[kjayant]

I often used to have these moments of madness, instant justice, LIVE karma, high sense of righteousness, and raging desire of quick revenge against harebrain idiots. Got into a few arguments as well.

Then late 30s and good sense prevailed. My outlook has completed changed now. My tenets are:

1. Come what may, never get into argument or browbeating. Remember, the one who is driving rashly has very little to live for. You have a lot.
2. Carry an insurance with all things covered even if that comes with a little higher premium.
3. Never attempt to muscle your way with an idiot (racing or overtaking), even with a faster, better machine. You always play games with the ones who know the rules. These guys have no rules.

I live in NCR, the city of hotheads. Getting shot for almost nothing is more of a norm than exception and these rules have really come in handy. I might not be a brawler or not even get into an argument on being rear ended but I don't care - I was not raised to be one and I have a lot riding on me.

Finally, in your context - you must drop a note to the Managing Director KSRTC (typically an IAS officer) with no expectations. I would advise staying off the court, there are bigger battles to be fought - doing dishes, brooming & mopping the home, and yes WFH - these are pandemic times :-)

[The Observer]

@ GKR9900 : I am really sorry for the ordeal you had to go through. First of all thank you for being brave enough to share your experience. Like many of our fellow TBHP'ians have suggested do get yourself a dual channel dash cam.

Please do not shy away from making a formal complaint and even stating your experience to the press. If they have unreasonable time pressures then the government must do something rationale about it - not give these drivers a free rein to drive rashly.

I understand the advise many here say - always give way to such rashly driven vehicles, well i think differently, doing that just emboldens these audacious law breakers and endangers life and property. They have to be shown their place. Now that does not mean you have to be aggressive but we must learn to be assertive or be passive aggressive (like Arun Josie pointed out) in our driving as well, there should be some ways to dissuade such rash driving. Just ignoring them IMHO is just failing to accept that there is a problem.

I have driven the Kottayam - Ernakulam , Ernakulam - Kozhencherry route multiple times and i know exactly what you have been through my friend. Its not just KSRTC - even the private owned Volvo/Scania/Merc buses act as if they own the road.

[lightning535]

Thanks for posting your experience. It only helps others to learn from the experience and plan to stay calm in these situations. Glad that car and passengers are doing fine now.

From my fair share of driving in NCR (specially in Noida and Greater Noida), it used to boil from blood seeing people driving on wrong side, even on roundabouts. I chose to look at the wrong siders, smile, then do an appluading clap. This kind of threw them off their course. 99% of the times, people smiled back with a hint of acceptance to their wrong doing.

The above action gives out a lot of satisfaction as the smile and clapping gesture conveys your message to the other and person and when the insult is wrapped in a smile/funny gesture, people usually accept it.

Its anyways not worth to spoil your mood for the days to come, if you enter into even a verbal altercation, let alone physical. I would suggest everyone to have a dashcam in the car as a mandatory accessory.

[Aakash]

I can totally relate to this. KSRTC drivers do not have any regards to other motorists safety and are very reckless on the road. Whenever I visit Kerala, I have a scooter which I use for my personal work and errands and the moment I see a KSRTC bus behind me, I immediately give it way and let it pass.

And this is not the case with just KSRTC buses. Private buses, 'super fast' and 'express' buses which ply from one district to another are equally reckless. You can find two different buses driving parallel on a one way road as if they are competing on who would get to the next bus stop first.

Letting them overtake and go is probably the only thing I can do because my helmet can only protect much if something unfortunate happens.

[dreamliner17]

The answer to reckless driving cannot be ‘reckless driving’ in return and rather should never be. Someone else’s foolishness can cause you even greater harm and one will simply be left with the feeling that it would have been much better that such stuff never happened. It’s in our hands to react to the situation in a way that is safe for our family and others on the road.

Simply gathering the facts by whatever means available, seems a better way to handle the situation. Later, you report it or not, it’s up to you. If no loss was done to either party and has been a near miss, we should be happy that the worst case was avoided. Sometimes, letting go of the situation, helps a lot mentally.

P.S - Personally, teaching a ‘lesson’ to a bus driver or truck driver is not really in our hands. We don’t know what the driver of the heavy vehicle has gone through - driving under the influence of alcohol, extended working hours without any rest, delay in schedule, non payment of dues, fight in the family etc. which is making the driver drive in a certain way. After all, he’s driving the bigger vehicle and much more damage can be caused if he loses control due to any reason.

In both instances for me - being roughed up by a local politician for an overtake and for my car being hit in parking by a reversing truck, there was absolutely no fault of mine; I’m glad that i didn’t go the ‘teach a lesson to the other person way’, simply because some things can be let go without a clash of ego. Otherwise, there’s bound to be a physical altercation and it’s much much better if things don’t turn ugly.
Life is precious.

