Had An Accident And Feel Like Im Getting Stiched? Can Anyone Help?

[kish]

Hi there,

Ok, I have been living in chiangmai for a few years and have an old BMW 3series. I was driving home one night after being out for a friends birthday. Then all of a sudden some thai guy smashed into the front of my car on his Honda wave with his girlfriend on the back.

I stopped and called the police and ambulance as the guy driving looked in a bad way. They went off to hospital as did I. I was fine (shaken but fine) but the police wanted to check my blood alchol level. The 19year old driving has a broken leg and a broken arm and his 17 year old girlfriend has a broken leg. both the boy and the girl were in hospital for approx. 1 week. The bills for both came to no more than 40k (which I beleive has already been paid for by the insurance company).

This all happened a little over a month ago. I have yet to get my boold alcohol results as the hospital have said they cant issue the results and I have to go to check at the police station. The police have also not given me the results but Im fairly sure that I was over the limit.

Now, the guy driving the Honda wave, hit my car on my side of the road, hit the front left corner of the car (so he had to be on my side), doesnt have a drivers licence, wasnt wearing a helmet and was probably drunk ( it was 3am, what else was he doing out at this time) but wasnt tested for alcohol at the police station.

I have been to see the families at the police station 3 times now (as well as visiting them in the hospital). The first time they wanted 300k each!!! I dissagreed and went off the find a lawyer (tougher than I had thought to find an honest and good one). The second time I went with my lawyer and they stuck to there original 600k (for the 2 people). The police man and my lawyer both said that this was a rediculous figure and wanted them to come down so I offered 100k (50k each). They declined my offer and stuck to 600k. Finally, on saturday just gone I went back to talk and we agreed on 120k (60k each). Now I didnt sign anything to this effect as I said I would like to seek advice from other parties.

Ok, 120k is a ###### site better than 600k but I still feel that this kid was in the wrong, plus I have over 60k of damage to my car, who is going to pay for that? Not once has anyone mentioned my car, who is going to help me with fixing my car etc. Noone has mentioned fault? It doesnt seem right that we are talking money before anyone has decided on whos fault it is.

Now my question is, reading what I have written above do you think that I should do? Just bite the bullet and pay them (even though I still have to go to court) or should I say NO! you are wrong you didnt even have a drivers licence (you shouldnt have been on the road in the first place) you hit me, I didnt hit you! you hit me on my side of the road whilst driving way too fast (his girlfriend ended up approx 10meters away from him and 20odd meters from the accident (so he must have been flying for them to have gone so far (as the police have agreed))) and I dont want to pay you I want you to pay me to fix my car?

Now originally I was willing to help them (not because I thought it was my fault but because I wanted to help), but after they came to the table with a stupid number like 600k I decided they were only interested in taking this falang to the cleaners and I was no longer interested in helping them.

If I take this to court, would I win? and even if I lost would I have to pay this much or would it be more??? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated as I have heard it all (everyone has different advice (but noone has said something that is set in stone)). Plus I wold really like to hear from someone that knows the law in Thailand.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS. PREFFERABLY FROM PEOPLE THAT KNOW AND NOT FROM THOSE THAT ARE GUESSING...

Many thanks,

Kish

[britmaveric]

U admitted you were drink driving - I think that says it all. I don't think you can claim higher ground even if it were the thai(s) fault since drunk driving charges automatically make u at fault regardless of what happens.

[Berty]

Stick to your guns mate, they hit you after all!

Demand 1 million Baht from them, see what they say!

[barryofthailand]

Best to ask your lawer. Why was the bllod of the motor bike operater not checked. If your blood alcahol was .08 or higher and the other driver was not checked you are automatically at fault and i'm surprised your insurance company paid.

Barry

[solo siam]

Ask yourself the question, would you let someone break your arm or your leg for 60k baht?

[taxexile]

motorcycles , rightly or wrongly , regularly drive uninsured and unlicensed on the wrong side of the road in this country , you have been here a few years and should know that , and as a car driver you have to be on the lookout for them .

the motorcycles here are like flak , and you have to be on full concentration at all times so as to avoid their stupidity.its an accepted fact of driving here , and yet another reason , as if any more reasons are needed , as to why you should not drink and drive.

your reflexes are slowed down , your visual acuity is lowered , and your mind wanders , oh , and you are incapable of driving properly , whatever you might think.

you are over the limit , at 3am , and there is a collision between you and a motorcycle on your side of the road , how come you never saw him coming ?

they dont suddenly appear out of thin air. you should have seen him coming.

had you not had alcohol in your system your reflexes might have been sharper and you might have been able to avoid him. luckily nobody was killed.

the fault is as much with you as with the motorcycle driver.

add into the mix the fact that you are a falang driving a bmw and i'm not surprised the family are wringing their grubby little mitts in anticipation of a jackpot.

learn from it , and come out of it a better and more responsible adult !

