[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

And get hit by the wrong-side biker coming from behind. For this reason I sometimes feel safer doing the exact opposite.

That's wrong advice. Pedestrians are safer walking facing the traffic. Reason being more vehicles go in correct direction than an outlier who wants to go in the other direction. In either case, the hit is from behind and chances of getting hit is more when not facing traffic.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by msdivy

If possible, always walk facing the traffic. In any case, walk at the very edge, for better chance of not getting hit.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

The biggest single thing a pedestrian can do to be safer is also the most obvious: use the pavement. Of course, often there isn't one

This reminds me of a picture that I saw circulating on Facebook recently. When my dad also shared it, I had to tell him both the portrayals were incorrect. Given below is the picture with my comment:

[tharian]

The saddest thing is when not one person thinks of helping you. It is sad what the world has come to.

In the beginning of the video as soon as he gets hit, there are people around who could have gone and checked. The later ones who passed by would have have thought he is sleeping or drunk.

Both the times when I had a fall on my bike, one being in the middle of the night , I got help immediately from people nearby . The second time when it was a bad fall, a colleague who I only have seen few times, not spoken to before this, came to my help. All this before I removed my helmet. He carried my bag and asked me to put my weight on his shoulder and took me to the clinic close by for dressing.

I believe what goes around, comes around. be it a good deed or bad.

Reminds of me another incident few years back in Delhi in which a person was run over by a vehicle and left on the road and kept getting run over by other vehicles till someone actually noticed.

[deathwalkr]

You read about this accident in the paper and it feels as if it's just another accident. But seeing it on video is a whole lot different at least for me. It's just sad to witness. In a country where might is often taken as right, unless you are in a ksrtc bus or a tank, always have to exercise caution while on road.

Keep seeing so many pedestrians on road walking side by side happily chatting away even in places where there are nice paved footpaths to walk on :(

If one is afraid to involve himself directly, how hard would it be to call up an ambulance/cops at the least?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by msdivy

1) If possible, always walk facing the traffic. In any case, walk at the very edge, for better chance of not getting hit.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

And get hit by the wrong-side biker coming from behind. For this reason I sometimes feel safer doing the exact opposite.

Originally Posted by msdivy

That's wrong advice. Pedestrians are safer walking facing the traffic. Reason being more vehicles go in correct direction than an outlier who wants to go in the other direction. In either case, the hit is from behind and chances of getting hit is more when not facing traffic.

You are right, and what you said is the rule, internationally, so I would not advise the contrary, but I have had nasty moments, while obeying that rule, from bikers coming from behind.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

This reminds me of a picture that I saw circulating on Facebook recently. When my dad also shared it, I had to tell him both the portrayals were incorrect. Given below is the picture with my comment:

It is amazing, which ever side they walk, how parents think that they should hold the child on the passing-traffic side. Shouldn't it be instinctive that that is wrong?

[pixantz]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It is amazing, which ever side they walk, how parents think that they should hold the child on the passing-traffic side. Shouldn't it be instinctive that that is wrong?

Yeah. Thats really pathetic levels of general human intelligence on display. Which also brings to my mind another point regarding pedestrians with kids. The way I see almost all of them behave, it seems like this breed believes that since they have a child with them everyone else using the road has to give them way and stop dead in their tracks even if they suddenly jump/run onto the road regardless of slow or fast traffic, signal red or green, blind spot or open road, any situation. They seem to attain an invincible mode!

People who are carrying kids/infants on their shoulder have one side of their view blocked by the kids head and dont even bother to look on that side and just check the otherway and scamper away. How stupid. The feeling you get is everyone is going to be on the side of the kid and the dope with it if they get hit. And we all know the typical Indian crowd in mishap situations. All have a jolly good time hitting and kicking at the poor soul found "guilty." Some dont even know what happened.

All these smart dopes need to keep just one thing in mind. Ok, you're invincible since u have a kid. But what if someone genuinely didn't see you in your wild unpredictable stupid scamper. Who is gonna lose some bones first? You and the poor kid or the motorist who hit you guys? Simple math. The motorists have spares available for his car if it gets damaged. Where will you find spare bones if yours get broken? Or worse.

P.S. I too always walk on the right side of the road. Can't think of using left. Too risky.

[mayankk]

The driver fellow of the tempo accident has been arrested. I hope the phone thief guy is, as well.

[Acharya]

It's such a painful sequence of events, I couldn't even watch the full video.
How have we become so inhumane?
Is it the population, or poor living conditions of homeless people, which makes others ignore anyone lying on road. Life has no value if you are poor in India. Two kids would still have their father around, had someone just shifted him to hospital in time.

Moreover, the auto driver was so callous with his driving and to better it off, he chose to left the man to die there. He must be tried for murder and not for a road accident.

