[SUPERSPORT]

I hope this is the right thread to post this. Yesterday 13th March, friday turned out to be a really bad day for us as a speeding auto rammed our Linea on the left side. It was my Dad who was driving and this idiot auto entered the main road without looking anywhere and rammed our Linea perpendicularly while in motion. Both the front and rear doors, running board and the following panel has been damaged. The tyre burst and alloy too got hit. Seeing her like that wasn't a good sight. And I dont have any idea where to head for the repair work. I am considering Hyson Fiat only as the last option as I was not really impressed with their work on my relatives punto. Cost too was on the higher side there. Can the running board be repaired? Rear door seems to have taken maximum damage. I want the paint quality to be top notch as I will be using this car for 3 years or more from now. Car is 5 years old now so I dont think claiming insurance would be of any use. Please help me with some info on good shops in and around Cochin where I can get the work done. Is it really a tough job to match the factory finish or come close to it? I'm worried about the paint work.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by SUPERSPORT

Car is 5 years old now so I dont think claiming insurance would be of any use. Please help me with some info on good shops in and around Cochin where I can get the work done. Is it really a tough job to match the factory finish or come close to it? I'm worried about the paint work.

First up, must commend the way you have maintained her so far

An FNG no doubt works out cheaper than the dealerships in such cases. The damage doesn't seem too severe. And with the awesome mods and finish that we get to see from God's own country, I am sure you will find a good one - look up the directory section. That said, white shouldn't be too hard a color to match.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by SUPERSPORT

I hope this is the right thread to post this. Yesterday 13th March, friday turned out to be a really bad day for us as a speeding auto rammed our Linea on the left side. It was my Dad who was driving and this idiot auto entered the main road without looking anywhere and rammed our Linea perpendicularly while in motion. Both the front and rear doors, running board and the following panel has been damaged. The tyre burst and alloy too got hit. Seeing her like that wasn't a good sight. And I dont have any idea where to head for the repair work. I am considering Hyson Fiat only as the last option as I was not really impressed with their work on my relatives punto. Cost too was on the higher side there. Can the running board be repaired? Rear door seems to have taken maximum damage. I want the paint quality to be top notch as I will be using this car for 3 years or more from now. Car is 5 years old now so I dont think claiming insurance would be of any use. Please help me with some info on good shops in and around Cochin where I can get the work done. Is it really a tough job to match the factory finish or come close to it? I'm worried about the paint work.

It truly hurts to see one's love in such condition, specially for no fault of yours. Still, your damage is quite less and can be repaired easily. You are lucky that your car is white, so no issues there as well for paint matching.
I have seen many badly damaged cars being repaired to perfection, so don't worry. Just find a good workshop, and insist on replacing parts rather than repairing them.

A badly damaged Punto which was brilliantly repaired-
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ar-damage.html

Regards,
Shashi

[bruty]

This happened this morning, while going to office. I normally took inner roads to avoid traffic and the nuisance created by shared auto's. But on the flip side it has many cross roads, where one has to be careful to avoid the bikers who drive recklessly. Today also I followed the same routine, while approaching one of the cross roads I observed a bike with triple ride without a helmet approaching in speed. Driver was not looking at the road at all and was distracted by females going to nearby BPO ( Females, No offence please). I applied the brakes and the truck stopped with screeching sound but the bike hit the car in the front right headlight and all 3 riding bike fell down.

It took some seconds for me to get in senses and get down the vehicle and by that time 2 of the riders were on their feet. One of them got scratches on the knees nothing serious. By this time there were 30 people surrounding us and I helped the 3rd one too get up, he was driving the bike. He got scratches on the knee , elbow and couple of here and there nothing serious again. Now usual argument started and one of the rider started arguing that I have to pay for bikes repairs ( nothing seems to be broken in visual inspection) I said first inspect your friend and see if he has hurt himself and then we can look for what’s required to be done to bike. I called a cycle rickshaw and asked 2 of them to board it and take them to nearby hospital.

I parked the truck nearby and followed them on foot, while walking I asked one of them do you know where is the hospital, because I was getting late. He replied that he lives in the same area and know where it is. Now the bells started ringing to me and first thing I did is take out all debit and credit cards from my purse and put them in hidden pocket in the pant. I was also carrying my laptop with me. Next thing occurred to me is, what if they take my laptop. I crossed my figures and we reached the hospital. We found a compounder there and I asked to look them and give a titnus and get an x-ray of the leg. I asked the total expenditure and gave him the money. I updated the boys that I have paid for x-ray, bandages and injection and they do not need to worry. After that dashed out of that place and started walking in fast pace. I was more worried, what if their friends, relatives come and surround me and start haggling me for money or anything else. I had hardly walked 100 feet and Ii was one of them came running towards me and he asked my number. I said give me your number and do not worry, If I was too run I would had run by now , but he still said no he needs my number. So I gave some random number to him and walked off. As I reached my car, the 3rd person was standing there with bike and he said his brother is coming and wait. I again said to him do not worry, I have given my number to your friends and I am getting late for the office and I dashed off. While driving to my office I was thinking,

Did I do the right thing by giving wrong number?

What else could I have done?

What if they had surrounded me in the lane near to hospital that was their area?

I thanked GOD that I was near to zero speed; otherwise they might have thrown far away due to impact

I thanked GOD, for the way I handled the things at the scene, otherwise people here start blaming and beating the driver of bigger vehicle

[Dry Ice]

Get a dashcam. If you had one, you could have had evidence of their offences - triple riding, no helmet, rash driving etc.

[Altocumulus]

I am still at a loss here trying to understand what are you worried about. It does not seem to be your fault. They were 3 on a bike, without helmet and not seeing where they were going. What you did for them was more than enough, I wouldn't have done so myself. Unless there is something you haven't mentioned.

