[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

Amity - That was a horrific episode. Am so glad to see that both you and your wife walked away from it with less impact.

Your insurance-
That car should certainly not be repaired. Please challenge the insurance company and try and negotiate a deal as close to IDV as possible.
You can threaten them with escalation > ombudsman > court action, if they don't budge. Cars have been Totalled for far lesser in the past. Look for past examples and use those to support your arguments.

Third Party insurance-
I am not sure, but please find out if it is possible to lay a claim for fulfillment of all your remaining losses from the 3rd party, including compensation.

Keep updating this thread on the progress of these discussions so that the experienced forum members can guide you.

Amity, its your wife and the taxi driver to whom you’re indebted to. Your guardian angel was surely looking over you.

You should definitely follow up with the police on what they have done or planning to do with the city driver, he should not be allowed to roam freely post this accident .

Also, file a case with the insurance company of the Honda City owner. Cops will have his insurance details. For property damage (your car) you will get a maximum of 7.5 lacs and the liability part can also take care of your hospital bills. His money influence if any won’t work much in this case and his insurance company wil have to settle the claim.

[BlackPearl]

Amity, you are one lucky guy! This is a type of accident that you can't be prepared for, ever. So glad that you are alive to tell the tale and hope your wife is able to get out of the trauma soon.

[Dinesh_Malhotra]

Amity!!!

I am simply happy to know that you've survived this! I am very much aware of such issues on our road and after meeting with an accident once in 2015, I now know how things can spiral out of control within seconds.

Good to see you rockin man! Cheers!

[pganapathy]

Man, when I saw that photo I wondered how you had survived @Amity. You are very lucky indeed. I once missed a similar accident to what happened to you. We were driving back from Coorg to Bangalore on a Sunday and suddenly found the highway blocked at midnight. A car with four young kids in it crossed the divider and rammed into a truck on the other side. Luckily the truck driver didn't suffer too many injuries because is seated relatively high in the vehicle. A couple of the kids died, one who happened to the brother of a colleague. And upon inquiring, we realised that it was no more than 5 to 10 minutes that we missed the incident by

Divided highways give you very little to react in case somebody jumps the divider as you can't see vehicles, as opposed to an undivided road.

Definitely do not repair that Creta, unless they replace the entire bodyshell. Guess insurance is only looking at it in terms of cost, but it adds a lot of risk. It makes more sense for them to sell the car for the spares that can be taken from it, especially the engine and for you to get the full amount, but they will look at whatever costs them the least

No doubt you are lucky your wife was there to push for somebody to help you. The sad reality of the world today is people are happy to take photos and videos, but not help people in trouble

[Leoshashi]

I am sure Hyundai ASS won't be repairing that body shell. Safety and stability of the repair aside, they also have to keep the labour man hours in check.

A quicker and simpler way is replacing the bodyshell. Since the IDV is 12L, the car can again be on road with a new shell.

I have seen MASS replacing the shell for even minor shell damages. Not only is it better in the longer run, it's quicker as well.

A pic I had clicked of a Brezza which was sandwiched between two buses. It's shell was changed and the car was delivered within a month, as good as new.

The unlucky Brezza



The new body shell



Another one:



Regards,
Shashi

[am1m]

Originally Posted by pganapathy

The sad reality of the world today is people are happy to take photos and videos, but not help people in trouble

You said it! I can understand a bystander not wanting to get involved, even though the courts have passed the 'good samaritan law', people are understandably not willing to get tangled up with our wonderful police force and system. But taking photos and videos of an accident scene (unless it's for evidence or insurance purposes) is absolutely sickening.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by am1m

You said it! I can understand a bystander not wanting to get involved, even though the courts have passed the 'good samaritan law', people are understandably not willing to get tangled up with our wonderful police force and system. But taking photos and videos of an accident scene (unless it's for evidence or insurance purposes) is absolutely sickening.

A time in which even the educated lot believe checkin in Facebook is mandatory before the airport checkin, Facebook gives money to a person suffering from cancer for a share and likes etc. we are bound to witness these kinds of inhuman activities. It’s not because people have become mad, but that’s how a product changes human thinking and preferences and also internet availability (free internet/low charges) to everyone have made things even worse. Previously people were living with bread and butter, but now they live on likes and shares. No I am not saying internet/Facebook is bad, but common sense should prevail while using these.

Note : Yesterday was www (world wide web) birthday.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

I am sure Hyundai ASS won't be repairing that body shell.

