[fordfreak]

Originally Posted by Simhi

Good that all four of you along with the biker and pillion are safe. Happy to know that cops were helpful. I hope your damages are fully covered via insurance. Appreciate you going out of the way to compensate the biker. To be frank, I would have thought twice.

Yes, I do have a comprehensive policy. Waiting on the surveyor to come look at the car (which is now lying at the service centre) and approve the estimate thereafter.

The only reason I decided to give the biker some compensation was the fact he wasn't well-off or well-educated and was panicking about being harassed by the cops. Made sure we sorted things out and went our separate ways. In the grand scheme of things, I was just thankful things did not turn out worse for either of us.

Originally Posted by StopUnderrides

The bike rider, when he graduates to driving a truck, will behave in the same way and jump signals. This wouldn’t even be the first time he’d have done this. You should not have let him go free.

I hope and pray that you are wrong, but given the way things are in our country, I'm not holding my breath. Unfortunately unless the system (driving schools, enforcement of traffic laws and the legal system) does not change, there will be hundreds of such characters prowling our roads. But that is a discussion for another thread.

I decided to let him go as I did not want to get caught up in our legal system, especially since everyone made it out relatively unscathed. The way things are, he would have been back riding / driving regardless (too many such examples to even bother listing them).

Originally Posted by mayankk

PPPS: I hope you've also not shared any contact details with the guys.
If so, my cynical side says, expect a phone call in a few days. Sign o'the times.

He did ask me for my contact details, which I declined to share. I agree with your line of thinking in these times. It is unfortunate that one cannot trust another individual's word nowadays.

He wasn't well educated as such and did ask for my help in reviewing his insurance (he asked me if they would cover the damages to his bike). I glanced through his papers and advised him to approach the dealer where he bought his bike and that they would guide him through the process.

As a precaution I went ahead and filed a general diary (motor collision report), to put the incident on record (on the advice of a senior officer we know), to avoid any major headache in the future should the biker decide to file a case.

[COMMUTER]

Originally Posted by RoadMonkey

The comments are depressing for me. It's all about Tata's build quality, not the stupidity of the driver of the Nexon. Can we, for once, stop praising Tata's build quality in every accident and discuss the perils of driving like an absolute bonehead on Indian roads? It almost seems like getting a "safe car" is a license for people to drive recklessly because they won't die if something goes wrong.

I do agree that there must have been a mention about the stupidity on the driver's part. However, I do feel that all accidents are due to stupidity of one or more of those involved barring a tiny fraction. So, while mature road manners are to be encouraged, it is rare to come by on Indian roads making the emphasis on safety and build quality a good thing. When TATA can bring a safe car for just 6L OTR, I can't help getting obsessed over other car manufacturers giving unsafe cars price three times more than the lowest priced TATA. This is a gruesome negligence on the part of all manufacturers who had offered such cars so far.

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

If only BNVSAP had scaled up much earlier to a rigorous standard like they have done wrt vehicle emission, things would have been much different.

This had been hung in front of the public for many years now. From how things progress in this beloved nation, we know that this must have been put off from implementation by the lobbying of the businesses that have the most to lose with the implementation of the same. A casual glance at sales figures would let anyone know who would have disappeared, had such norms been put in place for the welfare of the public.

While it is important for the public to get encouraged with driving in a safer manner, it is equally beneficial for the public to see through the cruel joke being played on them in the form of the cars being unsafe yet pricey.

[RohaNN_kWh]

2022 Mahindra Scorpio test mule meets with an accident in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.





The front crumple zone did its job and absorbed the impact pretty well, A-Pillar looks good. The bottom part of the bumper looks intact in comparison to the hood which is pretty bad, I am guessing a collision with the rear side of a truck?




Credits: motorbeam

[adisan]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Ever since the Supreme Court passed an order to remove all speed breakers on National Highways, the work around was to put barricades and make people do a ‘Reverse S’ between 3 of them that’s placed or just one like we see in this video.

These barricades are mostly put in places where a side road meets the highway. Thankfully, in many places there is a warning 500 metres before the barricades.

Near Mulbagal (towards Bangalore) there is one place where barricades have been put just after a curve. Drivers not familiar with the route will have a sudden surprise.

[Sarvodaya]

Drive in Customer. That lady sitting on stool was certainly lucky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2FllkTJBz0

BY THE POWER OF SUGAR



Note how the street light lit up after the trailer crashed

https://www.facebook.com/Uttarakarna...76560949892966

[jkrishnakj]

Wonder what the people were thinking when they were running behind the getaway trailer.
Sure was a sigh of relief when the light lit up. Comic indeed.

Originally Posted by adisan

These barricades are mostly put in places where a side road meets the highway. Thankfully, in many places there is a warning 500 metres before the barricades.

Near Mulbagal (towards Bangalore) there is one place where barricades have been put just after a curve. Drivers not familiar with the route will have a sudden surprise.

Agree.
I actually passed by this one just yesterday and was opining to my wife that it’s placed at such a bad location.

What is really irritating is when you see barricades with the names of Restaurants that are on the highways and you’ll find those just near to these barricades. Wonder if it’s the police who put those or the shop/restaurant guys who do it.

[landcruiser123]

Warning: Sensitive content ahead.

Looks like a nasty accident in Rajasthan. I don't have any details - I hope the police investigate this incident and punish the culprits.

https://twitter.com/MadhawTiwari/sta...57260795613185

[smileline]

Witnessed an accident today, which got recorded on my dash cam, by God’s grace the senior citizen involved was safe.

