[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

This is horrible to say the least. Reminds me of the old Onida TV ad: "Neighbours Envy, Owners Pride". I have a strong feeling some one has instigated the kids to do this, it could parents or someone close to the kids.

Well, it is the newest and most expensive car in the lot, or at least what can be seen of it.
Could it be neighbour's envy at play here?

[rovingeye]

Originally Posted by hemanshughia

So this happened with a friend of mine, who bought the New Verna in March 2018 from Modi Hyundai.

Now the questions:
1. Will the absence of Fire Brigade's report hamper the claim processing?
2. Should'nt the authorized seller's insurance company (or hyundai) bear the repair cost OR such cases are acceptable and be handled by consumer's insurance company?
3. Should my friend get in to any kind of discussion with Hyundai for the repair OR for car replacement (is the damage repairable and then reliable)?

CCTV clip:

Some questions come to my mind-
1. Who created the video that's shared in the original message? Is it created by the OP's friend, whose car got burnt? If yes, then only he can answer why the crucial evidence got edited out. Is it a possibility that the kids are the owner's own kids, therefore the need to protect them?

2. If the incident happened on 19th Jan and CCTV footage was available to the aggrieved party immediately, which presumably showed the culprits, why create this thread and ask the community about insurance claim procedure, or suggest that Hyundai is at fault?

Something still doesn't add up here.

[Miyata]

Assuming the car owners had no foul role (insurance fraud?) in this, the whole episode is disgusting, disappointing, and depressing at the same time.

On some level though, not surprising.

I have seen many instances when adult Indian folks - who are seemingly capable of independent, intelligent thought and action - show complete disregard for another's personal space and possessions. I used to regularly see my parked bike being moved around without my permission and with no note attached. When it first happened, I was totally aghast. Confronted the perpetrator and gave a piece of my mind. The "well educated" fellow working in a reputed firm showed no remorse or even understanding of the issue!

When I take my infants out on walk within the apartment complex, they get attracted to some of the car colors and show an inclination to touch them. I totally forbid that. One just cannot (rather should not!) go about violating another's personal space, personal property etc. Very basic stuff. We can't teach this to our kids if we don't ourselves practice it in the first place.

[Sherlocked]

Sad to see the update.

Curious to know how the insurance company operates in this regard.
From where does the suffering party gets compensated (insurance company or from the children's family)?

Also what if the act was done by a major?

Can someone kindly enlighten.
Thanks in advance.

[neoonwheels]

Really really tricky situation to be in. Looking at the age of the children, the owner wont file charges, yet the insurance company would need proof or would find a way to get those. I guess the parents will have to compensate the owner out of own pockets, if they want to stay out of trouble.

[RaghuVis]

Really sad to see the update, but more than that really irritated and infuriated at the broad brush stroking of the term bad parenting used so leisurely.

We still do not have full picture of what transpired. I am not even sure we are going to even get a full picture. Why the haste to pull someone down, point fingers? Does that make this whole mess go away? I feel sorry for the owner for what he is going through. If [a big IF] parents are not directly involved in the crime, I feel terrible for them and last but not the least, this is one of the worst situation for two kids to be in. My heart goes out to all of them! Maybe being a parent causes you to look at the whole picture and not one half.

Remember, there is an FIR filed here so out of court settlement is not very straight forward but surely possible. This case needs to have a proper logical conclusion in legal terms. Anything can happen from compromise to sending those 2 kids to Juvenile home depending on what has really happened. So please have little compassion for all. You don't lose anything by that. Let the knives comes out after all the facts are laid out.

[Jeroen]

Sad case. But at least it is clear what happened. I appreciate not sharing the full video for obvious reasons. Still, I would be interested to hear how this fire got started. I find it hard to imagine that insulation material under the engine hood would be go up in flame?

Did they put a fire underneath the front of the car (you can see flames in the last image, but that could also be burning stuff dropping from the engine). Did they push something burning into the engine through the grill?

Sometimes kids do these silly if not stupid things all by themselves. Me and my mates have certainly set a few things on fire when we were little. We did not need any prompting. One of my own sons was once caught "walking across car roofs" parked in our street. That did not make us very popular. So kids do this sort of stuff the world over.

Jeroen

[Ani0404]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

What exactly did the kids do with the car for it to catch fire so bad? I do not think a match stick or a candle can cause such a bad fire to the car. From the posted screenshots, i do not see anything substantial inflammable in their hands as well. Maybe this info will help narrow down on similar incidents in future

I feel there can be three situations:-

1. Looks like the kids have some kind of matches ( I somehow can relate that yellow coloured box to a matchbox) in the second picture. I might be wrong too. Either the kids might have lighted the sticks and threw in the bonnet area so find out if it catches fire.

