[aah78]

Originally Posted by DCEite

In a country like US, there can be a racist angle to this.

The identity of the RR driver is not being revealed. Is there something to hide?

No, no racist angle here. This is NYC - population is diverse as it gets and though racism isn't unheard of, this looks like just gunda-gardi.

Originally Posted by rikhav

Never expected this to happen in a country like USA where anybody would just call the cops if there is an accident and follow the law

This is typically what happens in India where people are out for blood

Anyone in place of the RR guy would have done the same because it's obvious from the video that the bikers were just waiting for an excuse to pick up a fight

I am surprised that there were no cops on the whole stretch where the bikers were chasing the car

Pretty surprising

Yes, but it is surprisingly normal to see long stretches without cops. They have patrols but it's not a major crime-infested area.


The stretch of road where they were driving, and a couple of others which are relatively open stretches of road in an otherwise congested NYC. Bikers and road racers do drive rashly here.
This is typical gang mentality from the bikers - strength in numbers & might is right.


On online forums this has brought up the gun law situation in NYC. Some people, mainly from out of state speculate that the RR guy would have been safer if he was carrying a gun (which would have been illegal in NYC).

My (rhetorical) question to these supposed gunfighters is, how many of those hooligans would you hope to gun down before you yourself were shot, injured or killed!

[tharian]

This reminds me of videos from National Geographic.
A group of Hyenas or wolfs chasing a buffalo or a bigger animal. The way the bikers rev their engines is the same as scaring the bigger animal. Their strength lies in numbers.
Why the comparison because, this is exactly how our roads and society are now. A jungle with wild animals.

Pathetic state of affairs.

[rikhav]

Originally Posted by aah78

No, no racist angle here. This is NYC - population is diverse as it gets and though racism isn't unheard of, this looks like just gunda-gardi.



Yes, but it is surprisingly normal to see long stretches without cops. They have patrols but it's not a major crime-infested area.


The stretch of road where they were driving, and a couple of others which are relatively open stretches of road in an otherwise congested NYC. Bikers and road racers do drive rashly here.
This is typical gang mentality from the bikers - strength in numbers & might is right.


On online forums this has brought up the gun law situation in NYC. Some people, mainly from out of state speculate that the RR guy would have been safer if he was carrying a gun (which would have been illegal in NYC).

My (rhetorical) question to these supposed gunfighters is, how many of those hooligans would you hope to gun down before you yourself were shot, injured or killed!

Originally Posted by tharian

This reminds me of videos from National Geographic.
A group of Hyenas or wolfs chasing a buffalo or a bigger animal. The way the bikers rev their engines is the same as scaring the bigger animal. Their strength lies in numbers.
Why the comparison because, this is exactly how our roads and society are now. A jungle with wild animals.

Pathetic state of affairs.

Have never been to USA but what I have assumed talking with relatives and friends settled there is that it is way safer then what we are here in India, including big cities

Remember a guy was hit with a baseball bat here in Mumbai when he tried to stop a guy bashing another person who banged his car. That guy was even bashing him up inspired of that guy apologized many times

That might is right attitude I never expected it to happen in USA.

Very true that world is turning into a jungle, where you can not feel safe anywhere. You never know where you come across such people

The RR guy if given a choice would have opted to completely slow down and let the bikers go much ahead of him. But he would never have expected it to turn so ugly

I still do not favor the gun law. If the RR guy had a gun there was surely a possibility that out of those 30 or 40 bikers atleast 10 would also have a gun.

If the RR guy had a gun and would have opened fire, imagine what would happen in response by those retards


Maybe I am ranting too much, but I have recently lost someone close in a terrorist attack. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time

[amitoj]

The RR driver should have stayed on the highway until a patrol car caught up to them. But I guess he panicked, which was a natural reaction.

Originally Posted by aah78

My (rhetorical) question to these supposed gunfighters is, how many of those hooligans would you hope to gun down before you yourself were shot, injured or killed!

It could have acted as a deterrent. What happens in real life is very different from what is portrayed in movies where it is always bang bang boom boom and Jason Statham always wins

[Chetan_Rao]

A gun is very bad deterrent, esp. when one is as outnumbered as the RR driver in this situation. Once you introduce weapons to an already volatile situation loaded against you, there's no telling how it would end.

Brandishing a gun is counter-productive in such situations, unless one is willing to use it. Else it just serves to madden an already frenzied opponent.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by amitoj

The RR driver should have stayed on the highway until a patrol car caught up to them. But I guess he panicked, which was a natural reaction. It could have acted as a deterrent. What happens in real life is very different from what is portrayed in movies where it is always bang bang boom boom and Jason Statham always wins

If you read a post somewhere on the forum, I got caught in a similar situation for breaching a Kerala bandh. Driving on was not an option. We adopted a firm but passive stance and would not communicate unless the police were involved.

[noopster]

It's clear the RR driver panicked. But what he needed to have done was stay calm. Especially since his wife and little child were in the car with him. Lock the doors, don't react to the provocation, call the cops and wait for help. It was NYC for God's sake, am sure they would have reached him pretty quickly.

By doing what he did he risked his own life and that of others, including his family, which is unacceptable. While it's easy to sit and pass judgement sitting in an armchair the fact is that people who panic have no business driving on the street. At one level I feel for the guy trying to get away from a bad situation where his family could have been potentially harmed, but strictly from a commonsense perspective, he should have stayed put.

[Maky]

Originally Posted by rikhav

Never expected this to happen in a country like USA where anybody would just call the cops if there is an accident and follow the law

This is typically what happens in India where people are out for blood

Anyone in place of the RR guy would have done the same because it's obvious from the video that the bikers were just waiting for an excuse to pick up a fight

I am surprised that there were no cops on the whole stretch where the bikers were chasing the car

Pretty surprising

People are people. In some countries civilised people outnumber the barbarians but in the end they are people and animal instincts take over when threatened regardless of what country you are from.

