[w 12]

Another Sad incident in Mumbai..

Six people were crushed to death by a speeding Toyota on upscale Carter Road in Bandra early Sunday morning.

The accident took place around 3:45 am. Fifteen others are believed to be injured in the accident.

http://www.ndtv.com/topstories/showt...ai%0D&id=20721

Condolences to all those Killed...

[scorp 1]

A very terrible news indeed. Heartfelt condolences to those killed & wounded.
But ridiculous enough, what kind of roads do we have.
Have we ever pondered? Okay, this was a negligent driving. But why do we have a dwelling on the pavement and on the footpath at the first place?
Why don't we also look into the agency's role here? Why can't they just keep the place off from people? The police/administration should be blamed equally for encroachment.
While the driver is responsible for this episode, equal emphasis should be put on removing the dwellings from pavements/road-sides and footpaths.
Amusingly this issue has never caught awares of the media, and nothing learnt from the past incidents.

[xtreme power]

pathetic.....this scene is getting ut of hand..
2 many drunken accidents happening...
again...may the soulls of the dead rest in peace,...
n hopefully the 1 injured get well soon

[zenx]

First up - I hope tha families of those who died recover from this horrific accident as much as thats possible.

Dont really know the details of the incident - but the media coverage seems extremely judgmental.

a) not yet stated whether the driver was drunk or not - may have been, but you cannot judge before thats known
b) how is this related to road rage ?

Multiple possibilities exist. Amongst them

a) mechanical issues
b) driver error
c) road issues - oil spills, surprise potholes/uneven surface which can throw people off track

I'm not saying these guys were not guilty. I'm not saying they were. All I'm saying is that the media seems to jump to conclusions rather easily, and there's a strong undercurrent of playing to the gallery - not unlike the socialist movies of the 70s. The guys in the (fast/expensive/big - take ur pick) car are always wrong.

While not commenting on this specific case cause I have few facts, I'd still say that the bigger problem - one that gets rarely gets highlighted in this cacophony created by the press - is why is there no room for error/mishaps built into road design, enforcement (huts just off the road ? thats nuts). Pavements should not even exist where high speed roads exist.

At the end of the day, you have to factor in accidents into design, usage of vehicles, roads. Thats the reason people have created and spend money on helmets, seatbelts, airbags, ABS.

Of course, the convenient scapegoats are drivers, irrespective of whether it was a genuine "accident" or a "caused" one by drunkenness/rashness. The bigger changes are tougher to implement, and who cares beyond the third day of the news anyhow ?

[elf]

What's with the road rage bit? Was the Toyota driver mad at the people living on the pavement? Bloody tabloid media.

They were supposedly returning from the Smirnoff Experience @ the Taj Land's End last night.

The main Carter Road stretch is one of the strictest no-hawking / no encroachment zones we have in the country, & the people killed that were living on the pavement were transient workers from Andhra Pradesh, used to construct / repair the roads.

May the dead rest in peace, may the living find some soon...

[w 12]

Here is another link with the photo of the car..

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/car-runs...t/25999-3.html


look at the smashed car. it didnt happen by going over a pothole..

IMO the problem is sometimes people get carried away and stop using the biggest safety device available with them...The grey matter between ones ears..

IMO , If one is partying hard and drinking , one should take cab or a sober driver ..it is always better to expect the unexpected on the roads and never overspeed and take chances.

Blaming the road conditions to me looks a bit stretched..in this case

[khanak]

make tht 15......according to cnn ibn

also the report says tht the number plate couldnt be found

tht means tht the accident was definitly a major one........

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by scorp 1

A very terrible news indeed. Heartfelt condolences to those killed & wounded.
But ridiculous enough, what kind of roads do we have.
Have we ever pondered? Okay, this was a negligent driving. But why do we have a dwelling on the pavement and on the footpath at the first place?
Why don't we also look into the agency's role here? Why can't they just keep the place off from people? The police/administration should be blamed equally for encroachment.
While the driver is responsible for this episode, equal emphasis should be put on removing the dwellings from pavements/road-sides and footpaths.
Amusingly this issue has never caught awares of the media, and nothing learnt from the past incidents.

