yes, i completely agree, in fact, I have become an unfortunate victim of rash driving during the post lockdown phase in Mumbai.
Background-
since May I drive daily from Mulund to Sion hospital to drop and pick up my mother who is a nurse at that hospital (since she is an in-charge of a COVID ward it's too risky for her to travel in public transport). To make matters worst my Grandfather got infected by the COVID 19 and he was admitted to the same hospital where my mother works, my grandfather was in a (still is) in a serious condition, therefore, we need to go out every day, hence the car is very important for us.
The accident-
last week around 5 pm, as usual, I was driving from mulund(home) to sion hospital (around 25kms) to pick up my mom. as i passed Priyadarshini circle it started to rain heavily so i turned on my wiper, headlights and fog lamps. due to rains the average traffic speeds were low 50kph to 60kph. as i approached the sion flyover (which is a single lane flyover for southern traffic due to that it is a well-known accident zone) the traffic slowed down a bit to around 50kph. as i was about to enter the flyover a white tinted innova started honking and was dangerously trying to enter my lane from the left side since there was no space for this gigantic innova to enter i honked and dropped the gear and accelerated ahead of the innova. The care behind me did the same thing. after about 150 meters the traffic came to a abrupt stop as i was maintaining 2 cars distance my baleno came to a halt with any drama but the car behind was not maintaining such distance i came to the stop with very little space to spare. after some 10,15 seconds, i heard a loud bang and sound of a horn and felt a something just pushed me from behind. so I immediately turned on my hazard lights and stepped out of my car.
the car behind me a ford aspire had literally had eaten into my baleno's rear bumper, and the white innova(same car which was bullying me earlier) had smashed into the back of the for aspire.
initial reactions-
Me being only 20 years old this was my first major accident i was completely stunned. I just stood at the road for few seconds facing towards the cars and was trying to assess the situation and figuring out the next move.
First things first the aspire looked pretty banged up soo i knocked on the driver's side window and asked the driver if anyone was hurt, the driver was in a state of shock but apart from that he and his co-driver seemed okay. so i walked towards the white Innova first thing i noticed that it had a very dark tint it was impossible to see inside the vehicle and it had a yellow number plate. i went towards the driver's side window and asked if everyone was okay there were around 5 people in the car. since everyone was okay, after that i called my best friend who lives about 10kms from the hospital and asked him to drop my mom home.
Indian road rage phase-
While i was talking to my friend on the phone my dad who was also with me went towards the innova driver and told him that he was responsible for this accident at that time my dad was under a lot of stress because of my grandfather was in the hospital due to covid. therefore he and the guys from the ford aspire were on the verge of the beating the innova driver
soo I immediately jumped in and advised we should go to the police station.
following the advice given by many experienced drivers on this awsm website i kept myself clam and kept others from hurting each other. we had to leave the ford aspire on the side of the road because it had multiple tire bust and some serious internal damage. soo the aspire occupants sat in my car and we went to the police station to file an accident report.
first time in the police station-
the police were a bit harsh towards me, in the beginning, they assumed that i was too fast and braked suddenly and that caused the accident (at that point my father was in the car talking to my mom about the health of my grandfather) the police havaldar just assumed i was on a joyride, he was just not ready to listen to me i think its because i am 20 years and in Bombay there are many cases of accidents where the majority of times teenagers are at fault. i told them that i was picking up my mom and i also showed him my car and the BMC hospital sticker on the car. At that time my dad came out of the car and he is a central government officer soo the police were listening to him he told him what happened the police let me and the ford aspire guys go just after noting down the damages to both the cars. They also scolded the driver of the white Innova don't know what happened to him after that.
Aftermath-
i called up the nexa garage manager and asked him to get my car repaired as soon as possible but there were no mechanics or spare parts available at nexa but he recommended a Vitesse maruti work shop near Siddhivinayak Bombay.
So my elder brother limped the car to vitesse workshop and dropped the car currently, my baby by batmobile(2015 baleno zeta) is getting repaired at the garage.
Due to the lockdown the vitesse representative said that it will take atleast 25 days to repair the car
anyways all the repair costs are being paid by my insurance company.
Police Said that if i wish i could take this case to court and have the innova guy pay for my damages. I opted not to since I want my car back and repaired as soon as possible. Is this the right decision? let me know.
the ford aspire came to a halt on the right side of the lane in order to not to hit a moterbike rider who was riding on the left side. therefore the damages to my car are on the right side.
Tinted windows and the yellow number plate is that even legal?
this is off topic my car's front bumper and bonnet somehow got damaged during this accident even tho my car didn't even touch the car in the front,is Maruti's build quality is that bad or there is some other reason?
Sorry for any mistakes i did in my post this is my first post on the team-bhp website
please guide me and help me improve my mistakes thank you!