[VBV]

Its not just the size of the vehicle that matters. The demographics also matter. If you hit an auto even from a cycle in front of an auto stand, you're at fault. If a senior citizen is ever at danger, expect him to be always at right. Ladies are also mostly right. There is a sudden rise in pity quotient in the environment, when a lady meets with an accident.

The other day, I was taking a reverse and a bike came from behind on the right side blind spot. And I touched him. He was on fire. He even came to teach me how to drive a car. He asked me to utilize the rear view mirrors etc., And when I asked him if he has ever driven a car - "nope" cames the answer.

There is no law.

[furioussphinx]

Nothing new about this!

Once I was driving down the national highway and had to take a left cut into another road. I was on my Kinetic and I put on the left indicator when I was about 10 meters away from the turn. There was this dude riding a cycle with two children at the edge of the highway. I overtook him and turned left (There was a gap of a minimum 4 mtrs between me and the cycle). I think my puny exhaust scared the daylights out of that guy and he fell down. I stopped to go and help and to my surprise, people caught me as the culprit and the man who fell down told me that I drove rashly and hit his cycle! I was like "Are you deaf? My indicators were screaming and I was way far away from you!" But noone was listening to me there. One girl got a little bruise and the other was fine, while this man got his toe bleeding. One local hero came in and started hitting me on my head when my mechanic came to my rescue. I had to take the 3 to a hospital and pay their medical bills, house expenditure for a week, etc. Spent around 8k for basically noting!

India is the only place where people will see such stories!

[R.K.Ramesh]

The million dollar nay the lakhon rupiya question is not when but how to we as the citizens of our nation start a powerful civic sense revolution in our country?

[aerohit]

Originally Posted by GTO

Even funnier are the newspapers when they report an accident. The car always....always has to be "speeding"!

Although offtopic - even funnier, when the car in question (a Honda) is labeled as a "High Performance Car"

[agspins]

One more i would like to the list if somebody hits a truck (moving or stationary), truckers goes to jail and if somebody because of foolish/Rash driving is caught in rear wheels of the truck, trucker goes to jail..

The million dollar nay the lakhon rupiya question is not when but how to we as the citizens of our nation start a powerful civic sense revolution in our country?

The only civic sense(less) revolution on in our country aganist a accident is to torch the vehicle involved(if culprit is a bigger vehicle), beat the heck out of driver at fault( normally truck/bus/car/bigger vehicle driver) add to that Dharna/Road jam and some "Tod-Phod"( just a few broken windshields and stuff like that)...

[anku94]

Worse are the complete strangers who act as the victim's self-appointed attorneys.

[scopriobharath]

I was once going for an interview at Infosys Sholinganallur from Madhya Kailash in my Santro. This happened just after the MNM Jain college signal.

The speed limit is 40 kmph and i was at 40, and a share auto suddenly cut and stopped in front of me. I slammed the brakes and stopped well before the Auto. An Activa Guy came and banged me at the rear and fell down. He was probably 50 years of age, and with the impact, I am sure he was riding above 40 kmph. When he fell down, a crowd gathered and I too got down to inspect the damage of my car. Everyone started shouting at me telling it was my fault. One guy literally started pouncing on me. He told me to compensate the two-wheeler. I told in a loud voice to call the police. I told i am driving at 40 within speed limits and told it is the law, it is the fault of the vehicle at rear for the hit, irrespective of the size of the vehicle. I also shouted why he was driving at a speed where he cannot control the vehicle in time. I was insisting to call the police.

Most people found sense and walked away. As the crowds became thin this guy too walked away. I wanted to prove right, but since i was in a mood for interview, i just let got of the incident and drove away.

Moral of this Thead: Bigger vehicle is always at fault, whose-ever geniune mistake it is or whatever the Traffic Law states. This is India.

[coolvap]

Yes, bigger vehicles at fault theory is religiously followed in India. Although I have not been a victim of this theory till date, I do understand the pain and frustration people undergo due to this especially when they are NOT at fault!