I'm very happy to see the SUV was not charged. Although it doesn't show the incident in full as the man with the helmet camera was behind, from what can be seen once he arrives at the scene it appeared as if the Idiot in front of the RR suddenly stopped and him or one of his thugs were bent on starting a fight with the driver of the car. Shameless cowards hitting a man in front of his wife and child.
Something similar happened to me years ago. I heeded to my friends advice and immediately lifted of the accelerator and let the Idiots pass who kept staring at me throw the window as they went by. Sons of ....

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by noopster

It's clear the RR driver panicked. But what he needed to have done was stay calm. Especially since his wife and little child were in the car with him. Lock the doors, don't react to the provocation, call the cops and wait for help. It was NYC for God's sake, am sure they would have reached him pretty quickly.

By doing what he did he risked his own life and that of others, including his family, which is unacceptable. While it's easy to sit and pass judgement sitting in an armchair the fact is that people who panic have no business driving on the street. At one level I feel for the guy trying to get away from a bad situation where his family could have been potentially harmed, but strictly from a commonsense perspective, he should have stayed put.

The facts are up in the air at this point, but reportedly they smashed his window and tried to (or actually did) slash his tires as well. That's how they eventually caught up with him, because he couldn't get very far with damaged tires. I'm not sure how much staying calm or locking himself up in the car would've helped in that situation.

[kdp95]

I'm with the RR guy. When it comes to the safety of your family, nothing else matters. I agree that it'd have made sense to call and wait till the cops arrived. But the way those bikers behaved, I doubt they'd have left him alone till the authorities arrived because at the moment, they had outnumbered him and as someone said earlier, there is strength in numbers even if you are wrong.

As far as I know, he did the right thing to protect his family and in the heat of the event, any normal human being would've acted in a similar way.

Speaking of guns, there is also a possibility that one of the bikers might have brandished a concealed one which prompted the RR guy to get the hell outta there.

[MARCUS_520i]

Originally Posted by noopster

Lock the doors, don't react to the provocation, call the cops and wait for help.

THAT was definitely not gonna help, after what we saw. Whether he ran over the bike or not, the bikers would totally have resorted to the helmet v/s glass strategy

IMHO, this is a very good demonstration of "How to put your big bad SUV to good use". No, seriously.

I'm in full support of the RR fellow here. As all of us can see in the beginning of the video, how the guy on the white bike creates a scene, escalating to the RR having to use it's might and run over one of the bikes.

If this were to happen to me, here in India, I'd do the same and zoom to the nearest police chowky. Of course, I'd also be making some phone calls on the way there, alerting my close ones as to what has happened.

The 'gang' of bikers in the video, exhibit nothing less than typical hooliganism. Many of them aren't even wearing helmets, leave alone necessary riding gear.

Another point to notice is how the person on the dirt bike, filming this video has edited it exactly at the point where it gets violent. Why does he not want to show us how much of testosterone is running through his friends' bodies who obviously must have beaten the RR driver black and blue, if not fractured a few ribs!

I just hope that the scene was interrupted by the cops and the RR guy got out of it safe.

[kdp95]

Originally Posted by MARCUS_520i

I just hope that the scene was interrupted by the cops and the RR guy got out of it safe.

A couple of black eyes and bruises on the face and chest that needed stitches. He was discharged from the Columbia University Medical Center later.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by ajmat

If you read a post somewhere on the forum, I got caught in a similar situation for breaching a Kerala bandh. Driving on was not an option. We adopted a firm but passive stance and would not communicate unless the police were involved.

I dont think he had the option to sit and wait for the cops to come. I read somewhere that his tire was also slashed though I am not sure of when exactly that happened. If you notice in the video, once he climbed over the stopped bikes, no biker dared to come in front of him while he was on the move, except once when he himself stopped. He did dial 911 on his way and had he continued to drive down the highway, a highway patrol car would have eventually intervened.

[F150]

Originally Posted by noopster

It's clear the RR driver panicked. But what he needed to have done was stay calm.At one level I feel for the guy trying to get away from a bad situation where his family could have been potentially harmed, but strictly from a commonsense perspective, he should have stayed put.

I have to differ with this opinion , it is pretty clear from the video that the bikers were taunting the range rover. The biker on the white bike was staring at the windows and slowed down on purpose.

It is a pretty natural reaction, given the number of bikers present at the scene, at least 50- 60 bikers were present.

From the video, it is not clear, what happened after the crash and before the Range rover ran over the bikes.

Secondly,

While it's easy to sit and pass judgement sitting in an armchair the fact is that people who panic have no business driving on the street.

At the end of the day, we are humans, different people have different tolerance levels before they panic. The above statement is harsh.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by rahulsharma2008

The RR guy shouldnt have tried to escape after he ran over the first biker.

The video doesn't show the bikers attacking the Range Rover when the accident occurred. If the violent behavior by the bikers didn't start at the time, then the driver of the Range Rover is at fault.

However, if the bikers did attack the Range Rover after hitting the first biker, which cannot be proved as the video doesn't show that occurring, then the Range Rover driver acted out of a need to get away from the mob violence. Hitting the other bikers was still wrong on the part of the driver because the other bikers were simply a part of the group as bystanders - they didn't engage in the violence.

The fault is that of the driver for injuring bystanders, and the fault of the bikers who attacked the SUV.

We have hooligan bikers in India too, who get in front of cars, make lewd gestures, and hit their brakes to irritate the drivers. We typically slow down till they pass.


PS: RR is typically associated with Rolls Royce; the thought came to mind as worth a mention when I saw the use of RR to describe the Range Rover.