Angry bus driver smashes my Slavia's ORVM & runs off; Polite owner pays

The bus owner was very polite, had no air of roughness or hotheadedness, like that of his driver. He agreed to pay for the damages.

BHPian Mitadru recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Never thought I would have to narrate my own incident in this thread, but alas, things don't always go as they are planned. Anyway. here it goes.

So yesterday we were travelling towards the Kolkata Airport, cause my mom has her chamber there and I would go to pick my brother from school in Newtown, after dropping her. Our driver was driving at decent speed. However near the crossing of Laketown, a bus after overtaking 2 or some more buses, lined up beside our car. He was in the left lane and we were in the middle lane when the driver gave the hand signal of taking the middle lane. At the same time, a delivery van was trying to overtake us from the right side. Our driver had slowed down the car, when the bus suddenly accelerated, tearing off our left side Orvm.

My driver was incensed, because despite us slowing down, the bus tore apart the mirror. So we gave the bus a chase, and stopped it.

After this the story took a turn for the worse. The bus driver was unfazed after damaging our car, and instead of apologizing, started showing his true colours. He started threatening us, and warned us that he will damage our car more, if we didn't leave his way. Since the intersection is a busy one, the traffic police came to see what the commotion was about. By that time, my Mom and I had also got down from our car. On seeing the police, instead of getting down, the bus driver undertook a dangerous manoeuver of overtaking. I swear by god, that if it wasn't for my mother's quick thinking, we would have been runover by the bus. My mother had got a slight bruise on her leg because a part of the bus had hit her.

The traffic police asked us for the number of the bus, and we gave it to him. He told that he would ask the police at the Keshtopur crossing to flag down the vehicle. In the meanwhile, we contacted an acquaintance of ours, who's an officer at Kolkata Police. He gave us two options. Either we continue chasing the vehicle, or we return to Laketown police station, and file an NCR( No casualty report). Then they would look into the matter. Those who're familiar with the place, will know, that there are two options to go towards the Kolkata Airport from Keshtopur crossing. Either you take the bridge, or you go from the main road below. Usually we take the bridge, but yesterday, we decided to go through the main road, in an effort to catch the culprit bus driver.

After around 10 minutes, we managed to locate the bus, and again gave him the chase. This time we got a close look at it. The bus had no conductor, there was only one female passenger, and the bus driver was driving at reckless speeds. We asked him to slow down and pull over. Instead of doing that, he undertook some dangerous manoeuvres in an effort to lose us, while constantly threatening and hurling abuses at us. After dropping off the passenger, he took a sharp U turn and started going towards Laketown.

We again contacted this police officer, and he asked us to follow the bus and not chase it. He told us that he would try to arrange for a flag down near Laketown, if the bus was travelling in that direction. He however stopped at the bus stand, and got off the bus. We also stopped at the stand. On seeing us he started abusing us, and then tried to reason with us saying that the ORVM is a part which is meant to be broken, our driver was overtaking, there was no police flagging down the vehicle and all those bullshit. Before the matter escalated, a police car which was patrolling nearby, came to the scene. We explained our predicament to them. They, then called the owner of the bus. The guy arrived in a scooter within 5 minutes. We narrated the whole ordeal to this guy.

From now, things took an interesting turn. The bus owner was very polite, had no air of roughness or hotheadedness, like that of his driver. He agreed to pay for the damages. He asked us to take the car to one of his friends' workshop, where he would repair it free of cost. We refused, and said that we would service it at the Skoda ASC itself. He apologised for the drivers' behaviour. We understood that the drivers' audacity was a bit political as well. First of all, he isn't a regular driver (supposedly), and his regular guy is on holiday. The driver we encountered was a guy who was affiliated to a union of the ruling political party of WB. The owner (supposedly) is forced to hire this guy once a week, or the union will not let his bus ply on the road.

All this resulted in my Mom getting late for her chamber, and my brother having to wait for around half an hour after the dispersal at school.

I hope that moron has learnt a lesson yesterday, and would think twice before trying to even drive recklessly.

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