2. They might have found something interesting that they were seeing in the front part of the car (may be some kind of sparks/ sounds.

3. Last is that they might have been just playing around and did not do any mischief.

[ani_meher]

^^^ Why are all situations pertaining to innocence only? Let's not forget that they have burned a car and then someone has tried to hide it away, subtly blaming Hyundai and trying to get insurance companies pay up for this. Unless there is a culprit, it escapes me how and why the insurance company will pay up. Will the insurance report say that since children are God's gift, this was an act of God? I think at the very least, the parents will pay up and the neighbors will always live in terror wondering what fate their possessions await, if culprits are not taken care of.

[itwasntme]

Just imagine how this would have panned out in the basement parking of a highrise or if the the Verna was parked next to the main electric cable box or was surrounded by motorbikes. This could have ended in multiple fatalities, and consequently manslaughter charges against the perpetrators and their wards.

Insurance will concurrently proceed against the childrens' wards by way of a civil case to recoup any damages paid out to the vehicle owner.

[vnabhi]

How terrible! I guess children might have got influenced by some movie, and put their thoughts into action.

Thanks to the Mods for updating this thread, else we would have suspected Hyundai.

I sincerely hope the owner is compensated fully.

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

They probably set fire to the insulation.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Is that insulation not fire resistant?
Maybe the insulation material is changed in the newer models that are not fire retardant,

Apparently, foam insulation is a potential candidate for fire hazard (link)

Originally Posted by Ani0404

Looks like the kids have some kind of matches ( I somehow can relate that yellow coloured box to a matchbox) in the second picture. I might be wrong too. Either the kids might have lighted the sticks and threw in the bonnet area so find out if it catches fire.

Yes, it kind of appears that they were carrying something (matchbox?) when they appeared in the camera frame for the first time and then seemed to have gone back to the car to check for something.

They might have found something interesting that they were seeing in the front part of the car (may be some kind of sparks/ sounds.

To me, it appears more like confirming whatever they wanted to do, is getting actioned or not.

Last is that they might have been just playing around and did not do any mischief.

Looks improbable considering the info and the image grabs that are available. The kids went in to check the car in the first grab. In the second image grab, they start walking away probably assuming they have "completed their job". And in the third grab, they go back again to the car probably because nothing has happened.
In the fourth image grab , they are seen running away.

To me, this is akin to lighting up a firecracker during Diwali days - you go and try to light it up the first time. If it doesn't lit up, then you go back to check. And then in the second attempt, once you are sure that the firecracker has indeed lit up, you need to run away as fast as you can.
Maybe my imagination running overtime here

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by neoonwheels

Really really tricky situation to be in. Looking at the age, owner wont file charges and then insurance company would need proofs or would find a way to get those. I guess the parents will have to compensate the owner out of own pockets, if they want to stay out of trouble.

Originally Posted by ani_meher

^^^ Why are all situations pertaining to innocence only?

There is a concept of age of criminal responsibility. I don't know, but I'd be surprised if this does not exist in Indian law: below a certain age, a child cannot be held criminally responsibly for anything that they do. Having been away for too long, I don't know the current state of the law in my mother country (UK) but I do know that there were child crime waves, as well as use of children by adults to enter and steal from premises through small holes. If caught, the children were able to say yah-boo-sucks to authorities who could do nothing. There were calls for reform: as I say, I don't know what transpired.

It is hard to imagine how impossible it must be to live with one or more little monsters --- and they certainly exist in childlike skin! It takes not good, but super-human parenting. I hope, for all concerned, that this is not the case here, and that it is a case of one-off stupidity and ignorance of the consequences.

Like others, I have childhood experiences too, like nearly setting fire to a garage, messing with methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) in a garage full of wood and stuff. Could have burned the house down. However, I had no intention of setting anything, other than the meths, alight, and was horribly shocked by the results of my spillage.

[Aashish_390]

Extremely disheartening to see a car in such a condition. The only good thing about this incident is, no body got injured during the mishap and none of the other vehicles got impacted. Had it been a basement parking with a few 2 wheeler's around or exposed cables, then it would have been very very ugly.

Getting rid of the time stamp in the first video is something which definitely makes me wonder a tad more, with a lot of questions which many of us have raised.

Interested to know how the insurance company settles this case. Hope that the owner gets compensated well.

[ACM]

This is a shocker

1) On the bright side, insurance company would still compensate even if it is an act of arson.

2) Insurance company would move a police case against the kids to be tried as per juvenile justice system.

3) Thankfully this was not the poor Verna or Hyundai at fault again. This is the silver lining.

4) First clips now seem obviously edited by someone in the know. Thankfully the truth came out.