[RaguHolla]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

If you are sarcastic, then I agree. But seriously, the following rules apply:
1. If the intersection is of roads of equal importance (seems likely in this case), whichever vehicle reaches the intersection first has the right of way. Such intersections are always marked with stop sign, which means stop, look and proceed even if there is no other vehicle visible anywhere around.

To avoid confusion on such intersections, the developed countries usually ensure that all intersections of two major roads have signals. On narrow streets, a roundabout (circle) is created. Unfortunately in India, everyone goes on the wrong side of a circle. I have seen the exceptions only in Goa (and to some extent in Mangalore too, but roundabouts are rapidly disappearing in Mangalore).

2. If the intersection is of a major road with a minor one, the traffic on the major road has the right of way (whether it is going straight or taking a turn into the smaller road). Sadly, this means that the vehicle on the smaller road has to keep waiting until traffic on major road is clear!

I am not sure what you found sarcastic. I just quoted law. There is nothing in Indian law at least I know of talks about intersection. If you know the same please quote. Your second statement is correct. I am just quoting this text from our law.

[AyAn!]

Originally Posted by damanshaheed

Before I get into the details of what and how...bhpians look at the pictures and tell me in your opinion who is at fault.

With all due respect, it's almost impossible to gauge who's at fault here just by looking at pictures of a totaled Passion and a slightly bashed Swift, that too at an apparently unmanned small intersection.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by damanshaheed

Before I get into the details of what and how...bhpians look at the pictures and tell me in your opinion who is at fault

Well, I can't blame any one here. Prima facie looks like the biker rammed into the car, at a pretty good speed !!

That leads me to thinking::-
- The intersection is wide open from all sides. I mean the walls are of short height. So it is highly unlikely that the Swift driver could not see the biker, or the biker could not see a bright white car coming from another side. Highly unlikely case.
- The roads look narrow. Probably a community area, or a campus, or a military campus (i can see some Army-men). So somebody was speeding within a closed campus, but why ?
- Probably "I can make it" thought passed through the mind of both the driver and the rider at the same time.

Basically an amalgamation of mis-judgement and speeding lead to this disaster.
We would like to hear the fact from you, so that we can be alert, to avoid similar situations in our lives.

[damanshaheed]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

Swift was going from right to left. Biker was taking a right turn. Since the vehicle going straight has the right of way, biker should have waited till the Swift passed and joined the lane behind Swift, especially because the Swift was already into the intersection. But no bikers know about the concept of right of way, let alone obey them!

You are right, the Swift was going from right to left, but the biker, in fact, was going straight and not taking a right turn.

Originally Posted by akshay4587

Which Cantonment is that?
Registration of the swift is of Ambala but picture does not look like from Ambala.

Yes Akshay it in fact is Ambala Cantt. It is the road going to the GOC's residence and golf course, about 400 mts short of the GOC's residence.

Originally Posted by AyAn!

With all due respect, it's almost impossible to gauge who's at fault here just by looking at pictures of a totaled Passion and a slightly bashed Swift, that too at an apparently unmanned small intersection.

I should have given you some more details probably.

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Well, I can't blame any one here. Prima facie looks like the biker rammed into the car, at a pretty good speed !!

That leads me to thinking::-
- The intersection is wide open from all sides. I mean the walls are of short height. So it is highly unlikely that the Swift driver could not see the biker, or the biker could not see a bright white car coming from another side. Highly unlikely case..

Yes in fact the biker rammed into the car.

