[charanreddy]

Originally Posted by bravo6

BTW what did you intend to achieve by calling the cops on the bus driver? Of course it is your right, but even if you go to court, the maximum penalty for him would be a fine of couple of thousands. And claiming damage from the bus's insurance would take it's own sweet time, with you having to pay from your pocket first anyway.

Claiming own damage from your insurance, especially if they have a cashless option would be the easiest option, and it doesn't ruin your peace of mind.

This was my first accident, the bus was an Infosys staff bus and I was naive. I assumed the bus driver would compensate me for the damage. But totally agree, no point making a scene or blaming the other guy. It is best to claim insurance or swallow the bill for peace of mind . Do not call police unless absolutely required.

[vickzkool]

A commendable effort by BTP to bring out a set of rules and trying to publicise it , although not allowing in car blue tooth to communicate and cancelling the license for the first offence definitely feels a bit over the top. Traditionally India has always seen poor implementation of traffic laws and I feel it is about time it changes for good , it would be much better to have a set of traffic laws notified by the central government and applied uniformly across the country with no local addendums and caveats, there by reducing the confusion as to what is legal in one state and what's not in the other .
In UK if you are caught using your mobile phone /head phones / in ear blue tooth you immediately get a 3 point penalty on your license which is live for 2 years , once you accumulate 12 points your license is automatically cancelled and you serve a driving ban , once the driving ban is served you will have to re apply for your license from stage 1 which is a pain, however the driving ban is applied at 6 points if you have held your license for less than 2 years which makes a lot of new drivers drive sensibly and thus mature on the road as they gain experience, a lot of things can change for you as a driver once you have points on your license , your insurance quote for the next year rockets as you are seen as an unsafe driver , have seen many job adverts with a pre requisite of a clean driving license ( No Points ) especially where the role comes with a company car including yours truly, the emphasis to follow rules germinates from these set of laws which are enforced to a tee regardless of your position or status in the society , I can quote various news articles where high ranking police officials have lost their jobs for over speeding. if we had a similar laws with impartial and fool proof enforcement then a lot of lives would be saved and we would have very safe roads, unfortunately I do not see that happening at all in the near future .

[honeybee]

I wish on this rule the approach taken by the Banglore police should be used by all other cities. I personally am fed up with morons on two, three, four and six wheelers talking on the phone and riding or driving.

[TheARUN]

Two things -

1. What I have seen majority of them do is wear 'hands-free' when riding or driving. This is more dangerous than talking on the phone because when the phone is not being answered, you would in all probability have music playing through the headset. Imagine not being able to hear danger sounds on the road

2. The Bus drivers work under very strict conditions, they are mostly contract workers and if there is an accident during their tenure, then the contract does not get renewed. There are heavy fines that are imposed on them for accidents too, so I think it would make sense complaining against them, even if you don't want to call the cops, you should click pictures and mail them to BMTC

[Rabbit80]

I think the rules are only good if they are implemented properly. No matter how strict rules are penned down, it will eventually boil down to the fact "How the traffic police implements them".
I believe the most important thing should be education. I remember around 7-8 years ago when I was in Delhi, the Delhi police would ask traffic offenders to watch a 2-3 hours video clip on Road Safety apart from fining them for Traffic Violations.
This did help a lot.

Another thing, during my daily commute to office, I have seen so many Cab Drivers and two wheeler riders consistently talking on the phone while Driving. Was hit by a cab driver once as well while waiting on a traffic signal. And these cab drivers are hardly stopped or questioned by the traffic cops. If they only stop them and have them look at the video clips with a good amount of fine, they will automatically fall in place. As they will not like to loose time which they can use to earn extra bucks.

[TheTeacher]

Originally Posted by Rabbit80

Another thing, during my daily commute to office, I have seen so many Cab Drivers and two wheeler riders consistently talking on the phone while Driving.

