[Omkar]

Thanks to the Team-BHP fan (She prefers to remain anonymous) who sent these videos and images in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing them with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page.

This is regarding the article you posted on 6th March 2024 which was then also covered by some news channels. The same incident happened with us and the police have been of no help. Please find below the exact recount of what went down with us.

The incident took place between 12.30 and 1.30 am on the 23rd of March 2024 morning. My friend and I took a DriveU on our way home from the Social JP Nagar launch. We were on our way home to HSR and the driver overtook an Auto or might have cut him off by mistake, don't clearly remember. But we can 100% ensure that we didn't touch the auto nor did we pick any fight with them or show aggression. But from near Vega City Mall, Outer Ring Road signal, crossing Silk Board, over the HSR flyover, till 27th Main crossing, they chased us.

Our driver, extremely scared, tried to outrun them, but they cornered us at the HSR 27th Main junction and hit our car from the right side to block us. They threw a beer bottle at us, which hit the rear left passenger side.

3 guys came out of the Auto to confront us. One guy picked up the stone to probably break the co-driver's side window but hit the chassis frame. Our driver had the sense to back up and immediately take a right to the HSR police station.

We lodged an NCR (Non-Cognizable Report) with the HSR police station at 2 AM. There are 3 CCTV cameras at the junction, which, according to the police, were non-functional when we went back to follow up on the process. They didn't take us seriously and were extremely lackadaisical in their approach.

We couldn't record the auto-rickshaw number plates because -

A. They were chasing us
B. There wasn't too much light
C. We just wanted to escape the situation

It's not about the damage to the car. But it's about the fact that there was an intent to harm us. There was clear obsessive aggression from them to chase us all the way from BTM Layout.

Two incidents have happened in one month! We want the lawmakers to take this seriously because tomorrow someone might genuinely get grievously injured or worse. Sadly, we didn't have a dash cam so we couldn't record anything.

On our own, we are trying to find private cameras on our route which might help us in tracking these guys and also going to file an RTI as to what cameras were there on the road during this incident and how can the HSR Police Station tell us the following -

1. The camera feed was not working (even though there are 3 cameras there) and
2. Go to Bellandur police station as this doesn't come under our jurisdiction.

We feel so helpless with our system and police when they don't take us seriously despite showing them your above article stating that this incident has happened before.

We are now scared to use any auto because you never know which one of them may turn out to be one of these thugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_ifHidyHw

[Thinking_Slow]

Can you tweet this whole incident and tag Bangalore police. Please share the tweet link here so that other members can retweet. Let's make some noise about it and force the police to look for the goons. This kind of thing is unacceptable.

[raptor_diwan]

Wondering why the police did not bother to take any action, maybe because both vehicles are yellow board and it has become very normal or they consider It's just another day in a Bangalorean's life.

They didn't take us seriously and were extremely lackadaisical in their approach.

These days, it seems the police only spring into action if the noise you make is loud enough like if you've got video evidence that goes viral on social media. Otherwise, they don't even bat an eye.

[ThunderMurukku]

Expecting Bengaluru Police to take reasonable action against auto drivers is like expecting crows to fly upside down. Auto unions/associations are one of the biggest vote banks for political parties in Bengaluru, so the police will not do anything against them.

Even if arrests are made in this city, bail is given in a couple of hours and the perps rarely see jail time for the crime they've committed. I always stay away from autos in this city (on and off the road), better to let them pass and have their egos satisfied than indulge in any form of confrontation with them.

[Burgman_tales]

Originally Posted by raptor_diwan

Wondering why the police did not bother to take any action, maybe because both vehicles are yellow board and it has become very normal or they consider It's just another day in a Bangalorean's life.

DriveU means it's a driver for hire driving your personal vehicle, I guess.

[HIGHWAY_PATROL]

It is really sad that these kind of incidents are on the rise.
I guess police officers may have brushed the case aside due to lack of clear evidence against the assailants.

The least the authorities could do is to ensure those non-functional CCTV cameras are fixed soon. Hopefully OP gets successful in the efforts to get some evidence from private cameras along the route.

Day by day, we are reaching closer to a situation where every road needs working cctv cameras to maintain law and order.

[RT13]

Originally Posted by raptor_diwan

Wondering why the police did not bother to take any action, maybe because both vehicles are yellow board

DriveU is an app where you can book a driver to drive your personal vehicle so no question of a yellow board here.

Gotta give some credit to the driver too for keeping cool and having presence of mind to drive to the police station. Been a fan of the app and their drivers for a while now and this just reinforces it.