There was a situation I was in around 10 years ago. I was driving a Maruti 800 and was trying to go past a square while the green signal was on. It turned Orange when I was close to the signal. On seeing the signal change color a girl who was driving a two-wheeler in front of me braked hard and stopped. I also braked hard to avoid dashing her vehicle but hit her from behind. It was just a slight touch and thankfully nothing happened. I got out of the car and apologized to the girl. To my surprise, the girl stated that she was sorry and that it was her fault. By God's grace she was not upset and nothing happened! I guess I was quite lucky that day otherwise the general public could have created a big deal out of this and made things unpleasant for me..

[Jaguar]

Coolvap, lucky for you cause you were at fault. You were approaching a signal and if you were not able to stop in time.

[HighwayBuddha]

Time and again i read in the papers, especially in Chennai, the following kinds of news reports:
a) Teenage boy riding scooter killed in road accident. 17-year old run over by bus. Driver arrested.
b) School boy falls off footboard of MTC bus and dies under the rear wheels. Bus driver arrested.
c) Biker riding on wrong side of road dashes against truck and dies. Driver of truck arrested.

This is quite routine in Chennai. In fact a couple of days ago, a 17-year old died, his father filed a police complaint(!!) and the bus driver was arrested.

Is this a fair implementation of road rules? Isn't it unfair that a 17 year old, who is not supposed to be driving/riding on the city roads, is not the one at fault, but instead the bus driver, who might have very well been in the right, gets arrested ? Isn't it the foot-boarding schoolkid who is at fault? Or the biker who rode on the wrong side? Why is it that the bigger vehicle's driver is always at fault ? Why should his family suffer?

Exasperated. What can we do about this?

[sunishsamuel]

There are some challenges that police face because of the public unruliness. However, once the case is filed and registered, the drivers are generally let off if the factors mentioned in your post are found to be true. Of course, its not easy as it sounds. Drivers will end up paying bribe, need to engage advocates and what not !

Whenever an accident or incident happens, the general nature of public in India is to resort to violence, vandalism etc. even though they are not having any relation to the victim or the loss that happened due to the accident. Plus, for some reason the "big vehicle is always at fault" attitude is deeply integrated into the minds of public.

In addition, over a period of time people realized that they do not get into trouble if they are part of mob. So to avoid major issues, police try to pacify by arresting the driver of the bus or the bigger vehicle.

I am not in favor of what's being done today. I hope it changes with police being more empowered, public not let off if they resort to violence after accident and facts being considered after an accident than emotions - like poor vs rich, big vehicle vs small vehicle and what not.

[alpha1]

We have to understand that the concept of law, justice, right, wrong, fair, unfair is applicable to rational logical beings with long term vision.
Human beings are not. Human beings in a group (mob) are definitely not.

[Kestrel5915]

Originally Posted by HighwayBuddha

Time and again i read in the papers, especially in Chennai, the following kinds of news reports:
a) Teenage boy riding scooter killed in road accident. 17-year old run over by bus. Driver arrested.
b) School boy falls off footboard of MTC bus and dies under the rear wheels. Bus driver arrested.
c) Biker riding on wrong side of road dashes against truck and dies. Driver of truck arrested.

This is quite routine in Chennai. In fact a couple of days ago, a 17-year old died, his father filed a police complaint(!!) and the bus driver was arrested.

Is this a fair implementation of road rules? Isn't it unfair that a 17 year old, who is not supposed to be driving/riding on the city roads, is not the one at fault, but instead the bus driver, who might have very well been in the right, gets arrested ? Isn't it the foot-boarding schoolkid who is at fault? Or the biker who rode on the wrong side? Why is it that the bigger vehicle's driver is always at fault ? Why should his family suffer?

Exasperated. What can we do about this?

This is the case not only in India but all over the world.
And not only with cars, this happens with ships as well.

I'm a marine engineer and we sometimes sail in the Great Lakes region in US and Canadian waters where there are a plenty of private boats and yachts navigating in the same waters.
These private boats don't require any kind of license and they'll frequently start racing with the much bigger ships.
Manoeuvrability of the ships is not as much as these boats and as such the Master of the ship usually gets annoyed and fearful at the same time.
Because in case of an accident the ship crew will most likely be held responsible although the ship staff is highly skilled and professionally certified to navigate and operate the ship in all kinds of waters and these other guys might even be kids who only know start and throttle.

Navigation staff usually are extremely cautious while in these kind of places because of a high probability of a fine or even jail term along with cancellation of certificates even though the fault might not be theirs.