A Note To Auto Rickshaw Drivers

[raj_5004]

Vipul , By chance if you happen to come in Kerala ,dont even think of standing against an Auto rik driver. you and your car both will be dead corps.they have strong unions and all sorts of backup.
there was an incident about a family from pune got brushed with these auto guys for similar reasons and what ...

I have a similar incident to share -

Our driver was in my old non-CRDe Scorpio in Kerela. It was raining heavily. The car was stationary in a signal with no other cars near it. Suddenly a rick comes from behind at full speed and on seeing my stationary Scorpio, it brakes hard. Because of the braking, the auto rolls to one side, screeches for some distance & comes to a halt on it's side, near my Scorpio.

The locals there only see the tilted Scorpio, its badly injured driver & my Scorpio standing besides it. All the locals group up & surround my car which is carrying my relatives. They start pulling the doors & banging the windows. Luckily, the doors are locked, else my driver would had been beaten up for no fault of his. On advice from my uncle, the driver gave full throttle. The roar of the engine scared the people standing in front & they moved aside. On getting some space, he gave full power & fled from there.

After some distance, there was a police station on the highway. They headed for the police station. As soon as they halted at the police station to report this, some group of locals came from behind in an Indica. They were shouting at my relatives that you have injured a rick driver & fled, so come back to the scene. My uncle simple asked them, "did you see the accident happen? Who are you to ask all this? We will report everything to the Police. You mind your business!".

They had actually come with an intention of making some money out of this but they saw that nothing is working, so they left. The car was impounded by the Police for a day. Our car had a dent on the front guard which raised suspicion. We knew a senior official & asked him to intervene. He came to the accident site & one shop owner (eye witness) informed him that our car was not involved in the accident. Case closed.

Point is that, Kerela locals are a bunch of rowdys & morons. No offense to all my Kerelite brothers, but its a fact. They have no road manners. And they have no sense. The above incident is a good example. And such incidents happen every day in GOD's OWN COUNTRY.

 

[jihu123]

In kerala, its quite crazy. No use telling! They have a very strong union. Its hard to go against them.

There was a incident a few months back.
My father was driving our car in about 60kmph. Our car was around 1 month old at that time I guess. While we were going at 60kmph, suddenly an auto came from the left side through a cut road. I don't know from where he had learned driving. He wasn't even tilting his head to check whether any car was coming nor slowed down nor honked. For god's sake, we applied the brakes in time with a screech & tilted the steering to the right to avoid collision. My father got pissed off & rolled down the windows and said: "You came from home to die or what!". And that jerk replied smiling: "Yeah!".
After saying that, he just flew off!

 

[TSIVipul]

After reading all this,I think we people are in the best situation.Here in Meerut if any rick driver makes a fault,dents your car or causes any problem then what you need to do is just stop him,come out of your car and give him a lesson.Other rick drivers will stop to ask what happened and leave,no one will intervene.But take care,don't you dare to touch them for no reason else they will beat the hell out of you.

One incident faced by a friend:
Friend's Honda city was brushed by a rick at a place and the rick moves towards byepass without stopping.Friend followed the rick and stopped it after covering a small distance.Finding him alone the rick driver and one more guy hit the friend and left the spot.Friend called us and handed over the number of the rick to us.
After about 2 hours we caught the rick parked at one auto-rick parking waiting for its turn to come(this is called fighting crocodile in the pond)I,my friend and two more guys just pointed out the driver and without thinking even once I went to the driver,caught him and brought him to the car.Made a police call and gave two very tight hands to the rick driver.His fellow drivers came to help him but then I simply said "Police is coming" and they just watched the driver getting body massage at the place.After that we handed him over to the police and made the rick owner cough up the City's denting cost too.

Overall I can say,these people can't do anything whatever type of union they have,just what you need to be is "DABANGG",have some relations with some officials,one weapon and always remember "THE ONE WHO HITS FIRST ALWAYS WIN,BECAUSE BEFORE THE SECOND PERSON HITS,THE RESCUERS COME IN THE SCENE"..