[kish]

you say would I let someone break my leg for 60k. Obviously the answer is NO. But the real question is if I smashed into someone on the wrong side of the road and broke my leg and arm do you think they would pay me 60k?????

[sibeymai]

speaking about legs, Kish, you don't have a leg to stand on.

No blood test done on the motorcycle driver and yours you expect will put you over the limit. Only mitigaqting factor would have been if the motorcycle driver was also drunk which as you say he probably was, but there's no proof.

He's at fault of riding without a license/unregistered/whatever. You're at fault for the accident. No way out as I see it.

[besth]

Legally you are probably right and you might even get a positive result at a trial.

But WHY were you driving over the limit???

Stupid. Just don't do it.

[raybkk]

Hi there,

Ok, I have been living in chiangmai for a few years and have an old BMW 3series. I was driving home one night after being out for a friends birthday. Then all of a sudden some thai guy smashed into the front of my car on his Honda wave with his girlfriend on the back.

I stopped and called the police and ambulance as the guy driving looked in a bad way. They went off to hospital as did I. I was fine (shaken but fine) but the police wanted to check my blood alchol level. The 19year old driving has a broken leg and a broken arm and his 17 year old girlfriend has a broken leg. both the boy and the girl were in hospital for approx. 1 week. The bills for both came to no more than 40k (which I beleive has already been paid for by the insurance company).

This all happened a little over a month ago. I have yet to get my boold alcohol results as the hospital have said they cant issue the results and I have to go to check at the police station. The police have also not given me the results but Im fairly sure that I was over the limit.

Now, the guy driving the Honda wave, hit my car on my side of the road, hit the front left corner of the car (so he had to be on my side), doesnt have a drivers licence, wasnt wearing a helmet and was probably drunk ( it was 3am, what else was he doing out at this time) but wasnt tested for alcohol at the police station.

I have been to see the families at the police station 3 times now (as well as visiting them in the hospital). The first time they wanted 300k each!!! I dissagreed and went off the find a lawyer (tougher than I had thought to find an honest and good one). The second time I went with my lawyer and they stuck to there original 600k (for the 2 people). The police man and my lawyer both said that this was a rediculous figure and wanted them to come down so I offered 100k (50k each). They declined my offer and stuck to 600k. Finally, on saturday just gone I went back to talk and we agreed on 120k (60k each). Now I didnt sign anything to this effect as I said I would like to seek advice from other parties.

Ok, 120k is a ###### site better than 600k but I still feel that this kid was in the wrong, plus I have over 60k of damage to my car, who is going to pay for that? Not once has anyone mentioned my car, who is going to help me with fixing my car etc. Noone has mentioned fault? It doesnt seem right that we are talking money before anyone has decided on whos fault it is.

Now my question is, reading what I have written above do you think that I should do? Just bite the bullet and pay them (even though I still have to go to court) or should I say NO! you are wrong you didnt even have a drivers licence (you shouldnt have been on the road in the first place) you hit me, I didnt hit you! you hit me on my side of the road whilst driving way too fast (his girlfriend ended up approx 10meters away from him and 20odd meters from the accident (so he must have been flying for them to have gone so far (as the police have agreed))) and I dont want to pay you I want you to pay me to fix my car?

Now originally I was willing to help them (not because I thought it was my fault but because I wanted to help), but after they came to the table with a stupid number like 600k I decided they were only interested in taking this falang to the cleaners and I was no longer interested in helping them.

If I take this to court, would I win? and even if I lost would I have to pay this much or would it be more??? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated as I have heard it all (everyone has different advice (but noone has said something that is set in stone)). Plus I wold really like to hear from someone that knows the law in Thailand.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS. PREFFERABLY FROM PEOPLE THAT KNOW AND NOT FROM THOSE THAT ARE GUESSING...

Many thanks,

Kish

wasnt wearing a helmet and was probably drunk ( it was 3am, what else was he doing out at this time) but wasnt tested for alcohol at the police station.

Hmmmm, I am 99% sure they took his blood at the Hospital. Ofcourse not at the station as he was submitted to the hospital. Ask the Hospital for the blood tests. Isn't it a standard policy of the Hospital to draw blood from accident victims?

