British man launches Go Fund Me page to help with legal bills after fatal traffic accident in Thailand

[NoshowJones]

10 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

missing information as usual i.e. did the police try to negotiate compensation to the mans family at the time, maybe the Brit just ignored demands

I don't know the full story behind this, but if the Brit was sober and not speeding and the old man suddenly walked out on to the road in front of him, then why should he pay any compensation? I certainly wouldn't.

[Mavideol]

11 hours ago, CelticBhoy said:

A better photo with the article may garner some sympathy, methinks.

 

me thinks you are right and the beer bottle should have been removed as well

[champers]

3 hours ago, TechnikaIII said:

Would a Thai motorcyclist who, through no fault of his own, knocks down a pedestrian, be made to pay compensation? 

Yes they would. Maybe not pay as much as a farang but same rules apply to Thais.

[pacman32]

If the guy has to pay 200,000 bht (£500) why has he setup a go fund me asking for £10,000?

Something isn't right here, surely if it is an accepted accident then there should be no legal issues. The families compensation is the way things are done so yes that sounds normal and @ farang rate seems reasonable, but again 10k?

[amdy2206]

I can never understand why other peoole should pay for someone elses accident. I would never have the cheek, which is what it is, to ask others to cover my problems. You need to be able to cover yourself, not ask others to do it for you. Unless it is your family.! I would NEVER pay for 'go fund me'. It is just a form if BEGGING. 

[lensta]

4 hours ago, khunpa said:

200K if hit on the road by a farang and about half that (110K) if shot down in a shopping center by a Thai. Hmm..

 

I think the lesson to learn from this is always have around 250 - 500K put a side in case something like this should happen.

I disagree with you. I think that the lesson the be learned is if you find yourself in a situation like this, is that as soon as you walk out of the police station, go straight to the airport and get yourself on the first possible plane to any country.

[Mavideol]

3 minutes ago, lensta said:

I disagree with you. I think that the lesson the be learned is if you find yourself in a situation like this, is that as soon as you walk out of the police station, go straight to the airport and get yourself on the first possible plane to any country.

know somebody with similar trouble and he didn't went straight to the ariport but instead he DROVE as fast as he could to the nearest land border and then flew straight home, never looked back

Edited February 14, 2020 by Mavideol

[mauGR1]

9 minutes ago, amdy2206 said:

I can never understand why other peoole should pay for someone elses accident. I would never have the cheek, which is what it is, to ask others to cover my problems. You need to be able to cover yourself, not ask others to do it for you. Unless it is your family.! I would NEVER pay for 'go fund me'. It is just a form if BEGGING. 

I am not a fan of this "go fund me" stuff myself, but if the alternative is going to jail, one might reconsider his high moral principles.

[Sydebolle]

Get some consular assistance in this case - provided the story is true! 

[SupermarineS6B]

Bit like Saudi really, not your fault but you're guilty because you're here and you're paying the bill....... Kop khun maak ....... The land of smiles and insanity..... 

[SupermarineS6B]

9 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

know somebody with similar trouble and he didn't went straight to the ariport but instead he DROVE as fast as he could to the nearest land border and then flew straight home, never looked back

Golden rule when i used to work and drive here, if you kill someone or if someone's killed on the job, nearest airport and leg it quick........  We'll sort it out later...... 

[DJ54]

Don’t understand the post about agency. If indeed he was doing 

volunteer teaching work he needs an agency? Or was he working 

without a permit. 

 

Some of these english teachers requirement are able to speak English good or not doesn’t matter. Fortunately that type is being 

weeded out. 

 

When i I lived in China 10+ years early on was advised if you get hit

by a car get up and run if you can. .... I’d not really believed it until

the News played a CCTV recorded an infant ran over by a car and 

backed up and ran the infant over again.. heartbreaking to see. 

 

The reasoning was it cost less if their dead. If the live and have treatment the rest of their life it costs more. That to me is 100%

wrong... how in the hell could you live the rest of your life knowing 

what you did over money...

[Vacuum]

2 hours ago, ray richards said:

I don't know what visa the guy has got but I got full cover in England to cover any accident claims for myself & third party, full hospital cover.

...assuming you have a Thai dl for mc.

[simple1]

1 hour ago, otaku00 said:

If not found guilty he should just pay for the cremation and 20.000 Baht is enough. Perhaps one newspaper will publish the name of the family and their reasons so that other Thais know?

 

Stevemercer, where is the legal basis for those 200.000? Did it ever appear to you they were fooled? Why let police negotiate when there is a court?

Sometimes Thais prefer the police for negotiations as the agreed sum is paid immediately, rather than going to Court with an uncertain, though possibly higher compensation outcome.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

1 hour ago, Moonlover said:

 

Not according to this broker and I've read it in others as well.