 

[TSIVipul]

Here is one of the reasons why auto-rick drivers are not that arrogant here in north:-
Auto driver beaten to death for scratch on car..
This is the reason in the midnight all sort of vehicle drivers from bikers to bus/truck drivers are scared of the occupants of cars..

 

[jihu123]

After reading all this,I think we people are in the best situation.Here in Meerut if any rick driver makes a fault,dents your car or causes any problem then what you need to do is just stop him,come out of your car and give him a lesson.Other rick drivers will stop to ask what happened and leave,no one will intervene.But take care,don't you dare to touch them for no reason else they will beat the hell out of you.

In kerala, if your car got hit by an auto or any other vehicle. Everyone in the streets will come on to the accident spot & support each driver. Then, the people will be the one who would be fighting with each other & don't even allow the drivers to talk.

Overall I can say,these people can't do anything whatever type of union they have,just what you need to be is "DABANGG",have some relations with some officials,one weapon and always remember "THE ONE WHO HITS FIRST ALWAYS WIN,BECAUSE BEFORE THE SECOND PERSON HITS,THE RESCUERS COME IN THE SCENE"..

In India, relations with some high ranked officials is very much a necessary

 

[Prads]

Well i guess if people are driving for long enough in a city like Bangalore or other major cities you can write novels about auto drivers good & bad,i get stunned when i see some using indicators & in most cases its just left on by mistake & it keeps blinking,
i have had to swerve just cos auto drivers start & dont look they just pull a u-turn
& dont give way & force you to follow even with empty stretches in front of them,am sure many of you face this.

But as valid as Raj's & other members points are! they sadly wont reach the auto drivers & make a slight difference but this thread is an education on what to look out for on our roads.

Anyways this reminds me of a funny but true song i heard in Kannada in 2008,so i guess people who understand Kannada can watch this video
Auto Soori - YouTube

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

@ raj , you make me frightened to visit kerala.

On the other hand , i found kerala auto is damn cheapest. in kms wise.
in Pondicherry a just 3 to 4 kms ride [may be 6 to 8 for auto to return to same place ] is charged somewhere hight above 60/-
But in chennai i found it somewere near 40/- for almost 10 kms [20 kms for auto to return]

On other hand fares were as low as 5 to 7/- in kerala for a ride.

Kerala is said high on literacy , but your statement of autowala's is damn fearing.

Practically any one[if needed] could fight in his own town/city but not in other states!

 

[jalex]

@ raj , you make me frightened to visit kerala.

On the other hand , i found kerala auto is damn cheapest. in kms wise.
in Pondicherry a just 3 to 4 kms ride [may be 6 to 8 for auto to return to same place ] is charged somewhere hight above 60/-
But in chennai i found it somewere near 40/- for almost 10 kms [20 kms for auto to return]

On other hand fares were as low as 5 to 7/- in kerala for a ride.

Kerala is said high on literacy , but your statement of autowala's is damn fearing.

Practically any one[if needed] could fight in his own town/city but not in other states!

Raj has just said a few things about them. These guys are not be messed with when here. They are backed by politicians and are sort of untouchable by law.

Just a few instances that happened here in my town and that I recall.


1: An auto driver was caught and fined by the police while talking on his cell phone while driving.

The auto drivers unions all combined, went on a sudden strike and sat down in protest, blocking a main road at rush hour in the evening. School buses, people going home after work and everyone else on the road got stuck for hours. The cops did not do anything cause probably the politicians dont want to make themselves look bad. Later on the auto driver was given back the fine he paid and the case against him was withdrawn.

When I came home that evening and tuned into the local news channel, I was astonished to hear an auto union leader say this about the incident, "This is an act against the right of a poor auto driver to work and make a living, How will an auto driver take fares of people who call him on the phone, if he is not allowed to use his phone?. Auto drivers are people who do social service round the clock and these kind of torture from the police will not be tolerated"

2: A friend of mine wanted to visit a shop and wanted to park his car.

Since there was no parking spot anywhere else, he parked it across the street. When he returned he saw that his car was literally held hostage by some auto drivers. They had parked their autos all around his car making it impossible for him to move an inch.

