Team-BHP - Accidents in India

Quote:

Originally Posted by autoseiko (Post 5705386)

Our newly bought Swift met with a nasty accident while on service.

I am sorry for your plight, but that car is a goner man. I will not drive it however good it appears after the repair. In my opinion it can never be restored to it's original shape, the chassis will definitely have distortion. Claim total loss from insurance if that is possible and buy a new car. Anyway they would have got your signature on a disclaimer form before picking up the car for service. In it there will be a clause that you absolve them of responsibility in case of an accident.

This is precisely why I have never accepted pick-up/drop for servicing my car and always took it myself. For the past couple of years only I give it to my regular service adviser in the workshop, who had moved to my area and lives nearby. He leaves his bike in my place and goes to work by my car and services it. Then he brings it back in the evening, leaves and takes his bike. I started giving it to him only because I have known him for a decade and he is a very very sane driver. I will never give it to any valet driver characters who usually turn up for these jobs.

The 'pickup/drop @ owner's risk' disclaimers are bunk, and not legally enforceable, so don't give the errant ASC an easy pass.

That said, there isn't much to be gained from taking this to court, the 'repairability' argument will drag on for a long time. Consult insurance, and if you have 'Return to Invoice' add-on, push for a total loss claim and you'll be made whole without financial losses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish (Post 5706159)

Another deadly crash is reported at the notorious Thoppur section.

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Looks like a bad one.

Found a video of it ;

https://youtu.be/HtictHYDosI?si=UpbPGo5oVqwMFJsv

The truck that caught fire seems to be the one that lost brakes. A car and truck fell off the bridge.

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Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao (Post 5706186)

That car in a 3-truck sandwich. Ouch!

I'm not conversant with the language. Did they survive?

Some reports say 7 dead. Not sure how many from the car. Another car rammed the truck on fire from behind and caught fire too.

From the video, it looks like the cooking gas in the trucks cabin may have caused the fire since it started from the left of the cabin and most of the TN national permit trucks have them inside the cabin on that side.

Really scary. Not sure what it takes to prevent accidents on this stretch. TN authorities have taken lot of precautions. Still these accidents keep happening on a daily basis.
The truck has clearly lost its brakes and control.

Most accidents are happening on the bridge at the end of ghat section. Authorities should widen this stretch and make runaway truck ramps.

I was on that stretch last week. The TN authorities have done what they can. The trucks are slowed down and forced to the left lane. Lanes are kept narrow to slow you down.

This happened after the descent. The killers seem to be overloading, overheated brakes, bad tyres and overconfident drivers speeding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao (Post 5706141)

The 'pickup/drop @ owner's risk' disclaimers are bunk, and not legally enforceable, so don't give the errant ASC an easy pass.

Could you please shed some light on this and if possible the source for it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish (Post 5706159)

Another deadly crash is reported at the notorious Thoppur section.

This stretch surely seems notorious and has its own thread too. Don't know what went wrong but either the truck was speeding or coasting in neutral to save fuel in the downhill section are my two wild guesses.

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Originally Posted by ex-innova-guy (Post 5706231)

Could you please shed some light on this and if possible the source for it?

We'll need a lawyer to opine on specific technicalities, but just putting a disclaimer on a piece of paper doesn't absolve someone of legal responsibility or repercussions. Similar to how the 'delivery note' at the time of selling a car has no legal standing either. One's technically and legally the owner as long as the RTO record says so.

If your car is damaged in the ASC's possession, they are responsible for the damage. If there are casualties, your vehicle will obviously be impounded for evidence reasons and you'll face legal hassles as its registered owner, but the person driving at the moment of the incident doesn't just get to walk away quoting a 'car was driven at owner's risk and I ain't the owner so not my problem' disclaimer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by poloman (Post 5706194)

Most accidents are happening on the bridge at the end of ghat section. Authorities should widen this stretch and make runaway truck ramps.

Saw in news 4-5 months back that two plans were evaluated to make the section better - 1) a pair of tunnels and 2) straightening and flattening of the road using stilts and viaducts and apparently later was accepted and forwarded for further approvals.

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Originally Posted by jomyboy (Post 5704285)

Good roads aside, people traveling at 60 and hugging the right lane was a big irritating factor. Had a big breaking event when I had to go from 100 to 30 as some vehicles in a group were travelling at 30 speed enjoying the view. Adding to the horror was also some people even crossing the roads!!!!

As I was travelling from Andheri (W), I put in Sewri Uran MTHL on google maps and it took me through some secluded slums from where there was no go only to see people zipping past up on the bridge in front of me. Had to rely on the old trusted method of asking bystanders, so beware what you type on Google Maps

I think something is seriously wrong with google maps, especially in India. It had on numerous occasions taken me on routes where there was no proper roads.

On one occasion while navigating to come out of Pune it took me on a route that didn't even have a road but an open vast field that was thick with vegetation.

It becomes especially scary when you are navigating in the night and map lady decides to take a quicker route once the time-out to stay on the existing route expires.

While coming from Goa to Mumbai, it took us through one such short cut in the middle of the night, which eventually ended up at the bottom of a hill after meandering through single-lane jungle roads.

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Originally Posted by Mr.Ogre (Post 5706308)

I think something is seriously wrong with google maps, especially in India. It had on numerous occasions taken me on routes where there was no proper roads.

I second that. Once I was travelling in a cab from South Delhi to Sector 108 Gurgaon - the map advised me to take the Dwarka expressway. Soon we found out that there was no road connecting Delhi to the starting point of Dwarka expressway in Haryana.