[jasjotbains]

I can very well relate with the OP here. Ended up in a similar situation today, though it got a bit physical (yet knocked some sense into me)

Can anyone recommend a dash cam which can be powered by the USB port? I'm not in favour of getting the wires touched up since I'm in a different state and hence don't know much about the technicians here

[govindremesh]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

There was not much that we could do in the scenario other than drive off with our damaged vehicle. I have filed a formal complaint via email at the local police station stating the bus license plates.

I do understand that the actions on my part were irresponsible as well and is bound to be condemned. I should have noted the number and reported to the near by bus depot.

I can very well relate to you since I have been though multiple near misses with different State RTC Buses. Once while going to Tirupati, an APSRTC Volvo was overtaking a truck on a single carriageway and came head on towards my car with no signs of abandoning the already dangerous overtaking stunt. I had to let go my "legally correct" road position , apply emergency brakes and go off the road with the car which had my entire family, travelling at 80 kmph. Had I been stubborn and stayed in my lane (since I was in the correct lane and speed limit) maybe I would not be alive to type this.

Interestingly, this lesson of letting go came from a KSRTC bus near kollam. My car was on a steady cruise of 80 kmph, when I lightly accelerated to overtake the bus via the left lane (bus was on the right lane), to not interrupt the cruise control setting. The bus suddenly started changing lane to the left. I had to brake the car to a full stop to avoid damage to the car and the occupants.

My uncle who was following us in a car behind ours, laughed and remarked "Avan ninne odhukki" (He put you in place). With his vast driving experience in KL, he told me never to try such stunts that offend these guys. At that time , I had very little experience driving in Kerala.

Life is the best teacher, and though you had an unpleasant experience and damage to your car, you did learn that trying knock sense into these guys is inviting danger. Unfortunately there's a little that can be done to tame Anavandis, as Ganesh rightly mentioned:

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

In all my years of driving and when I used to be a kid, I've been warned several times by my parents not to mess around with these government appointed drivers and the Aanavandi (=nickname for KSRTC buses in Kerala) they drive. They have nothing to lose.

Originally Posted by BLACNWYTE

The running time allotted for a Super Fast bus to reach Trivandrum from Kochi is 4 hrs 30 mins, IIRC, which is impossible to maintain at sane speeds and under the current traffic conditions. .

This is insane. 4.5 hours can only be done at odd hours (1 AM - 5 AM) with best possible road and weather conditions combined with continuous driving, a powerful car and a skilled driver, by regularly exceeding the speed limits when out of sight of the speed cams.

How can they not update these? The roads are almost never in shape between Alappuzha and Kayamkulam, plus these buses need to make a few stops.

[Simhi]

Originally Posted by jasjotbains

Can anyone recommend a dash cam which can be powered by the USB port? I'm not in favour of getting the wires touched up since I'm in a different state and hence don't know much about the technicians here

You can refer to dedicated thread on Dashcam - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-e...hread-200.html (The Dashcam / Car Video Recorder (DVR) Thread).
Most of the dashcam work out of USB port or Cigarette lighter socket. Installation is quite easy and you can do it on your own.

[Thilak29]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

Now this is one incident that I wish I could have avoided.

I am sorry to hear the episode and wish we had a better solution to offer than offering some consoling words. I live close to KL 14 region and these buses are notorious on highways and even curvy bends with narrow pass through. do you mind posting pictures of damage?
If one get involved in an incident with one of these notorious vehicles the passengers in the bus are usually seen siding with the driver and treat the affected car owner as a bour·geois!

You've shown the courage to admit the mistake on your part and possibly let it die down and thanks for sharing.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

Now this is one incident that I wish I could have avoided.

Thanks for this thread. You have highlighted a very important part of Road travel in India. Many of the members have given some nice suggestions already so I will summarize the key take away from reading all of the above.

1. I have been in similar situation a lot of times and have reached similarly. Also in retrospect, always felt that it was a stupid idea to follow through.
2. Safety of myself, my family is more important than being right on the road.
3. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the ego.
4. The idea of taking an immediate 10 mins break to cool things down a notch is a very good idea.
5. I learned from a Taxi driver, they keep their family pics or pics of kids on the dash as a constant reminder against speeding or knee jerk reaction.
6. Lastly assume already that everyone on the road is careless and their safety also lies in your hand. So it’s better for you to drive safe.
7. Giving feedback politely or with a smile is a good idea. However I would say don’t bother, you never know how things may turn out.

