[shivshanker]

Ofcourse, their salaries would not be comparable to the ones who drive Airconditioned cars to office every day.

Since we are both from Mumbai my request to you is, let us team up and get after some real culprits and not errant BEST bus drivers who are providing support and transport to the masses.

Cheers!

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by honeybee

There is no way to prove the bus driver is not at fault just because the front wheels of the bus had passed ahead. It won't stand in a court of law.

I think it might just.

I remember watching a video of an accident case where
an 18 wheeler crushed a bicycle rider under his rear wheels
at a turning.

A computer simulation was created of the accident and it
proved that beyond a certain point it was out of control
of the driver of the rig to avoid brushing an object close to
its wheels. IIRC, a law was also passed for the same reason.

So if that is a case with every heavy vehicle around the
world then we might want to check up with the law first
and then manage things accrodingly.

But, even after we get the right attention and the
driver is found guilty, as I know, he would be suspended
and before you know, he will be behind the wheel soon.

These guys are covered, well covered.

[honeybee]

@prince_parvez, I remember reading in the newspapers where a truck driver (and the carrier company) was held responsible for the death of a bike rider on the JVLR road, where the bike rider was crushed under the rear wheels of the truck and was dragged a few metres before the truck halted.

I once rode in a BEST bus from Mulund to Malad. On the LBS road just after Johnson and Johnson, the bus overtook a scooter rider. The scooter kept coming up to the middle of the bus and the driver kept pushing him back by inching to the right every now and then, not letting the scooter ahead. At one unfortunate moment the driver decided to play really dirty and started moving to the right, cutting off any escape route to the scooter. The scooter finally got hit by the bus from the left, was stuck against the divider on the right and the rider was thrown off it. The driver went on as if nothing happened. This incidence happened near the rear wheels of the bus. Would you say the driver is not guilty, because it didn't happen near the front wheel arches?

[ariesonu]

I had similar experience in 2007 Mumbai rains. Here is my case: I’ll keep it short & straight.

We were waiting at the Goregaon traffic light, the one that opens to W.E. from Aarey. I was working in Powai those days. The best bus was just behind me on left hand corner. As the lights turned green the driver, in his eagerness to get ahead, damaged the left doors of my M800 completely. Fortunately none of the four occupant’s were hurt. We stopped the bus but we could not get driver name or other details. We even found all the commuters against us. Well cannot blame them because all wanted to reach home ASAP due to rains. Incidentally I always carry a camera & so immediately took some photos of my car & that of the bus. Then having no choice left we followed the bus to its depot in Dahisar. Here we tried to speak to driver & conductor but both were extremely rude & arrogantly told us to file the complaint. We enquired at the depot & they gave us small accident complaint form to fill. (No carbon copy). But we made photocopy of the filled-up form. Here they also gave us details of driver & conductor. Then they asked us to file an FIR in the jurisdiction of Police station where the accident had happened. Armed with copy of complaint form we filed the FIR at Aarey P.S. near Chota-Kashmir. Next day I took damage estimates from Powai M.A.S.S. which was calculated to 33K (which included new doors) & collected F.I.R. copy from police station. They also told us that the bus belongs to Shivaji Nagar depot in Chembur and asked us to go there. We went to this depot & showed our damaged car, photos, complaint form, F.I.R., estimate given by M.A.S.S. to some un-named concerned officer. He just acknowledged & wrote all details in a register. After about 6 weeks, I got a letter from BEST asking me to come to Chembur depot on particular date with witnesses. On the fixed date, we went to the Chembur with all the four occupants as witnesses. We were called in by a senior officer into a room where the driver & conductor were also present. Then the trial like drama started; Witnesses recorded, Photos inspected, F.I.R. and complaint form noted. Then they tried to underplay the issue, putting entire blame on me of having crossed the safe path of bus etc. When we stood our ground & threatened to go to court, they started pleading. After about two hours of haggling they agreed to pay particular percentage of the damages as per M.A.S.S. estimate. This worked out to INR 13K. They gave us copy of our acceptance. I received the demand draft after one month by post. Meanwhile I got the same doors repaired from my company affiliated garage & the damages worked out to 7K. I have omitted all insurance crap etc because its part of F.I.R. and all.
Used rest of the money to upgrade my ICE.

