airing such events live. He actually asked for an authority to control media. Do you think these mediapersons have any brains?

[mayjay]

Originally Posted by Daewood

Sir, do you have any data for this "disproportionate number" ?

Let me clarify on this point, by disproportionate number, I mean that out of accidents taking place in a major city like Delhi, of the type wherein a bystander or another vehicle occupant has been killed by a car, the number caused by vehicles like BMW/Audi/Merc is disproportionately higher when compared to the ratio of these vehicles on the road.

None of this is based on actual statistics, it is merely an observation based on the fatal accidents of this nature which are reported, and the vehicles causing them (in which I am curious enough to note the make of the car, even apart from the ones named here).

[GullwingGT]

This is probably the way the media wants to focus,but this will or has to change as someone mentioned in earlier posts that nowadays working professionals too can afford these cars.Once this fact is accepted,the kind of reporting that we see relating to luxury car brands will come down.This may take few years.

Also,the Indian public's mentality will also change once thay see more people owning BMW/Mercedes/Audi.However the incidents relating to higher spec sports cars may not change that easily.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by mayjay

None of this is based on actual statistics, it is merely an observation based on the fatal accidents of this nature which are reported, and the vehicles causing them

That's exactly what the thread starter meant in the first post, that the media is creating an impression of BMWs as killer machines, when in reality many other makes are also being driven recklessly, but don't qualify to be BREAKING NEWS.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Well, it doesnt really matter where who is coming from as long as there is no DUI. But in this case if the lady was speeding in foggy conditions, perhaps the fault did lie with her.
I think it is high time drivers learnt to understand what the road can take instead of what their car can do.

The accident happened late at night around 1 am IIRC. Have you given it any thought as to how the media house came to the conclusion that the porsche was speeding and the biker was driving and observing all laws? No they don't give a damn. For them its an automatic news item which reads that the powerful and rich have claimed yet another victim from the poor and downtrodden population of our country. BTW for a fact the 2 MCD employess were drunk and the accident happened at a juntion. Neither guy saw the other vehicle and collided. I am not defending my neighbour in this case but what I am trying to say is that the media doesn't give a rat's tail to whose fault it is!

[GTO]

It's very simple, really.

@ Smartcat : On that Google News page, no one would click on a title that read:

One killed in a road accident between private car & taxi

So, notice how the news websites manipulate. The following words have been sprinkled on the titles of those articles:

- BMW (what difference? Don't regular cars have accidents? Well, gets more eyeballs than a Maruti or Tata, that's why)

- Speeding (the bigger car in news articles is always "speeding")

- Medical student (what relevance? Can't a med student end up in an accident?)

- 120 kph!

Each of these words (or a combination, thereof) are carefully placed to get your click in an age of information overload. It's called sensationalism.

On Team-BHP, we hate this practice.

Originally Posted by Pancham

EDIT: One more thing I missed. These German cars are no longer BMW, Porsche, Mercedes. THey are speeding BMW, speeding Porsche, speeding Mercedes.

Your post is CLASSIC!

[Zed]

Its fairly obvious that the press uses certain automotive brand names in their articles to capture the attention of the reader. One has to agree that ' maruti 800 rams into a bus shelter killing two' doest really have the same impact as 'BMW rams into a bus shelter killing two'. Hence if the errant vehicle is of the common variety its just an anonymous car or 'four wheeler'. One can observe this trend with regards to other segments as well. When was the last time you read a headline that stated 'Tata bus kills biker' ? But if the bus in question is a Volvo - you can be sure that the title would read 'Volvo kills biker'. And so on and so forth. The point that many of us are trying to make - a vast majority of our print and TV media is based on sensationalism and their journalistic values have taken a back seat, if that.

Originally Posted by mayjay

None of this is based on actual statistics, it is merely an observation based on the fatal accidents of this nature which are reported, and the vehicles causing them (in which I am curious enough to note the make of the car, even apart from the ones named here).

This kind of proves the point I am trying to make. There is, to the best of my knowledge, no statistics to back this impression that Beemers and Mercs are responsible for a majority of road accidents in our metropolitan cities but the media has been successful in creating this impression. That said there is no statistics to the contrary either, not at least in the public domain. So in the absence of credible statistics many of us have this impression (right or wrong - open to debate in the absence of statistics) which is primarily created by the media.

[amitayu]

what are the proportions of a maruti Swift accident and a BMW accident? by the sheer number of each car on road, the first has a greater probability!
the sheer exclusivity of the latter makes it newsworthy!!!

But do remember, the BMW or Merc news is as highlighted as Blueline buses in Delhi, and the owners of the latter were not the richie rich!!

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The accident happened late at night around 1 am IIRC. Have you given it any thought as to how the media house came to the conclusion that the porsche was speeding and the biker was driving and observing all laws? No they don't give a damn.

I dont really care what the media thinks, after all they are no authority to analyse accidents. Their job is only to report. The fact and the problem is they add a lot of spice to the actual incident.
And the media not caring about anything isnt new to me. Unfortunately its a representation of how callous and insensitive people can become when they should actually be responsible.

Originally Posted by Zed

When was the last time you read a headline that stated 'Tata bus kills biker' ? But if the bus in question is a Volvo - you can be sure that the title would read 'Volvo kills biker'. And so on and so forth.

yeah, no. here, the term Volvo is used to indicate a more generic kind of bus. Something similar to taking a 'Xerox copy'.
I am not supporting this, but we are already there.

[shankar.balan]

Appreciate this point.
It is the fast driving nouveau riche chappie who has no idea of the responsibilities that come with owning and driving a powerful automobile who are more guilty than the other regular blokes.

