[centaur]

Look at this idiot. He is carrying kids but is driving like a maniac.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/v...w/59644141.cms

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by centaur

Look at this idiot. He is carrying kids but is driving like a maniac.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/v...w/59644141.cms

Must be punished for homicide!

First, the maruti van & the Gypsy was not accepted to be safe enough for being on the road in many countries. By whatever concessions, it found its way on the Indian roads. To drive such a vehicle, that too with children, in that manner, deserves to be convicted for culpable homicide at the least!

[thorque]

The caption says 'turned turtle', which is incorrect, the vehicle keeled over. Horrifying for the children, to say the least.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by airbus

Couple of points from Bengaluru City Traffic Police website:
10. RIGHT TO WAY
The pedestrians have the right of way at uncontrolled pedestrian crossings. When any road is provided with footpath or cycle tracks specially for other traffic, except with permission of a police officer in uniform, a driver shall not drive on such footpath or track.

In reality, as a pedestrian, I think we should first take care of ourselves and not depend on others' driving judgement to come out scath free. All it takes is a little patience. Of course, this is applicable for other road users as well, but as a pedestrian, the damages are more during such incidents and hence better to be extra cautious.

[DriverR]

As a father of a young child, it is very tough, emotionally, for me to see accidents where a child is injured or dies. In the case of the bike hitting the boy, I see it as a senseless, needless accident. A cruel twist of fate. I personally do not think the biker was 'overspeeding'. It was going faster than other vehicles but not overspeeding. The moment the boy bolted, i nearly shouted 'Why'. There was no reason for him to run. But then, sometimes children are so impatient and unpredictable. The mother cannot be held responsible. She was doing her best handling 2 children on her own. At times, life teaches us lessons, which if we lucky, we survive and learn from it. I have made many mistakes as a child and when older. I was lucky. I got the chance to learn from them. This poor boy did not get lucky.

For the van toppling incident, i hope the driver is punished. He took the turn at too high a speed. He has no rights to endanger the lives of children under his care. Very chilling incident. The sad part is that many auto and Omni vans that carry school kids are driven in a rash manner. And parents either do not do anything, or cannot say anything, as they have no other modes of transportation.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Skyline_GT

Roads are purpose built for vehicles to smoothly run on and not for jaywalking.

That is what many drivers think, but they are wrong. Roads are there for all road users.

The only exception are those where pedestrians are actually banned. Otherwise, road users, on wheels, feet, hooves, whatever, must share the road space with each other: it does not belong to cars and bikes.

Originally Posted by airbus

Biker is definitely at fault, he was at much higher speed as compared to other vehicles in that intersection. We need to learn to slow down at intersections in this kind of roads.

I'm not commenting on this accident; I am not on the mood to watch such a tragedy.

However, generally, I see many wheeled road users, especially two-wheeled, driving with absolute disregard for others. I see bikers driving on through crossing pedestrians, even when other traffic has stopped for them. I've even seen a biker drive between an elderly couple. What happens if the people don't pause or stand back? The biker is not concerned with that possibility.

We can't say that for Indian roads with little or no pedestrian facilities.

Couple of points from Bengaluru City Traffic Police website:

Traffic Rules and Regulations - Traffic Do's & Don'ts

Famous lesson from Thad's Dad, posted before, but not as famous as it should be...

"When do pedestrians have right of way?"

After painfully exhausting my ability to quote the UK Highway Code, he told me...

"Always. You are never allowed to run them over."

Yes, it is that simple.


.

[vidyanand]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

That is what many drivers think, but they are wrong. Roads are there for all road users.

This reminds me of a recent incident with me.
I was walking on unpaved area (soil) of service lane (Hosur Rd) and this car guy comes out from a office building at same time as I crossed the gates and he tries to overtake me driving on rough surface almost hitting me if I would not have stopped.
I made few sign to indicate that the driver is not using his brains, so he stopped and lowered his window to talk.

Earlier in the day, I had another incident on scooter with an elderly rider (aged 45-55) earlier who kept honking wanted me to ignore red light and move ahead and I shouted back that he can do whatever he wants I will not budge. He squeezed somewhere else and moved one, not ready to learn.

So this time I thought may be soft words might be a better option. I told the car driver (aged may be 40-45) if he wanted to run over me, cannot he see I was walking in front on walkway and he should wait (may the correct word should be 'footpath' but since i was walking, walkway came to mind). His reply was simple, this is also a "Carway" and I can drive, you need to move.

That day I was sure that with increased traffic, more and more people in all age range do not respect and do not care about rules, life of others on the road. We are wrong to blame only the youngsters/2-wheeler's for rash and reckless driving.

[Vignesh_N/A]

Received this via WhatsApp.

[earthian]

Originally Posted by centaur

Look at this idiot. He is carrying kids but is driving like a maniac.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/v...w/59644141.cms

The video is not available now. Wonder why?

[pixantz]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

That is what many drivers think, but they are wrong. Roads are there for all road users.

