Team-BHP - The most serious traffic offences, according to you

Which according to you is the Most Serious Traffic Offence (MOSTO)?

For me, driving on the wrong side of the road is the biggest issue. It has become a major nuisance where I live. Imagine private buses and trucks speeding down the wrong side—it happens every day and has become normalized.
This behaviour leads to numerous indirect accidents. Picture someone speeding on the wrong side, forcing motorists in the left-most lane to suddenly swerve out of the way, only to collide with someone overtaking them at that moment. Our country loves shortcuts!

What's worse? I also find vehicles belonging to the traffic police driving on the wrong side! Traffic police driving on the wrong side in an emergency I understand, but not because the U-turn is a few hundred metres away.

I think most do not understand the gravity of this situation. A quick lookup at the fines for this offence was a paltry Rs.500/-.

What according to you is the Most Serious Traffic Offence (MOSTO)?

P.S. I have a feeling that Driving whilst Intoxicated is going to take the cake. I also understand that most offences are dangerous, but if you were to pick just one, besides DUI, what would it be?

1. Drunk driving/riding.
2. Not stopping for a red light.
3. Driving/riding on the wrong side of the road.
4. Riding/driving on the footpath, even to park.

For all of these, the cops should instantly seize the vehicle. In the case of 1 and 3 (since overshooting a red light can happen unintentionally too), at least a couple of hours in lock-up at the nearest police station! (One can only dream...)

Nothing more serious than drunk driving. It's got everything wrong:

- High speeds usually
- Low reaction time
- Poor situational awareness
- Lack of control - physical as well as emotional
- Unaware and innocent road users at risk

It's like handing a weapon over to a mentally unstable person.

Perhaps this thread should have a poll

1. Driving without legitimate licence.
2.Driving under influence
3. Breaking signals
4. Stopping, reversing, wrong side driving on highways. Applied to all roads too but is far more dangerous on highways.
5. Installing blinding lights and driving on high beam unless required.
6. Overladen vehicles. Even those laden within limits but load sticking out at the back or ones not tied down safely.
7. Playing around with technology - being on phone watching movies/chatting/talking while driving. Leaving steering by activating ADAS/adaptive CC.
8. Over speeding and dangerous overtaking especially with oncoming vehicles.

Other Serious ones:
1. Bullying smaller vehicles, tailgating, dangerously cutting across etc
2. Driving Vehicles which are not road worthy - worn out tyres, no head/tail lights
3. Driving with emergency lights on.

Driving on the wrong side of the road is to me the biggest. Within the city its still manageable, but when you encounter these idiots on a large highway coming towards you on a small scooter without helmet, that too on the right side of the road when you are doing 100 KMPH, it is a heart in the mouth moment. I have seen dime a dozen of these low-lives on the bangalore -chennai and bangalore- karur route.

1. Driving on the wrong side is the biggest sin IMO. Followed by...
2. Running red lights.
3. Drunk driving.

Because these two are the core basics of traffic rules. If these two aren't followed, then it is just chaos disguised behind chalta he attitude.

Lesser sins, but equally important are

4. Merging from smaller roads into bigger ones without stopping or slowing down.
5. Hogging the fast lane.

Lot of members have included wrong side driving in their list. Let me just break it down even further and talk specific to wrong side driving on one-way roads.

While this is harmful to both life and property, it also wastes a lot of time when people are stuck on a one-way lane because someone decided to save a few minutes and drove in a wrong direction. This is a lose-lose situation because:

The intention of the person driving on the wrong side is to save a few minutes rather than going through a correct but longer route. Let's call him Mr. Wrong.
However, in doing so, Mr. Wrong cause a traffic jam, especially when he is driving a vehicle that's got more than 2-wheels, i.e., auto, tempo, car so on.
Now, traffic at both the side is stuck. For Mr. Wrong, his purpose of saving the time is defeated as it would now take him more time than it would have taken him if he had chosen the correct route
Mr. Wrong causes the traffic to pile up in that one-way lane. For the mistake (or a selfish motive, whatever you want to call it) of one person, there are now dozens of vehicles suffering.
For example, consider 100 people stuck in that jam which takes 10 minutes to clear up. This means 1000 man-minutes are wasted because of Mr. Wrong! Those 1000 man-minutes could have been put to any productive work had Mr. Wrong taken the correct path.

I know it's a long explanation, but felt necessary to do as people usually do not understand how their actions can affect hundreds of fellow commuters.

Another one for me would be the use of high beams in the city. :Frustrati

These things done by the majority of local traffic:
1. Inattentive driving and moving between lanes. These people have no clue where they are on the road and while moving have no clue who they are blocking dangerously. They don't even maintain proper line on corners, as most don't know how to turn and repeatedly making mistakes and adjustments.
2. Wrong side driving. These are done by 2 wheelers mostly, and they are getting very aggressive while pn the wrong side and getting into arguments.
3. Jumping Red signals. Many are doing this and main culprits are the bus drivers(both private and goverment) who go on the wrong side of dividers and cut through traffic at some junctions in Coimbatore.
4. Mobile phone driving. Many people are casually texting or checking something else while driving and they have no control over the small but dangerous movements their vehicle make.

According to me:
1. Driving on wrong side especially by the breed of people riding Yulu or electric luna.
2. Jumping signals
3. Overtaking and overspeeding by loaded commercial vehicles (even DTC, BEST or any other intra city bus operator) wherein the drivers don't understand the science of weight to speed to brake correlation! All of this happening regularly in the cities and on narrow roads.
4. Kids and even adults popping out of sunroof/moonroof in moving vehicle.

I sometimes wonder if smart cameras can catch these and force people to drive better as monetary punishments are rather effective in India.

When most of the offences listed so far can lead to loss of life or serious injury, how can we grade them? According to what criteria? As someone dealing with the victims of these anti-social perverts (as I would prefer to describe them- please pardon my choice of words) on a daily basis :crying, I would suggest strong measures as Distinguished BHPian am1m suggested, "lock-up" at least for a couple of hours, not just a monetary fine. All of us survived 'De-monetization', then why not give everybody a timeframe, say 1 or even 2 years, by which time their driving licenses would expire unless revalidated by a re-test- theory, practical, road etiquette, first aid and basic life support measures... A Utopian dream

Using high-beam within city limits is the worst in my opinion not only because it just encourages a culture where everyone slowly goes blind, but also because it signifies that the person behind the wheel is least bothered or aware of his/her surroundings and they are thus likely to make a lane change or turn or even stop without checking their mirrors. These are also the kind of folks that leave the lights on high-beam while they wait for a vendor to hand them their mangoes. :Frustrati