Sad demise of our friend Ashok

[Kiran Tusker]

Dear bikers

One of our beloved friends Ashok Kumar (team Veloscope) has passed away, he was training in Munnar. Ashok was a good friend to us and most importantly a wonderful human being.

He will be deeply missed😔

[Karthikeyan B]

Tragedy it is. Praying for Strength to his family !

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Tusker

Sent from my iPhone

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[Jagannath Moorthy]

Such a sad and tragic news. Praying for the family to have strength in these trying times. 

[Vinay Rao]

This is so tragic at so many levels. Thoughts go out to his wife and children.

Accidents are a public health problem. But efforts at minimising their occurrence or at injury control are retarded by a preoccupation with blame. We can't (and shouldn't) ban cars, just like we can't ban/ eradicate mosquitoes. But vehicles are the vector in an accident. We must wear helmets, but we must also demand/ urge the auto industry and the regulatory bodies to introduce retrofits for forward collision alarms, or better still for autonomous emergency braking. 

1 person is killed every 3 minutes on the roads in India. That's a 150,000 families whose lives change forever, and another 150,000 who live with the guilt of bringing another down. Don't know how much bigger this problem has to become before we start to see a change. 

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Tusker

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Cheers
Vinay

[Jayaprakash E]

Sad incident. May god give strength to his family.

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

There is a lot of discussions on this incident on FB. And most of it pretty critical of his wife. Many of these comments have tagged Ashok as well. At this point , it may be a little inappropriate to talk about distractions while driving, or about the incident in detail , etc.

Might end up increasing the trauma of the wife. 

On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 12:27 PM, Jayaprakash E <jaya...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sad incident. May god give strength to his family.

[murali hr]

Agree...

[Prashanth Chengi]

While tagging Ashok or naming his wife would be deeply wrong, I really hope this incident causes discussions of the right kind. All too often, we ignore safety and commonsense, and sweep everything under the carpet, thinking accidents and bad things only happen to somebody else; the reality only hits home when that somebody else is someone we know personally. 

We don't need to wait for laws to be framed, to ban children in the front seat or to force us to wear seatbelts. We owe it to our families and we owe it to ourselves, to do that much. I saw many people on facebook, under the guise of showing solidarity with Ashok's wife, claiming there was nothing wrong with having unsecured kids in the front seat, and that they themselves grew up in in the same way etc etc. This is bullshit.  Just because our guardian angels were working overtime to keep us alive, we can't ignore or discourage commonsense. 

While Ashok's death is deeply tragic and unfortunate, I hope his untimely demise sparks some good discussion. Even if a small number of people, say a 100 parents realize and vow to never allow their children in the front seat, or to remain seated in the backseat, without a seatbelt or child-seat, it would make a big difference, and Ashok's death would probably have not gone in vain. 

Let's not do our regular thing and sweep all manners of mistakes under the carpet. In fact, lets make it a mission to raise awareness about this issue, even if we don't explicitly take his name (to prevent grief to his loved ones). This is the least that we can do, to a fellow biker.

/Prashanth

[Opendro]

No words to say! Really sad. Before I read the news, I was thinking of some crazy driver hitting a biker or a biker losing control in a hair pin or something like that.

Children in the front seat is an absolute NO which I had practiced from my first car 13 years ago. Small kid to be fastened in child seat in the back, even if mother is not there in the car. I developed this habit because I loved driving fast. But I continued the habit even in city traffic. I cannot comment on others, but I can speak of myself. I would hold myself responsible if I couldn't enforce some basic safety measures in the car. It is often the father who drives the car on more regular basis and it is the father who should be responsible for enforcing this discipline. No point blaming the mother who happens to drive once in a while.

Apologies if I sounded cruel. But some points are driven more effective in bad times. So, I agree with Prashanth on not keeping the matter under the carpet. I meant this post for the rest of us. I hope, the victim's family does not read this as it is already too late for that.

On Tuesday, May 2, 2017 at 12:15:19 PM UTC+5:30, Prashanth Chengi wrote:

While tagging Ashok or naming his wife would be deeply wrong, I really hope this incident causes discussions of the right kind. All too often, we ignore safety and commonsense, and sweep everything under the carpet, thinking accidents and bad things only happen to somebody else; the reality only hits home when that somebody else is someone we know personally. 

We don't need to wait for laws to be framed, to ban children in the front seat or to force us to wear seatbelts. We owe it to our families and we owe it to ourselves, to do that much. I saw many people on facebook, under the guise of showing solidarity with Ashok's wife, claiming there was nothing wrong with having unsecured kids in the front seat, and that they themselves grew up in in the same way etc etc. This is bullshit.  Just because our guardian angels were working overtime to keep us alive, we can't ignore or discourage commonsense. 

While Ashok's death is deeply tragic and unfortunate, I hope his untimely demise sparks some good discussion. Even if a small number of people, say a 100 parents realize and vow to never allow their children in the front seat, or to remain seated in the backseat, without a seatbelt or child-seat, it would make a big difference, and Ashok's death would probably have not gone in vain. 

Let's not do our regular thing and sweep all manners of mistakes under the carpet. In fact, lets make it a mission to raise awareness about this issue, even if we don't explicitly take his name (to prevent grief to his loved ones). This is the least that we can do, to a fellow biker.

/Prashanth

On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 7:57 AM, murali hr <murali...@gmail.com> wrote:

Agree...

On 02-May-2017 11:16 AM, "Chidambaran Subramanian" <chi...@gmail.com> wrote:

There is a lot of discussions on this incident on FB. And most of it pretty critical of his wife. Many of these comments have tagged Ashok as well. At this point , it may be a little inappropriate to talk about distractions while driving, or about the incident in detail , etc.