This got to stop, we must value human life, it's not meant to be wasted like this.

It's rather emotion rant, couldn't control myself.

[carwatcher]

I thought of posting yesterday that all this tech etc is useless if the tempo guy gets away and glad that police caught him.
At the same time, relatively rich people are criticised for being insensitive while in reality everyone behaves the same way and I would like to see the application of law on this guy. Ideally he should be arrested and released on bail immediately as per the norm.
Also would like to ask that how many of us have actually stopped or bothered to check a person lying like a drunk fellow on the side of the road/drainage. I am not saying it that it was the person who was hit at fault but he was plain unlucky.
The other dangerous aspect is the tempo driver after hitting his tempo stopping right in the middle of the road which can result in another accident or he was doing behaving like a pro.

Originally Posted by mayankk

The driver fellow of the tempo accident has been arrested. I hope the phone thief guy is, as well.

[LoneRidder]

Originally Posted by DriverR

he may have been mistaken as a drunk by passer-bys.

This happens quite often. We generally find (or at-least assume) that people lying on pavements, bus stands or in any other places as drunker, and most often it is true. In such scenarios, the real accident victim gets unnoticed, unless people see the accidents or at least until lot of blood is found around it.

Sometimes the response time from our authorities is also very slow. Couple of weeks back, I found a body cut into half on a railway track near Marathahalli, Bangalore. It was around 8:00 am, I was on my way to drop my kids to school. 3~4 people were standing at far and looking at it. At first through I thought someone would have already informed the police, however I remembered reading the below post few weeks back

A 39-year-old civic employee lay helplessly on railway tracks at Halisahar station after a train severed both his legs on Monday morning.
Hundreds -GRP and RPF personnel and commuters -watched, yet no one raised a finger to help. After 20 minutes, another train crushed him to death.

I for a second thought it’s just one more phone call, let me also inform the police. Immediate I called the police helpline and informed them, to my surprise, they said no complaint has been raised. After couple of minutes I got a call back from Railway police asking for exact location, after providing information I continued.
To my shock, in the evening my neighbor was saying the body was lying there at 1:00 pm when he passed that place. A police was standing guard.
Yes, I understand there are certain process and procedures to be followed, however a body lying on the track for over 4 hours, not acceptable!

[pradkumar]

This tragic accident happened to someone I know well:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/53662635.cms

Apparently, he was not wearing a helmet and was hit by a test drive vehicle driving at 100 kmph on a city road. Those guys ran away without helping, but were eventually caught I believe.

Cars are always tested for high speeds by experts. Why do these test drivers need to do such stunts on public roads? They should be jailed for at least 10 years.

Sad...

[Zed]

Originally Posted by pixantz

The way I see almost all of them behave, it seems like this breed believes that since they have a child with them everyone else using the road has to give them way and stop dead in their tracks even if they suddenly jump/run onto the road regardless of slow or fast traffic, signal red or green, blind spot or open road, any situation. They seem to attain an invincible mode!

I think a lot of us share this frustration. But the flip side of that coin is when we drive in a city/town/village it is important that drivers take cognizance of this potential hazard and reduce speeds to stop in time or at the very least slow down sufficiently to reduce the severity of an accident

An important thing I learnt during my driving lessons was the technique of sudden braking. I though I was good at it - turned out I wasnt. And the instructor wanted me to repeat the exercise until he was satisfied that I could. It was my effort to prevent stalling the car that he disliked. The expectaion was to stop as quickly as possible by standing on the brake and not bothering with the clutch (at 30 kmph)

It is the responsibility of drivers to be aware of pedestrians, children no matter how bizzare their behavior may seem. This is the reason behind the 8kmph speed limit in pedestrian zones (yes 8 kmph !), 30 kmph in school zones/crowded areas and 50 kmph in city/town/village limits in Germany

[Thad E Ginathom]

It was nearly me today.

Halfway through turning the car in a road, I was looking right as a biker came from the left. I was occupying most of the road, but still he whizzed through fast as I was moving forward. It was a hair-breadth thing. Only the shout of my passenger saved him.

Yes, I should have looked repeatedly both ways. None the less, what the biker did was close enough to attempted suicide to leave me feeling very shaken. I bet he didn't even notice

[printh]

@ Thad - likewise an exactly similiar incident happened to me yesterday except, a cyclist lady instead of biker and I happened to see her orange saree faintly and brake. The time was at dusk with cloudy sky. God saved my day.

[Ajitsingh208]

Sad state of affairs,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/53679051.cms

" Days after hundreds of Delhiites passed by a dying man on the road without offering help, here's another shocking act of criminal apathy on the capital's streets. A cab driver knocked down an ice-cream vendor in central Delhi's Gole Market on Wednesday night and, on the pretext of taking him to hospital, dumped the dying man at a desolate lane some distance away."