The Hindu Business Line : An evening with the PM and his dreams

Story so far: A minor road accident on the way to office causes traffic hold-up for commuters. Too predictably, the motorists involved got on to a wordy duel. I wonder if it is just one more pointless exercise to fix blame.

Episode 83

Are we mentally equipped enough to handle mini-collisions on roads? For that question there are energetic responses.

"Hi, I am new to Gulf," writes A. Giridhar, Business Analyst, Gulf Warranties, Dubai. "But what I have seen is that as soon as the accident happens, the commuters don't abuse each other, they just call a much publicised police hotline number. The cop arrives in a bike, inspects the damage (the vehicles can be moved to a service lane) and issues two tickets (different coloured) — one for the offender and one for the affected. Only with this ticket will ANY car repair shop undertake work." Looks like it is so easy to spot who the offender is with a bit of cop intervention.

"If its subway or a busy round-about, the commuters can later on go to the nearest police station and register the FIR. In country like ours, it is difficult to put traffic police everywhere, so its better to have private channels handle this part (for a fee, like a recovery van) and only refer to the police in case of a dispute." Good suggestion that I can try sounding to the city police.

"I think as our generation is becoming tech savvy we are more confused and a lot more busier than our older generations. All this has only added to our frustration. Nowadays our minds are more filled with software programs, financial plans, workplace issues and a lot many probs. So I think our fathers and grandfathers were better equipped in dealing with such issues," writes Vishal, sounding quite diffident about facing street tussles.

"Dear Swati," writes Kamal Anil Kapadia, a CA from Mumbai. "Driving a car, especially in Mumbai, is not just time consuming or exhausting but frustrating. Abusing is what one has to learn at every point of time from driving in Mumbai! Lane discipline is never observed and left overtaking is always done. Small accidents are fussed upon and roads get blocked. "One does not understand why people do not go to insurance companies and claim the amounts, but one should also see the operational part of the same. One needs to fill up forms and then follow up for the claim money; you need to get the surveyor to the spot of accident and also make a police complaint (FIR) about the accident. One should think practically before complaining about one's attitude towards people fighting on the road; it's better than to fight the insurance company!" So, the one who wins the argument on the road will get the money from the other? I doubt.

"Hi, it's really worthwhile pondering this issue," writes Rajesh Padmanabhan from Colombo. "Such small damages should be dealt across the board itself. I can tell you what's happening in Sri Lanka. Here we have two insurance companies dealing with motor accidents where the claims are assessed and settled on the spot. No police cases, no accident records. The only thing is that we should take the policies with such companies. Estimate is done on the spot and cheque is issued. I have personally experienced this. The procedure is very simple Swati, even if you meet with an accident in the busiest of roads. All you got to do is call the insurance company and inform him of the spot of the accident and the policy number. If its Colombo, the assessor lands in 10-30 minutes; outskirts, it takes one hour. "The accident spot is marked on the road and the vehicles are put aside or towed to safer locations so as to avoid traffic diversion. Even if the accident is a major one, this procedure is adopted and the injured are immediately moved to hospital. Then it becomes a police case. Even then, the on-the-spot claim is ensured. Hence in this case, we should have such policies and then people should exchange visiting cards and then sort it out. The injured man should be attended (very much lacking). Out in Sri Lanka we don't allow such things to happen. Immediately first aid is given; if needed he is moved to a national hospital, admitted to the ward and then the case is registered, if at all. There are lot of things one can learn from this country on such things." Useful inputs Rajesh. I'm sure our cop and insurance friends would be reading this.

"Dear Ms Swati, (assumed from the name u should be a woman, unless u belong to the class of our Tamil writers who have a woman's penname)," writes Radhakrishnan. Your assumption is right, and I'm no Tamil writer. "Well immediately after an accident, we lose our mental cool invariably and the natural instinct is to pick a fight. I feel this is a natural behaviour. A psychiatrist can explain better. The accident u referred is not a minor one — fender, bumper and windshield are damaged. I think the repair cost could be Rs 8,000. Talking of insurance, then as per rules u should not remove the vehicle from the accident spot.

"Second, the FIR has to be made. You know better about the policemen. Third, the insurance company will not fully reimburse. They compulsorily deduct Rs 500, plus depreciation cost and cost for painting and so on. On top of it u are not eligible for `no claim bonus' next year, which can be anywhere between Rs 2,000-5,000 depending upon what bracket u are. Instead of going thru all this, is it not better to take it from the person who made the mistake? Well in ur illustration the cyclist is to blame. So better we have to curse our fate and go?

"One more thing, when an accident happens one is really blinded to surroundings. On accidents again, have u seen victims of accident who are not attended in spite of lot of people around?" Are they all waiting for somebody to take some initiative? There are a few more mails on the topic, and I'd take them up next week.

*********

On Thursday evening, I trashed a movie ticket to sit and listen to the PM addressing the nation on TV. I doubt if many CAs and executives did that, but the man-who-didn't-want-to-be-king spoke of a single market for manufactured and agri-products, energy policy package, and a `new deal' for rural India. New centres of excellence in agriculture as in tech and management, he mentioned, and I began imagining how such a thing would be.

How far do you think will Manmohan's dream ideas work out in practice? Send in your thoughts by Friday.

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

For archived episodes of this column click on: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/nic/swati/index.htm

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Nine out of ten did not move up the CA chain

Not all company contracts require government approval

TDS worry before dollars go to our man in Saudi

An evening with the PM and his dreams

Predict the winner

Not all knowledge workers are talents

Try some math before the noose falls

Sticklish Issues

Cartoon