[bruty]

My only worry is, if they want to extract money from me, I could not have done anything. Now only thing they have is my car number, but I am not sure if they have noted it. They seems to be very amateur, I doubt they have license.

[tazmaan]

Originally Posted by Altocumulus

I am still at a loss here trying to understand what are you worried about. It does not seem to be your fault. They were 3 on a bike, without helmet and not seeing where they were going. What you did for them was more than enough, I wouldn't have done so myself. Unless there is something you haven't mentioned.

You are right. But when you are in the local area people don't care who is wrong who is right. They can and will extort any possible money from you. The best thing to do is dial 100. I know cops are a bigger problem but their presence will make sure you are not physically assaulted.

Cops will make a case but for such instances they mostly won't register an FIR and any damage at the most would me monetary.

Last week there was an instance when I braked hard to prevent running over a biker who was overtaking me from left. I stopped at the next junction and asked him politely if it was my responsibility to keep him safe and save his life. His reply was you saw me and braked so keep your eyes on the road and you won't run over me I don't mean harm but one day he will run out of luck.

@bruty Do you have any proof you went with them to hospital like a receipt or something from hospital? If so you have nothing to worry. Otherwise there is a chance of them filling a hit n run against you.

[bruty]

Mod Note : There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use spell-checkers.

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by bruty

..................
I applied the brakes and the truck stopped with screeching sound but the bike hit the car in the front right headlight and all 3 riding bike fell down.
..................
I parked the truck nearby and followed them on foot, while walking I asked one of them do you know where is the hospital, because I was getting late. He replied that he lives in the same area and know where it is. Now the bells started ringing to me and first thing I did is take out all debit and credit cards from my purse and put them in hidden pocket in the pant.
Did I do the right thing by giving wrong number?

What else could I have done?

What if they had surrounded me in the lane near to hospital that was their area?

I would say, you have done absolutely the right thing in a situation where you DO NOT have any kind of support. You have done an extra effort by taking them to a hospital and paying the expenses too - when the whole thing (from what you have explained) doesn't seem to have originated from any fault of yours.

We are in a country where the thumb-rule is - the culprit is the one driving the mightier vehicle - whether it is pedestrian vs bicycle, car vs bike or truck vs SUV.

On a precautionary note, I would suggest you to avoid the same route for a few days. And if possible, try avoiding taking your car out and commute by bike (if you have one) or other modes of transport.
Note: By doing all this, please do NOT feel that you are taking a step like a coward. There are numerous insane jobless people around in our country who can spend their time in all such useless activities. On the other hand, you & me do not have the luxury of time and would like to stay away from all such mess.

OT: Can you tell what your 'truck' is?

[Mik]

I don't want to be alarmist, but a similar thing happened with a good friend of mine in Gurgaon. He was in his iKon and three drunk college students on a scooter smashed into him while coming from the wrong side.
He immediately got down and helped them. They were not getting too aggressive and were understanding that it wasn't my friend's fault. But, soon 3 more bikes landed up and the lead guy , without even inquiring or surveying what had happened, punched my friend square in the jaw. 4 more punches followed till my friend was bleeding profusely. The original three then asked my friend to make an exit before it got ugly.
Damages: a broken nose and a broken headlight.

Some at the office said "Why did you even get down. You should have stayed in the car". Then someone came up with his experience of how he did exactly that since he had a female friend with him and the guys actually punched through the window to get to him!

In short: Thank your stars that all things turned out well and be very very careful to a fault.

[SUPERSPORT]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

First up, must commend the way you have maintained her so far

An FNG no doubt works out cheaper than the dealerships in such cases.

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

It truly hurts to see one's love in such condition, specially for no fault of yours. Still, your damage is quite less and can be repaired easily. You are lucky that your car is white, so no issues there as well for paint matching.[/url]

Regards,
Shashi

I got my car after the work on 19th itself. Repair work was carried out by AUTOTEAM run by a neigbour of mine. They repaired the doors and pulled back the running board and over all the car now looks excellent.

[srinih75]

Good to see your car in good shape again. when doing metal repairs especially tinkering and paint work you won't have issues using the insurance as labor is 100 pct covered. Only when it comes to replacements you are hit by depreciation. Try contacting your insurance company and ask if they can help. I have claimed every bit of body work in my car which clocked 8 years.

[srinih75]

Originally Posted by bruty

Did I do the right thing by giving wrong number?

What else could I have done?

Giving wrong number is neither a good nor a bad thing. If the guys were smart they could have noted your reg. nbr and try and trace you anyway. What I would have done is call someone very close to me at the locality and let him/her know -someone elder. And will then take them to a hospital close by if no major injury else call 108 and get the injured taken care. Lock the car to avoid burglary. If not going to cause a jam keep the car as is. Else move it aside. If a traffic cop is found nearby get his attention as well. Calling the insurance company is the next thing on the list.

Ensure you have someone to support you at the hospital as well.

[pksnathan]

Friends,

Sometime back the front left fender of my Hyundai i-10 developed a dent as I did not see a cement concrete block that was kept right on the road near the pedestrian pavement and the mud guard flap twisted in such a way that it touched the left wheel while turning to left side.Sensing the gravity of the situation the next day I took the car to The Body Shop of the authorized dealer for setting it right.The service adviser told me that the left fender has to be replaced completely along with the mud guard and flaps.I had no other alternative as the mud guard was constantly touching the wheel while turning to the left.When I came to collect the vehicle he gave a bill for a princely sum of Rs.5861.00.The front fender costs only Rs.916.80.They have billed Rs.3500.00 for labour charges including painting and polishing.I am not sure whether I have been taken for a ride or the billing is as per norms.Please advice.

Thanking you,

pksnathan