Bad Exp.with Thai Traficpolice At Scene.....

[meadish_sweetball]

That also what I thought - 100B extra, pay it and move on. A mod corrected me that i read the OP the wrong way though?

Looking at it again, that is the case isnt it? For the sake of 100B he put himself through serious hassle for a long time when he could have been in the pub with his feet up, reading the paper.

In serious accidents, is there any benefit in having A Grade insurance, if such a thing exists for ferang?

It exists for everybody, and it is compulsory to sign one when you buy a new car. After a certain time (1 year?) it becomes optional. It's called 'bpragan chan neung' (first class/level insurance) in Thai.

It will cover your damages as well as the damages of the other car.

[taxexile]

with car insurance , it is compulsory to have a minimal policy , called por lor bor , this costs 700b/year and a sticker must be displayed on the windscreen. without this policy you cannot renew your yearly road tax. it is a third party only cover and i've no idea how you would claim on it.

most people will buy supplementary insurance as well , 1st class insurance with a good company will ensure that in the event of an accident the company will send a rep. to the scene of the accident to assess the situation and fight your corner , the better he fights your corner , the better it is for the company in terms of reduced payouts.

i dont know how much the original poster was being asked to pay for the broken light on the bike , but for anything under 2000 baht (if you can agree the price) its probably better to pay up with a smile rather than go through all the paperwork and increased premium for the next renewal.

getting the police involved is always a recipe for disaster and for small scrapes just hope that no police are around to interfere. they can get involved with price fixing and kickbacks. if you hit a parked bike then it is your fault , and the bike owner would be rightly angry. apologise and pay up if you can settle the fee..

in any case , a good insurance agent will sort things out , and seeing as the company are paying any damages , it shouldnt concern you what figure they agree , you can rest assured that the company will not overpay. and they will deal with vehicle damage , hospital bills and all compensation.

they also check if the other vehicle/driver/owner involved is legal in terms of road tax , chassis number , insurance , drivers licence etc.

any illegality found will ensure the other party quickly backs off.

you need to be fluent in the language to argue succesfully in these situations , they are not handled in the same way as back home , and neither do the police behave the in same way , they can do what they want , and there is nothing you can do about it , it is naive to expect anything else.

call the insurance , and if you have no insurance , then may god have mercy on your soul.

Edited March 18, 2007 by taxexile

[ColPyat]

you need to be fluent in the language to argue succesfully in these situations , they are not handled in the same way as back home , and neither do the police behave the in same way , they can do what they want , and there is nothing you can do about it , it is naive to expect anything else.

It definitively is an advantage not to get the police involved in minor accidents. Most of your post i agree with, only one thing:

Police cannot do what they want, even though they often do so. In this situation the cop taking the gun out of his holster is excessive force, and a case can be filed against him. In reality though one should only do that if one has either a secure position in society here, and can rely on connections within the police force that are higher than the offending cop.

[Sakeopete]

Does absoloute first class insurance make much difference in the face of a trafic cop waving a gun?

That is not a rehorical question (spelling?) - i sincerely would like to know if having A grade insurance makes a difference. Is there a policy/company that specialises in dealing with ferang and con prevention?

If so, what is the protocol in shity events like this?

I had an instance a couple years back where I did a U-turn and a young kid (circa 14 y/o) hit me on his motorcycle he was not hurt but his bike and my truck were. Immediately Thais gathered around demanding we call the police blah blah blah, his mother came and tried the threat of police and I said go ahead and call them I will call my class 1 insurance. She panicked and said that insurance made her pay in the past immediately her attitude changed. She still wanted an unreasonable amount of compensation (3000 Baht) above the cost of repairs and insisted on calling the police again I agreed and asked to see the boy’s driver license and bike insurance also pointing out he was not wearing a helmet. As you can guess she ended up accepting 500 baht compensation and the bike being fixed.

So I would say yes first class insurance helps with negotiations but not against Thai cop losing face.

[taxexile]

Police cannot do what they want, even though they often do so. In this situation the cop taking the gun out of his holster is excessive force, and a case can be filed against him. In reality though one should only do that if one has either a secure position in society here, and can rely on connections within the police force that are higher than the offending cop.

which , in reality for most of us here , means that the police can do what they want.

the only time i have seen a policeman draw his gun here was during the songkhraan celebrations in soi cowboy a few years ago , there was a nasty fight which resulted in a death and in the ensuing melee in the crowded soi with water spraying everywhere , a pot bellied cop pulled out his gun and waved it around in the hope of calming things down , unfortunately , because it was songkhraan , he had wrapped the pistol in a plastic tesco bag and all could be seen was the tesco logo. it just looked comical and had no effect at all.

it reminded me of a scene from a woody allen film where a convict escapes from prison during a torrential downpour using a blackened bar of soap carved to the shape of the gun , this turns to a handful of foam and bubbles as soon as he steps into the rain.

but anyway.

make sure your car insurance is up to date.

[simon43]

All that time living in Thailand and you havn't bothered to learn to read Thai script. What have you been doing all these years?

