[deathwalkr]

Onus of saving should always be on the self. Regardless of whatever laws may or may not exist.

Anyway, let's move on.

[rainmaster]

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

Jaywalking + Biker on a high speed = Disaster

In a divided four lane road not sure why the lady first check the left hand side instead of looking for oncoming traffic towards her. In the video footage till 10 seconds she didn’t look at right, instead she was walking with her head down and cross the road in casual manner. When we are crossing the road, all senses should be on high alert and anticipate any potential danger. One more mistake from pedestrian in this case, she took couple of steps back leading to indecisiveness in biker’s mind on which direction to move forward.

Biker also seems to be on high speed and couldn’t avoid hitting the lady. Even though it’s a four lane road, when nearing township or intersection, biker should slow down. My take, pedestrian and biker have equal responsibility in this accident.

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

But she is the victim, and there is no way I am blaming her.

Are you sure? Walking across a highway as if you are taking a walk in the park is not worth a blame?

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Again, how hard would it have been to miss her by a good margin.

Margin was there and she ate into it.
At least, the biker had the decency to go BEHIND her, not trying to compete with her by going in front of her.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

The pedestrian sending 'mixed signals' is not to blame? .

Absolutely!

I trust four legged buffaloes more than the two legged ones, because the former never move backwards once they start moving across the roads, the latter though, will move in the direction you least expect them to, specially when under panic.

[carrerastrax]

I just feel jaywalking is a phenomena that is best applied to developed nations where the infrastructure is planned for the motorists and the pedestrians. Like the umpteen number of rules that simply exist on paper, this one isn't followed in India. People break barriers/medians to carve a small passage for their two wheelers. So I feel we should take that out of the equation and thence, the biker is solely responsible. She only noticed the biker when the biker started to honk continuously and then froze.

It doesn't look like a highway to me. Look at the houses and establishments along the road. The biker was simply going too fast. Notice the speed of the other vehicles.

Maybe she looked to her right before she started to cross. Considering the speed of the biker, he must've been quite far away when she noticed. And the biker had the whole situation playing out in front of him. He should've understood that at his current speed, a collision is imminent. A long honk cannot make the interference disappear. How many times do we witness people changing direction immediately after switching on their indicators? It's more like a right to change direction than a request.

If I tell myself that jaywalking is a crime in India, I'm more irritated by the dime a dozen interferences. But if I understand that no one follows the rule and it isn't applicable in real life, I'm a little more patient and a lot more slower. I hate jaywalkers too. But I hate being in an accident a lot more.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

Jaywalking + Biker on a high speed = Disaster

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=efvyhl06l-0

I have had this exact situation occur on a ride back in 2003-4.

I was coming down a hill and had built up a lot of speed on my RE Thunderbird. It was an extremely exhilarating feeling and I was absolutely loving it.

The road was completely straight and I had great visibility as it was most probably just around afternoon. An old lady started crossing the road. She had more than enough time to cross the road before I would cross her. But as she went to the median, she suddenly changed her mind and came back, saw my bike and froze.

I slammed on my brakes and everything slowed down towards infinity. The dry road and good tires had me screeching all the way towards her and when I came to a rest, my front tire was touching her saree.
The extreme braking had resulted in my entire front fork squeezing so hard that my front mudguard got dented by the crash guard.

I rode off leaving that woman in a state of shock. Just a kilometer or two, I almost collapsed by the side of the road as the adrenaline wore off and left me trembling and unable to ride for the next few minutes.

The entire blame of this accident as a biker who has been there, I lay on the bike guy. We need to always understand the limits of the vehicle and never go faster than the stopping distance for a given speed.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

They have the whole damn road, yet he has to hit her. This makes me so angry. How hard is it to give her room, whether choosing to go ahead or behind?

On a defensive pedestrianing level, of course she could have avoided being the victim. How many people don't know that bikers can be more dangerous than trucks? A truck may not be able to stop; a biker doesn't care to.

As a pedestrian, I make a point to indicate to bikers to go ahead or behind me, and they usually do. It's better than this forwards/backward dance which can so easily lead to disaster.

But she is the victim, and there is no way I am blaming her. Again, how hard would it have been to miss her by a good margin. Except to the guy for who there is nothing but the line he is following.

I see the bike did not take any evasive action. I dont think he was looking at the road. Perhaps at his speedometer or his front wheel or even testing out his maximum speed.

I have seen many videos of accidents in India. Theye just slam at high speeds into each other.

I am sure if they looked far ahead, the would have seen something and taken evasive action.

There was a video of a chain crash in heavy fog with visibility of ony a few meters.
Several cars crashed into each other at high speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKOFjU_RWio

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by Indian2003

I see the bike did not take any evasive action. I dont think he was looking at the road. Perhaps at his speedometer or his front wheel or even testing out his maximum speed.