In the last 4 days, I have missed green signals about 4 times because the cab in front was undecided which way to go (left, straight or right) and was on the phone trying to find out where he was to go. As you rightly said, 2-wheelers and cabbies are the worst offenders in this regard, and there is zero enforcement of this, or most other rules in Bangalore. Traffic cops seem to be an endangered species here - hardly seen.

[ManojVM]

A few years ago, I was cycling on Sarjapur Road in Bangalore. There was a car in front me going slow, and as I was trying to go ahead of him he swerved, nearly knocking me off my bicycle. As I rode by the car, I saw the driver was talking on the phone. Infuriated I yelled at him " Get off the phone", and then proceeded to cycle off. He started tailgating me, and honking aggressively. I pulled over to the side of the road, and he stopped behind me. Seeing that I was in a dangerous position, all alone at night on a cycle, I tried to calm the driver down by explaining that he was driving rash, that he almost knocked me down, and apologizing.

In hindsight, I realize that what I had done was very stupid, as I could have become a victim of road rage.

But even know, whether I am driving or cycling, when I see a motorist who is driving rashly because they are talking on the phone, I still find it infuriating. What can I do to ensure that some one who is talking on the phone while driving is penalized?

Does anyone have any experience with such situations? Please advise.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by ManojVM

What can I do to ensure that some one who is talking on the phone while driving is penalized?

Does anyone have any experience with such situations? Please advise.

Since you are from Bangalore, take a picture is the offender along with the cars/two wheelers registration number and post it on BTP's website.

Advantages :

A) You don't need to be the victim of road rage,
B) There could be some action taken.

Disadvantages :

A) Getting a clear picture of the offender and registration number keeping in mind your safety and other road users safety.

B) The offender shouldn't notice you clicking pictures.

[ghodlur]

Lucky for you that no untoward incident happened, it could have got ugly had the driver decided something else instead of just honking. Since it was a deserted street, he was in an advantageous position.

Driving in the fast lane and talking on mobiles while maintaining cow speed is a normal sight on the roads. The fact that they knew they are doing a mistake and dont give a damn about it is disturbing mentality slowly growing into a menace. Even it is brought to their notice about talking on phone while driving, they ignore you. This incites other vehicles to over take dangerously putting everyone at risk on the roads.

I feel there should be some kind of signal jammer that should prevent any mobile being operational when inside the vehicle. Once outside the car, the mobile can work as usual.

[gabrielthomas]

Today morning when I was driving down to office on GST, a young doctor girl(probably studying in SRM Medical college), driving a black generation 1 Dzire was continuosly talking on her cell phone. She never looked into her left or right OVRM while switching lanes and missed couple of vehicles including my car by inches. God knows if she reached safely!

[rajakumar]

Yesterday in ORR, saw a two wheeler IT guy meddling with his smartphone on one hand and managing and driving his activa on the other hand. He was off the balance couple of times and strayed into the cars on his side but still didn't give up meddling his smartphone.

[JLS]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Driving in the fast lane and talking on mobiles while maintaining cow speed is a normal sight on the roads. The fact that they knew they are doing a mistake and dont give a damn about it is disturbing mentality slowly growing into a menace. Even it is brought to their notice about talking on phone while driving, they ignore you. This incites other vehicles to over take dangerously putting everyone at risk on the roads.

I agree, makes me angry everytime I see this. It is not possible to drive with one hand-controlling steering wheel and managing gear changes, while other hand is occupied in holding cellphone to ear - these idiots think they have super human capabilities.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I feel there should be some kind of signal jammer that should prevent any mobile being operational when inside the vehicle. Once outside the car, the mobile can work as usual.

This will deprive passangers also from using mobile, not a practical solution.
I believe practical solution would be to have CCTV cameras at multiple locations, recording vehicle movements. This will help in catching offenders of talking on phone while driving, and violators of other rules too.