I wonder if these cams are part of the dormant AI camera system which is yet to be commissioned. I could be wrong though.

Definitely need to install those dashcams which I’ve been putting off for a while. This city is getting less safe by the day sadly.

[raptor_diwan]

Originally Posted by RT13

DriveU is an app where you can book a driver to drive your personal vehicle so no question of a yellow board here.

Thanks for clearing that up! If that's the case, it's really negligence on the cops part. Not taking strict action and setting an example is why these things keep increasing. I hope the OP tweets about the incident and ensures that the vandals receive appropriate punishment. Even if it's a yellow board, action needs to be taken. Let's hope they take steps to control such incidents.

[sudeepg]

Originally Posted by RT13

DriveU is an app where you can book a driver to drive your personal vehicle so no question of a yellow board here.

Gotta give some credit to the driver too for keeping cool and having presence of mind to drive to the police station. Been a fan of the app and their drivers for a while now and this just reinforces it.

My experience with these apps is just the opposite. They cancel on you at the last moment. In one particular instance, the driver tried to overtake a rickshaw from the left even when there was really no space. This was near KR Puram. It was an unsafe move which ended up in a quarrel and the rickshaw driver kicking my car. It was totally the fault of the hired driver.

Since then, I have stopped using these apps (use metro, Uber, Ola etc. instead) and also stopped valets.

So don't be under the presumption that DriveU & drivers from such apps are good. It is possible in this case that he made a dangerous overtake passing closely even though the car may not have hit the rickshaw and thus triggering this incident.

Drive safe & with lots of patience in Bangalore city. No matter how much we shout in these forums, cameras will not get fixed easily, police will likely not take actions (especially if you do not speak local language). This is Bangalore and it is good for us to be aware of how things work here.

[Nalin1]

We were on our way home to HSR and the driver overtook an Auto or might have cut him off by mistake, don't clearly remember. But we can 100% ensure that we didn't touch the auto nor did we pick any fight with them or show aggression.

Take this with a truckload of salt.

[svsantosh]

Even before I opened the thread I guessed the invisible part of the thread name.

Anyways, as a childhood Bangalore resident (Hosur native, every school life weekend was spent there) and as a student of Bangalore (masters), and as a bachelor and later on a married guy with a young family & happy resident of Bangalore for 20 years~ I would still Vouch for the City. Learnt the Language and I can proudly argue for hours in Kannada with all my peers, subs and bosses. Esp after work hours

Such trivial issues are there in every part of the world and not to be taken out of context. This is no different from any road rage incident and Law should take it as a individual issue rather than paint the whole city and the local population in a wrong way.

I would still dream to retire in Bangalore, outskirts may be, when I return to India.

[mxx]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Take this with a truckload of salt.

Why?
Do you have anything to prove otherwise?
I remember another thread like this(https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...w-drivers.html (Bangalore: My car was vandalised by autorickshaw drivers)), in which eventually the comments were almost like the guy in the car deserves to be vandalized because he was driving fast and over taking - see many of the later posts. Why all this sympathy for vandals - auto drivers or otherwise?
I am surprised the "bigger vehicle is at fault" syndrome exists even in team-bhp

[supermax]

Originally Posted by mxx

Why?
Do you have anything to prove otherwise?
I remember another thread like this(https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...w-drivers.html (Bangalore: My car was vandalised by autorickshaw drivers)), in which eventually the comments were almost like the guy in the car deserves to be vandalized because he was driving fast and over taking - see many of the later posts. Why all this sympathy for vandals - auto drivers or otherwise?
I am surprised the "bigger vehicle is at fault" syndrome exists even in team-bhp

I've seen that post and the videos there. Definitely not justifying the vandalism but the guy drive like an absolute maniac and kept offering justifications and excuses for his horrendous driving. Totally not acceptable.

[giri1.8]

It's funny that members think it's okay for auto drivers to trash any rashly driven car. If general public applies the same logic and stats trashing rashly driven autos, then there would almost be no autos running in a couple of days anywhere in India.

[xotiq]

So they chased you from Vega City Mall to HSR- is that like 5+kms? Not typical of Auto's to keep driving/chasing this far, unless there was something that really provoked them.

Some questions to understand the context-

Curious why you did not drive to the nearest police station, since there are quite a few enroute in this 5kms stretch, and possibly Hoysala patrol vehicles.

Night 1230AM- not much traffic, and driving a car you can easily outrun an auto, was no effort made?. Enroute- was there any exchange of words/gestures between you and the auto?