Then what are all the zebra crossings and pedestrian signals installed for? Unmarked roads need our common sense to substitute for them, is what I think. Roads are there for all road users but all have, or if not, should have a time and place and code to use it. I don't think this should mean that any pedestrian can do any type of comics and/or circus at any part of the road at any time according to his whim and fancy and then say, "road mere baap ka hai, tere akele Kai nahi he boss! Mai jab chahu, jidhar chahu, jaise chahu, cross Karunga ya beech me ruk jaunga aur tumhe mujhe touch bhi nahi karna Hai!" That's an utterly unfair situation to expect a motorists to live with. Though it's the reality in most places :banghead: .

Agreed, there are no pedestrian laws in our beloved country, but everyone should act responsibly for his own and others life, using some common sense in the process. Unfortunate things happen to even alert people so I don't think anyone should keep on pushing his/her luck. It's a no brainer. Myself, for example, when I happen to be a pedestrian, never come in a motorists way, at least not purposely with ego or something. He may kill someone else while trying to avoid me. That's normal sense. Simple. No rocket science. And believe me, it's not hard to do. At all. My kid, when we're on the road automatically comes and holds my hand even if I didn't do it. I taught him that simple thing easily.

So we got to figure out a way as to how can all pedestrians begin to think rationally while being just as alert as any motorists could be while using "everybody's" road. I think it's wrong to expect the motorists/s to bear all the responsibility, risk, sense, common sense, and why not on the road. It's plain unfair. Just my two cents...

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Famous lesson from Thad's Dad, posted before, but not as famous as it should be...

"When do pedestrians have right of way?"

After painfully exhausting my ability to quote the UK Highway Code, he told me...

"Always. You are never allowed to run them over."

Yes, it is that simple.


.

Sir, I have seen you sharing this statement umpteen times in this thread. But in today's fast moving world, do you still think that this statement stands good? Especially when we have many impatient people behind the wheels.

From my experience, what I have observed is, under tricky situations many drivers/riders don't even want to brake or slow-down. With these kind of drivers/riders on the roads,it is very risky for a pedestrian to cross the road carelessly claiming "pedestrian has the right of way always".

At the end of the day, pedestrian will have to be sensible enough to cross the road and we will have to be more practical than bookish when it comes to the applying rules.

Its better to be safe than sorry.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

From my experience, what I have observed is, under tricky situations many drivers/riders don't even want to brake or slow-down. With these kind of drivers/riders on the roads,it is very risky for a pedestrian to cross the road carelessly claiming "pedestrian has the right of way always".

Majority of drivers do not practice defensive and anticipatory driving techniques while on the road. Those who do are very limited and rare breed.

Now comes the pedestrians, who are equally responsible for many accidents - I wont link back to few videos here where they have been the reason for some brutal accidents, more so for being so casual rather than being careless! (remember the lady who walked to cross the road and resulted in an accident of a 6 seater Autorickshaw and vanished as casually as she was crossing?)

Along with Driver education, what is most important too is educating the pedestrians.

- Running from one side to another is not how you cross the road

- Crossing one lane and standing on the lane marker to cross the next lane is not how you cross the road

- Crossing half the road and then taking 2 steps back is not how you confuse the drivers

- You cannot make a child walk such that his back is facing the oncoming traffic and he is towards the lane

It has so happened with me many times that I slow down looking at a pedestrian making an attempt to cross the road but when I do, the man happily starts walking slow motion holding onto his mobile on his ears, totally oblivious to the fact that someone has stopped so that you can cross - Not that I am expecting him to run and cross but then you know what I referring to.

At the end of the day, pedestrian will have to be sensible enough to cross the road and we will have to be more practical than bookish when it comes to the applying rules.

Its better to be safe than sorry.

Agreed! If the expectation is to be a safe driver with all that you know about on road behavior of fellow road users like pedestrians, the latter will also have to be trained how not to take false advantage of the "Pedestrian first" rule and be cause for accidents.

PS: I am not even referring to the Biker-Kid accident here where the Bike was clearly faster than rest of the traffic in a town/village area - Too fast for my eyes at least where I would even expect a 2 wheeler or a Cattle to pop out like this Kid did.

[SunnyBoi]

Saw this MP registered swift all smashed before the first hairpin of masinagudi on the weekend. The accident happened recently, occupants were in an omni ambulance parked behind the crashed car.

The police folks asked me to come over, lift the car to the side and I obliged. The entire driver side, windsheild, roof, door was badly smashed as if he went headon into a huge boulder.

The driver supposedly had bad injuries and rest of the passengers were safe.

Sorry for the potato pic, took it out of the dashcam.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by arjithin

A minor accident captured in my dashcam; both cars escaped with few scratches !

Totally Manza's fault. He didn't bother to check if there is any incoming traffic from the service lane merging. Also seems to be taking a very wide turn and at a more than comfortable speed.

[sunsetorange]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

But in today's fast moving world, do you still think that this statement stands good? Especially when we have many impatient people behind the wheels.

I am sorry sir, but no situation in the world warrants something which results in the loss of life of a child.
One might be in a hurry , but things can wait and so can people. It is the responsibility of the person who drives/ rides to start early for any appointment and reach with adequate time to spare. One needs to drive at a controllable speed and with awareness of whatever is on the road and whomever is a pedestrian.
Whenever one sees a child about to cross, one should automatically slow down too!