Team Bhp User Council to act as Voice of Motorists in India? Bhpians,
I’m writing to ascertain if we have we ever explored the idea of creating a user council for each city? The reason behind this proposal is an incident that I was victim to a week ago.
I was driving my Verna near MS Ramaiah Hospital in the afternoon at a snail pace (traffic is heavy on this road) and almost stopped on the road to let another car take a “U” turn. I started moving again at ~20 Kms/hour and the car ahead of me stopped to let someone else take a turn. When I stopped, a recklessly ridden Bajaj Chetak comes in and rams into my bumper - The scooterist was not even wearing a helmet.
I got out of the car and noticed the scooterist was safe (didn’t fall off the bike nor suffered any injury). However, my bumper was damaged (perhaps requires a replacement) and the scooterist did not have a bit of remorse. My friend who was travelling with me noticed that the scooterist had no front brake lever on the scooter. When I pointed it out, the scooterist just takes out his mobile and dials a number (his brother) and incidentally the person who he was calling was on the same road and lands up there even before this guy disconnected the call. This guys walks up to me and introduces himself as the traffic warden with R.T Nagar police station and asks me to ignore the accident and go home. When I point out that he was driving recklessly, the traffic warden asks me to go to the police station and register a compliant. This traffic warden makes couple of calls and then says, this area comes under RT Nagar police station and you go register a compliant there and the scooterist will meet me there.
Sadashiv Nagar police station is about 2 Kms from the spot of this accident on the same stretch of road and RT Nagar is perhaps some 5-6 Kms away. So, I drive down to Sadashiv Nagar police station only to find out that in-deed the jurisdiction is RT Nagar/Hebbal and they are helpless.
I drive to RT Nagar police station (near hebbal flyover) and see the scooterist is already there and waiting for me. The scooterist on the way to the police station picks up a helmet and is waiting for me at the entrance along with some policemen who are already aware of this incident. I walk up to the sub-inspector (SI) and he hands me a piece of paper to write down the compliant. I narrate the entire episode and the police after having read my compliant, inquire if I want to register a FIR [or] just want an acknowledgement from police to claim insurance. The police on behalf of the scooterist inform me that he will not pay a penny and has valid driving license and insurance. I asked them to register a compliant and the police inform me that my car will be seized and I’ll have to get court orders to get it released if they register a FIR. I was shocked to learn this process especially when nobody is injured and for no fault of mine. The police asked me to write the compliant again by eliminating details such as scooter did not have brake lever, driving recklessly, investigate the matter and make it more like FYI note and not a compliant. I was left with no choice but to comply with the recommendation of this officer. I received an acknowledgement for this and drove home feeling down right horrible and helpless. A person with the police influence walks away with a big smile on his face and people without influence end up paying 50% of the cost for replacing the bumper even if insurance is claimed.
We all may be going through such incidents day-in and day-out and a user council could come handy at such times.
This incident is behind me now, but I wanted to take this as an opportunity to make this proposal of a user council.
We could perhaps send in a recommendation to the Govt/police that Team Bhp will be the voice of motorists in India and can contribute towards making driving in India a gratifying experience?
I’m writing to seek suggestions from fellow Bhpians on this subject.
Last edited by DirtyHarry : 8th May 2009 at 18:17.
Reason: I copy pasted this from a notepad and realize the formatting is mis-aligned.
|