[revvinhard]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Of all the posts on this thread, this one makes most sense.

Revvinhard, dude, you are trying too hard to pin the blame on the estilo guy.

its just an assumption, and its the beginning of any investigation. because more mistake on Zen estilo as Sujith stated.
1) over speeding (reason for over speeding with "L" board on) no traffic beside or behind him?
2) sudden brake( not noticing median gap) reason for not noticing?
3) hit on the left corner of FIAT tells Zen is at right most side of the road(Wrong Side) if Fiat was in the middle of opposite lane or nearing to center, no way of hitting near head light.
4) after the accident Zen sped away, Reason?
5) truck touches the rear bumper of fiat tells sujith was on his lane also?
6) why did the truck touch Fiat?
7) did sujith too applied sudden brakes to make the truck touch his car?
8) the impact of truck hitting fiat is very low says truck was not at high speed.
9) fiat was also moving with the same speed of truck or less, or else no point of truck touching fiat bumper.

i'll try best to give answers for all after the spot inspection.
here only witness is Sujith, if we try to find the Zen Estilo guy, we can listen to his story also.
Dont always depend up on Cops, do solve the issues by urself and follow the rules and regulations, if possible help others to follow the rules and regulations being responsible citizens. please try to find golden beige Zen estilo with damaged right part. we are here in t-bhp as a team, let us do the team work, let this website be usefull to maintain traffic laws, dont treat t-bhp as a time pass site.

[Bigzero]

Read the whole thread, and my thought is that one should just move on. No point trying to catch the Estilo guy.

On the other hand, an analysis of the accident is always good if the intention is to understand what errors were committed ( by both parties ) and how one could avoid getting into such situations in the future. From that perspective, I appreciate the step taken to visit the spot.

We can comment only based on the video posted and the descriptions made. While some obvious elements could be missing in both, I tend to align with the thought process the Fiat should have been a bit more circumspect in making the turn.

Just one question on Revvinhard's post above:

How is it that driving on the rightmost lane in a divided road is considered "wrong side" ?

[revvinhard]

allowing other vehicle to overtake from left isn't wrong? unless it is new roads like separate lanes with independent speed. new 3lane 4 lanes roads have separate speed for each lanes and such roads will not have median gaps to take "U" turns. to pass by or to take "U" turns one should go till signal by main road or service roads. in such roads having median gaps to pass by or to take "U" turns or Roads not provided with separate lanes, speeding at extreme right side is wrong. if he speeds, he might end up hitting vehicles, cyclists or any public crossing roads, he might even hit the animals too. before telling all those we would like to inspect the spot to find the median gap visibility, signal timings, road signs, i clearly stated in my previous postings its all assumptions, Doubts, possibilities only. and the true statements given by sujith over telephonic conversation.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Bigzero

Just one question on Revvinhard's post above:

How is it that driving on the rightmost lane in a divided road is considered "wrong side" ?

That is what i wanted to ask too!

Originally Posted by revvinhard

allowing other vehicle to overtake from left isn't wrong? unless it is new roads like separate lanes with independent speed. new 3lane 4 lanes roads have separate speed for each lanes and such roads will not have median gaps to take "U" turns. to pass by or to take "U" turns one should go till signal by main road or service roads. in such roads having median gaps to pass by or to take "U" turns or Roads not provided with separate lanes, speeding at extreme right side is wrong. if he speeds, he might end up hitting vehicles, cyclists or any public crossing roads, he might even hit the animals too. before telling all those we would like to inspect the spot to find the median gap visibility, signal timings, road signs, i clearly stated in my previous postings its all assumptions, Doubts, possibilities only. and the true statements given by sujith over telephonic conversation.

Chill,dude! The kind of logic you put forth is called "convoluted logic"! I don't want to defend speeding, but it seems highly improbable to me that the Fiat guy was perfectly in the right and two wrong doers traveling in opposite directions at the same time kissed his car at both ends. Period.

[MX6]

The right of way is a strange term.
When I was giving my road test in US, I reached a 4 way junction.
I stopped and yielded for other people who approached the junction before me.
The DMV official asked me, "Who do you think has right of way here?"
I replied, "Nobody".
He patted me, "Exactly. No one has the right of way. However, they all have the right to yield. And the convention is that the person coming in last in to the junction has the bigger right to yield. But people follow the convention that whoever reaches the junction is allowed to go first".
"Yield always", he told me, "for that's the only rights you have".
And with a twinkle in his eyes, he joked, "Apart from the one phone call when they pick you up for breaking any law".

I laughed too. When I crossed the junction and drove in to the DMV office, he asked me to park in between the cones.
I knew that in 20 mins, I'll be getting my license in US!

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by revvinhard

and FIAT came to right side of his lane to take "U" turn and halted at the median gap and went little ahead to see the oncoming traffic slowly, to his surprise the estilo guy was just 2 feet away to the median, zen estilo guy did not slowdown or moved to left when nearing to a median gap.

Putting myself in Estilo driver seat, this is my interpretation.
I am driving along on a reasonably empty road, right most lane since I am an L driver and would need to worry about traffic only from left side since median is on my right.
I see a gap in median, maybe headlights/hood of a car waiting to take a U-turn. I assume car will wait till I pass the gap before attempting the u-turn.
All of a sudden, the car juts forward a few feet into my lane.
What do I do? Hit the brakes and pray for a miss. Nope - does not happen. I am scared, I panic, I floor the gas pedal.

