On Tuesday night I left home a little before 10pm towards Anna Nagar. I was on 2nd Avenue, which is one of the main roads towards the city.
It was past 10pm when I was half-way on that road. The lights had gone Amber and almost everyone on the road was riding at a more than average speed. As I was coming close to the junction near the Ayyappan Temple, a car suddenly came into the main road from the right side, out of nowhere.
That was it.
In seconds, I braked as hard as possible. My car turned and then it was the bang sound I heard. The right side of my car collided directly with the left portion of the Maruti A-Star. Nothing had happened to me. I got out immediately and went to the other car. A woman was riding the other car. I checked if she was ok. She was. By that time, a huge crowd gathered. Luckily both of us did not have any injuries. My car was badly hit. The plastic bumper on the front gave in and had a huge hole. The bonnet was bent. I figured out that it was a major accident for my car. But luckily, my car was mobile. So I managed to drive it away from the spot to a place that did not affect the usual road traffic.
The Maruti A-Star was in quite a shape. The whole wheel assembly was bent. The car could not move. We had to lift the car somehow and move the wheels to a stable position before moving the car to the edge of the road.
Since, it was not peak time, there weren't too many of these unwanted interferers on the road. Most people who came to help were reasonably educated and they did not cause any trouble. Also, I kind of took charge of the whole situation and then ensured that I will manage anything going forward.
What followed afterwards for almost 3 hrs was what irritated me. By this time, my cousin and uncle reached the place. We wanted to call the police and let them know about the incident because the insurance agents usually ask for a report. The woman's family did not want to do it. I really didnt know why. They were telling that we could just leave and create individual reports from the police station. After some time, they agreed. But they wanted to write a report mentioning that the dad was riding the car and not the woman. We were wondering if there was anything fishy. We didnt care. We just said No.
Then the police came. He talked to both parties and then he told me - "the fault is on you. since she has almost come into the road, you should have stopped". I was like, "do you know what the rules are?" the fact of the matter was, the woman was crossing a main road after 10pm without even looking at whether vehicles were approaching from both sides and then I get the blame. my uncle got furious and he started blasting the police. he told them that they had no idea of the rules and they were just talking some random shit. and he was right. the guy on the main road gets the right of the road. anyone crossing has to wait, in fact, to be safe especially when the signals dont work, also flash both the indicators to show that you are crossing to the road straight across. the maruti was only 6 months old. so i got a feeling that the woman was probably inexperienced; these guys were just supporting the woman and trying to frame the case on me. or maybe they wanted to extract money.
then it was finally decided to get a police report about the collision. the report would just state the facts and it would not be any kind of complaint. by the time we did this, it was almost half past midnight.
now the other horrendous formalities have begun. estimation, insurance claims, verification etc. each one has an SLA. i went to the insurance office today and then i asked him when i should show up tomorrow. that guy says - "come after 11am". thats probably when his day starts.
anyway, the way i look at it now, it seems as if i am going to be seriously immobile for atleast a week. hopefully not more than that.
my relatives tell me - "thalaikku vanthathu thalappa oda pocchu" which means "something was targetted at the head and luckily escaped by taking only the turban"
