A road altercation in Gurugram, a suburb of New Delhi, went viral last week after a 27-year-old female biker was allegedly chased and hit by a car. The two sides gave differing accounts of the initial dispute, with the car driver telling Indian media that the group of bikers overtook his car and slowed down in front of it. In turn, the motorcycle rider, Shivani Chauhan, said the car was following her and the argument started when she asked the people inside to keep a safe distance.
Chauhan's motorcycle-mounted camera shows the car hitting her from the side and them speeding away as she falls and rolls on the road. "I could have suffered serious fractures or internal injuries and even died. Due to such people, the roads of Gurugram and Delhi feel unsafe," Chauhan was quoted as saying by Indian news outlets.
According to reports, the driver claims that he lost control of his vehicle and left the scene because he feared reprisals from the biker group. Police have since arrested the driver on charges including attempted murder and stalking. The case was only the latest example of how quickly a dispute on India's increasingly crowded roads can turn violent.
In March in Hassan, in the southern Karnataka state, young men reportedly shouted at the driver of a Toyota Fortuner SUV to slow down. Police said the driver turned the vehicle around and rammed the group, killing one man and seriously injuring three others. In the northern city of Dehradun that month, an argument over giving way between two SUVs, a Toyota Fortuner and a Mahindra Scorpio, escalated into a chase and gunfire.
The altercation cost the life of one man, a retired Army brigadier Mukesh Joshi, who was not involved in the initial dispute. "The occupants of the Scorpio waited outside the club till early morning and then chased the Fortuner. During the firing, the brigadier, who was out on a morning walk, was hit by a bullet in the chest," said senior superintendent of police Pramendra Dobhal.
Concerns over road safety prompted the administration of Daman, a small coastal town north of Mumbai, to take an unusual step. On September 9, officials gathered owners of Mahindra Thar and Toyota Fortuner SUVs and made them take a public road safety pledge. District Collector Saurabh Mishra, the district's top administrator, warned that these kinds of larger vehicles should not be used to intimidate others or display power.
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