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Is it really required to ask for compensation in accidents directly to the other person involved or to file a case for minor accidents? Why I am asking is we will anyways get the claim from insurance, and accidents are accidents, its not that the other person did it on purpose. I have been hit twice, both the rimes, mistake was from the other person and both damages were around 20k and I had to spend something like 3k from my pocket in both the cases and lost my no-claim bonus also. I didnt even get into any sort of argument or fight as I have my insurance and accidents are unintentional.

Recently my friend (in car) had a very minor accident with a biker. Since it was a very slow speed accident, both of them were not physically hurt, but the victim's bike needed some repair. Out of courtesy, my friend promised to give him some 5k. That's when the victim thought of utilizing him and started demanding more. My father was in insurance company earlier and I asked him the procedure and my father told not to give even a penny!! I got into the picture, told the victim to go to court, his threatening calls and all were answered properly by me and my friend and finally we gave him ZERO.

We can see did-it-on-purpose a few posts back, where a maddened individual drove his vehicle into a hotel. That, and other incidents where a car is used as a weapon are, of course, not accidents.

Sure, people in accidents do not do it on purpose, but that is not the point. If you and I have what we call an accident, then at least one of us would have been at fault. The fault may have been anything from a minor mistake to rash and irresponsible driving, but it is still a fault.

If the damage, financially, is within what can reasonable be expected from the pocket of the at-fault driver, and the fault is not hotly denied, then better it be settled on the spot. It seems to be to the benefit of both parties to do so.

("you and I" is used for illustrative purposes only: of course, I do not mean you.... or I, although I admit to having had a couple of accidents that were very much my fault)

It would be better if we stopped using the word "accident" in the context of driving. It is unfortunate, because words do have power, and accident implies absence of responsibility. But that is not going to happen: as far as I know, the whole English-speaking world calls them accidents. Including me.

Saw this on NH-37 near Gaurisagar (Sivasagar) about 3 hours back. Not sure how it happened, the road is quite straight in that portion. This tanker was loaded with diesel.

Saw three bad accidents today afternoon while driving back from Kurnool to Bangalore.

All accidents in the stretch between Kurnool and Anantpur. Two of them had happened at least two hours before we passing the spot. The cars - Santro and Ertiga - were badly damaged. Both were self inflicted accidents. Driving fast, losing control and hitting the median or side of the road. I assume some of the passengers either dead or badly injured.

Later we passed a spot where the accident must have occurred fifteen minutes earlier. This involved new Baleno. The car had hit the barrier on the left side after the curve. Check the picture. Obviously rash driving. Three people had died on the spot and the bodies were still lying in the car.

In fact, i lost a colleague four months back when his Xylo turned turtle on this road. All the above accidents are self inflicted. Bad driving.

This stretch of road is little risky. The road condition is great and with less traffic everyone tend to drive fast. However, there are many curves and the road is bumpy at many places especially on top of small bridges.

It is time to drive safe on our roads which are increasingly becoming better and better which also unfortunately encourage rash driving. I noticed I10s, I20s and Swifts regularly overtaking our XUV on this road - we were comfortably cruising at 120 KMPH.

Pls make sure you follow safe driving on all the highways. Especially on this stretch.

Thanks for voicing for safe speed.

In countries where the emergency response is in minutes, the speed limit is ideally set at 65 miles per hour (varies). That translates to roughly 105 kmph. Whereas in India, with the emergency response is in hours, a saner speed is much much wanted.

It's pity, we are at the mercy of other's mistake!

We discard the legal route of FIR, claims from the other person's policy, due to the hassle.
(And the hassle is tremendous, trust me, if you're not the sort who's been to courts and police station maybe once or twice in your life).
In that case, an honest guy would accept his mistake, offer proper compensation, and the other honest person will accept it, and they will never see each other again. Unfortunately, these "honest" people are unicorns.
If you ask him for the money, and the other guy offers, take it and go. Otherwise weigh the amount against the following:
1. Is it worth your time to file an FIR, and deal with the associated madness?
2. Is the other guy wearing white?
3. Is there some association with a body from the nethers indicated by way of a flag, sticker, etc?
4. Are you with people who could be vulnerable, or in an area where you could be?
And lots of other thoughts.
Basically, think outside of the moment, and never let getting pissed take the better of you in such a situation.
All a judgment call, and all done only because we are basically a lawless nation.

Cockroaches, they are.
If you crash into a biker, go straight to a PS, file an FIR. Never settle for any amount which you think is too much. That should be enough. If you stop to check for minor damages, out of some misplaced sense of humanity, expect to be leeched.

Saw this Ciaz VDi outside Shakespeare Sarani Police Station last night. The entire front was gone along with the right rear portion. The car was bent so badly that the left rear wheel wasn't touching the ground. The front seats were partially folded/bent forward, so I'm guessing that there were unbelted occupants in the rear as well.

I don't know the story behind it, but my friend had heard that this was a case of drunk driving. The Ciaz apparently drove into a bus at high speeds. Don't know how true/false this is. Looking at the car, I am certain there would have been fatalities. The car is probably less than a year old, judging by the registration series.

Sorry for the poor quality pictures. I clicked them while my windows were rolled up.

Fate of Cruiser, which is almost built like tank: Early hours, overtaking gone bad.

Link: 9 job-seeking girls perish in road accident in Chitradurga

RIP, those who perished due to one nut's callousness. Any clue as to what hit the Cruiser? Now it looks like it was run over by a tank :Frustrati

This what the news report says:
The roof was probably cut open to remove the bodies.

You must be joking. No vehicle is even remotely built like a tank. These cheap commercial vehicles only have heavy metal chassis and some other components which are just heavy in weight. That doesn't really help the occupants in any way in an impact situation. Maybe good in roll-overs.

In fact, I don't think these heavy tin cans even have any crumple zones at all to absorb impact forces. So everything is transferred to the occupants. Not good. At all.

The most safe of the lot are the high end Beemers and Mercs. Upto an extant. And even then if you have an absolute moron behind the wheel in one of them too, like the one in this case, no level of safety can save your skin.

RIP the departed.

You have rightly pointed out thee facts. Also at the time of collision, the relative velocities of the 2 vehicles (as they are coming in the opposite direction, the values add up) would have been so much that any car would be reduced to a heap of metal.
Safe driving is the only key and wherever possible try to avoid over night driving especially when one is not used to it .

Heavy weight helps if the impact is against a lighter vehicle.

Example: In a 1990's fully laden truck Vs Modern Merc/BMW SUV impact, the truck would still "win" (wrong word, I know).

In the Cruiser incident, the impact was against much a heavier vehicle - so the extra weight didn't help in this case.

You are right about the heavy vehicle transferring more momentum to the lighter car in a collision relative to the momentum the heavier car receives from the lighter car.

But with the improvement in the rigidity of passenger cage combined with crumple zones, some of the newer generation "small" cars would decimate an older generation "heavy" car that looks well built but has no rigid passenger cage and crashworthiness. The heavy weight of the bigger car would not be any advantage in this case.

The following video demonstrates the same https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCecdOBCFjI

In any case, in a collision with an "Indian" truck where the body sits so high, any car colliding with it would invariably hit the solid truck chassis and the truck body would directly hit the car's pillars, so no car however well built would withstand the same. Of-course the significant weight of the truck as compared to a car would add to the woes.

Tanks don't have crumples zones, just like Cruiser - isn't it :)