Here is what happened. My wife was alone in the car at the time of the accident. If you look at the last picture of my post, the pic of the point of collision, she was in fact going from right to left and the biker was coming from the direction where the SX4 is parked. She had actually almost crossed the intersection when from nowhere he rammed into the car. The guy was an Army jawan in uniform. My wife pressed on the brakes after this guy actually came and hit her. It was an empty road. If you look closely and zoom into the picture of the car taken from the front, you will notice that the road that my wife was travelling is actually a bend and it has a Military Police barrier 100m before this intersection. Anyways what is shameful for the Army chaps is what happened after the accident. My wife stopped and it took her a couple of minutes to get out of the car because the driver's side door was stuck and she was mentally shaken. The biker was badly hurt, we came to know later that he has multiple fractures to his leg, shoulder, and arm. My wife walked back to this guy. He was laying on the road. At that moment she realized that she was bleeding from her face as a result of the driver's side window smashing and hitting her face. After a couple of minutes someone stopped and took this guy to the Military Hospital. Within no time troops from this unit surrounded my wife and started misbehaving with her and accusing her of causing the accident. She had called me in the meantime and it took me about 15 minutes to reach the spot. These troops demanded the car keys from her and when she refused saying that her husband is on the way and they can talk to him and that she was not running away as she had stopped herself, one of the havaldars actually had the audacity to push her, grab her hand, and snatch the keys from her. I reached the spot and saw her surrounded by these men in uniform all the while she was bleeding from her face. When I asked her to go to the hospital in my car, these troops said that they had been ordered by their officers to detain whoever had caused the accident. I reasoned with them that they have already sent their man to hospital and they can't deny medical assistance to an accident victim, they started pushing and shoving me around. Finally I was able to drill some sense into their heads and they allowed her to go the Military Hospital, but escorted by two jawans. The officers arrived on the scene 1 hour after the accident and with the preconceived notion that my wife had caused the accident. They have filed an FIR against her of driving rashly, banging into the guy, and dragging him for some distance.

Instead of helping a lady in distress, this is how the Army treated her. Shameful. I myself am a son of an Air Force fighter pilot and my wife is the daughter of an Army officer. We have spent almost all of our lives in cantonments around the country, but never have we ever come across or heard of such unruly behavior by troops. It is such a sad state of affairs.

[Edmund]

It's a shameful story, these guys are the protectors of the country? I'd hate to have a run in with them or their contemporaries, as they say, there's no point arguing with idiots, 'cause they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!

[Biraj]

Originally Posted by damanshaheed

These troops demanded the car keys from her and when she refused saying that her husband is on the way and they can talk to him and that she was not running away as she had stopped herself, one of the havaldars actually had the audacity to push her, grab her hand, and snatch the keys from her. I reached the spot and saw her surrounded by these men in uniform all the while she was bleeding from her face.

Irrespective of whose fault it was, this is not the way of behaving with a woman. One can understand uncivilised auto-drivers or hooligans behaving like that with women but such behaviour can't be expected or tollerated from 'Men in Uniform'. Good that both of you have connections within the armed forces and not mere "Civilians". Take it up with competent authorities and ensure that the Havaldar gets punished

On the accident: from the point of impact and the direction from which the bike came, it doesn't appear that he was going straight. If he indeed was, then he was in the wrong lane. It seems both the car and the bike were taking a turn into the same lane from opposite directions. The bike must have been at high-speed.

[srishiva]

@damanshaheed, very sorry to hear about your incidence. In this country, everyone behaves the same way. It doesnt matter what we do for a living or otherwise.

[damanshaheed]

Originally Posted by Edmund

It's a shameful story, these guys are the protectors of the country? I'd hate to have a run in with them or their contemporaries, as they say, there's no point arguing with idiots, 'cause they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!

I hope it is a one off incident, I have met all the senior officers and they have assured me the strictest action will be taken against them.

Originally Posted by Biraj

Irrespective of whose fault it was, this is not the way of behaving with a woman. One can understand uncivilised auto-drivers or hooligans behaving like that with women but such behaviour can't be expected or tollerated from 'Men in Uniform'. Good that both of you have connections within the armed forces and not mere "Civilians". Take it up with competent authorities and ensure that the Havaldar gets punished

On the accident: from the point of impact and the direction from which the bike came, it doesn't appear that he was going straight. If he indeed was, then he was in the wrong lane. It seems both the car and the bike were taking a turn into the same lane from opposite directions. The bike must have been at high-speed.

