[nukeblitz]

I'm pretty sure this topic has been discussed before but even if it has been, i'm pretty sure the stories i'll be narrating soon are quite new.

I'll be narrating 4 stories. Some time has elapsed since these events have taken place and their resolutions have been reached. All of these have occured to people i know at different parts of the country and i can personally vouch for their veracity. I wouldn't be mentioning real names. I would like to hear comments and opinions on how such situations should be handled from the drivers point of view.


Story 1 :-
It's always your fault. And the answer is always money.

It is broad daylight. Alex and bob cruising on their motorcycle at around 30km/hr on a wide road. This road is wide enough for 4 buses, and is almost empty but has no divider. Alex is driving and bob's riding behind him. The problem occurs when a woman suddenly decides to cross without looking out for traffic. Alex brakes, swerves and manages to avoid a head on collision but bob's knee brushes against the woman and the woman loses balance. Alex stops the bike and looks back. The woman's picking herself up and looks apologetic. Since the woman seems to be fine, alex makes a typical "look where you are going" remark and drives on. He doesn't get further than a kilometer. A mob of locals on bikes chase him down. Alex is beaten up by the locals and bob gets a few punches too. Then the locals take alex and bob back to where the accident happened. The woman is now on the side of the road and apparently in extreme, immobilizing pain. The locals demand a "compensation" of two thousand rupees or that they would go to the police. Wishing to avoid trouble with the cops, Bob calls up a couple of friends, cobbles up the money and the issue is settled. The woman, who has automagically recovered, takes a one thousand and walks away.


Story 2:
Auto drivers always get right of way...even if your car's parked and you are not in it.

Charlie's hungry. But charlie not in his hometown or state and can't go home. So, charlie goes to a small restaurant for lunch. He parks his car outside on the side of the road and goes into the restaurant. Suddenly, there's the screeching of tires and a crash. Charlie rushes out to find the side of car ruined and the auto which caused the damage. After getting over the initial shock, charlie realizes what had happened. The driver of the auto failed to spot an unscientific speed bump, went over it lost control and crashed into charlie's car. The auto driver's unhurt. Charlie, obviously distressed, goes out and starts yelling at the erring driver. Unfortunately this incident happens close to a local auto stand and soon he's outnumbered by them and other locals. Charlie doesn't understand the language and the number plate on his car gives him away as being out of state. The locals talk furiously. Eventually, he manages to have some communication and gathers that the story has been changed. The locals say that he cut off the auto driver and crashed into him, and hence it's his fault. They demand compensation of Rs.5000 so that the auto driver can get his but fixed (which, incidentally, would require nothing but a hammer) or that they would turn him over to the police. Realizing that dealing with the police of a different state wouldn't be a good idea and that there were too many "witnesses", charlie does the smart thing, pays up and leaves.


Story 3:
The bigger vehicle is always at fault, even if you get rammed from behind.

Duncan, ed and foxtrot are driving on a highway. It is night time. Duncan's driving. The highway has four lanes and there's not much traffic. Duncan is cruising at 80km/hr. Now duncan's a really good driver and his estimate was that 80km/hr was safe for that road. A speed bump comes up rather abruptly, duncan gives a quick glance at the rear view mirror and he brakes. As duncan starts crossing the bump, there's a jerk. Another glance at the rear view mirror and he notices a motorcycle sliding across the road on it's side. Duncan remembers passing a similar bike a couple of kilometers earlier. Duncan remembers this as the bike was being driven erratically. In any case, Duncan and ed want to stop, but at foxtrot's insistence, they drive another 100m and then stop. Foxtrot doesn't want to go back. But all three of them have some amount of medical training, and ed, being idealistic, feels it is responsibility to help the victim. In the distance, the motorcycle is being rolled to the side and the victim is sitting up. A couple of people from another bike are rendering assistance. So, at ed's request, the three of them start walking back. They didn't walk 10m before they start hearing the yells of local villagers. There was no arguement after that. All three got back into the car and they drove. Duncan's a good driver. He knew they'd never catch him on the open road. And thankfully, he was right.

Story 4 later. Sleep first. Posting on a phone is very tiring. Lol

[libranof1987]

Nice rendition!

