Hello BHPians, an incident that occurred earlier this morning (~ 10:55 AM) had me shaking slightly for a while afterwards. I initially thought of creating a new thread about it, but since I saw this one I figured I might as well post here.
I'm currently enrolled in the Indiranagar branch of Maruti's driving school - Bimal, to be precise. Today was my sixth lesson and I'm quite happy to announce that I'm a fairly competent learner, if I may blow my own trumpet - a big thanks to this community for it too. I wish the same could be said about the quality of instruction at MDS though, but that's a story for another rainy day.
So here are a few crude MS Paint sketches of the initial setup leading to the situation -
ErrantDriver.docx
I was driving a petrol Ignis; a MT (obviously) - highlighted in blue. The Innova in question was a 2011 Grey Mica Metallic - highlighted in grey. I think, from the attached images, the first part of the offence is clear enough.
I don't have the time or necessary skills to sketch out the whole occurrence (nor do I have photographic / videographic evidence as I was behind the wheel as a newbie) on MS Paint, so please bear with my narrative. I will type it out in points to make it a wee bit easier to read.
1) It was a narrow road with limited visibility that I was entering, so I was doing crawl speeds in 1st gear. Slowed to a near-halt, checked my blind spots, left and right, deemed it clear and proceeded to turn the wheel to the left.
The instructor was just telling me about how I could align my shoulder with the headlamp of the Baleno on the left while turning when my unfortunate ears received the full-on strength of an aftermarket trumpet horn - the kind that shreds your ear drums - through the completely open driver's side window.
2) I glanced quickly over my shoulder and spotted an Innova slowing to a halt from many yards away. Since I was already half way into the turn and had right of way, I pardoned the apparent error on the other driver's side and proceeded to finish my turn: only to receive another earful of that ill gotten sound, this time for a full 3 seconds. Needless to say I was peeved by this inconsiderate behaviour of the "guy".
3) I corrected the steering and proceeded to enter another T-junction leading into a wider road (10 feet away) cautiously at crawl speeds when my ears cried for the third time today. Another sharp, drawn out honk. I glared into my rear view mirror and spotted this lady with a manic look in her eye.
My instructor asked me to make a left turn, I signaled my intention, checked both ways, turned left and accelerated enough to shift up into 2nd gear.
4) I checked my IRVM once more and saw that the lady had stopped in the middle of this new road, perpendicular to the direction of flow of traffic. She was apparently asking for directions from some guy on a bicycle. I went some 50 feet with the instructor looking into his mirror all the while - I thought nothing of it - and then suddenly, he asked me to stop the car in the middle of the road. I glanced into my mirror and brought the car to a complete stop, pressing the clutch and brake, shifting down into neutral.
The lady had turned in our direction and once more, she was bearing down upon on my tail. I could sense where this was going now.
5) The instructor asked me to pull up the handbrake, release the clutch at biting point, release the handbrake and pull away a couple feet then perform this rigmarole again. Once. Twice. Then he asked me to drive on slowly.
I could sense where this was heading
The lady again leant on her horn, flashing her high beams this time. I was instructed to move ahead slowly without panicking and that's exactly what I did. "We will go slowly, why rush?!" I heard the guy chuckle in the seat next to mine.
The next two hundred feet or so were covered this way with the Innova honking behind us, much to the startled glances of passers-by.
6) At the next T-junction leading onto an even more wider road (yet not a main road - it was all a residential area) I was asked to turn left. I did, but as I was turning the corner and slight uphill gradient, I realized that the Innova wasn't directly behind on my right anymore but on my left! Thinking she'd cut me across from the left, I completed the turn, slowed down slightly and moved to the right.
Instead, she mirrored me and moved onto the right side of my Ignis and proceeded to try and cut me across. Being the non confrontational and well read (thanks again, TBHP!) teenager that I was, I'd have let the moron go,
but my instructor asked me to step on the gas.
Things get slightly hazy in memory here on. There could have been a possible tree / bikes / slight pothole on the left, a few metres away - the area was under shade - so it's tough to recall which it was, exactly.
My rational mind questioned his instruction for a fraction of a second but only until it was awoken by the roar of the 2.5D intercooler monster somewhere behind and beside me.
I gripped the steering harder and pressured the A pedal more. The Ignis kicked to life, its tiny but peppy heart churning out enough power to get me out of a possible sticky spot; or get me INTO one.
My instructor held onto the wheel suddenly, keeping it straight for the next few seconds. He let go and I slowed down, anticipating the fool behind to complete her reckless overtake. She did.
She stopped a few feet ahead and so did I. She then beckoned over another dude on the road. I feared trouble.
But she merely asked for directions, turned onto another arterial road on the right and vanished. My stop was somewhere straight up ahead, and I went about my way shaken, with the instructor telling me all the way to "have a cool head" on the road.
Luckily for the crazy lady and I myself, there were no other vehicles on the road and there was a general lull about the morning air.
Like I already said, I don't have any sort of actual evidence to raise a ticket with Bangalore police on social media (I don't use Twitter either). Only eye witness testimony. The best I could do given these facts is to spread the word among the community.
And lastly,
PB 13 Y 8919, I hope you made it home in one piece today.