... oh never mind .... I can't be bothered to argue this one

Simon

[ColPyat]

which , in reality for most of us here , means that the police can do what they want.

In which, unfortunately, you are right.

There are many instances of cops and soldiers abusing their powers here. If one watches the many docu shows on TV here, such as Luang Ching Pan Jor, you can see that this sort of behavior is not exactly unknown.

And when faced by a gun wielding cop, especially drunk, the best thing is not to argue. Cops have shot people here. I have seen on many occasions cops going berserk, such as at illegal motorcycle races, when some pissed off cop simply pulls his gun out and starts shooting at the racers.

Still, if one hasn't done anything wrong, there are things one can do. ITV, for example, has a show called "Ruam Moe - Ruam Jai" in which lawyers are taking complaints from the public, and do help people from the public against abuses of power by officials or influential people. I believe that, such as in this case, a gun wielding threatening cop would be very interesting for them.

If there is one thing cops are scared off apart from the involvement of superior officers - it is the media.

[taxexile]

thai rath has a daily column , usually on the inside of the back page , called "leek tee neung , wipawadee" penned by a journalist who calls himself the "phleung morakot" that regularly talks about incidents of police excess , police incompetence and police arrogance and corruption and bribery.

the articles are not too long , and the language is not that difficult , and they make fascinating reading.

Edited March 18, 2007 by taxexile

[ColPyat]

thai rath has a daily column , usually on the inside of the back page , called "leek tee neung , wipawadee" penned by a journalist who calls himself the "phleung morakot" that regularly talks about incidents of police excess , police incompetence and police arrogance and corruption and bribery.

the articles are not too long , and the language is not that difficult , and they make fascinating reading.

Unfortunately i can't read Thai (and before somebody comes with a snide why i wasted my time all these years here - i have a learning disability which makes it extremely difficult for me to sit down and concentrate long enough which would be necessary to study Thai script. My spoken Thai though is not bad a all. ).

But yes, if one can bring up the courage to do something against abuses of power by police and similar, there are venues here where something can be done in many cases. Such abuses of power only work because people allow themselves to be intimidated.

[Jessi]

This is just another case of "Lets Screw the Farlang" We dont need them here anymore only their money.

TIT.

Jessie

[taxexile]

"Lets Screw the Farlang"

a rogue policeman will screw anything that can be screwed.

a thai for 100b or a falang for 1000b , whenever the opportunity arises.

its not only foriegners who get shaken down , and its not every policeman who will shake you down.

[ColPyat]

"Lets Screw the Farlang"

a rogue policeman will screw anything that can be screwed.

a thai for 100b or a falang for 1000b , whenever the opportunity arises.

its not only foriegners who get shaken down , and its not every policeman who will shake you down.

Very true. Mostly Thais are intimidated much worse than foreigners by bent cops. And not all cops are gun wielding maniacs.

[Sing_Sling]

Sorry, I have to listen to pigeon english all day, I'm not going to take the time to read it as well....

Go with God.

There are so many errors in your post, but it should come as no surprise considering you were clearly born in 1993 and have such a bad grasp of the English language.

I can't be bothered reading tripe like yours . . . yawn . . .

Oh, one question: Do you happen to speak/write/understand a second or third language? One would hope so as your English skills quite simply suck.

Glass houses, 14-year old. Glass houses.

[65Craig]

"i told this thaiguy 200 and thats it,,,,no! 300 no!"

"after this the clearing was done beetween this thai and me and only 500 ,,thats what i want to pay at the begining"

Very hard to follow as you seem to really contradict yourself. The accident was admittedly your fault. You offer the guy 200 baht at first. Then 300 baht. Make a big scene. Then you say you settled with the Thai guy for 500 baht, and that was what you wanted to pay at the beginning. Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this post, but if you wanted to pay the guy 500 baht, why did you try and low-ball him with your initial 200 baht offer? I'm with the others in saying, such a small ammount is too small a sum to really endanger yourself and risk further penalty with the police and possibly looking at jail time from what appeared to be an over-zealous cop.

One note, not sure how well you speak Thai. If not well after 7 years here, I advise that if you are planning on living in a country where you aren't from, it's really in your benefit to do your due dilegence to learn the language. May save you big time in certain situations such as this in the future.

[lapamita]

may be not clear from first posting

i offerd a low sum ( fianl i was thinking to pay 500),,but the guy not make any offer ,he said only peng mak mak, i think his idea was 3000,5000????

only after they called the big police with car from policestation,, he agreed quickly to 500, and no fine to police

after the other policeguys arrived we cleard, but the other police said even 300 would be enough

i think the agrement was reached quickly because,he had no drivinglicence and the big policecar want take back the motorbike to policestation.

i have first class insurance from virachai ( i sure write it wrong now), the guys are good and quickly even a mobilenumber to englisch speaking guys i have ( 3 numbers even in nighttime)

but waht scares me off, when this would happen in the night, after the police drink a bottle of whisky????

i think at any thing happen in the night i would not stopp car, and go directly to policestation and call insurance

best..... any small scene, call insurance first,, if 1.class, they are same as your lawyer..............