Team-BHP > Shifting gears


Reply
  Search this Thread
4,067 views
Old 27th November 2006, 15:54   #1
BHPian
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 53
Thanked: 6 Times
Accident with my WagonR

Hello Everybody,

First of all, my apologies for the really long hibernation mode I have been in the past few months.. I had changed job and have been procastrinating all posts ever since..

The latest and not so good thing that happened to me was an accident with my wagonR about a month ago..

I was driving towards my office in Whitefield at about 7:25 AM in the morning. While I was taking a right turn (there was a huge truck ahead of me that just turned and I was following it).. I had crossed half of the road on the other side when an indica (which was travelling in the opposite direction) rammed into my rear passenger side door..

The Indica was doing close to 80 I guess.. my car took the hit and spun 270 degrees on the road.. I guess I must have been at 10-20kmph.. some very slow turn speed (given the truck that went ahead of me). And while this was happening, the rear side of my car hit a cycle walla at the other end of the road.. Fortunately (very very fortunately), he received a small cut (< 0.5 cm) when he fell down and no other injury beyond that..

My rear passenger door (and the fender on top of the rear passenger wheel) took the entire impact.

The car was miraculously, still in a driverable condition..

The Indica was a call center cab. And he was probably speeding just cos it is morning and never saw any vehicles that were turning at the junction.. (for those of you who drive on this road, the oldmadras road - whitefield road has a road divider all through except at intersections..

Damage to the indica: right side of the bonnet seemed a little displaced (that was the part that rammed into my car).. Nothing serious though..

Went to the police station to lodge an FIR and the cab walla starts off with his version that I was speaking on my mobile and took a sudden U turn
and that my car hit his car. And to top it all, they alleged that I got out of my car as soon as the accident happened, and started assaulting him..

Well.. I had reached the limit of vexation and was shouting at the cabbie in front of the inspector that they should atleast have some scruples and not lie like morons..

After much arguing, fortunately, the inspector was acting sane and forced the cabbie to come up with the right version of the story..

At this point, the cabbie's argument changed lines to: We are poor people and cannot afford to repair it, please give us some money..

I had 2 options: make a complaint and go through the court to get myself off the hook.. and probably a chance of getting my damages covered from the cab's insurance (court charges = 1.5K as I found from some one who was getting his car out that day). Alternatively, make an out of court settlement and get out of the whole thing..

I was in a massive hurry as I was travelling out of country the next day. So, I bit the bullet and paid him 2K and went to my car service station.

Total repair costs = 30K.. And unfortunately, my car is over 4 years old, so, I paid close to 14K for the repairs..

Finally, my baby is back and is totally spic and span by the time I got back from my travel..

This was my first experience with an accident and associated procedures. Definitely an avoidable pain. I have become a doubly careful driver ever since. I think I did not anticipate a car to come and hit me that fast at the intersection as I was tailing a lorry.. These days, I stop, wait for a good 10-20 seconds and verify everything before I make a turn..

No pics of the accident as I did not want to carry the memory for long..

Cheers,
KG
kgc_cool is offline  
Old 27th November 2006, 16:17   #2
Senior - BHPian
 
normally_crazy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 4,369
Thanked: 528 Times

KG - sorry to hear about your baby ....and am glad you did not suffer injuries. Also glad to hear that your baby is back in spick and span condition.

Not so glad to hear this ..
Quote:
I had 2 options: make a complaint and go through the court to get myself off the hook.. and probably a chance of getting my damages covered from the cab's insurance ...... Alternatively, make an out of court settlement and get out of the whole thing..

I was in a massive hurry as I was travelling out of country the next day. So, I bit the bullet and paid him 2K and went to my car service station.
Why did you bite the bullet ?? Settling out of court was a good move but why did you have to pay him off ? It was clearly his fault ...i know me saying this sitting here is easy but were there no eye witnesses ? what about the cycle guy ..he could have seen the whole thing ....

Anyways , whats done is done - your car is back running fine as before thats what matters.
normally_crazy is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks