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How would this have prevented the accident? The car would still keep rolling back.

If he was not recording the video, he would be teaching her to drive while sitting next to her, and would have had the chance to intervene. Nobody can keep a count on how many lives the fatal attraction of SM has claimed.

Two small incidents happened in my life in the last 2 days

I had purchased some unglazed clay pots online and day before yesterday, I was in the process of seasoning them before their first use. In doing so, I had filled one of the clay pot with water and placed it on the gas stove for boiling water. The clay lid was lying in a steel drain bucket near the sink. I was very careful and mindful as I was handling a very fragile kitchenware. I focused on the task and doing well. Suddenly out of nowhere , a thought came to my mind, if I should cover the pot with the lid. I just reached out to the lid, and my arm must have accidentally bumped to the corner of a wooden cupboard next to the sink and to my horror watched the clay lid jump off my fingers, fly across the kitchen and crash on the floor, shattering into multiple pieces. There goes my Clay pot lid, inspite of being extremely aware and mindful.

Yesterday I was pressure cooking some vegetables with lentils in the afternoon. I have multiple pressure cookers/ bakers with me. I have a 2 litre, 3 litre and a 5 litre pressure cooker/baker. By some oversight, I used the 3 litre pressure baker lid, forced it on the 5 ltr pressure cooker and was pretty annoyed to see that the lid refused to /wouldn't close smoothly and I had to apply/exert force (obviously as they were a total mismatch and belonging to 2 different cookers). I still managed to cook the vegetables.. thereafter while cleaning the cooker at the sink, suddenly I realised that I had mismatched the cooker and lid. And I believed that I was fully aware, careful and mindful and knew what I was doing (while I was horribly wrong throughout). Nothing untoward happened (though the lentils were not fully cooked)

The above 2 incidents in my life in the last 2 days indicate that no matter how careful and mindful we are, accidents / mishaps do happen. On hindsight, we dissect and lament if the accident could have been averted only if ..........

Now, for some statistics. As per Govt of India, MORTH website official report, A total number of 4,61,312 road accidents have been reported by Police Departments of States and Union Territories (UTs) in the country during the calendar year 2022, claiming 1,68,491 lives and causing injuries to 4,43,366 persons.

Now every person involved in those accidents, probably left the house that day thinking that nothing will happen to me ( accidents only happen to others & I am immune syndrome) and ended up dead or injured. There could be some very careful and mindful drivers / riders in that list who inspite of being careful, ended up in an accident (just like my 2 kitchen incidents). The reason I mention this is because, all it takes is a fraction of a second of miscalculation/ negligence/ carelessness and BAM!

I read about something known as “risk homeostasis”—our tendency, once we’re safer, to take more risks. (Bicyclists who wear helmets, for example, tend to ride closer to cars than those who don’t).

In the present girl's case, they were safe, the thought that something could go wrong didn't even cross their mind. It all appeared so easy and simple. If you want to move, press the gas pedal and if you want to stop, press the brake pedal. It's as simple as that. But what was not in consideration was that when mind panicked, logical thinking goes for a toss, emotions take centre seat and we mess up things that end horribly wrong.


I quote below from a newyorker article, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page...nts-inevitable

I conclude that accidents do occur, sometimes inspite of our best efforts and care, due to the smallest/ miniscule of letting the guard down/ letting the mind wander for a millisecond/ being overconfident for a moment and/or just sheer bad luck (being in the wrong place in the wrong time). We got to live with it.

Thank you for writing what I wanted to say. Of course you did a much much better job than what I could hope to do. Although it has never happened to me (even when I was a newbie driver), confusing the A and B pedal is one of those night mare scenarios that always runs through my mind. I think the biggest problem that we face, particularly when driving becomes second nature is curbing the agility of our mind. In this case the excitement of the videography probably distracted, what appears to be, an untrained driver. Similarly, recall the

1. one interesting conversation that we had with our travel companion

2. That beautiful song which we sang along (may be together with our travel buddies)

3. Rubbernecking a way side accident

All these were potential mishaps which thankfully did not end up in trouble.

My assumption is car was in reverse and she was reversing up an incline. Lifting legs off all pedals would have stalled the car it if was going reverse up the incline.

At the moment he screamed she was revving the engine hard and at this point it must have been too late. If he had given her instructions before making her sit in car alone, she would have been saved, but i guess it didnt happen.

If you notice it was a yellow plate taxi , must have been that guys bread and butter but the attraction to shoot a reel was too enticing and they overlooked the risks.

Anyways its a very disturbing incident

I ONLY partially agree with your analogy. Not all accidents are mistakes & errors, but simply not understanding about the surrounding and the car.

The accident which we are discussing now is completely avoidable if the driver didn't let a newbie, who never drove a car in her life to use his car for reels. And that too in hilly area! Just plain stupid. I hardly let my wife to use my car until she finished all her driving classes. Even after she finished all classes and got her license, I accompany her in all her rides inside city.

I understand what you meant. If it is a evasive maneuver gone wrong and swerving to avoid hitting something, then it fits your analogy very well. But most of the cases, it is rash driving, not learning to drive properly and not understanding about cars, unnecessary overtake attempts and simple speeding where one shouldn't be.

I agree with your POV. It was plain stupid.
What could have gone in the minds of the man and the woman at that point of time.
The man wouldn't have thought even for a moment that this could have tragic consequences. I believe if he had an iota of concern or doubt, he would have declined the proposal that she drives and he makes a reel. Same with the woman too. I believe she didn't even consider the fact that this manoeuvre could have tragic consequences. I mean there was absolutely no qualms in either of the two about her manoeuvering the car while she was a total newbie with zero knowledge about driving a car.