I have still not been able to completely control myself a few times however I try as much as possible and hopefully someday will become a very sedate driver. That will ensure one less idiot on the road

[51morris]

Firstly, glad that you got away with only damage to your car and not to your (or your Fathers’) person. Consider yourself very fortunate!

It is simply not worth getting into such a situation, especially when there has not been any accident/damage to begin with. For many years, I would do exactly the same when someone cut me off or was driving dangerously - make sure I force-stop the vehicle and give the driver/rider an earful. However, over the years, I realised that the only thing I am doing with this is putting myself (and other occupants of my car) at risk because you never know the kind of people you are dealing with. The best thing to do is to just be careful and anticipate such insanity from other motorists on the road. When you do encounter such dangerous driving, just drive away unless you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of an accident.

As some folks have already suggested, a front & rear dash am is always helpful in such situations. I have heard people flipping when someone whips out a mobile phone and starts recording a conversation - so I personally would avoid doing that. A dash cam is more discreet and a valuable gadget in such situations.

I hope this is a lesson that will stay with you as long as you drive!

[av8er]

This reminds me of an incident that happened more than a decade ago, 3 of us friends had gone for dinner to a restaurant.

Finished dinner and we were driving out from one of the lanes to turn onto the main road, it was a T-junction and there were bus stops on either side at the T-Junction. At that time 2 buses happened to stop on either side. My friend who was driving wanted to squeeze between the 2 buses, I was sitting in the front passenger seat and so had to guide him by rolling window down and head out.

I kept saying 'Poga laam' (you can go in Tamil), we were pretty close to the bus on the left and the driver put his head out and shouted 'Arivu Illae' (Dont you have brains) and without thinking I replied 'Illae' (No I dont).

We drove off and had not even gone 100mts my friend stopped the car and started laughing. He told us how I had diffused the situation by accepting to what the driver said and how funny it was. Frankly I did not realize till he mentioned and we were parked for 5mins laughing.

So from then on I realized its a lot better to diffuse any situation than getting into a tiff and worsening it.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

Absolutely! He was actually telling me to let it go right from the start, but I didnt comply. Adrenaline got the better of me. And I put him in a difficult spot too as all he could do was support me amidst those people, even though I was in the wrong too. What is even worse is that the Elantra is primarily used by my dad and he maintains it in such immaculate condition. And I hate it that I caused damage due to my irresponsible behaviour. Although afterwards he told me that to err is human, and I shouldnt be too hard on myself, this feeling inside remains nah...that I could have avoided it. Anyways, only after getting the Elantra repaired and handing her over to dad, have I rejoined work.

Just as I thought. Your family would never want you to get into a sticky mess. There is a saying, never start a fight you can't finish. Commercial drivers are mostly brash bully types. You have more to lose than they have. They spend most of their time on road and are generally on a short fuse. Extremely touch and go. You don't want to mess with them. But, don't worry. Every bully eventually meets his match. Like they say, meek will inherit the earth. Unruly types will shoot one another out.

Your ordeal takes me back to an incident I had in the summer of 2009. I was with my wife and parents in my Lancer and this RTC bus driver was honking and breathing down my neck in the thick of the evening traffic. What got me fuming was, he could clearly see from his high perch above that I was tailgating a long line of vehicles myself. But, he would try to overtake me at any cost which he did eventually but grazing my car in the process. It was extremely mild. Not even paint peeled off. It was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a light hammer smack from the other side. But, my ego was bruised more than the car and I passed him and cut him off and stopped him. A younger me, back then, blocked traffic in the fit of a rage. It was closer to intersection so the traffic cop came running. The second cop was directing the traffic around the bus while the first cop was enquiring what all the fuss about was. You will be shocked to know that eventually the cop sided up with the bus driver and let him drive away. I was furious and got into argument with the cop. It is then the second cop came over and explained to me that it was for my own good. He said, I could file a complain with police but no good would come off it. RTC has a legal cell to represent the driver and it is their daily job to attend to hearings and arguments and police stations. But, I, on the other hand, would be running form pillar to post and this is not what I do on a daily basis or for a living. He said, only those cases which involve injury , loss of life or serious damage to other vehicle are looked into seriously, and mine did not fall under any. It would be a waste of time, he said. I swallowed my pride, got into car and drove off. But, the worst wasn't over yet. More than that driver and the cop, it was my family that I had to face like a criminal. I was greeted with a sullen silence in the car and no one spoke a word. When I got back home, my wife didn't speak with me until next day noon. She said heavy words like, this is not the man I married. My parents asked me if this is how they raised me. I never saw that bus driver before or since but it ruined the mood of a family for quite some days.