 

https://www.roojai.com/en/car-insurance/compulsory/

The mandatory Por Ror Bor scheme for vehicles in Thailand will pay for certain medical expenses, disability and death, but not for other "damages" that may be sought in a civil action. It is not third party liability insurance, but rather a type of no-fault medical expense and death benefit scheme for victims of road accidents. Payment under the mandatory coverage does not extinguish legal liability for medical costs or expenses above the limits or outside the coverage provided and does not provide any cover for legal expenses to defend in court. It also provides no coverage at all for liability for damage to third party property. Thailand effectively does not have compulsory third party liability insurance for vehicles. If you drive a bike or car here, you'd best check to make sure that the vehicle is covered for proper third party liability and also that you would be considered an insured while driving it.

[dunroaming]

3 hours ago, Jaxxper said:

I thought the compulsory insurance covered loss of a third party. Was the bike not taxed and insured ?

seems odd unless the family are asking for significantly more than the insurance covers.

When I was knocked off of my motorbike by a hit and run driver, all my hospital costs (in a private room at Chiang Mai's Lanna hospital) where paid by my bike insurance.  At that time (14 years ago) the insurance cost 350 baht a year.  Does help if you have a Thai wife though.

[Puritan]

Another expat living the dream with no money and using an education visa to stay. No sympathy and definitely no money from me.

 

[FNQ]

13 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

I can see this type of accident happening here.

And of course he needs to pay.

Good luck to him sure hope his fellow Brits come thru with sufficient donations.

Why does he need to pay he was told he was not at fault (hopefully recorded). 

 

[Fairynuff]

Pretty appalling when an accident like this becomes a business opportunity. 

[richard_smith237]

18 minutes ago, Puritan said:

Another expat living the dream with no money and using an education visa to stay. No sympathy and definitely no money from me.

 

Puritan... apt, but think about changing your handle to ‘Sanctimonious One’....

 

Someone’s wealth or visa Statius has absolutely nothing to do with their responsibility towards paying a private compensation when absolved of blame in an accident.

 

I’m not sure what happened in the accident, but, perhaps the old guy just stepped out in to the road... in this instance, why should the driver pay? (Just a hypothetical situation, but also a probability out here).

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

The mandatory Por Ror Bor scheme for vehicles in Thailand will pay for certain medical expenses, disability and death, but not for other "damages" that may be sought in a civil action. It is not third party liability insurance, but rather a type of no-fault medical expense and death benefit scheme for victims of road accidents. Payment under the mandatory coverage does not extinguish legal liability for medical costs or expenses above the limits or outside the coverage provided and does not provide any cover for legal expenses to defend in court. It also provides no coverage at all for liability for damage to third party property. Thailand effectively does not have compulsory third party liability insurance for vehicles. If you drive a bike or car here, you'd best check to make sure that the vehicle is covered for proper third party liability and also that you would be considered an insured while driving it.

Thanks for that comprehensive appraisal. We have 2 motorcycles and have type 2 cover on both of them. So hopefully we won't end up facing the dilemma that this guy is.

 

I do wonder how widely this information is known. I wasn't aware that it was so limited.

[Wake Up]

On 2/14/2020 at 6:39 AM, bkk6060 said:

I can see this type of accident happening here.

And of course he needs to pay.

Good luck to him sure hope his fellow Brits come thru with sufficient donations.

Whatever happened to financial self sufficiency? Today everyone wants a hand out and it is always not their fault. <deleted> him and his charity BS don’t give him a dime. He killed someone with no insurance or money. Loser with a capital L. 

[fruitman]

7 hours ago, denby45 said:

I'm afraid his account of the incident left me scratching my head. He clearly have a lot of time to slow down. He observed the family crossing the road ahead of the old guy. Observed the guy changing his mind and making his way back to the path and then changing his mind again and going for the crossing and in the meantime freezing in the middle of the road. Aren't we taught when driving to slow right down when hazards like this are apparent. To kill a guy on impact means to me he had not slowed down after this observation and was obviously still driving at a speed fast enough to kill someone. Did the guy die of his injuries or perhaps was in poor health and died of other causes? 

 

This is still a tragic accident of course whichever way you look at it but as an afterthought maybe could have been avoided.

 

Maybe others have more information and hopefully I can be corrected in my thoughts.

 

The missus justr made a suggestion to me. She says why does he not forget about the lawyer take the 2000 quid he raised and pay off the family/police. Job done. I had to laugh but I think she is spot on.

 

Den 

There are also old Thai willing to get hurt by a farang so they can claim money.

 

One day i was cutting a tree on the street in front of my house here, i had cut the stem almost through and was pulling the tree over with a long rope...there wereg heaps of branches laying under the tree from cutting...when i was pulling the tree over to break and it started falling down suddenly my old neighbour from 2 houses away came on his bicycle out of his driveway and cycled under the falling tree...i was lucky the tree wasn't really falling faste and i could stop the neighbour in time before it fell down.

 

Later i saw this old man cutting his own mangotree with an axe...he was chopping it for 3 hours in row without a pause...he obviously had done that often this way and knew exactly how to cut one down the thai way (with a machete)...

 

I'm sure he wanted my tree on his head so he could claim money from me...but he didn't succeed. He just came out 1 second too early.