I also feel the same, this guy i feel assumed the lady would cross and continued in the same direction or he is also a newbie and froze on what to do.

With the kind of maneuverings and zig zag cuts done on various bikes nowadays, he could have easily adjusted even at the last minute.

[Fx14]

The hesitation and change in direction by the jaywalker is the worst act which confuses a rider on which way to go.

That said, braking is the best option in such circumstances. Either you would stop in time or reduce the severity of impact significantly if unavoidable.

[jigar1791@gmail]

This happened at about 50 metres away from my residence.

Location - SV Road, Daulat Nagar, Borivli East, Mumbai.

A biker (20 year old, living in the same locality) attempting to overtake a BEST bus from the left side, driver of the car opening the door resulting in biker having to attempt an emergency braking manoeuvre, skids and gets underneath the left rear tyres of the bus.
Bus runs over the biker, and he meets his end on the spot, head and body separated, crushed under the bus.

I’ll let the video do the talking. (Have added the ZIP file, couldn't upload the video in mp4 format)

Who’s at fault? I’ll leave this to you, fellow bhpians to analyse and come up with your thoughts.

Regards,
Jigar Shah

[J4J]

Originally Posted by jigar1791@gmail

This happened at about 50 metres away from my residence.

Location - SV Road, Daulat Nagar, Borivli East, Mumbai.

Who’s at fault? I’ll leave this to you, fellow bhpians to analyse and come up with your thoughts.

Regards,
Jigar Shah

The car had so much space on its left to park still it preferred to park closer to the road.
Secondly the driver opened the door suddenly without looking at his mirror which came in the bikers path.
Biker is at fault as he was running parallel to the bus (a possible overtake attempt?).

I would say that carelessness of the car driver in both parking and getting out caused this.

Secondly even if the car door was not opened, space was tight for the biker to pass through via the bus's blind spot.

The biker and car driver didn't leave room for any error which ultimately caused this.

[india008]

Got into a little bit of accident almost a month back. Was in an early morning drive to my native place, started at 4.30 AM. Thought of having a cup of tea at around 7.30 AM and it proved to be a wrong move.

Two vehicles were parked parallel to each other near a small tea shop. Both were stopped in road itself. So thinking of parking it in front(their), but on the side of road, approached the vehicles and took a sharp turn. But as i turned, the vehicle nearer to me started moving and it's front guard hit my left rear quarter panel damaging it. So whose fault is it. Was i too casual there or is it the driver of the pickup.

https://youtu.be/s-bKhJGPOsg

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by india008

Got into a little bit of accident almost a month back. Was in an early morning drive to my native place, started at 4.30 AM. Thought of having a cup of tea at around 7.30 AM and it proved to be a wrong move.

Two vehicles were parked parallel to each other near a small tea shop. Both were stopped in road itself. So thinking of parking it in front(their), but on the side of road, approached the vehicles and took a sharp turn. But as i turned, the vehicle nearer to me started moving and it's front guard hit my left rear quarter panel damaging it. So whose fault is it. Was i too casual there or is it the driver of the pickup.

https://Youtu.be/s-bKhJGPOsg

The pickup driver should have checked (and kept checking) the road in his IRVM when he started moving. You should have approached much slower, honked and then parked.

[india008]

Originally Posted by ashis89

The pickup driver should have checked (and kept checking) the road in his IRVM when he started moving. You should have approached much slower, honked and then parked.

Yes indeed i missed honking there. Should have been more careful. But in my defense i will say, the pickup was stationary on road side, near a tea shop. So i might have thought of no unnecessary honking (can't really recall what was in my mind that time).

[self_driven]

Originally Posted by india008

Got into a little bit of accident almost a month back. Was in an early morning drive to my native place, started at 4.30 AM. Thought of having a cup of tea at around 7.30 AM and it proved to be a wrong move.

Bad luck. In my opinion, pickup driver is completely at fault here.

1) He's parked incorrectly. Left-most lane is still a driving lane.

2) Impact is on rear fender. It means that your vehicle had almost crossed him at the time of impact and (if he was careful enough) would've been visible to him. My guess is that he was still talking to the other pickup guy while starting off.

Your driving doesn't appear to be rash but it is better to park behind other vehicles outside such food/tea points. Ignorant drivers don't check their mirrors before driving off, or even opening doors.

Honking once could've prevented this but isn't a solution. There are way too many vehicles that one has to cross on the road. Ultimately it will result in a stressful experience for the driver as well as others. What I've personally experienced (and learnt the hard way) is that honking gives you nothing but just a false sense of security in these situations.