I consider it as stupidity as you do....Then begs the question. Why didn't they consider that this was a stupid idea? Perhaps he advised but she was adamant. We don't know. But both in the end, concluded that it was perfectly alright for her to drive the car (while it was a totally dumb idea). I am trying to look into their mind. They probably were comfortable and pretty sure to get a nice reel and all ends well. I mentioned my 2 kitchen incidents as I was very careful, mindful and sure that the events of the day is going well and then suddenly out of nowhere, the clay lid shatters to the floor. And after that, I was thinking " How did that happen? I was so careful and how did that happen" . But yes, this woman's accident happened due to their sheer stupidity and she shouldn't have been in the driver's seat in the first place. That was a very dumb idea.

I wouldn't allow my grand children to drive without a thorough knowledge of road rules, car and it's mechanics and even then I will sit beside them and keep advising. They have DL and drive well, but the learning never ends.

Yes. I agree with you. I had mentioned in an earlier post in this thread that the right way to go is to 1. Educate 2. Practice 3. Implement & 4. Improvise and the cycle continues.

I have not watched the video. I'm getting increasingly squeamish with increasing age!

Nobody should sit in the driver's seat of a vehicle with the engine on without preparation. Lesson One is how to start and stop the car. Not to teach this safely is criminally negligent.

Most people will know what the three pedals do. It would take a person with zero car interest not to. I have known people without any such interest who may very well not know, but they are not going to be taking this risk, so they don't really count.

I had my first lessons in actually being in control of a car on a disused airfield*. Most people might not be able to manage that degree of caution, but they should, at least, be away from any severe danger, with plenty of room ahead/behind.

Any less than this is like giving a loaded weapon to a child.



*aside: I had all my first lessons on that airfield, so I could do basic car control before even venturing onto a public road. Everything except hills, because, of course, airfields are flat.
My father was a wonderful teacher. He knew what to tell, and what to expect. I always remember him telling me to manoeuvrer the car, in reverse, between two marks. I said I couldn't. He just replied, "Yes you can!" And I did.

Because majority of the people who actually vote in India cannot afford a car or even a bike so they would be least interested in the regulation of traffic and more interested in how much money they will be paid per vote, what kind of subsidies to expect etc.

True. There's something terribly wrong in India - with the way people perceive risk. I guess it is largely due to poor enforcement. This guy would dare not record the same video in a middle-eastern or a western country or in places like Japan, China.

The car veered left due to rumble strip.
He was not fast per se but fast for the strip. Coupled with soft susepnsions tuned for comfort, such scenario often makes a vehicle veer. My 2004 zen would do that often.
Driver might not really be distracted but caught off guard as he negotiated the strip a bit fast. That said, it was his error of judgement and onus of this crash is definitely on him. Thank heavens the lady survived.

I don't think Pakistan has any better law enforcement than India, please correct me if I am wrong. But going by the graph it seems every where else barring India, people use a lot of common sense when it comes to taking risks for something as irrelevant as a selfie.

I assume those are absolute numbers? If yes, then comparing it with our population the percentage would be pretty low no?

As for risky videos, I seem to remember the absolute mental videos coming out of middle east where they drive cars on two wheels and change tyres even! :eek:

White washing incidents like this as “Accidents do happen” is the reason why these things keeps happening. Imagine a scenario where an innocent child was walking in that road and the girl just reversed into that child. Will we say “Accidents do happen”

I would say that cherry picking for the sake of making a point. Perhaps I shouldn't have made a blanket statment. My apologies, though I had some reasons to say so. Let me try to elaborate here.

There is something called "intent". What you mentioned above falls into the category of "Intentional act to cause bodily injury or death" and it could be termed as homicide and not Accident.

The definition of Accident is :
an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.

Another definition:
An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.

An accident is an unexpected, unintentional event that results in harm, injury, or damage, while an incident is an unwanted situation that could have resulted in an accident if safety measures hadn't been taken.

Note the word "Unintentionally & Without deliberate cause"

So, it's not white washing or a blanket statement.

however careful you try to be, it is inevitable that some unfortunate or unforeseen events will occur. "problems like these should not occur, but accidents will happen"

When we say, “accidents will happen”, It's an idiom or common sense belief that no matter what we do, it is impossible to COMPLETELY prevent things from going wrong.

Now, for context, the global insurance industry is one of the world's largest industries, with a market value that is greater than the GDP of many countries. In 2022, the global insurance market was valued at almost $6 trillion, with estimates of insurance premiums written at around $6.8 trillion. The industry is expected to grow substantially in the coming years, with some estimates suggesting it could reach $9.8 trillion by 2027. This growth is likely to be sustained by the increasing number and cost of global risks.

The fundamental premise of Insurance is a form of risk management that aims to reduce financial uncertainty and make accidental losses more manageable in exchange for a relatively small fee / premium.
The industry also believes that even with the best mitigation process, accidents do happen and the risks needs to be covered..

As a Marine Hull Insurance Surveyor, during my 35 years in the industry as a competent authority, I have personally seen / surveyed hundreds of Hull accidents that are fortuitous and accidental. We have constantly advised on risk mitigation to vessel owners and insurance companies and some have been implemented, however accidents continue to happen.

Accidents are predominantly unintentional, non deliberate, unexpected events that occur beyond our cognitive functions.

The day Accidents cease to happen, The insurance companies will run out of business and shut down and I don't see that happening in any foreseeable future.

Accidents do happen as long as unintentional, unexpected events occur that cause damage/ injury/death and knowing the world that we live today, accidents will continue to happen.