On your OT point:
I really couldn't agree more - that was so completely idiotic having Madame BD running about and screeching in a hysterical manner while at the same time showing the whole world exactly where our security forces were in relation to the terrorists.
There ought to have been a clamp down at the time on all live broadcasting of the actual incident, but our ghoulish media were there, serving up hot news to our equally ghoulishly greedy tv viewers!

Originally Posted by rohanjf

When it comes to luxury cars, there are two types of people who own it:
1. someone who has just managed to lay her/his hands on a 3-series.
2. someone for who a 3-series is a secondary car, whose father has a 7-series for regular commute.

It is the latter that do not care for anything, not even their own lives, and end up crashing into someone and killing them.

Off-topic:
As far as Indian media is concerned, I remember this incident. When terrorists kept shooting everyone in Mumbai, the media so nicely covered the actions and broadcast them live. It was so easy for those sitting in foreign soil to watch how the defence forces were planning to stop the terrorists, and guide them accordingly.

When asked about it, a very well known journalist said there should be some kind of rule in place that prevents the media from airing such events live. He actually asked for an authority to control media. Do you think these mediapersons have any brains?

[novice_alto]

is the media biased against these "German" cars? well may be. but nobody cares about the real culprit. The roads. Our roads and road sense or traffic sense are not tuned to these high speed cars. These cars certainly have the potential to reach high speeds at a mere tap on the pedal whereas the regular "junta" cars would take a lifetime achieving these speeds. While they achieve these speeds, seldom are the drivers trained for such cars. I don't think the drivers take any special training for driving such powerful cars. More often than not, a rich teenager takes his father's BMW or Merc or whatever for a spin when he has no miles under his belt driving a less powerful regular car. The line that comes to my mind right now is "With great power comes great responsibility". Neither are these companies doing anything about it or the owners. hell, they most of the time give keys to drivers who are hardly literate, let alone hands on with the intricacies of the car. I remember reading a post on T-BHP where a Captiva had turned turtle, the reason being the "driver" did not know about ABS and when he panic-braked for some reason and ABS kicked in, he panicked and tried what not and thus the accident.

As far as the perception of rich getting away is concerned, well it is not a perception really. it is the REALITY. All the BMW cases on record prove that, hardly anyone in these cases have been indicted or convicted.

Someone said that a M800 ramming into a bus shed and killing 6 would not make news. Well I think that really unlikely. a poor M800 will come to a stop at hitting the first pillar of the bus shed and will go no further.

Best safety features vis a vis our roads and our traffic sense is a car with less power.

[AdityaLN]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Why does the Indian media have to mention that it was a BMW? And not just one, but every newspaper? Why don't we see these type of headlines?

Mahindra driven by a student kills 1
or
Speeding Maruti car rams into cab

What exactly are these papers trying to imply?

I was wondering the same earlier today, when I saw there was one more accident involving a BMW. Made me wonder are they the only killers on the road. Probably an accident involving them attracts more eyeballs on TV than an accident with Santro or a Swift.

[Zed]

Originally Posted by novice_alto

is the media biased against these "German" cars? well may be.

Originally Posted by novice_alto

As far as the perception of rich getting away is concerned, well it is not a perception really. it is the REALITY. All the BMW cases on record prove that, hardly anyone in these cases have been indicted or convicted.

The Rich and connected get away - period. Doesnt matter what car they drive. The issue that we are discussing here is why the media chooses to highlight certain brands involved in these incidents and refer generically (especially in the title of the article) to others. This has to qualify as sensational reporting where there is unnecessary focus on the Vehicle, its price tag, power & top speed.

Originally Posted by novice_alto

Someone said that a M800 ramming into a bus shed and killing 6 would not make news. Well I think that really unlikely. a poor M800 will come to a stop at hitting the first pillar of the bus shed and will go no further. Best safety features vis a vis our roads and our traffic sense is a car with less power.

Im afraid this is a pretty weak argument. Pedestrians get killed on account of injuries sustained when a bike or scooter rams them. On the flip side - speaking specifically about pedestrian safety - some of the cars that are labelled 'killers' by the media have safety features designed SPECIFICALLY to reduce injury to pedestrians in the event of low speed accidents. Last time I checked the M800 did not.

[StarrySky]

You behaving badly in public is not news, but when a celebrity does it, it's news.

And the BMW/Merc/Audi/Porsche/Ferrari etc are the celebrities of the auto world.

[negativeH]

Not just the media for that matter. Take any crash between a two wheeler and a 4 wheeler, and people (by standers and others) would end up blaming (and even thrashing) the car guy. It's like the general frustration/hate that 'the car guy has it better in life'. I've personally been involved in an accident where the exact thing happened.
The most recent one, where the BMW rammed into the Eeco, no one from the media is bothering to check where the Eeco was standing/moving; since the other car is a BMW, it must be the culprit.

Originally Posted by rohanjf

When it comes to luxury cars, there are two types of people who own it:
1. someone who has just managed to lay her/his hands on a 3-series.
2. someone for who a 3-series is a secondary car, whose father has a 7-series for regular commute.

This is pretty much the same mentality as the media's. To a certain extent yes, generally the new-fast-car category end up smashing it, but generalization is wrong. I know lots of people who have 3's and C's, and they haven't owned luxury cars before, and they're actually some of the safest drivers I know.
Accidents are just too complicated for a cliche. Maybe the BM guy just sped at the last turn and before that was driving at 30kmph? Maybe he was speeding all the way, maybe the eeco guy wasn't looking. I donot believe what the patrolling cop says, these people just go by the generalizations themselves.