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New car puja gone horribly wrong...

I wonder if anyone has the details and can post it to the accidents thread.

What I have is second hand. My wife's friend works at St Thomas Mount hospital. She told, a couple of days ago, 15 people were admitted.

Someone had bought a new Innova (?) and gone to a temple for the puja. He took his driver, but felt that he should be at the wheel for the first journey after the puja. By mistake he engaged Reverse gear....

So they seem to have created a break on the OMR just ahead of the Indira Nagar railway station. I have marked the location on the snapshot of the map attached.

This seems to be causing a lot delays with our lane discipline lacking road users occupying two lanes to take the right turn.

Can't imagine what will be the case when it's late night and people don't bother stopping for the signal. This stretch has now definitely become unsafe.

This is the result of High Court judgement in the case filed by local residents there. We may have to live with it now.

I remember reading about it. I'm sure it is a good idea, but I don't think I'll be trying to take a right turn there any time soon. Scary!

Happened to see a new kind of moron today. Was travelling near SRM university, Potheri. There is service lane on both sides, and the service lane is fenced up until the university entrance. Was travelling at about 50kmph on my bike with my wife in pillion. There was guy riding a FZ16 about two car lengths in front of me. He took an old helmet that was hanging at his rear view mirror and tossed it on the side of the road! (while still riding his bike at ~50kmph!!). The helmet rolled and hit the barricade then started rolling towards the middle of the road. There was an elderly couple riding in front of me. They were startled, but continued to hit the helmet with the front wheel. Thankfully the helmet got tossed again towards the barricade and stayed there.

Couldn't stop immediately as there was traffic behind me.

Stupid, stupid people riding these days!!!

This has been the state of the "pavement improvement" work on the entire western side of Mooparappan Street, T.Nagar for over a month now. It is a challenge for the not so young to get out or in to their homes. The only response from Corporation officials is "it would be completed very soon, please bear with us".

Now, about 10 days ago another department has dug up the eastern side of the same street. Some precise digging!!!

I was driving back from my daughter's theatre when I noticed the sheer number of morons who drive/walk/cycle while talking on their phones. The first was a fortuner driven by a driver who was talking on his phone and almost scraped my CRV on greenways road . He had the temerity to shout at me. The next was a cyclist who crossed chamiers road while talking on his phone and blissfully unaware of traffic around him. The third incident was close to my house where two teens were busy chatting on their phone right in the middle of the road. *** is wrong with these people?

Barricade alert on GST Road near Airport

New set of Barricades have been placed bang opposite to Trisulam railway station.

Not sure what Chennai traffic police wanted to achieve.

Result of this change - Chaos :Frustrati

I used to think it's a great idea till recently as I need to take a right there to go home & reduces the distance & time by a good margin. One day when the cab guy tried to take a right to go to Indira Nagar, we realized the speeds at which vehicles pass through that signal in the night.

The good thing is police closes the signal & blocks the turn by 9 pm or so to restrict anyone trying to cut through the signal. I used to curse them initially thinking why block when no traffic is there; but there seem some thoughtful minds in the department still. :thumbs up

It seems most Uber and Ola cabs were on strike yesterday. I went on a lovely Sunday evening commute from Tambaram to the airport area via the free GST road and back yesterday. Stunning quality of the commute, solely due to the lack of traffic.

Or was the lack of traffic also due to the ongoing school exams?

Another incident. An auto driver hit my car and sped away while we were stuck in traffic between the Bharathidasan road signal and Nandanam. The stupid guy had the temerity to look back at me while speeding off.

I, unfortunately, made the mistake of chasing him in heavy traffic (not something I am going to repeat again). I finally caught him at the signal. He vehemently denied it and I let it go since there was no damage to the paint. I checked my dashcam and it was indeed him who hit my car.

Now, I am debating whether to put a case on him for a hit and run to teach him a lesson.

Mod Note: Please avoid use of inapropriate language.

Interesting thought. The only entry barriers (so to speak) that ought to stop you from jumping into the FIR route are:
1) The police will demand a bribe from you for filing the FIR
2) One hears things, and with the likelihood of this being hearsay - chances are that the auto that was involved is owned by a traffic cop or an RTO official. A universally known fact is that there is a lot of black money in the traffic cops and RTO officials' pockets, via bribes and extortions. Hearsay has it that they launder all the illicit money by ploughing it into autorickshaws, so much so that 80% of all autorickshaws plying in Chennai are supposedly owned by them. They buy and register the vehicles in their spouses' names and charge drivers a flat Rs.800 a day. It is upto the driver to breakeven each day and then make a profit over and above the 800 bucks.
But more to the point; any of the cop-owned or RTO official-owned autos are virtually untouchable if any cases were to be filed.

I wouldn't do it, if I were you. Let sleeping dogs lie, as the saying goes.

I hope you are not joking. The cops will refuse to file an FIR unless there is death or injury to people. A few years back, a cab had rear ended our car with such force that our car moved to hit the car in front as well. Total damage to both car totalled 2.1 lakh and the cops refused to file an FIR and had the audacity to ask us to claim from our insurance.

Had been involved in 3 other small accidents, 2 of which I was the victim and 1 was my fault. The 2 cases where I was the victim, they had apologized and I let them go.

The one time I was at fault, I paid 1k after playing hardball with the other vehicle owner even after the cops came.

I am not going to pay 5 or 10K to paint or replace the bumper when I am already paying for 3rd party insurance. Neither will I offer to pay money, because its a sure shot method of inviting people to take advantage of you.

Once a young guy rear ended my friend's Skoda Rapid. The guy had offered to pay for the damages immediately and despite the other guy's dad offering my friend an assurance over the phone that he would pay, my friend took the original DL as collateral.

I told my friend that the chances of getting his nostrils or tooth broken was higher compared to getting the DL from a guy like me as collateral. My friend admitted he was nervous as well and looking back he knew he had no right to ask for it.

In my case, the cop retained my DL, a copy, till I hashed out a settlement of 1k with the he car owner. There is no way on earth I would let another car driver have my licence as collateral. In any case, I would be happy for the comedy to take place with the cops around.

What do you guys do if you are involved in small accidents? Let me know. The useless third party insurance laws are the main reason for road rage.

Many have clearly pointed the right decision. As a person who has been into the law machinery of this country as a law abiding citizen, I would advise you to just walk it off.

Law abiding should stop with your door. Do not try to manhandle or make one feel guilty for their rash behavior. Times have changed a lot and it is in best interest of people (victims) to assess damage and then if its something that they can manage out of their pockets, then do it without batting a eyelid.

Be very careful with these folks. They feed on our decency and unless you are politically well connected, do not even try to confront them.

How much time do you think it will take for fate to turn worse for him and his action ? Just the matter of Karma.

If its something that can be settled out of Police station or Court hall, DO IT.

Insurance people should be bought into scenario only when you are totally not the erring party and damage is substantial. Insurance agency tracks all your claim activities and they are the feeders for many background checks (financial etc.).

If its bodily hurt then go the Police > Insurance > Court route. Otherwise, its just not worth the time and efforts.

I have been rear-ended twice. Both minor. And both times the cops on the scene wanted to know if I wanted to file a case or settle it amicably.