[revvinhard]

@mmxylorider: your interpretation somewhat makes me feel you were driving the estilo, and you committed a crime. was that you?? you need not to be in right side of the road. if you are "L" and you should slow down when there is a median gap, because its not a freeway. its a common sense to understand, if you had seen a car at the median gap waiting to take "U"turn, the Guy waiting to take "U" turn also can see and obviously he will not proceed even a inch till the car passes. and in estilo case he was speeding. why did'nt you mention you will also speed? "Hit the brakes and pray for a miss" this is an awesome answer. "I panic, I floor the gas pedal" other people in the thread will tell you is that right or not. I wish there should be a Question like "what will you do if you were in above said Estilo" in Driving Licence test. You will get the driving licence on the Spot.

[funkykar]

Sujith1100 is a dear friend of me and revving hard. He explained the sequence of events and requested us to start this thread. If it was his mistake, why a thread?! Sujith100 is a driver who follows all rules on road. Hence we sort off trust that it was not his mistake.

Sujith1100 will be in Bangalore this weekend. We then plan to go with him to the accident site and do a detailed investigation. We will post the TRUTH here.

Till then. DRIVE SAFE.

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by revvinhard

@mmxylorider: your interpretation somewhat makes me feel you were driving the estilo, and you committed a crime. was that you??

Did the Estilo in my Signature lead you to this

Originally Posted by revvinhard

if you had seen a car at the median gap waiting to take "U"turn, the Guy waiting to take "U" turn also can see and obviously he will not proceed even a inch till the car passes.

I believe there has been significant discussion on the concept of 'right of way'. There might be enough reasons to blame the Estilo driver - However IF the Fiat had not crossed the median into the incoming lane, we wouldn't be talking about this. Unfortunately we don't have sessions on defensive driving or the need for situational awareness being taught formally or informally. It is something you accumulate/gain over years of driving or reading others' experience.

Echoing everybody else's sentiments, this would be the time to be thankful that the damage can be solved by money and the experience added to our list of things to watch out for.

[revvinhard]

thanks to god for no blood loss and the kid in the car safe. but i hate reckless drivers, even after they do damage to some other property or person and not even bother to see what happened and run away from the accident place.

[AlokSriva]

@XyloRider, BigZero, MX6, Amitoj, Amit Tanwar, Gansan - folks no point. Foolhardiness, when reflected on roads in form of driving skills (or lack thereof), leads to dumb, otherwise avoidable accidents.

[hillram]

Sorry to hear the damage to Sujith's car.Im sure it will be adresses quickly as it is very close to his heart.Its a splendid car.

[Joy]

Originally Posted by revvinhard

allowing other vehicle to overtake from left isn't wrong? unless it is new roads like separate lanes with independent speed. new 3lane 4 lanes roads have separate speed for each lanes and such roads will not have median gaps to take "U" turns. to pass by or to take "U" turns one should go till signal by main road or service roads. in such roads having median gaps to pass by or to take "U" turns or Roads not provided with separate lanes, speeding at extreme right side is wrong. if he speeds, he might end up hitting vehicles, cyclists or any public crossing roads, he might even hit the animals too. before telling all those we would like to inspect the spot to find the median gap visibility, signal timings, road signs, i clearly stated in my previous postings its all assumptions, Doubts, possibilities only. and the true statements given by sujith over telephonic conversation.

@revvinhard: Do you believe in this policy, when you are driving on a highway. There are also median gap. And according to you, one should slow down when we see a median, do you do the same? Now, don't tell me that highway driving is not the same as city driving. I know that, but the basic etiquette of driving is same.

Originally Posted by funkykar

......
Sujith100 is a driver who follows all rules on road. Hence we sort off trust that it was not his mistake.

.....

Funkykar, I don't argue with that. But accidents happens to the most experienced of drivers also. A moment of lapse of concentration, a moment of overlook, it can happen and that's why it is called accident.

My only request to you and revvinhard is that please do the investigation on your behalf as a neutral person and then come back with answers.

Also, I want to clarify one more thing, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings? Being a nobody, I am just putting forward my logic and no heart feeling.

[Googleman]

I think it is pretty clear the FIAT was not waiting to take a U-turn. If it was waiting beforehand:

1. It would not be rear-ended (Most rear endings are when there is a sudden breaking)
2. The poor Estilo would have got time to react well enough to avoid what happened.

It is clearly the Fiat driver's fault, seeing the "animated video". Maybe the Estilo driver did not have a DL or other Docs which was wrong, but on driving part, he was right.

Also, aren't we supposed to stay extra careful seeing an "L" board?

[tanwaramit]

Originally Posted by AlokSriva

No wonder we are where we are today so far as traffic condition (read chaos) on our roads is concerned.

Reminds me of what Hitler said once - I am ready to learn but I am not prepared to be taught.

With a closed mind, how, we, the self-proclaimed elite (context is automotives only) of Indian roads, can even think of observing lane discipline, giving way, yielding, yada yada on our roads in years to come?

And imagine, this is merely the thought process of members of this forum, what do you expect from non-elite average bloke on roads? No surprise there's a jungle out there and would continue to stay the same..

+1 to what Aloksriva has said, when so many members could not make understand some people on this thread where the fault was, no wonder we see such chaos on the road when someone who is at mistake comes back to fight OR in cases of NCR pulls out a gun.

Now I feel that the Estilo guy did the right thing else he would have been in a mess for driving in his lane. His car is damaged which he can pay money and get repaired, else what mental peace he would have lost !

I reiterate, Sujith should thank his stars for there was an Estilo and not a biker else one wonders where he would have been after the accident. Learn the lesson and move on.