[shuvc]

Oh no ! This is so unfortunate.
Did the footboard take part of the impact ?

Originally Posted by suman

This is one TOUGH babe by the way - the speed at which the biker hit, a sedan would have had a completely crumpled door, not to mention (probably) glass breakage, power window mechanism damage, speaker damage etc.

That's what went through my mind looking at the snaps. Had you been in the Fiesta ....

All's well that ends well. Good that there were no serious injuries and you kept your cool and that she'll be restored soon.

[LandCruiser]

Sad to learn about this incident suman. But thank god that he didnt get himself underneath the car!
Dont know whose fault is it, but generally bikers dont realize how easy it is to lose balance, what happens when they hit the tarmac hard (especially on a highway). They learn the lesson at some one else's cost!

[suman]

Originally Posted by da MotorHead

But i'm glad u didn't thrash the biker. Some generousity here and there pays of somewhere else.

Originally Posted by shuvc

Good that there were no serious injuries and you kept your cool

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

Suman - Sorry about the incident and damage to the car but the restraint you showed is awesome. Anger doesnt get us anywhere in situations like this , might only aggravate the situation.

Originally Posted by tifosikrishna

Suman, sorry to hear about the accident. Good that you were able to maintain your composure. Also liked your pragmatic approach.

Well guys, I'll be frank with you! 2007 hasn't really started off too well - last Friday, a very old school friend of mine passed away, massive heart attack; on Sunday, my aunt passed away with terminal cancer (a matter of less than three months since it was diagnosed). When this thing happened, I guess somewhere at the back of my mind there was this thought that bad news comes in threes, perhaps this is the third and its less serious than the others, so let it go! I think that's what it was - else I cannot myself account for my composure & restraint.

Originally Posted by shuvc

Did the footboard take part of the impact ?

Nope, it was a peculiar angle he hit me at, he was half flying, it was the handlebar that he hit the door with

Originally Posted by LandCruiser

But thank god that he didnt get himself underneath the car!

You telling me! That's what I was telling my wife - if the bike was already on the ground when it hit the car, it would have surely gone between the front & rear wheels & .......god knows!!

[supremeBaleno]

Sorry to hear about that, suman. And I think you dealt with the situation well.

Going by what my friend faced during a similar accident (no fault of his), I would say that going to the cops could have either yielded no good or could have been even counter productive.

This friend was driving on East Coast Road (nice road, but only one lane on each side with no median, thus very dangerous and accident-prone) at a sedate 70km/hr speed, when two guys on a Pulsar coming in the opposite direction skid, fall down and their bike comes over to the other side of the road. Before my friend can do anything, the front of the bike is under the front-driver side of his car. His tyre bursts, the Santro is uncontrollable and he finds himself on the wrong side of the road. Luckily, no vehicles were coming in the opposite direction or else my friend, his wife and kid would have been in serious trouble. Around 10K for the car repairs. He was already looking at a 40K job of engine overhaul - mentioned in this thread. On top of this comes this unexpected 10K expense.

The fun starts when the cops come. The bike guys admit their mistake, but the cop pulls up my friend saying, "Your car hit his bike. So the fault is yours". How do you argue with such logic ?

Even after repeated tries, the cop refuses to accept what happened and then my friend decides to forget filing a case etc.

[typeOnegative]

You handled the situation well Suman. So hats off to you on that one. But you will have some bad dreams for some time to come. I had my rear passenger door ripped out by a truck ... I know that sinking feeling.

Hope you get your car back in good shape. All the best for that.

[netarchie]

That was quite generous of you to let go off the bike wala in particular. Even i would have done the same thing though.

Anyways take care. Safari is quite a strong machine.

In fact a smiliar incident happened with me when a bike wala just uprooted my front bumper because he was driving rash, zipping throught the traffic "dhoom style". I had to pay 9 K to fix it, all for his fault.

[Dragonov]

Sorry to hear about the damage to your Safari. But I guess these things keep happening for no apparent fault of ours... It was a good gesture that you let go off the bikers as it would not have helped otherwise too..

Infact I too had a similar accident few months back on the MG road. As I was following a Sumo when it suddenly braked because some moron jumped over the road divider to cross the road; So in turn I too had to brake hard, although I did stop in time, but unfortunately the biker who was following me did not ! So he rammed right into the centre of my ten days old brand new Safari and bent the rear crash guard (which fortunately I had gotten fitted) hence my bumper got saved and there was just a scratch on the spare tyre wheel cover.
But then, as I parked the Safari and went to help the biker who had fallen and bent the front forks of his bike along with the smashed headlight assembly, to my surprise I saw him getting up and just speeding away. It really pissed me off, but then thankfully my beauty was saved and I could not have gone behind the moron in the heavy traffic. So thanking my stars I moved on. Since then I am very careful regarding bikers trailing me or riding in-parallel.

Well I do hope you get back your Safari in ship-shape and alls well that ends well!

[Godfather]

Whoa man... I am so sorry to hear about this accident of yours.. Yes the bikers are P*****g off... there have been a few incidents with me also where these guys in a traffic jam or signal want to inch to the start of the line..Never figured out why they do this...and they touch my mirror..Thank fully there are no scratches on it... but i make it a point to scraam at them..

Godfather

[biju]

Really Sorry about the incident that happened to you.. I think such incident is really out of our control..

Here in Cochin also I find it difficult to ride through high traffic. Most of the bikers will be going through my both sides with a terrific speed. By only Gods' Grace I am getting through it..

Wishing you a Speed recovery for your vehicle..

Biju

[suman]

Just a quick update - car was given for repairs on Friday, got her back on Saturday afternoon. Total cost incurred was 3.9k which I thought was quite reasonable.

They've done a pretty good job I'd say, I'll post some pics when I'm back in town. Though, as Ishan rightly said - he'll believe it when he sees it as pics can be deceptive!

[v1kram]

Good to know that your beast is back!!!!

[Mendi]

Originally Posted by da MotorHead

. But i'm glad u didn't thrash the biker. Some generousity here and there pays of somewhere else.

Its really very sad to see that your Dicor got so much damage and scratches. It really gives a lot of pain, i CAN UNDERSTAND. But at the same time I am really very glad to see your spotaneous reactions after that incident. Had I been there, It would have taken really a great deal of patience from me to react in such a manner restraining from getting angry over the incident and let them go.

What ever happened, we cant actually undo that, but certainly suppressing our anger and letting it go the way it happenned, staying calm, shows the actual skin which we all TBHPians have. I really appreciate that.

I hope and wish all TBHPians good luck always everywhere and the strength for all who have seen these incidents happenning with their beloved Cars. .