Exactly. The media is hell bent on sensationalising the issue. The Local Administration,Police are also equally responsible for this mishap.
If one may give the statement,"If the driver wasn't drunk the accident wouldn't have happened and so many people wouldn't have died"
One should also accept that if the people weren't there in the pavement they wouldn't have died at all. What I mean to say is even if the driver wasn't drunk such accidents can happen.
So instead of just blaming the driver the media should be more responsible in reporting.

[goldsun]

Originally Posted by kiku007

What I mean to say is even if the driver wasn't drunk such accidents can happen.
So instead of just blaming the driver the media should be more responsible in reporting.

Well said. It is the media, who make headlines with these kind of incidents. The incident wouldn't have been given this much hype, had the driver not drunken. It would have been another accident news item in the sidelines.

[planet_rocker]

it is an accident and i think that media is giving more than required importance in this case. targeting the occupants of the car is perhaps the best weapon the media has right now because whatever the case may be it is not going to make any difference to the people killed. it is just a matter of time that the media guys will find some other news to hang on to.



1. dont drink and drive!
2. say no to street racing.
3. donot torture-test your rides!

take care and drive safe!

[Zappo]

I am a little taken aback here. Are we here trying to defend a bunch of high-on-adrenaline and unfortunately high-on-alcohol (if not anything else) nuts who could not control a flying car and killed so many people? And why? Just because they were sleeping on the pavement? Is not this a bit irresponsible on our part to be so conceited?

That they were on a pavement where they had no business to be in is a social issue... one that leads into too many other related issues. And a bunch of rich youngsters driving under the influence and killing people is a totally different issue. If instead of those sleeping people it had been some others (or even them) walking on the pavement what would you have said? That they had no business walking on the pavement at that hour?

IMO the fact is that this issue of drinking and driving and then killing people is getting a bit out of hand... strong, immediate measures are needed, and immediately. Period. Any attempt to defend such reckless people is disgusting.

[zenx]

well no, at least personally i specifically did not defend the driver in this case (the state of the others in the car cannot be the subject of debate, honestly). It just struck me that NDTV had almost passed judgment, connected it to road rage and pinned blame when even the drunken state of the driver was merely conjecture. Why ?

In this kind of an atmosphere - what chance does the driver in an even of a genuine accident have ? Its not dissimilar to the mob mentality that exists on the road to mete out instant justice by more-or-less lynch mobs.

Incidentally - nobody can claim 100% control of their machines at any point of time. There are a hundred things that can, and do go haywire, and 60 is a bad enough speed for mishaps. Do we not do 60 wherever theres low traffic/straight stretch ? Some sh*t will happen, and some of it can happen to anyone. Accidents, by definition, are unforeseeable, and not always avoidable. You can reduce the probability for sure, by controlling some of the variables. All ? I doubt that.

As for this speciific case, taking either side is meaningless till we really know something. Nevertheless, its still true that there was no room left for things-not-going-as-planned, or accidents. That in itself is worrying, irrespective of the avoidability of this accident.

[danlalan]

First of all....Heartfelt condolences to those killed & wounded. a disaster....well now due to this we wont have any more late nights...saturdays were the only nights we could stay out late but with cops crawling all over the place its going to be difficult for cars and their drivers to go around without being harrassed by cops.looks like ALL CLUBS/PUBS will shut down by 1:30 so as the eatouts and chai wallas...no more standing on the streets and chillin out...i heard the cops are going to take care of all of this from now on....

[scorp 1]

No one is defending. Please understand the responsibility of the administration as well. They never get blamed for the mess they've allowed. Come on, how can one imagine a road with people living and sleeping on it. And moreover, how can media broadcast this as a "hit and run" case, when it isn't.
While the accussed are rightly being prosecuted for a very ghastly act, media is typecasting this as another case of drunken driving, never understanding or highlighting the core issue. There would have been far less casualties had the road been free from encroachment.
Accidents like these would only creep until the disorder is settled. But would anyone care?

[bmdesai1987]

well this was a very bad one and bad day for the ppl who were returning from a party... well but the fault is from both sides.. ppl sleeping on footpaths... and drinkin and driving..... assume suppose it were a truck with failed brakes..... god