When he said that he wanted to leave and so could they please move their autos, They told him, "Dont you know that this is our auto stand? You think you are so smart?". My friend said he did not realize that it was an auto stand. The auto stand was illegal and the autos were parked on the wrong side of the road and there was a flag pole, again illegally erected by them on a public road to denote that they own the place.

My friend told them that he wont ever park the car there and so could they please let him go. Now they moved the autos a little so that he could leave with some 8 point turns. Now my friend was very good with mirrors and so he started to get the car out. He backed the car to less than an inch's distance from the autos with each maneuver.

The auto drivers never thought he could get away from there and pissed off by then, they started shouting at him with things like, "Touch any of the autos and you will be taught a good lesson." My friend somehow got away from there. He was also alone against an unruly dozen of them. While he was leaving the auto drivers howled and hurled abuses at him on the top of their voices. And this happened in the middle of town at 10:00 A.M.

So I hope you understand how things are with auto dudes here.

 

[mukeshus]

Well during my visit to Kerala there was no such instances.

But an ididotic biker was going middle of the road, even when the left lane was emptier, our other car Xing of cousin was not at all allowed to move forward.
So my cousin honked ,for that reason he was following the car it seems for 15 minutes.

Hawk was stopped for fruits, the Xing was ahead of us, probably a km & half far.

A call came and soon i was behind the biker, when i honked and overtook him he just stopped following.
He must have thought i can't meddle with them no more.
I escorted Xing for the next 5 kms and there was no problem at all.

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Reading jalex post , i feel its mainly the idiotic politicians whom support.

if cases throughout the country are taken as reference , and if i am caught for taking in phone , could i use this "kerala auto fine" as eg?

Dump politicians and the rules.

The auto driver must be made to pay 100% more fine and those idiotic people who supports talking in phone while driving also must be punished.

 

[autosafari]

Reading this thread give a feeling that auto rikshaws are the only bad guys in our roads.

Auto drivers do create nuisance.

All vehicles - Two wheelers, SUV/UVs, hatchbacks, sedans, tipper trucks, water tankers - are creating trouble in road. Its the driver's attitude, arrogance, lack of road sense and lack of common sense.

Here in my place, cars are creating more nuisance in week ends.

- Stopping suddenly in the middle of the road.
- turn (right side)without any signals
- Take quick u turns in the main road with out bothering about other vehicles.
- Drive while talking on mobile phones and forget that they are on a road
- Stop the car where ever they like and open the doors without bothering about other vehicles or pedestrians.
- park on wrong sides and that too in junctions and block other vehicles
- Just drive to main road from side roads and parking spaces with out considering other vehicles and they don't bother to see the RVM.
- In an already narrow road, park the car just opposite to another car which is already parked on the other side.

Bikes are real menace here.

 

[kenlitting]

ape autos with high torque but less speed a menace to car drivers

I really feel irritated on seeing an ape diesel auto passing through the centre of the road not allowing us car drivers to overtake other ahead vehicles .Neither he can overtake as his auto has less speed but high torque so greater load bearing but he never gives road for us to overtake though he cant. This is seen widely in kerala

 

[dharmesh]

Re: ape autos with high torque but less speed a menace to car drivers

Hi kenlitting, I can understand your frustration. I go through the same daily.

But what is the aim or context of the thread?

 

[kenlitting]

Re: ape autos with high torque but less speed a menace to car drivers

Hi kenlitting, I can understand your frustration. I go through the same daily.

But what is the aim or context of the thread?

Cant they design faster fuel efficient crdi engine for diesel autos.see even tyre tread wear is , more for these autos

 

[dharmesh]

Re: ape autos with high torque but less speed a menace to car drivers

^^ But better engine will require further R&D and then will incur most cost . So eventually Rickshaws will become more costly and indirectly the cost will be imposed on the end user, that's us. Instead of developing better engines, I recommend to to teach the Auot rickshaw guys some road manners and rule should be passed as rickshows not allowed in 1st and 2nd lane.