[noopster]

Today a bad driver left me with my heart in my mouth. On Baner Road (which is a wide 4-laner with free-flowing traffic that merges with the Mumbai highway) I was cruising along at 60 odd when I spotted a lady on a scooterette hogging the fast lane. I slowed down and was directly behind her in my car, with the left lane occupied by a biker. My fellow passenger and I spotted something that made us sit bolt upright at the same time: a pair of tiny feet wrapped around the lady biker's midriff.

"Holy smoke!," my companion whispered. That may not have been exactly what he said.
"Is that a...baby?" I whispered back, hardly daring to breathe.

The lady was doing about 40. I didn't dare honk for fear of spooking her. Gently eased my car to the left lane when it freed up and overtook her.

Absolute silence reigned in the car for about two minutes after that. I finally asked my buddy, "HOW was that baby sitting?"

"Legs. Wrapped around mother. Back. Against the handle." The shock had robbed him of his ability to parse.

"That's what I thought. But HOW?" We marvelled at the lady's good fortune. "Damn, one bump in the road and that kid is..."

I told my friend to shut up. It wasn't the poor child's fault.

I sincerely hope that lady and her child made it safely to their destination. If any of you know who this is, please tell her that she has no business endangering that poor child's life like that. Next time, take a rick for God's sake.

[anilisanil]

If it is a Honda Activa, it most probably could be from our apartment!!

This lady travels with her kid wrapped around her waist. I tried telling her that is unsafe, she just smiled and left!

[noopster]

^^anil- could you please try again? I was tempted to stop her and do it myself, but was afraid she woul lose control if she was startled. She did give a "I'm too cool" look as I passed her and I just shook my head.

[selfdrive]

Well, well what do we have here? A case worse than one which I saw last week I guess. And to think of it I was gobsmacked when I saw this scene.

When I drop my son off for his school bus at Mahatma Society, I saw a biker with an infant strapped to him in a harness driving solo. This infant must be between 3 to 6 months old and is unable to hold her head/ neck stiff. So this kid is bending over backwards in the direction in which their bike is travelling. I wonder what kind of a neck injury this sorry excuse of a parent is exposing his kid to. If there is someone else at home, it would take only a couple of minutes to help drop this child to the babysitter (assuming from the bad which was strapped across the handle). I guess even a pillion rider carrying a kid on bikes is better than these shocking sights. And to think we had seen it all? It just keeps getting progressively worse

I just hope and pray for the safety of these kids, may they be spared the consequences of their parents' stupidity.

The next time I see this guy I will have to stop him. I know what he is going to tell me though - it is his kid and his bike. Enough of these morons already

Edit: anil, if you need some company, let me know.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by noopster

Today a bad driver left me with my heart in my mouth.

That is just pure shocking. How can a parent be so casual towards their kids life??

I normally avoid comparing countries, but if she were to do this in US/Canada/Europe or any country with strict implementation of the laws, she would be behind bars and the kid in a foster home.

[sajo]

Since we are on the topic, I am tempted to put down my experience circa 2003 .
I was driving with my mother in our old Indica and I was driving sedately (20kmph) as the traffic didnt permit me to go faster. In comes a biker, darting across the road at quite high speeds. His pillion rider was a lady sitting sideways, with a small infant all bundled up in one hand, and some other equal sized bundle (clothing perhaps) , in the other.
Now our guy has darted across the road, and braked hard to stop a few feet ahead of my car. Since this lady wasnt holding on to anything , she lost her sitting composure, and to my utter shock, dropped one of the bundles.
I slammed on my brakes hard, and me, my mom, and all the pedestrians on the footpath as well as fellow motorists let out a collective gasp. Fortunately, my car came to a halt well in time due to the low speeds. Even more fortunately, it was the other bundle that she had dropped, instead of the infant. We all watched as the lady got down, infant in hand, picked up the bundle. Said something to her husband, got back on the bike, this time sitting astride (its better for balance!) and they moved off.
I was quite numbed by this and thinking of the what-ifs and started moving only when people behind me started honking.

My mom turned to me and said "We are so going to gift you a car the moment we know your wife is expecting". Will remind her of this if/when I get married.

