[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by anuragn

At the risk of being stoned to death here, I would request all skeptic friends to just try placing a family photo on the dashboard and then drive your car (and if you have kids then even better!).
After trying the above, come back and narrate your experiences.

Anurag,

I find the original idea well meaning even if silly. Let me ask you one question. Is there a strong causation (ok, let's just take correlation for now) demonstrating that the presence of the family leads to safer driving and hence lesser accidents? Even a correlation with lower accident rates would do.

There's a difference between a nice sounding idea and a practical rule that's demonstrably improved safety. This idea despite all its earnestness is just that. Unless you have data to convince everyone here

IMHO most accidents are not extended intentional episodes of bad judgment, but very often a momentary lapse in concentration (whether through sleep or otherwise) which turns fatal. Of course there's the plain bad luck cases too, but let's leave that aside.

Leaving chance aside and coming to behavioral perspective - I don't think a family photo makes anyone a safer driver - safety like all other thoughts, is inbuilt, and is "baked in the cake". Just my tuppence.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Leaving chance aside and coming to behavioral perspective - I don't think a family photo makes anyone a safer driver - safety like all other thoughts, is inbuilt, and is "baked in the cake". Just my tuppence.

^^ fully agree

instead of acting like behavioral psychiatrists, RTO office just has to do one thing and one thing only : sincerity in work and not sincerity in bribes.
RTO office coming up with such ideas is like trying to stop water draining from a faulty pipe using a piece of cloth, instead of closing the supply valve in the first place.

[JoseVijay]

This news might be new for most of us. The State Road Transport Buses in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh were unique. "Remeber your family back home while you drive" were the words imprinted above the driver side windshield on all the long distance services. I remember looking at those words right from my childhood. Not sure if they still have those. It's been years since I travelled by one.

I feel that it is a good move by the RTO. We cannot expect 100% success with this move, but it MIGHT change SOME or MANY. In the above posts we have seen some of us commenting on our wives. Whether we have a pic of our wives placed or not, our drive depends on our mood. IMO, placing the pic of the family will CERTAINLY change the drive pattern of many as the pic constantly reminds one, of his RESPONSIBLITY towards one's own FAMILY. Instead of forcing this rule, people across the country should come forward and follow this practice.

[RonXRi94]

Originally Posted by Autodoc

In fact a guy who just fought with his wife might even overspeed due to the adrenaline rush on seeing the wife's picture.

Thanks
Sunny

I logged in just to hit the thanks button on this post

On a serious note, it's fine for RTO to implement laws against car accessories that cause a disturbance to other road users (such as roof-mounted fog lamps and the kind), but what's inside our cars remains none of their business, again as long as they're not a threat/nuisance to society in general.

If they can mandate family photos in our cars, they should also mandate gruesome accident photos in RTO official's vehicles, so as to encourage them to issue licenses only to people who can actually drive, and not any tom, dick and harry who bribes them

[kingofmyworld]

Lol! How do they come up with these weird ideas? What next? I'm sure they will say " hang lemon n mirchi and you will avoid accidents " ? I'm sure these are the people who say women are inviting rape by wearing small clothes.

On a serious note, where does the driver have to look while driving? At the family photo or the road? Lack of awareness causes accidents.

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by kingofmyworld

Lol! How do they come up with these weird ideas? What next?

IMHO, I do not see this as a weird idea, again to each, his own. Please do not take offence at this.

On a serious note, where does the driver have to look while driving? At the family photo or the road?

Don't we look at the GPS if it is in our car? What about changing F.M station? One does not need to stare at the pic, but just keep it as a reminder that he is a responsible father/mother/son or daughter.

Lack of awareness causes accidents.

Fully agree to the above. As Bhpians we know that any speeds above 100 to 120 kmph, on Indian roads is dangerous. But how about illiterate or other drivers who do not have that knowledge? I have stated in my earlier post that instead of making this a rule, the RTO should have just given few ideas in order to reduce accidents.

[kingofmyworld]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

IMHO, I do not see this as a weird idea, again to each, his own. Please do not take offence at this.



Don't we look at the GPS if it is in our car? What about changing F.M station? One does not need to stare at the pic, but just keep it as a reminder that he is a responsible father/mother/son or daughter.




Fully agree to the above. As Bhpians we know that any speeds above 100 to 120 kmph, on Indian roads is dangerous. But how about illiterate or other drivers who do not have that knowledge? I have stated in my earlier post that instead of making this a rule, the RTO should have just given few ideas in order to reduce accidents.

No Offence taken jose. Like you said, To each, His own.

I find this to be weird because its coming from the officials. They are called officials for a reason and they are supposed to deal with reducing road accidents in an official way. Social workers who promote road safety giving an advise to carry family photos makes sense but an RTO official coming up with this idea shows how "efficient" they are.

Do we really need a family photo to remind us about our family? Dont we miss our family the moment we step out of our house? Dont we miss our mothers when they say " gadi dhyaan se chalan beta " as soon as we tell her that we are going out? I'm sure every mom says that to their kids.

There is also a possibility, maybe a rare one but this can happen : Everybody has family/personal issues. So there is also a possibility that the driver, Lets say a sensitive person might have an emotional outburst while driving because he sees the family picture and that reminds him of some mishap or something of that sort?

I think I went a little bizzare with the above example

[nkishore_007]

Originally Posted by NPV

One of the ideas floated by the Shimoga RTO department to reduce accidents is to mandate a family photo to be kept in the vehicle so that they drive carefully.

