Car Accident - India - What to do?

It seems to be a period of unwanted tension & loss.

I had a recent car accident with an ambassador - tourist. At the Nungambakkam signal @ abt 10 kms per hr during rush hour traffic. The tourist car was at fault and his minor scratch on his car due to his rash driving translated in heavily scratched & dented left panel and mud guard for me. The reckless driver's sudden lane change without signalling and aggressive driving tactics left me very little choice to escape.

I went to the Police station and everything / reports were given in my favor. But I did not take a written statement from the driver stating his fault. That turned out to be my mistake.

I was unable to collect on 3rd party insurance due to this small fact. (In US, it is treated differently where the police statement is the final word.)

Car Accident - Not my fault!

Lessons Learnt:
1. Call the cops for report
2. Inform sequence which led to the crash.
3. Show proof.
4. Take photos with you mobile camera of angle of crash, your car and his car
5. At police station, you provide your
(i) Driving license
(ii) Insurance
(iii) Registration
6. Signed statement from police of what happened. / FIR ( If you opt for FIR, the police will detain your car at the police station quoting that it has to compulsorily go for a brake test. Unless your car is damaged beyond use, do not go for this option. It is a test of endurance and you will end up going back and forth between police station. RTO Office and other places as instructed. This could be a point of collection also. You may end up losing more.)
7. Take an original copy of the report from the police.
8. Get a signed letter from the defaulted party that it is his fault and that his insurance company is responsible (I did not do this step alone)
9. Get a copy of his DL, Insurance certificate & Registration.
10. Call his insurance company and submit the data collected. (Take a personal copy first)
11. His insurance company will pay after verification.
12. You can give your car to the service center for evaluvation of damage.
13. Work to an amicable figure which is accepted by the insurance personnel and also the repair person.
14. Your No claim Bonus is intact!!!

In US, if you make a 3rd party claim through your insurance, they in turn will collect moneys from the offending party's insurance and your insurance stays intact. This facility is not available in India!!

My insurance company in India also quoted something like knock for knock policy. In a group of insurance companies, this translates to each insurance company paying for their insured car.
But in the consumer angle, you can still collect from the offending party insurance. (Though in the payment process, external to you, will be made by your company only)

Without a driver attestation owing responsibility for the car accident, you will be left in a lurch and you will have to file a legal case with a lawyer/attorney. That will translate to 5-10 years for settlement. That also translates you to many trips to the court and loss of work time.

Why should "we" the non defaulting party bear the loss?

When are the Indian Insurance companies going to adapt some of the right ethics from their counter parts in US?

My Bike is Stolen

My new bike purchased on 7th June 2006, hardly 4 months old / Apache (Red) has beeen stolen from my house compound. It has run only 2500 kms and just finished the second service.

Sequence of events: I left my motorbike within the compound wall of our apartments near the doctors house (Ground Floor) at 7:15pm on 10/10/2006. After that I had gone to my house on the first floor. I had locked the bike. I noticed the theft only in the morning on 11/10/2006 at 7:15am. A boy who comes to clean my bike informed me that there was no bike. I came down and searched but could not find the bike. I noticed some tire marks as if the bike had been dragged. When I had enquired with the persons staying on the ground floor (the doctors), they informed me that they had seen the bike at 10:30pm on 10/10/2006 when they had come home. So, I deducted that the bike has been stolen between 10:30 pm on 10/10/2006 and 7:15am on 11/10/2006. Verbally I had informed the police that I heard a siren, their blue brigade patrol at around 12:15am on 11/10/2006. There is higher probability for the theft to occur between 12:15am on 11/10/2006 to 6:00am on 11/10/2006, as there will be people movement in my area after 6:00am.

Yes, I do miss my stolen bike but the process after is more hurting. I found that my bike was under insured with ICICI Lombard and the IDV is mentioned as Rs. 49,875. I paid Rs. 61,500 for my bike, which includes special number for Rs.2500, and electric start. The insurance paper mentions it as kick start. And even if there's an insurance pay back, it is Rs.12000 less.

I have filed the FIR and filed for insurance claim. But this process will extend from a period of 2-3 months. What am I supposed to do for another 3 months ? I do not have any extra bike or scooter and neither can I buy a new one assuming that my bike will not be found.

I am following it through some known police officers, but they have not given me hope. They informed me that after stealing within that day, the bike is dis assembled and sold as parts. (I just hope that nothing like that has happened and hope that I will get my bike whole as on the day it was stolen.) The police officers at the police station have a bored look. They do not care at all.
I have borrowed my dad's bike temporarily, but it has given me such a bad back, that I do not want to use this device. It is going to be be long frustrating weeks with "Nataraja" service and Auto haggling.