Since the state I stay in and the on on my car reg. plate are not the same, I dread getting involved in any issue on the road for this very reason - "out of state" and language barrier.

Have you personally been involved in any of the 3 situations? Heard of anyone in such situations and come out differently?

[akas_chauhan]

Whats new. These are the stiories we are hearing/facing everyday.
It would have been better if there were some Indisn/Desi names. I could not relate the stories, may be it's just me..

[rock18]

Story 1 happened to my friend.He had to cough up some money even though the woman didn't get hurt.

[libranof1987]

Here you are talking about people. Here's an even more ridiculous story.

The appt. that I stay in, in Pune has a slum nearby and we have to take a road passing thru' it to get to our place. Now this slum has cows, buffaloes, pigeons, cocks being reared and roam around on the road at free will.

One fine day as my neighbour pulled into the appt. complex, a horde of people rushed in behind him shouting. As it turned out, his Zen had run over a pigeon leading to it's crippling. The "owner" of this pigeon demanded 1000 bucks for causing injury. Of course he had to pay, there was no way he could take the risk of inviting the wrath of those people. Such is the case!

Apparently, injury to hens, cocks, pigeons etc. is a good way to earn quick bucks.

[megazoid]

Me and wife in a honda vtec were off to MMST to do a track day. Nice roads from Bangalore to Chennai. Was doing 100km/hr and the road till the horizon was empty. Suddenly a bike pops out of the road side and cuts straight across the road. Hit the brakes hard and the car screeched and danced its way to a stop but not before ramming into the back of the bike at an angle. At an angle because they were cutting across the road.

Ofcourse, the bike fell. With it fell a middle aged lady and a middle aged guy who were on it. The lady immediately started screaming that i had broken her back. The guy was silent and acting guilty. After sometime a few locals gathered from here and there. A passing car stopped by and said that I better scoot as I would be incurring the wrath of the locals etc and disappeared.

I thought I should be more sensible and took the fallen folks in the car and showed them to a doctor in a nearby village. Apparently it was just a sprain for the lady. This took some time as I had to ask for directions and converse in Tamil which I did not follow. After checkups and a whole lot of drama, I had to part with 10K and somehow managed to leave.

Went to MMST the same day and drove hard and fast to take out frustration.

The highlights were complete lack of commonsense, decency and disregard for everything but themselves and money being a solution for everything. Clearly there is something wrong and only an amendment in rules will help. No courage or smartness is going to suffice.

I would say that the GQ with its fast wide sections and abundant highway ignorance on both sides is a death trap in more ways than one.

[nukeblitz]

@akas
story 4 will have indian names. That's when i get round to writing it. It's little more complex than the last one

@megazoid
coincidentally, that's very close to what happens in story 4. But IMO, you got off easy. You'll understand when i put up the last story.


In the meanwhile, to everyone, what are your opinions on the best way to deal with such situations. Do we scoot an save our skins? Or do we stop and help? And what about the police? IMO, unless you are dealing with a few good men, following rules and stopping to help doesn't help as the cops are looking to make a quick buck too...

[zipperone]

If and when possible, I would suggest to call the police and get everyone to the police station and then work out the issues. The scamsters will disappear before reaching the station and if they is a genuine injury and you need to settle it, you will be under much less pressure then in front of a large mob.

[nukeblitz]

@zipperone
but what if it's absolutely no fault of yours and/or you are out of state? If the damage is minimal, wouldn't it be better to scoot? Wouldn't we expect the local police to side with the locals? Wouldn't it be easy for the locals to twist the facts and make it look like it's your fault? Wouldn't a large number of local "witnesses" sway opinion against you? And if the do, wouldn't it mean higher bills, bribes, court cases which are inherently lopsided against you?

