[kiranvakati]

Dashcam indeed saved your day.
Me being a outsider in bangalore, always worried about these kind of scenarios.

Twice i had been in a similar situation involving my XUV.

First, I was travelling from bangalore to chennai on NH4. Ppl familiar with this route knows there are 2 junctions around hoskote which has set of 6-speed breakers. No four wheeler can cross the junction beyond 5 kmph. As i just got over a set of humps, suddenly i felt a thud on my front passenger side. A bike guy was under my front overhang. Before i got down the bike guys pulled the bike out and damaged my bumper. There were bystanders who came to the help of the two wheeler. To my luck another local guy(Savior) who was waiting to cross the road told everybody that it was the bike guys fault and I have not done anything wrong. No one came to the support of the bike guy, even the bike guy didn't argue and he knew he was at fault. All I could do was advise him and let him go as he had nothing but Rs.200 in his pocket and his vehicle didn't even have an insurance cover.

Second, I was on Indira Nagar 80ft road traveling from jeevan bhima nagar signal towards old madras road. Soon after crossing jeevan bhima nagar signal there was no traffic on my side but traffic is piled up on the opposite side waiting ppl for signal. As i was about to cross BSNL office(which is to my left), a bike guy from nowhere sneaked in from the piled up traffic (he was going to bsnl office from cross road on my right). I saw him and applied the brake but he came and banged my front right side exactly at fender bumper joint. I parked the vehicle and checked nothing happened to my vehicle on the fender or bumper. I went to the bike guy and asked him who is at fault, he was humble enough to accept it was his mistake. Again gave a lecutre about how life is precious, blah..blah.. and came to office. Then my friend pointed to me a dent on my bonnet . That bike's handle bar has dented my bonnet and i missed it. Even then i couldn't have extracted any money from the bike guy who is a line man working with BSNL. After 6 months I found that bike guy has even damaged the bracket connecting fender-bumper joint with the chassis. Bracket was there to hold the fender-bumper in place and since the joint is intact, service guys just removed the bracket and said it is just a placeholder and if i have to replace it, it has to be full fender of my XUV.

So far I was twice lucky that the small vehicle guys accepted their fault. May not be third time lucky. I was scouting for a dash cam and after reading the story no more scouting has to buy one ASAP.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by silversteed

If that Dio guy were riding on my RHS curb, I would've seen him rocketing at me, but I'd still be a sitting duck. There's only so much a human being driving an ordinary hatchback can do. These Dios pick up speed really quick, and I've seen some of them zip over these speed-breakers, hardly reducing speed. Seems to be the case here too.

I can understand your plight. I got a similar ding on Necklace Road, Hyderabad when I was taking a U turn at one of the gaps in the median. I had flashed my indicators well in advance, with my son following me on the Figo. I could see a scooter in my right ORVM, and gestured about my turn also with my hand.

Despite all this, that nitwit crashed into my door. I got out and inspected the car and found only a very minor dent, which I've left as it is till now. The concerned person was triple riding, and had a young lady in front of him who was learning to drive. No LLR or documents either. But all 3 of them were very apologetic. The lady said she could not brake in time, and had instead increased the throttle.

I let them go before the crowd started building up. Luckily, nobody was injured, but the bumper of the Activa did have a dent.

Edit: Local language helped me a lot in this incident.

[John]

Originally Posted by sidzzone

Okay, that does it. I'm getting a dash cam for my car. Glad you handled it this way, and it's sickening to see how people just blindly side with the smaller vehicle. And worse, how they changed their statements after they came to know about the dash cam.

Have been using a dash-cam in my car for a long time. However seeing this incident and the kind of imbeciles we have on the roads, makes me wonder if I need to install a rear facing one as well.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by sidzzone

Okay, that does it. I'm getting a dash cam for my car.

Originally Posted by John

makes me wonder if I need to install a rear facing one as well.

I just ordered one with front and rear cams from Ali Express.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HD-72...890600204.html

[Tanmay K]

So I’m headed from Gurgaon to Delhi this past Sunday before dawn and then this happens (cropped out my car number + timestamp from the bottom):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0M9vMRgM-g

- I spotted this Santro cab’s indicator from a distance and first assumed he wants to change lanes since a lot of people have a habit of cutting across rightward in that area of the highway (because of an approaching right turn), so I moved right so as to avoid him.