Summary:
1. File report with bus depot (each best bus is registered with particular depot immidiately.
2. File a F.I.R.
3. Take an official estimate. (From company A.S.S.)
4. Report details again to depot & take acknowledgement.
5. Wait. Justice prevails.

Happy endings.

[shivshanker]

@honeybee,

Maybe that was "paanga" by the scooter rider not an accident waiting to happen.

to put ot rest my first point,

please test drive a longish car, either the innova, accord or the lancer also the baleno. I am sure you will be observing the RT rear view mirror for oncoming traffic. Impromptu shoulder checks will reveal that 5/10 times there will be a vehcile along side you which you completly missed in your rear view mirror.

Such blind posts are possible in every vehicle differs from vehicle vehicle and yes ofcourse the height of the vehicle.

Cheers!

[MX6]

Originally Posted by shivshanker

@honeybee,

Maybe that was "paanga" by the scooter rider not an accident waiting to happen.

to put ot rest my first point,

please test drive a longish car, either the innova, accord or the lancer also the baleno. I am sure you will be observing the RT rear view mirror for oncoming traffic. Impromptu shoulder checks will reveal that 5/10 times there will be a vehcile along side you which you completly missed in your rear view mirror.

Such blind posts are possible in every vehicle differs from vehicle vehicle and yes ofcourse the height of the vehicle.

Cheers!

The longer the vehicle, the bigger the blindspots. Hence never go by the side of a long vehicle. Irrespective of who is liable for any accident, it's your precious car and life that takes the beating first.
My brother's words: Never philosophise with a truck driver!

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by honeybee

@prince_parvez, I remember reading in the newspapers where a truck driver (and the carrier company) was held responsible for the death of a bike rider on the JVLR road, where the bike rider was crushed under the rear wheels of the truck and was dragged a few metres before the truck halted.

Good. So the trucker was put to task by law.

Would you say the driver is not guilty, because it didn't happen near the front wheel arches?

From the looks of it, he did it on purpose. Forget guilty, he is inhuman.

All I am saying is that, there might be a law, which states that heavy motor vehicles cannot be blamed for everything that hits what they cannot see or control.
We just need to find out if there is such an arrangement. I know, there is, in other countries, based on the case which I narrated in the earlier post, and there might be one such law in India as well.

The scum you mentioned in your post must be knowing this provision and was inhuman enough not to care for other lives/breadwinners.

I know of a PMT driver (Pune) who was suspended for some months for crushing a girl to her death on a moped, and he was back on the roads after that. Beat that.

EDIT: Compelled to post this photo. Two blind persons wanted to drink water at the RagiGudda temple, Bangalore. When they were unable to operate the tap, this mother monkey opened the tap for them, allowed them to drink water, drank some water herself and then closed the tap before leaving the scene. (Received via mail)

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by shivshanker

@honeybee,

Maybe that was "paanga" by the scooter rider not an accident waiting to happen.

to put ot rest my first point,

please test drive a longish car, either the innova, accord or the lancer also the baleno. I am sure you will be observing the RT rear view mirror for oncoming traffic. Impromptu shoulder checks will reveal that 5/10 times there will be a vehcile along side you which you completly missed in your rear view mirror.

Such blind posts are possible in every vehicle differs from vehicle vehicle and yes ofcourse the height of the vehicle.

Cheers!