I guess the discussion started mainly when the OP used the word 'Repair' which to most of the readers meant a lot of tinkering, welding and patching. Indeed a case where everyone will become apprehensive of such an execution.

Being a new model, I am sure Hyundai will replace the entire body shell of the car and that makes much more sense. I do recollect visiting a Maruti Bodyshop at Hassan in Karnataka where there was a first gen Swift lying unattended and in quite a bad shape after it had collided sideways with a tree. Apparently the owner of this workshop said they are having a tough time because Maruti doesn't make body shells for this variant anymore and convincing the customer for a total loss has been a pain.

This is REPAIR and it scares me



The above image is from another accident where the Swift when parked on the shoulder was rear ended on NICE road to an extent that the other vehicle had entered and crushed nearly half of the length of the car.

[SJM1214]

Glad that you and your wife survive this deadly crash.

Any Idea how that Honda city got airborne? The only possible scenario is that it got bang on an unmarked divider at full speed.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Would those rumble strips launch a car in triple speeds up in the air?

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Definitely yes.

I don't think so. This is not one big speed breaker, these are a set of continuous very small speed breakers. I was caught unaware for the first time when i encountered these newly placed rumble strips. I would have been at a speed of 80-90 at the first rumble strip. All it did was give a very violent shake to the car.

Given that there are two of them in quick succession. If one slows down for the first, it will be really difficult to speed up till the second.

Finally the second rumble strip is way before the curve for the car to get airborne and land in the other lane. See the screenshot i gave in my previous post.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

where there was a first gen Swift lying unattended and in quite a bad shape after it had collided sideways with a tree. Apparently the owner of this workshop said they are having a tough time because Maruti doesn't make body shells for this variant anymore

Yes, production of entire bodyshell stops as soon as the model is discontinued.

Regards
Shashi

[frozentears]

The pictures do the talking and its horrible to see the car in such a state.
Our highways as others have pointed out is real bad, and to be specific the ones down south from Bangalore to TN (Kanyakumari) is a place for accidents to happen, with lower median heights, village crossings, broken dividers and insensible folks who even drive down lorries and trucks in the opposite side.

That apart, I really mean to say that your stars were with you that day.
And I seriously as well don't understand how Insurance is just advocating the repair

[Viraat13]

Originally Posted by Amity

All I can say is, everything happened in our favour after the accident and I am lucky to be alive. Even the policeman, who came to record my wife's statement, could not believe that I survived the accident.

....

City driver escaped with very minor injuries, mostly scratches. As per the policeman, he even tried to flee the scene in his car but could not do so because of damage to his car. The policeman told me that he even tried to blame me for the accident and told them that the motorcyclist was killed because of my car. Police says that he was not drunk at the time of accident.

On 02.01.2019, when my brother had gone to police chowki to collect our car for sending it to service centre, that driver (around 30 years old) was sitting there. He had no remorse whatsoever and his father-in-law even said that cars are to be driven at 100-150 kmph.

Firstly, we're all glad you're safe and survived what basically can be desribed as the roof of your car being ripped off. Well done to your stars, the car, and your seatbelts.

I use the Gurgaon-Faridabad road on my way back home every day and have found that responsible drivers are few and far between. Things are worse on the road towards Surajkund as there is no divider. I see people overtaking on the blind side multiple times in a trip.

The statement of the father-in-law only reaffirms my belief that HR51 and HR29 cars contribute the maximum number of irresponsible drivers on this stretch.

[DheerajNK]

Amity, It was a painful experience even to read your post & I can totally imagine what you and your wife must have gone through during this rough time, that too due to no mistake of yours.

Thank God that you are doing fine and I am really happy that you have started driving again. This is a kind of trauma that would definitely require a lot of time to recover from and I hope your wife has also recovered completely from the emotional trauma that she had to go through. A salute to the brave lady!

[Speedshift]

I got cold sweats assuming myself in your position. You and your better half are one lucky couple as no one would image anyone walking alive from that. Scary as a word is not scary enough to find yourself in a situation like yours where a car is flying right into your face. Glad you came out of it without any permanent damage.

Do provide us an update regarding the repair work on your car as the common consensus is that it is not worth repairing, nothing less than a body shell replacement.

Wish you all the best. Hats off to your better half for handling everything and the cab driver for ferrying you to the hospital. Not many people do that.

Drive safe and hope others are driving safe as well, our own safe driving, it seems, is necessary but not enough nowadays.