Unauthorised parking of a vehicle, (common on MG Road, Pune) and lack of left side mirror and inability to use lateral vision and anticipation by a senior citizen caused the accident.

I guess the Alto driver was not at fault. Though it appears he moved towards his right a bit and for some reason the victim removed his hand off his handle for few seconds.

He lost his consciousness for a while but Luckily he was safe.

https://youtu.be/6dLyUMta628

[adisan]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

What is really irritating is when you see barricades with the names of Restaurants that are on the highways and you’ll find those just near to these barricades.

Have heard of business organizations donating such equipment to traffic police. Probably the restaurant did the same, and figured that they can promote their business as well.

[sridhu]

Originally Posted by adisan

Have heard of business organizations donating such equipment to traffic police. Probably the restaurant did the same, and figured that they can promote their business as well.

There are heavy rules & payments associated with this

A few years back, I wanted to put some reflective tape on the random drumlike barricades which had sprung up next to speedbreakers. I contacted the police saying "I will put it up the tape. Just give me permission"

The red tape was so much that I gave up. Similarly with putting up cats eyes on the speed breaker next to my house.

Hopefully no one got injured

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by Sarvodaya

BY THE POWER OF SUGAR

The E20 norms hits a roadblock. err ... lamp post block !

[Early_Adopter]

There are two parts to bike driving. The first is to learn how to balance, accelerate / decelerate, how to brake etc. The second and most important part is how to drive a bike on a road where there are several thousand fellow road users.

In Indian context, most people learn the first part from an uncle, cousin, maama, friend or a neighbour. No one learns the second part at all. Everyone is just told to honk when turning into a road, or crossing a junction or at a pedestrian and that’s that!

This informal system has worked quite well when there were fewer vehicles on the roads, but now we have so many more vehicles, roads with several lanes, complex junctions etc., but the driving behaviour hasn’t changed much resulting in avoidable accidents.

[apocalypse]

My mother had a bad experience recently, where she was driving alone in our Tigor. She was approaching a traffic signal which was yellow, and a Maruti SX4 behind her was in a hurry to go past. My mother stopped the vehicle at the signal, and the chap behind, in a hurry, didn't brake, and hit the vehicle from behind.



The man was travelling with his wife. My mother had the presence of mind to get down, immediately take photos of both vehicles, along with and ID proof of the man.

The boot lid, bumper, rear parking sensor, and the frame inside the boot were damaged.

Keeping all irrelevant details aside, he seemed to be a difficult person, and we felt it's best we avoid any engagement with the person, who I felt was a bit of a ruffian. We considered filing an FIR as a precautionary measure, but then decided against it since we didn't want to get caught in a legal process.

We considered going to Tata and making an insurance claim, but a known FNG suggested that they can fix it in 10k. We gave it to them, and 4 days later the vehicle was back, looking almost as good as new.

A couple of learnings and observations from the experience:

1. Accidents will always happen, and the cost of repair needs to be thought of as a part of the cost of the car
2. Dash cams are no longer a luxury - we got dash cams fitted both in the front and back of each of our vehicles
3. Egos are best kept aside; an engagement with a ruffian is simply not worth the mental agony or time

We're all human, and we're bound to make mistakes. Cannot expect that there will be no accidents in traffic. That said, it's something that has been inculcated in me, that whenever I've been the cause of an accident, I've apologized and followed through with compensation (happened twice). It is a little saddening to see the unwillingness on the part of others to do the same when we're not at fault.

Still, I've felt that it is our own self-interest to not go deeper into an argument/fight, just have the vehicle fixed, and move on with life.

[CARDEEP]

Tan accident occurred at Sarita Vihar Metro Station crossings on the road that comes from Appollo Hospital towards Badarpur at 8 pm yesterday.

Barely few cars ahead of me few bikers were down on the road. Seemingly, a swift (I could be incorrect with the brand & model) had nudged a bike rider & there were few more in close riding positions. If I'm not wrong 3 two-wheelers were down & the car had stopped with its bumper on the rear of last bike (one that it hit). It appeared that the accident wasn't nasty though few people were arguing with car driver & few helping victim riders.

Since I take this route daily, & this stretch (that I mentioned in 1st para) is really bad with slow movement of traffic due to people from merging roads entering the NH without any damn care about other road users, this was bound to happen. I also feel that bike & scooty riders are also partially to be blamed as they try to squeeze in in impossible gaps & despite all the caution being exercised by other drivers of bigger vehicles slightest of error in judgement can cause minor or major accident (s).

In another instance, day before I was ahead of pack at Appollo Hospital signal in the 2 lane from right of road. There was this rider, once signal turned green, changed lane from left most lane to right most one (to avoid locat bus stand next to this crossing). Within seconds (rather fractions), he was almost diagonally in my front. Thankfully my speed wasn't much, so I could just brake & avoid hitting the idiot without changing lanes & causing problems to others.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by fordfreak

The only reason I decided to give the biker some compensation was the fact he wasn't well-off or well-educated and was panicking about being harassed by the cops. Made sure we sorted things out and went our separate ways. In the grand scheme of things, I was just thankful things did not turn out worse for either of us.

While morally you might have done the right thing, but it is actions like these that encourage the wrong behavior in the long run. The monetary loss would have been a good deterrent for him to think twice before making the same mistake again.

When the law is the same for everyone, then why take different approaches based on the social status of the offender? It is this mentality that everyone in this country takes advantage of. Everyone is afraid to take action against the rich and the poor gets sympathy. The people in the middle end up suffering.