We are bhpians. Not members of the underworld that we can take on anyone. Some members feel differently. I did too, long long ago. But like they say, with age comes wisdom. And, like I said, never get into a mess you can't wriggle out of with your pride, body and soul intact. :-) People get shot at for something as small as honking or overtaking. And, lastly, if it helps, these commercial drivers happen to be on the clock. They have a tight schedule to keep. Unlike most of us teambhpians, they are not driving for fun or recreation. They make a living out of that. And, those rickety buses are devoid of any creature comforts. Not supporting them at all, but we may spare a thought for them. Then, you would realize that we are indeed a blessed lot. I agree, we do get wronged by others on our roads on a regular basis and that brings our blood to boil. But, try to be like a zen monk. Be impervious to pain or pleasure, smile and move on. :-)

[Biker Ram]

Heard this from a Karnataka RTC driver:
If there is an accident involving loss of lives or of any other serious nature, the drivers are suspended for a duration of about 4 months. They are back to duty afterwords. All the legal hassles is handled by the department. Drivers don't need to do anything.

Going by pgsagar's post above, this seems to be the case with most states transport departments. What it means is, the department or police will really not bother with the usual road rage and reckless driving complaints. Unless the person complaining has some connections with either a politician or a bureaucrat.

As for garnering support in case of a fight, the passengers (in this case, the bus) are never going to say or do anything against the bus driver. At max they may not openly support the driver if it's very evident to them that the bus driver is at fault. It's the herd mentality. They just want to reach their destination in time without getting to hassles. I have noticed this within inter city buses as well as intra city commute to office where I have been a passenger myself. They may also perceive it as one rich man obstructing the movement of 50 ordinary citizens. The bus driver is likely going to have all their support.

[NikhilReddy]

I understand your situation. I was in a similar situation nearly 7-8 years ago travelling with my 2 years old son and wife. This happened in Telangana - near Hyderabad around 8 PM. I was driving my favorite Vento and suddenly the RTC bus overtakes us from the left and cuts all the way towards extreme right. The car from the left side front passenger door all the way to the bumper got damaged. But the car just drove. I wonder if any other car could have taken similar impact and still be running. We all got scared except the baby.

I overtook the bus and stopped. I anticipated that this is going to be a long fight and I was prepared for it. The kid was hungry and wifey was not happy about my next steps. I only said one thing to her ' If we don't fight this out who will, if the driver gets away it will embolden him more and tomorrow it may comeback to us or our loved ones in full circle'. I called 100 (police) and they gave me the number of nearest police station. I called my relative to come and pickup my wife and kid. Called the nearest police station. Put some good music for the wifey and kid. Got down from the car.

Most of the passengers are regular travelers in the bus and have become friendly with the driver. I didn't anticipate this coming my way. I entered the bus and all of them started shouting at me as if I am the one responsible for all this. I was shaken with their irrationality but couldn't let the bus leave. I told them that if this incident is reported to the depo by conductor they will arrange for a new bus. After 15 mins or so they kind of calmed down when I told them that any one could have been in my place, their loved ones. Someone amongst the passenger lost their loved ones in an accident and I got a little support. Now everyone in their own way started suggesting want action I should take. But they said the bus must leave and I must not be stopping it.

All this while the driver was silent as if nothing has happened. Conductor immediately said that it was drivers mistake but asked me to let the bus go. I said I cant do that. If I allowed the bus to go the entire case of rash and negligent driving will be lost as most of it is circumstantial evidence.

My relative arrived and picked up my kid and wifey. By this time most of the passengers left. The police came (60 mins or so) and took all the details. I explained to them in detail how the accident happened. The driver and now even conductor started telling how rashly I was driving and it was me who overtook the bus and crashed my car into it. The cops were very professional they quickly looked at all the spots and concluded that it was drivers fault. Filed a case. Sent him for alcohol test. Asked me to come to the police station to just sign on their case. I said I will follow-up on the case if needed. The cops said its not needed. But I took the case number and details and said I will follow-up out of my own interest and will file an RTI if needed. I thanked them for their excellent service and said I am proud of them.

This case was enough for the driver to be suspended. All this while both the driver and conductor were aware of the consequences if the case is filed. Now hearing this the conductor started pleading with me to withdraw the case. I said I could have done it if there was any empathy and remorse the driver could have shown after the accident but he didn't.

I regularly called the station to check on the case. The driver was booked and subsequently suspended. All I can say is I slept peacefully on the very night of the accident.. I did all I could to ensure that the roads will be safer, people must pay for their mistakes (Wasn't sure that night if the diver will get suspended, but was sure he will have a lot to answer to his department and cops.. and will have a long night) and I fought this out all by myself. Glanced at my VENTO before sleeping as said to it ' You are my hero.. kept my family safe in accident and you will be fixed and pampered'