Might end up increasing the trauma of the wife. 

On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 12:27 PM, Jayaprakash E <jaya...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sad incident. May god give strength to his family.

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[Opendro]

I have been trying to find out if this is Ashok Kumar S (s.a...@gmail.com), whom I was supposed to call today as per the plan (his last email dated Friday, 28th). My fear seems to have turned true.

I was shocked till morning. I'm really disturbed now. We used to exchange emails even at personal inbox on cycling things though I never got to meet him except in the Kottai Express 200k brevet. We two were a companion in suffering in that ride and we fondly remember each other for that day. We even exchanged few plans together in the past which didn't bear fruit. We used to dream of some big rides together at times. I wish we could change the events for that fateful Friday!

I'm going to miss you on this earth, dear friend Ashok. Many like me will miss you.

Rest in peace!

[vivek]

I just read the post that his friend Anup had posted. Ashok seemed to take safety measures all the time. So I wonder how did he allow children in the front seat. It may well have been that 0.1% of the time that he overlooked safety and that proved to be fatal.

Also seems like he fell on his own, not the car hitting him. A cleated fall is a high possibility given he was on a steep section. People who do climbs cleated please put you suggestions on extra precautions to take.

Regards,

Vivek

On Tuesday, 2 May 2017 12:15:19 UTC+5:30, Prashanth Chengi wrote:

While tagging Ashok or naming his wife would be deeply wrong, I really hope this incident causes discussions of the right kind. All too often, we ignore safety and commonsense, and sweep everything under the carpet, thinking accidents and bad things only happen to somebody else; the reality only hits home when that somebody else is someone we know personally. 

We don't need to wait for laws to be framed, to ban children in the front seat or to force us to wear seatbelts. We owe it to our families and we owe it to ourselves, to do that much. I saw many people on facebook, under the guise of showing solidarity with Ashok's wife, claiming there was nothing wrong with having unsecured kids in the front seat, and that they themselves grew up in in the same way etc etc. This is bullshit.  Just because our guardian angels were working overtime to keep us alive, we can't ignore or discourage commonsense. 

While Ashok's death is deeply tragic and unfortunate, I hope his untimely demise sparks some good discussion. Even if a small number of people, say a 100 parents realize and vow to never allow their children in the front seat, or to remain seated in the backseat, without a seatbelt or child-seat, it would make a big difference, and Ashok's death would probably have not gone in vain. 

Let's not do our regular thing and sweep all manners of mistakes under the carpet. In fact, lets make it a mission to raise awareness about this issue, even if we don't explicitly take his name (to prevent grief to his loved ones). This is the least that we can do, to a fellow biker.

/Prashanth

On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 7:57 AM, murali hr <murali...@gmail.com> wrote:

Agree...

On 02-May-2017 11:16 AM, "Chidambaran Subramanian" <chi...@gmail.com> wrote:

There is a lot of discussions on this incident on FB. And most of it pretty critical of his wife. Many of these comments have tagged Ashok as well. At this point , it may be a little inappropriate to talk about distractions while driving, or about the incident in detail , etc.

Might end up increasing the trauma of the wife. 

On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 12:27 PM, Jayaprakash E <jaya...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sad incident. May god give strength to his family.

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[M I T R]

Very Sad news.
Understand what the family must be going through - children and wife included.
Reasons for the accident could be anything but being able to brake in time to avoid hitting is the least you expect from a driver.

[murali hr]

Very Sad.
Couple of years baack...we were travelling near krishnagiri...
my sister insisted the driver to change a song...and mentioned her favorite song..
Driver was distracted...
in 3sec he was about to hit the iron barricade and he suddenly he saw and in 1 sec turned the car towqrds right...
we were lucky thrre was no vehicle behind...otherwise matter would be diiferent

so be alert focussed attentive and sympathetic to everyone...for tragedy is affecting many people...

discuus safe riding tips in public get togethers ..etx

give priority to safe driving.
m

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[Chidambaran Subramanian]

Folks, I saw that mail as well. A simple cleated fall is unlikely to result in death. My guess is she was tailing him too closely and didn't have to time evade, thanks to the distraction.

[Karthick Gururaj]

The discussion on safety is fine and welcome. Only, let's not make this accident the focal point. We do not know the details, we shouldn't assume fault on part of *anyone*. Any discussion about safety revolving around this accident will be taken as a feedback on the persons involved (even if that was not the intent). 

That's really really terrible - for someone who has just lost her husband to get feedback in this manner. From strangers who have no idea about what really transpired. Please note that in all likelihood Ashok's mail account is still receiving these emails.

Let us recognize this for what it is - a terrible accident. At this point in time all we can do is offer our condolences and respect the dead.

Any discussion on safety can be started as a new thread, IMHO.

[Jayaprakash E]

Ashok was one of active member of this group. My heart sinks whenever I access this group pages. We deeply miss him.

[Opendro]

Very true. He was active in this group and a very non-controversial participant. He was active in GoGreen as well I suppose. At this point, it is even immaterial how the accident happened, for the loss is overbearing on me. I still cannot digest that he is no more. I had to resist myself calling his number to ascertain. It is that kind of disbelief in me.

[ashutosh tripathi]

I have one question. Any person close to his family can confirm, how is the Law enforcing agency taking up this incident any updates.

Police can create a much difficult situation for his wife, especially after reading the TOI comment section, this shows the mass mentality

[Rishi Rao]

Ashok took the effort to go through the posts, and reply to most of them, on this forum. Showcased his sheer love for the sport/activity.