If blood was drawn than you might have a better chance of protection yourself in court. If both where drunk than both pay or none pays

[kish]

Ok, thanks for the advise guys.

raybkk, you say you are 99% sure that they took a blood test at the hospital, well so am I (as I would have thought they would have to check blood alcohol levels before administering drugs). But the hospital wont give me this information as they say it is private (understandably). How could I find out. Plus can anyone tell me what they think the out come would be if I decided to take this to court? Would I win? if I lost would I have to pay as much as 120000B? also what sort of time frame would I have to pay them if I lost? They want the money in the next 2 months, Im not sure that this is possible? Plus I have approx. 80000b damage to my car? and is there any chance that this would be custodial?

Thanks,

Kish

[Murf]

If, when, who?

You need some facts before the questions can be answered.

You should have told them to b0ll0x when they started talking about money, now you have gone down the road of 'making an offer' its hard to turn around. You should have told them to speak to your insurnace.

[Moonfruit]

Unfortunately, you are talking about the outcome of a possible court case. NOBODy can tell you that you will win or lose. Thats the judicial system.

You may get a judge with a hangover who just rules in favour of the plaintiff coz he wants to get home.

For sure, there are positives for your case, but there is also that HUGE negative that you were over the limit. With todays climate in Thailand, i would guess that you would come out the loser becoz of it.

On the plus side of the coin, i think that if the police had your blood alcohol results, and had apportioned blame to you, then they would have charged you already, thus negating the risk of you running.

I would hold off making any offers to them, and ride it out in court. Depends on how brave you are feeling i guess.

Good luck with it, and im sure i dont need to preach and that you have learned your lesson!

[jasreeve17]

You were over the limit - that's stupid.

But, you should not have done a breathalizer test (1,000 baht fine for not doing so), and certainly not have agreed any liability (which you did by making a financial offer) before getting your test results.

Now, you are in Thailand and have admitted liability. 120,000 is not expensive in that situation.

In future, you will have several stages where you'll have the chance to avoid a similar situation. Live and learn.

Plus, if you can reasonably afford it then it's a small price to pay for the injuries to the kids, nevermind their potential deaths from your DD.

(Yes they are at fault too in an ideal World, which is not here.)

[kish]

Hi there,

thanks everyone for your views. Does anyone here know what sort of out come I could expect if I took it to court. Now I realise that anything could happen in court, but Im assuming that the law is the law written in black and white. The same for everone, Thai or Falang. Or is this not the case? If this is the case then what sort of money would the judge ask me to pay? Say worst case, the judge thinks its my fault because I was over the limit and the kid was never tested so as far as hes concerned the kid was stone cold sober. What sort of compensation could I expect to have to pay? ball park figures?

I mean I know a thai guy who has a Suzuki GSXR1300 motorbike, crashed into a Honda Dream. Killed the guy and paid 100000b? So should I just let this play out in court or am I being silly even thinking about contesting the 120k? Plus what would the court say in regards to payment? I mean I dont have 120k? would they allow me to pay it in installments?

Any advice is more than welcome but if there are any lawyers out there reading this then please let me know your thoughts. As Im finding it very hard to beleive that my lawyer is on my side. I would have expected him after they finished off at 120K to have said that in light of it being 50/50 fault and my car having inexcess of 85K damage 120-85=35K and they devide that beween them. I would be happy with this as an outcome. But I cant see the families going for that.

Thanks again,

Kish

[TerryLH]

Have you been charged with something by the police? I really couldn't find it in the story, if it's there.

If you haven't been charged (yet), why are you going to court?

The monetary settlements are normally done out of court and negotiated at the police station. You mentioned you'd been to the station; what does the police officer tell you. What does the police report say? Ask the officer to help you.

If in fact the police helped negotiate a 120k settlement, you might be stuck with it. Now is the time to ask them for repairs to your car. Do it thru the police, not the courts (if at all possible).

What has your insurance company done to help?

[solo siam]

I think you are in some sort of state of denial.

You are a foreigner in a poor country, driving a BMW, drunk and break the limbs of two Thai's. Surely taking it to court will just annoy everyone involved including the judge, police, etc.... You think that they all want to waste away their time to try to save you a few hundred dollars.

I sure wouldn't like to turn up to court in any developing nation, accused of drunk driving and breaking peoples limbs - to try and save a little money. Would you still be pushing the point if you had killed someone?

I'd just pay up and learn the lesson, if its 85,000 baht+ damage to an old BMW, I'm guessing you hit them pretty hard.

[qualtrough]

What kind of insurance policy do you have? I don't understand why you are involved in any negotations. If you have a comprehensive policy that is their job. Did you just have the minimum compulsory policy?

[Moonfruit]

Mr. Kish. Im afraid your question simply cannot be answered, even by a lawyer.