Regards,
JLS

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by JLS

This will deprive passangers also from using mobile, not a practical solution.
I believe practical solution would be to have CCTV cameras at multiple locations, recording vehicle movements. This will help in catching offenders of talking on phone while driving, and violators of other rules too.

Sometime the passengers on mobiles are also the biggest source of irritation/distraction.

It is a known fact that CCTV's are sooner or later prone to malfunction just similar to the traffic signals. Plus only if they are continuously monitored would they be of any help.

[jetti]

Originally Posted by vickzkool

In UK if you are caught using your mobile phone /head phones / in ear blue tooth you immediately get a 3 point penalty on your license which is live for 2 years , once you accumulate 12 points your license is automatically cancelled and you serve a driving ban , once the driving ban is served you will have to re apply for your license from stage 1 which is a pain, however the driving ban is applied at 6 points if you have held your license for less than 2 years which makes a lot of new drivers drive sensibly and thus mature on the road as they gain experience, a lot of things can change for you as a driver once you have points on your license , your insurance quote for the next year rockets as you are seen as an unsafe driver , have seen many job adverts with a pre requisite of a clean driving license ( No Points ) especially where the role comes with a company car including yours truly, the emphasis to follow rules germinates from these set of laws which are enforced to a tee regardless of your position or status in the society.

Such a points based system is fair and allows for an odd genuine mistake - just like our T-BHP infraction system
Don't know why the Indian lawmakers are so fond of all-or-nothing laws. Stricter enforcement will lead to compliance - not stricter laws.

[Jakku]

Originally Posted by ManojVM

But even know, whether I am driving or cycling, when I see a motorist who is driving rashly because they are talking on the phone, I still find it infuriating. What can I do to ensure that some one who is talking on the phone while driving is penalized?

Does anyone have any experience with such situations? Please advise.

Dear Manoj, yes, I have experienced it personally (luckily I was not hit), but my cousin was not that lucky and was hit from behind her Activa, she fell down & fractured her hand and then was out of job on sick leave for about 3 months (not just a simple fracture, but had some complications as well). When she joined back, she was out of her project and was on bench for about a month and then was put on night shift. She was not OK with that and had to quit. The lady who was driving an i10 panicked on hitting and accelerated which threw my cousin onto another car and luckily she was wearing a helmet and the other car had stopped before she hit it. This lady went on to hit another parked 2 wheeler and then came to a stop dashing a tree. All this while she was holding on to the phone as she was hugging her dear life and asked the guy on the other side to come for help. The interesting twist to this is, the owner of the car which my cousin went and fell on (an M800 - had some dents on his car) demanded money from my cousin 2 days later at the hospital and when we refused, he went ahead and filed a case in MACT. The case is still going on. So there are these kind of morons also in this world.

In my case, I was almost hit by a beemer, but managed to ditch my bike to an open canal (rain water drain) and that idiotic driver just stared at me and drove off. I was OK with just a couple of bruises. Being Bangalore I was sure, I could catch him and went chasing him and got him within a KM. Parked parallel infront of his car. Locked the bike (I was sure, I cannot escape and he cannot move back from that deadlock as it was a huge block near the railway gate in Kagdaspura) took off my helmet and thought could use that to my self defence!!! and called him out. He was not ready to open the door or scroll down the window. Opened my bag took a paper from my handbook and wrote "F@#@# open the door or scroll down" and showed at the window. Luckily, 2 people came for my help (who helped me pull out of the ditch earlier) and demanded to open. Then he scrolled down. Gave him a good lecture and at the end while wrapping up to his dialogue "don't teach me how to drive" I replied "money power will not get you sense, but if you do not know how to drive learn it and if you need to talk and drive together at the very least get a headset worth of 100/-". Thanks to the people around, I got good help. I lost some real estate of skin, and a RVM.

There is very little one could do, esp. if one is in a totally unkown area. Luckily for me and my cousin, we both were near to our house and the guys who came to our immediate help were all known people like vegetable vendor, hotel owners etc.