All I wish is there some RFID device that I could hide into my bike which has a battery life of 1 year and a traceability area of 3-5 sq kms. If it is cost effective, then all these thefts will be passe. The police could trace all vehicles sitting in one location (A manufacturer site) With improvements, this tag can provide a better version and linking this with vehilcles will provide a maximum deterrent to theft, not only in India but also all over the world.

Any body else thinking along my lines ?

Air Deccan's 3 for 3 - Good Deal or Raw Deal ?

Is this deal a good deal? What is the hidden agenda? What are the hidden processes ? Please find below a full blown discovery! My mail to Airdeccan and I received only 2 bot mails so far " We received your mail, we will get back to you" kind. I have not seen such callous attitude to the customer queries. Any body else feel like having received the same raw deal ?

To: feedback@airdeccan.net

Dear Customer Care,

I was surprised to find that the refund of Rs.2784/- towards the trip from Chennai to Delhi has been credited back to my account at ICICI bank contained the PNR NUMBER!

(26/08/2006 AIRDECCAN RFND-PRN Cr 2,784.00)

Whereas you had refuted my query with you on several attempts by telephone and also in person, (between 24th August 2006 to 25th August 2006) by informed me that the PNR number had not been generated and so my ticket from Chennai to Delhi would be cancelled.

I had booked the ticket for 3 persons namely:

for 10th November 2006, from Chennai to Delhi by AirDeccan Flight DN639 through my ICICI bank account on 23rd August 2006 and my account had been debited for the same.

(23/08/2006 Dr 2,784.00)

This was purchased under your special scheme for Rs.3 for 3 lakh tickets. When I did not get a confirmation mail even after 3 hours, I had called up the customer care (should I say, “customer don’t care!”). After 45 minutes and 20 attempts, I was able to get hold of a “live person”. He informed me that the PNR number was not generated and the money would be refunded. This was confirmed by one more staff at your “ Whites Road ” office, where I had gone personally. (BTW, did you know that a girl appointed by you at the reception knows only this sentence “Call up customer care, I cannot help you”. My question to you – What is she there for and why does she has such a bad attitude?) The other “boy” at the reception was able to connect me with his manager inside the room. Only the manager present in the office was more kind (?) and informed me that the PNR number was not generated and so my ticket would be cancelled. He had confirmed this information to me, when your staff at the reception mentioned to me that the server was down. He maintained the same stance from my entry at about 11:30 am to my exit at about 12:15 pm. From where this manager was able to pull this information with the servers down, I don’t know! Must be magic!!! (The staff at the reception gave this reply to persons who wanted to book tickets. 2 persons were waiting for over 2 hours for the booking.)

I had also booked the return ticket (from Delhi to Chennai) on the same day after I had booked this ticket and have been awarded the same. So, please do not raise the issue that I could have booked later on.

This cancellation reflects to unfair trade practices and cheating of customers through one of the below mentioned techniques:

Unfair Trade Practice 1: (Staff)
I believe your staffs have been canceling tickets so that they can award themselves with the tickets. This has come to light because the cancellation of the ticket contains a PNR number which your staff informed me that a number had not been generated.

Unfair Trade Practice 2: (Company)
The system/staff (on instructions from the company) have automatically cancelled the ticket to Delhi for the same family since AirDeccan would want the family to purchase tickets one way. If so, you should have specifically have provided this information on your web site / advertisement failing which it becomes a plain case of cheating.

Please provide me a fair deal.

Coimbatore is Interesting !

My first visit to the Coimbatore. I went to this Marutha Malai temple dedicated to Lord Muruga. Boy was I surprised on the ATTITUDE of the priests there. We had purchased 4 archana tickets (Rs 2 each) and they would not recite more than one name per ticket and specifically said that they would not say!!!! (In contrast I was thinking about our own Kabali temple in Mylapore, u could tell them a dozen names and they would mention all tose names before the lord). Maybe they should have put a board out there in Marutha Malai...mentioning this fact !!!

When I am spending in thousands to go there, what is a few rupees more ????

Basically I am surprised that such persons with such negative attitude should be near the Lord !!!
A warning to those who want to go to this temple...do buy tickets for archanai for the number of individuals you would want them to repeat ...

The other fact was that they did not place any of the items before the Lord...they rather brought all the items outside and just redistributed...to the persons who had given them. My Chitti & Mom were one surprised lot.

Other than that we went down to visit the cave where the Paambatti Siddhar was placed. The whole place there is very beautiful to look at.

After that we went on a visit to Perks Matriculation School which has an exact replica of the Great Pyramid. Meditated inside it for a while and also purchased a small replica of it.

A funny thing happened...I kept my cellphone full charged near the pyramid...this morning my batteries were empty...and it has shut off...maybe I might have to re-experiment...I don't know how it has happened !