[brillian]

A new breed of such Bad Drivers if you may choose to call them Drivers are
1. Bi-Cycle owners - who are always in a hurry to cut aross perpendicular to whichever way you are driving
2. the hand cart with fully loaded metallic rods that cannot be managed even by five hefty men...(my old getz had a dent thanks to one of them)

It is sad to see that we have no sense of civility when stuck in a jam... Shuttle Car drivers drive in the opposite lane as if it belong to their grand parents...
follow rules... you may reach five minutes late, atleast you reach alive.

[naveen.raju]

Dont know why govt vehicles are driving rashly. Keep seeing these guys almost everyday. It was govt buses but now I see govt official's cars too. Today morning I had a close call. It was the District Collectors Innova. It had these power horns and kept blaring when I was on a bridge. On seeing the car, I gave way since I didnt want to mess with these guys. He almost banged me while overtaking on the bridge. He gave a good scare to all motorists with his rash driving.

I know he might be in some emergency but why drive like this? Why the rules are not there for them? I was caught and fined long time back when I overtook a car on a bridge but why not for them? This innova had the driver with no occupants. Then why he need to hurry? First it was the private buses and now govt vehicles, not to mention the autos.

[deathwalkr]

Power horns. Sigh. Hate them to the core. Govt. vehicles are loaded with them like guns and cannons on an army vehicle!

I feel for you man but at least you did not get scraped or anything.

A few months back i was stuck on the South over-bridge in Kochi at peak hour with nowhere to go except a crawling forward, i hear loud blaring horns and i glimpse a scorpio with headlights on and hazards on bullying its way trying to get forward.

Now i understand he was in a medical emergency situation or something but he ended up scraping the side of my swift :(

[knaveen]

High beams on residential streets. Streets on my place is has just enough width for two SUVs to pass by. The edges of the road trail off by ditches on each side for water draining. I return at late night from work, there will be nobody on the road except me and the guy coming toward me. Could hardly see anything on the sides of the road. Many i times i continued straight and stopped right on the track with my lights flashing, then they realize and put it to dipper.
Is there something wrong with these Tata Ace headlights, it points directly at your face and hurts sometimes. Have seen truck guys understand when we flash the lights and they are kind to switch off/Put to dipper whenever i do. This does not work with these Tata Ace drivers.

On the Pallikaranai main road, they have put up huge cemented dividers on the road. With no space for pedestrians to walk and stand on bus stops .
Add to this, buffalos, Cows tied on each sides, walking as they like and dogs dart from under their legs! You have complete mayhem on the streets.

The worst part is that this has created a new nuisance, drivers who miss a turn (especially cabbies) tend to back up blocking the traffic behind them. When I honk behind them, i get a nasty look both by the driver and the passengers as if I am doing something bad!!!

[sa_kiran]

I was waiting for the signal to turn green for going straight. An Accent came from my left, went well beyond the zebra crossing when the signal was red. All this to turn right after the signal turned green.

[the_joker]

Originally Posted by knaveen

Is there something wrong with these Tata Ace headlights, it points directly at your face and hurts sometimes. Have seen truck guys understand when we flash the lights and they are kind to switch off/Put to dipper whenever i do. This does not work with these Tata Ace drivers.

I think Tata has removed the Dim/dip facility due to cost cutting (JK). There are a lot of Tata Aces where I live, and their headlights are in my face, always. And the drivers are totally oblivious to the trouble they are causing.
Vehicles should have a feature wherein lights go to the "bright" mode only if the vehicle is at a certain minimum speed. This would reduce the headlight menace at least in the cities.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by the_joker

I think Tata has removed the Dim/dip facility due to cost cutting (JK). There are a lot of Tata Aces where I live, and their headlights are in my face, always. And the drivers are totally oblivious to the trouble they are causing.

Tata Ace has the dim/dip facility as all motor vehicles need to have them as per the MV act. Most of the TATA ace drivers are just plain lazy and ignorant. Only way is give them their own medicine - use a powerful headlight/HID lights back at them.

[Racer_X]

Hello Guys,

I was travelling back to Pune from Mumbai yesterday and saw that there were 2 Santros with Teenagers sitting on the window rail at high speeds.

This was being done at quite a high speed and in all probability these guys were drunk.

Please find the pics below:

[anilisanil]

Gosh!!!

And, AND!! The ORVM fitting is missing the mirror. Really, when and how would these morons learn?