Dude, you need to realize it was equivalent of attempted murder. Even if we are to assume that the scooter walla was taking panga with the BEST driver, does it justify the BEST driver almost crushing him to his death? I just can't understand why you can't call it an offence, which is what it is. And this is not a stray incident where a motorist suddenly appears in front of the bus and the bus driver is unable to control blah blah blah. The bus stopped at a stop, then overtook the scooter rider and then again the driver played cat and mouse with the scooter. He was almost enjoying it. Please stop siding with the BEST people. And no need to give them the benefit of doubt due to their poor living quarters and socalled targets to achieve and all that.

It seems to me the whole point you are trying to put across is it's ok for drivers of longer vehicles to hit others with their rear portions. I am sorry but I don't agree with it. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the responsibility. When you know that a longer/bigger vehicle will tend to create more blindspots, you would expect the drivers to be trained to watch out before they change directions.

ariesonu, the so called hearing you witnessed in the BEST depot is a routine matter to them. Please don't expect a company like BEST to be candid about its errant drivers and pay up for your losses easily. You should have taken a lawyer as well and not have settled for anything less than the full amount, plus expenses for missing work, travelling to the depots and all of it.

Originally Posted by shivshanker

Ofcourse, their salaries would not be comparable to the ones who drive Airconditioned cars to office every day.

A totally irrelevant point. We are discussing errant drivers. Are you trying to say increasing their salaries and giving them AC cabins will improve their behaviours? Or are you trying to say people who drive/ride in airconditioned cars to office every day are the ones trying to purposely damage the BEST buses with their expensive cars??

[rudrah]

Originally Posted by honeybee

A totally irrelevant point. We are discussing errant drivers. Are you trying to say increasing their salaries and giving them AC cabins will improve their behaviours? Or are you trying to say people who drive/ride in airconditioned cars to office every day are the ones trying to purposely damage the BEST buses with their expensive cars??

I guess it has worked atleast in Navi Mumbai where the NMMT got Volvos to travel across Mumbai. I'm not sure of AC BEST buses.

They are much disciplined than they were earlier driving a 100 year old bus like!

The general bus drivers thou drive as rough as they can! Whos stopping them. But its Govt responsibility at first to provide better facilities to the drive driving their bus. This automatically takes a positive/negative toll on them. Since thats not happening, the later continues. Sad but we have to accept and keep Safe Distance!

[honeybee]

Just for information of everyone, I have been travelling by BEST for many years now, specially one of the very congested routes between Mulund - Gandhinagar - IIT - JVLR - Malad. On several occasions as I had to stand, for lack of vacant seats, or as I had to get down, I made it a point to check if the driver could see in the side mirrors everything very clearly. It started as a curiosity to see if the driver could see if any passengers were boarding the bus by the rear entrance. Soon I started paying attention to the right hand side mirror too. I tried to be in the same line of sight with the mirrors as the driver, and I found that even the small rectangular mirrors allow the driver to see everything around the rear of the bus for at least 3-4 feet wide. So on the left as well as on the right side he can view any vehicles/people or anything for at least three feet away from the bus.

In the larger mirrors there are two separate sections to ensure the driver can view things right up the front wheels of the bus much easily. It's like providing a camera shot of the whole side of the bus lengthwise. No blind spots.

Based on my observations I believe it's a myth that a bus scratches the side of a vehicle due to blind spots. It's one or more of the following reasons:
1. The driver is simply careless.
2. The driver is impatient.
3. The driver misjudges the speed/intention of the driver alongside.

Based on my personal experience, I can also say that many BEST drivers love to put auto rikshaws in a very miserable condition, on purpose. They are a little apprehensive about two wheelers and a lot more apprehensive of four wheelers.

[gopa99]

If the Bangalore state transport had a portal where harrased vehicle owners could file a complaint with a mobile photo of the accident, it would be a really helpful.
A hefty fine for the driver against each complaint should act as a deterrent; as of now he doesnt care, he knows that no body in the world has the time to complaint against him!!!
Sadly i got hit today by the govt bus, and he gave me a wicked smile!

[msupercool]

Pilot driving a BEST bus, god knows what he was trying to do