[josephbloggs]

Got to love Thai Visa.

 

Nobody here knows what happened.  We have his version of what happened thanks to his appallingly badly written GoFundMe page - and to think he was teaching English!!  The police allegedly said he was in the clear but extorted money off him anyway.  I don't believe that having been treated extremely fairly in two major road accidents (and one by, shock horror, Thonglor police who sided with me against a drunk Thai who tried to blame me).  Let's not forget an old man is dead.

 

The number of people who stick up for him for no other reason than him being a Westerner is appalling.  Imagine this was a headline about a Thai on a motorbike killing on old farang but saying the police are unfairly blaming him, then begging for money.  This place would be melting with rage about Thais not taking responsibility, road carnage, child mentality, greed etc etc.  It is really is funny to witness the collective bias of this group of people.

(And one poster says he knows the guy and he's a loose cannon, but that's been ignored).

Again we don't know.  Maybe he is innocent, maybe he is not, but why do we automatically take his side?  (We know the reason).

Edit:  "I have the support of the British embassy".  Really?  The British embassy get involved in road accidents in Uttaradit?  I don't think so.  And the embassy never take sides in legal cases.   And the Aussie lawyer "wants 40,000 THB up front"?  Don't believe a word of it.  Foreign lawyers can't practise in Thailand for a start.

Edited February 14, 2020 by josephbloggs

[josephbloggs]

8 minutes ago, fruitman said:

There are also old Thai willing to get hurt by a farang so they can claim money.

 

One day i was cutting a tree on the street in front of my house here, i had cut the stem almost through and was pulling the tree over with a long rope...there wereg heaps of branches laying under the tree from cutting...when i was pulling the tree over to break and it started falling down suddenly my old neighbour from 2 houses away came on his bicycle out of his driveway and cycled under the falling tree...i was lucky the tree wasn't really falling faste and i could stop the neighbour in time before it fell down.

 

Later i saw this old man cutting his own mangotree with an axe...he was chopping it for 3 hours in row without a pause...he obviously had done that often this way and knew exactly how to cut one down the thai way (with a machete)...

 

I'm sure he wanted my tree on his head so he could claim money from me...but he didn't succeed. He just came out 1 second too early.

Yeah, of course he wanted the tree to fall on his head, he must be gutted it missed.

Even for Fruitman paranoia this one is quite extreme.  Just unbelievable.  

[Yadon Toploy]

Knowing how corrupt and immoral Thailand is, I will always be initially sympathetic to those claiming to be victims of injustice and corruption here.

[Nakmuay887]

9 hours ago, kjm1485 said:

MY FRIEND WORKED WITH THIS MAN. This story is not what happened at ALL. We all work for the same agency, and this has become a bit of scandal amongst us all. If you really read his version of the story, there are a lot of things that don't add up. If he had a chance to see everything that the family was doing, how far the elderly man was, why didn't he STOP? 

 

The version that was witnessed by the community, and several other teachers: This man is loose cannon that repeatedly threatened other teachers with violence for the most random reasons. He was definitely speeding when he hit the man, and had kept HONKING prior to hitting him. (If you have time to honk, you definitely have time to hit your brakes.) He hit the man so hard, the man rolled over three times. 

 

There were supposed to be two investigations: the police's investigation, and the family's private investigation. The police one had already finished, and they told him so, but they said to STAY in the country for the other investigation. Everall was ordered to pay 1 million baht for the family-- which he never took responsibility for.

 

On top of all that, he also skipped out on his rent, his utility bills, and damage fees for throwing cigarette butts on top of cars and leaving burn marks. He was only fired by our agency after he was caught punching some thai university kid in the face during an argument. This guy is INSANE and is definitely playing the victim here.

Never would have been able to tell that by the wonder photos of him... 

 

He looks like trouble just from a simple photograph 

[NoComment]

If he's been arrested and can't pay surely the British Embassy or Prisoners Abroad can help with a lawyer.

The GoFund Me post will probably be a never ending roundabout with no conclusion.

Many Brits are already living on the breadline due to the strength of the baht.

Good luck to the guy, however, he has other options than begging for money.

[PBXVS1100]

15 hours ago, rgrdns said:

I wonder how one even negotiate the compensation outside the court....who decides/sets the final price RTP?

There must be a law with a minimum and maximum compensation?

Any input?

You realise this is Thailand right. 

[impulse]

11 hours ago, ray richards said:

I don't know what visa the guy has got but I got full cover in England to cover any accident claims for myself & third party, full hospital cover. I also declared that I have got bladder cancer & heart problems. I'm male 74 yrs old & got all this cover for non imm o 90 days for £261 which a younger man without my health declaration would be much cheaper. People should do the insurance premium before setting out to Thailand. I think it was very cheap for a man of my age.

 

Rule #1 about travel insurance.  Don't brag on how cheap or easy or reputable it was until you've made a claim and had it pay out.  Make it a whopper of a claim, like this guy's case...  Bottom line-  Most of us don't know if we're covered or not until after we've filed a claim.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by impulse