My point exactly, both of them were the victims of the accident at that point, this is no way a lady who is also injured and bleeding should have been treated. The higher ups in the Cantonment endorse my point of view. as a matter of fact the Military Police is taking my wife's statement as I am posting this.

My wife did the civilized thing to stop after the accident. The troops are not to be squarely blamed my friend, it is the officers who should have reined them in. Complete leadership failure. These troops kept saying that they had "aadesh" from the officers to detain the lady and take the car keys in their "kabza"

Talking about connections in the Army, the current Army Chief General Bikram Singh is my dad's junior from school and a very good friend. I too am an alumnus of the same school.

Originally Posted by srishiva

@damanshaheed, very sorry to hear about your incidence. In this country, everyone behaves the same way. It doesnt matter what we do for a living or otherwise.

I won't be so harsh on the Army, having lived most of both of our, me and my wife's, living years the Fauji life, but I sincerely hope that it is not the case of one rotten apple spoiling the basket and such behavior is nipped in the bud.

[damanshaheed]

Interesting update on the accident, this guy does not even have a driver's licence. He has a learner's licence issued on 27 Aug, 2013.

[deathwalkr]

I remember my father sending a newspaper cutting to me many years back where he had highlighted the fact that if a driver is without license then he voids all claims in case of an accident even if the fault is not his.

I was driving my cousin's kinetic honda in high school :(

That true?

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by damanshaheed

Instead of helping a lady in distress, this is how the Army treated her. Shameful. I myself am a son of an Air Force fighter pilot and my wife is the daughter of an Army officer. We have spent almost all of our lives in cantonments around the country, but never have we ever come across or heard of such unruly behavior by troops. It is such a sad state of affairs.

Some crazy mess,this one,and hey i just realized that this happened at a stone's throw from my place.What time did this happen?,and what is the situation now?.I have been staying in Ambala Cantonment since 20+ years now,and never noticed anything of this sorts.Are you still around?
Let me know if i can be of any help.

[Thilak29]

A truck carrying a Hitachi earthmover overturned near Mangalore.

[aerohit]

An accident is an accident - no one causes it intentionally. In this case Jawan driver was drunk. I would like to know if this Jawan walked away or punished for murder?

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_...sp?n_id=188364

Ganesha festival turned tragic for four people who were killed on the spot when an Army truck went berserk on Mysore Road near Doddabele Junction, Kengeri, Karnataka, on 11 Sep 2013.

The truck driver, an Army sepoy, was found heavily drunk. He has been identified as Jyothiba Maruti Belgaonkar, 31, hailing from Belgaum.

Going by the morale of the country, looks like no one one wants to join the Army these days and they are recruiting goons these days for the army

[PapaBravo]

The truck driver, an Army sepoy, was found heavily drunk. He has been identified as Jyothiba Maruti Belgaonkar, 31, hailing from Belgaum.

Going by the morale of the country, looks like no one one wants to join the Army these days and they are recruiting goons these days for the army

Point 1 : The Army Sepoy IS at fault for driving drunk.

Point 2 : Everyone who drives under influence need not be classified as GOON. Again re-iterating that he IS at Fault.

Point 3 : It is advisable NOT to generalize the whole profession on one person's random act of irresponsibility.

Just my two cents, No offense.

[damanshaheed]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

Some crazy mess,this one,and hey i just realized that this happened at a stone's throw from my place.What time did this happen?,and what is the situation now?.I have been staying in Ambala Cantonment since 20+ years now,and never noticed anything of this sorts.Are you still around?
Let me know if i can be of any help.

Yeah Akshay, my family lives in Defence Colony although I live and work in Noida. I guess I will be around for some time to sort out this mess. This place is also a stone's throw away from where I used to live back in the mid 90s when my father was still serving and was posted at Ambala. I will pm you my no....let's catch up some day.