[zipperone]

Once I hit a couple of boys on a bike as they were cutting into a turning car and were overtaking from the left. They both fell and had minor injuries. As expected a mob quickly gathered and some local goons fixed the blame squarely on me saying that I was driving rash and did not look at the bike before turning. They insisted that I pay the boys or else. Soon we seemed to agree on 5K .I said that I do not have the money at hand and would borrow from a friend living a couple of kilometers away and on the pretext of calling him walked a few steps away and called the cops. While we continued to argue on the street, the cops arrived and I asked them to take us all to the police station and register the case. As the cops asked for our driving licences, I handed mine over but the boys did not have any! and no helmets either! While this was going on the local chaps demonstrated a fine disappearing act and the boys began to turn apologetic realizing this was turning against them. Soon they were begging to let go but the cops made them sign a page saying that they were not injured and did not want to get a medical done. I insisted that the cops call a traffic cop and get the challans issued and that their bike be impounded. One of the cops felt gracious and said that the kinds can be let go if they apologize to me and never again drive without licence or helmets. They happily obliged and were on their way.

[nukeblitz]

@zipperone
well, going to the cops worked for you. That's good. That reminds of another story in which going to the cops worked wonders. But i know another one where it didn't. I'll post both soon.

[samarth.bhatia]

Interesting discussion here.
As it turns out, we can only do our bit. Each situation can be different. And if another (human) being is hurt, more often than not, "witnesses" do seem to magically appear.
But then it's really a factor of what can you keep on your conscience.
I remember backing my car out on a busy street once. Although what I was doing wasn't right at all, I was cautious. Now, I do take certain precautions when I walk, and would advise everybody here to do the same. One being, never stand next to a car that's reversing (reverse lights work perfectly fine on my car, as do the hazard signals). Anyhow, what happened next was that as I shifted the car a few inches, I realized that the rear tire went over something small like a stone.
When I got down to inspect, I got the shock of my life. It turned out I had run my tire over the foot of a woman standing right behind the right-end of the car. Apparently, she had been standing at the only blind spot I could have had. Since this was the worst thing that I had ever happened since I started driving, I did not know what to do. Moreover, I was alone in this, on a thickly crowded street. Somehow, I just followed my instincts.
I helped her up. I asked her politely to sit in the car so that I could take her to do the doctor. I did that. There were some very dramatic factors like her screaming in agony, me feeling scared out of my life, and it being a very crowded street (vehicle and people traffic).
Took her to a Doctor. As it turns out, it was just a minor cut. Thank God for that.
I followed my instincts. And I followed them quick. Today, I have a clear conscience, am more alert while driving, value life a lot more, and understand that I DO NOT HAVE TOTAL CONTROL OVER THE CAR AT ALL POINTS OF TIME.
I feel it's a lot to learn with one incident. And I do realize that it's quite off-topic.

But I believe if the situation is handled smartly and swiftly, there is a chance that there wouldn't need to be any experience of the mob. Of course having said that the world is not black and white.
But I guess we all keep learning.

Cheers and drive safe.
Sam

[vineetmanghani]

From my experience, if you're a local, know the language and have a few contacts, you should definitely stop and help if you're involved in an accident, even if it is not your fault. It may be a question of human life after all.

But, if you're from out of state and don't know the language, just try to get away from the scene as soon as possible. If someone's really injured, just bundle them into your car and leave. If they don't want to get into your car, then it's not your problem and just leave. If no one's injured and your vehicle has sustained some damage, don't even think about it and leave.

Human life is important, but MY human life is more important than someone else's human life, that's what I believe. I'm not about to get mobbed trying to be a hero.

[SubuS]

These kind of stories usually piss me off like nothing else.

The best option here seems to be, if you hit some one, scoot. Doesn't matter who it is. But if you see someone injured on the road (by someone else), do stop and help as much as possible.

I see that the latter is much more harder, but I have a dear friend who was saved by a passing lady in Hitec city. Dude had concussed his head and we don't know what would have been the damages if help didn't turn up immediately. That day I promised to myself to help anyone in need of help. (NOTE: don't stop when there are already 100 folks around the injured. Then you are just satisfying your curiosity and not really helping. Not to mention the traffic snarl).

[brraj]

Originally Posted by megazoid

Suddenly a bike pops out of the road side and cuts straight across the road. Hit the brakes hard and the car screeched and danced its way to a stop but not before ramming into the back of the bike at an angle.

So was the decision for a Mondeo?

Originally Posted by megazoid

I had to part with 10K and somehow managed to leave.

This is what happens if you dont call us for a Track day.

Originally Posted by megazoid

Went to MMST the same day and drove hard and fast to take out frustration.

Loved the narration.