Remains to be seen if this will be implemented and if it will work



Source & Full Article

The intent might be good, but I see this as a desperate measure. As correctly stated that proper driving tests for issuing license AND proper enforcement of traffic rules is what is going to save lives.

If this ever makes it to the rule books, you will see a lot of cars being pulled over for not having the family picture in the dashboard. Sigh!

RTO's novel ideas must target how to work efficiently within their own department/s. Charity begins at home!

[anand_hc]

it's not a great idea for sure. Someone mentioned to put gruesome pictures of accidents. That wont help either.

There are pictures of harms of smoking but it does not stop folks from smoking.. does it ?

[Srikanthan]

Idea is novel but will remain only as a wish list.

In my recent accident (see link http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3545680) the other car had a full family with 2 children and couple of ladies. Still that driver was over-speeding and possibly drunk!

Responsibility comes from within - not by pasting pictures in your car.

On lighter vein, picture of your spouse in the car might tend to raise your BP levels

[atul.sxna]

The RTO is mandated to ensure that road safety is of utmost priority by enforcing the regulations and adherence to laws.

I am not sure moral policing and emotional approach is the need of the hour.

If only ALL the RTOs clean their own house first and set things in order, the drivers coming out on the road will automatically be a better lot.

In today's India, driving licenses can be "bought" more easily than the vehicle itself. Now, if the RTO does not enforce stricter and more stringent rules about issuing DLs, how will a family photo help me.

[soumobakshi]

Well must say its an Out of Box Idea which most of the organization demands of its employees.
Instead of coming up with such hilarious Out of Box ideas if they come up with stringent norms and testing mechanism to weed out irresponsible drivers in the first place would have been well appreciated.

OT: Letting out kids in TTD is an eye opener of sought!

I just cant stop wondering how even Govt owned BMTC bus drivers behave when they find a same route bus plying just ahead in similar direction. Case in point Route 378 towards EC and many a times these drivers will Bulldoze past vehicles and village folks (The route passes through some villages) just to come in front. Not sure if they are incentivised by BMTC for this rogue driving skills.

And add their stopping in the middle of the road just to ensure that when he leaves from the bus stop he gets a free stretch in front, who cares if the vehicles has piled up his rear end and created a traffic jam already !

In Bangalore i personally attribute 90% of traffic jams being caused by such incidents which results into road rage amongst other road users.

[gearbox]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2Ph...m-upload_owner

Here a video I had captured last night in Bangalore on my way back home from work.
Route - Old Airport Road to Koramangala - as can be seen at many places there were no street lights, no reflectors in the sections with no street lights, drainage is horrible, my car went through about 1ft deep water, I was worried my car would stall or something, luckily it didn't. Went through fine, however other vehicles were not so lucky, people can be seen pushing their vehicles through clogged roads. This is the condition of Bangalore roads (most roads).
Now to top that there are vehicles coming in opposite direction as seen in the video.
To make things worse I also saw a cab that was stuck on a divider and had blocked the road, which again is due to very poor visibility and so on.

The point I want to make here is, in Bangalore, RTO charges are probably the highest in the country, Petrol/Diesel costs a lot as well. We still do not get good roads here and top that with guys who do not follow rules and are rash drivers, even bus drivers. The onus to give a DL is of the RTO to ensure only drivers who know the rules ply with their vehicles on the road to avoid accidents, also the administration should and must ensure they have street lights working at all times during night. (This specific stretch of road never has/had a street light or even a reflector on these tiny dividers)
I had posted even on the Bangalore Traffic Police Page on Facebook on December last year, until today the situation is still the same.

RTO has nothing better to do, hence these stupid suggestions coming from them. It is Insane how these people get through in such organizations and suggest things like they did here.

[anuragn]

Originally Posted by anand_hc

it's not a great idea for sure. Someone mentioned to put gruesome pictures of accidents. That wont help either.

There are pictures of harms of smoking but it does not stop folks from smoking.. does it ?

Strongly disagree!
Over the past few years, I have seen more and more people from my list of acquaintances giving up smoking. Reason given by 100% of such people is health and nothing else.

Coming back to point, there is no harm trying out this idea, so why not try it instead of ridiculing it at the outset. But surely, this must not be made into a rule.
Who knows this trend might just catch on just like the trend of placing idols/photos of deities.

[RonXRi94]

Originally Posted by anand_hc

it's not a great idea for sure. Someone mentioned to put gruesome pictures of accidents. That wont help either.

There are pictures of harms of smoking but it does not stop folks from smoking.. does it ?

Originally Posted by anuragn

Strongly disagree!
Over the past few years, I have seen more and more people from my list of acquaintances giving up smoking. Reason given by 100% of such people is health and nothing else.

Coming back to point, there is no harm trying out this idea, so why not try it instead of ridiculing it at the outset. But surely, this must not be made into a rule.
Who knows this trend might just catch on just like the trend of placing idols/photos of deities.

I guess I wasn't clear enough. I meant that if we are forced to put family pictures in our car, RTO officials should be forced to put accident pictures in THEIR cars, so that they are encouraged to issue licenses to only good drivers, and do their part in preventing accidents since lots of accidents are caused due to bad driving.

This was meant to be nothing more than a joke. If I had to look at accident pictures whenever I enter my car, I'd give up driving for sure