- But oh well thats not what he’s doing. He wants to make a u-turn on a one way highway because he took the wrong exit!

- I look at my left OVRM and there’s a car approaching from behind and it would be stupid to swerve left so I slam the brakes and give him space on my right, but it all gets too close for comfort.

Unfortunately we can't do anything but share the roads with some dimwits.

Also what bothered me here is that my dash cam failed to pick up the license plates of this guy. I got one of these which is supposed to have IR LEDs to shoot better in the dark, doesn’t seem to help all that much as far as reading license plates at night is concerned.



To fix this to some extent, I had to reduce the exposure in the camera’s settings so that the plates are readable, although that reduces visibility in the darker areas of the picture.

I’m most probably getting a better camera for the front and using this one for the rear. OPs post not only proves you should get a dashcam, but additionally a rear one while you’re at it.

PS: Something I've thought about earlier: if stuck in an argument, perhaps one should exercise good judgement in disclosing if you have dashcam footage. Use it as an ace up your sleeve.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Tanmay K

To fix this to some extent, I had to reduce the exposure in the camera’s settings so that the plates are readable, although that reduces visibility in the darker areas of the picture.

Might be safer to run it that way if you are keen on having plates visible. When the image is dark, its easier to "pull up shadows" in an editing program, than it is to "recover blown highlights" (ie. stuff so bright its just white).

[ads1485]

Thank god for that dashcam. After reading this post and having been through a few harrowing incidents myself, I'm definitely going to purchase one.

I think this is a must have accessory in India, especially if you're embarking on long cross-country drives.

[KL54]

This mentality (from their PoV) is atleast understandable. Big vehicle owner=rich, two wheeler=humble guy.

For a nice mind game, does this hold when a Harley crashes into a Maruti 800?

Anyway, I had one worthy trying to extort money from me when he crashed into me in Bangalore. He was riding his royal steed of a two-wheeler and I was on my 2 humble legs. Long story short, the 'local' crashed into me and broke his leg while I escaped unscathed apart from a few scrapes. Therefore, by his logic, as I got out unhurt and as I was an IT professional (earning pots of money etc etc), I had to pay him!

Of course I did not pay.

[anshuman_v]

Silversteed, good to know you held firm in your dealing and came out unscathed. In case you havent realized it already, you should cherish the feeling of achievement!

I have been hunting around for a dashcam. Have narrowed down to this one from amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...f_rd_i=desktop.

I am in the process of sourcing and installing it, will post reviews in the forums soon.

[RedDevil_KP]

Bravo for technology! I will not be surprised if the price he asked for repairing the Dio is the same as owning a new one. I personally feel the 15 kmph limit inside our tech park doesn't really make sense for many. I encounter TT's who try to overtake inside the park, when the rest are obediently following one another. Once a week I end up with altercation with one or two & give right back when required. The Rant actually would have helped me take out all the frustration (if any) from home/work .
P.S - One TT driver has become a buddy of mine now

[Mortis]

Idiot bikers ! I had a fender bender with a fool yesterday. There is a 2 lane road that leads from the west to Khar subway where at the entry point of the subway its pretty much a single lane and then widens to 1.5 lanes within the subway. There is a road divider only 10-15ft before the subway.
There was a little traffic and while creeping forward the fool had come from the opposite lane and tried to cut in front of me but had to step on the brakes because the divider started. Helmet visor had a very dark tint. Near the subway I allowed an XUV to get in ahead of me and then started moving. Our man has now looped around me and tried to cut in from the other side and there is a crunching noise, didnt even feel the impact because the road is a bit bumpy. Biker goes ahead and turns back to look/start an argument. Im guessing he saw the damage because he just turns and zooms off. I obviously cant follow because the subway is narrow and traffic slow moving. I reach a clear spot to check the damage. This guy has managed to hit the inside of my wheel well with some part of his bike. The result : Fender/bumper bracket off, wheel well cladding misaligned and a 2 inch tear in the bumper starting from the wheel well.

I wish I had fitted the cheap dash cam atleast but I was waiting for a memory card and unfortunately the cheap one has a narrow angle lens which I didnt notice.
Going to use it temporarily and then chuck it after replacing with a Novatech 300.