The bottom line is, (if) you were drunk, you dont have a leg to stand on. Here, or in any other country. Add to that the fact that you are a white face, and you can expect to get stitched up, i would imagine.

You insurance will be invalidated the moment that your insurance company learns that you were over the limit. That in itself could result in porridge time, at least in a developed country.

I know a white guy who sued a Kunying. He won! I must admit i dont know many farangs who have been in court, but his is the only success story i have heard. Im afraid to say that the legal process is not geared towards your success as a foreigner, especially amongst these nationalistic times.

I also think that a lawyer would charge you for his response! 555

[lingnoi34]

Are you bound to your place of residence? If not, then do it thai-style and schedule a quick move overnight....

Just kidding, of course!

LN

[simcity]

How you will live your life if you know you have two dead bodies under your bonnet ?

I will paid and get over with !

[UnknownPoster]

What is this? The Twilite Zone?... or just another case of TIT, where we are expected to accept the absurd?

They hit you.

Have your lawyer file charges against them. Take it to court.

[taxexile]

quite honestly , i hope they screw you for every penny you've got so that you cant afford to put your car back on the road.

keep drunks off the roads. please.

[frikkiedeboer]

Hi there,

thanks everyone for your views. Does anyone here know what sort of out come I could expect if I took it to court. Now I realise that anything could happen in court, but Im assuming that the law is the law written in black and white. The same for everone, Thai or Falang. Or is this not the case? If this is the case then what sort of money would the judge ask me to pay? Say worst case, the judge thinks its my fault because I was over the limit and the kid was never tested so as far as hes concerned the kid was stone cold sober. What sort of compensation could I expect to have to pay? ball park figures?

I mean I know a thai guy who has a Suzuki GSXR1300 motorbike, crashed into a Honda Dream. Killed the guy and paid 100000b? So should I just let this play out in court or am I being silly even thinking about contesting the 120k? Plus what would the court say in regards to payment? I mean I dont have 120k? would they allow me to pay it in installments?

Any advice is more than welcome but if there are any lawyers out there reading this then please let me know your thoughts. As Im finding it very hard to beleive that my lawyer is on my side. I would have expected him after they finished off at 120K to have said that in light of it being 50/50 fault and my car having inexcess of 85K damage 120-85=35K and they devide that beween them. I would be happy with this as an outcome. But I cant see the families going for that.

Thanks again,

Kish

they are taking a chance and you are playing into their hands. assuming the cops took your blood,and you were found to have been over the limit, you would most likely have been charged with drunk driving by now.if this was the case, you are going to end up in court anyway, so wait for the court,s decision before paying any compensation. i doubt these guys will actually sue for compensation- the cops often sort this type of thing out at the scene, but thailand does have a legal system that works, and it is fair, and bigger than the local police, even if they dont seem to think so. tell them to go to hel_l, and i bet you will hear nothing further. or sue for damages to your vehicle, and bargain from there.

[kish]

ok, to those who are leaving helpful advise thank you. and to those of you that are leaving pointless I told you so messages?? wake up, get a life and think about doing something productive. I know I was wrong to drink and then drive. Like I said it was a birthday and I had a few. If I wanted a lecture I would have called my Mum! I am asking for advise. Prefferably from people that know (professionals with some knowledge of the law) or have some kind of decent input. Please stick to the topic.

Many thanks,

Kish

[Lucifer]

A drunk farang, driving and breaking a few Thai limbs. I hope you go to court, they find you guilty, lock you up. Then deport you.

And every one here giving this idiot advice should hang their heads in shame.

[RusticCharm]

I stopped...

Beside drink-driving, there's your biggest mistake.

[UnknownPoster]

I broke my arm and went to Bumrungrad and it cost 4,000bt for the fix.

Asking for 600,000? That's insane.

They crashed into you, and now, with the cops as business partners, are trying to win the Farang Lottery. Who knows, 'your' Lawyer might be in on it too.

Thailand is corrupt but my understanding is, the judges are quite fair. The cops don't take bogus claims all the way to court and will try to settle if you dig in.

I would offer the cops a few thousand "for the paperwork" and bet they stop harassing you.

[LivinLOS]

I would say if you had been over the limit they would have told you so clearly and definately.. First find out your blood alcohol reading.. If its over pay it and get it cleared.. Dont forget you can be deported and blacklisted over drunk driving !!!

Secondly if your under.. Tell them you want your car paid for and its in court. Thats if your under the limit then its thier fault.

All this no knowing.. I feel sure if you were over you would have been told so the moment you gave either breath or the blood work results were back.

[taxexile]

and if you are under the limit , make sure you or your lawyer get a certified copy of the result before the court case.