Bike Crashed Into My Car

[Samuian]

no tailgating, safe distance, prepare to stop if amber light is on,

won't be for long it sort of flips on in between the change from green to red!

The guy on the MC was clearly at fault!

[moe666]

In New Mexico if you are approaching from the rear and hit someone you are at fault even if the other person changes lanes into you ( as happened to a friend) the key words are approaching from rear.

Now I have a question were is all of the evidence kept that will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that farangs are always at fault no matter what or is this some urban legion that keeps on going powered by paranoid farangs.

[thaicbr]

Junk. That's cool mate. I hope i didn't come over as bashing. That wasn't what i wanted to do.

As you probably worked out I was the rider on the bike in the scenario. I was lucky not to be seriously hurt and i had a witness who told the police what happened. His insurance paid for my repairs.

[basjke]

In New Mexico if you are approaching from the rear and hit someone you are at fault even if the other person changes lanes into you ( as happened to a friend) the key words are approaching from rear.

I think pretty every where in the world it is the law that you have to keep enough distance with the vehicle in front of you so you can stop safely in case that vehicle has to make an emergency brake.

Tough I'm not sure if the case of the OP is considered an emergency brake.

Edited June 12, 2009 by basjke

[ScubaBuddha]

had to break at ... a sudden red light,

What exactly is a "sudden red light?" Was there no yellow?

Sounds like you got off lucky when compared to a lot of stories on here.

Not sure about Thailand, but in the states, you are required to leave enough space between you the vehicle in front of you to be able to stop. In the states 99.9% of cases would end like yours. Sounds like it's the same here, at least when used to determine fault after an accident. Your story makes me feel like I might have a fighting chance when Somchai inevitably plows into me.

[Lost in LOS]

last night, going from thepprasit turning right to therrapaya again. waited till the light was green and then some. turned carefully and going thru a full red light, well after it was red, came two motorcycles, two songtaws and two trucks with farangs driving. one farang almost hit me........good for both of us he missed.

what is wrong with you arrogant, idiots not stopping at a red light... if you go though and kill someone i hope you spend a long time in a thai jail and cannot buy yourself out, as I am sure you think you can, otherwise you would stop.

[redscouse]

Junk it sounds to me like you were both travelling a bit to fast. you for having to "Suddenly had to break" and him for locking up his brakes and sliding into you. It happens. you were lucky the police didn't do more. You were VERY lucky the Bike rider was not seriously injured.

'"they" are likely to conveniently pin blame on me.' You were both to blame.

Most accidents have a certain amount of mutual blame.

You should learn from your mistakes and not race for the green.

this is <deleted>, the person behind has to leave himself enough time and space to stop, are you suggesting that if the front car hit a car coming across his front causing him to stop suddenly he would still be to blame for the bike hitting him from behind.

Obviously from your log in you are a bike rider, but you must know that if you are unable to stop before hitting the rear of a stopped vehicle then you are to blame. The bike was simply going too fast to be able to stop, the car stopped before the red light, what did the car driver do wrong? It can be said that if stopping suddenly can cause an accident then it might be better to go through the light, although in thailand this has its dangers as people will set off while still on red.

Sorry but the car driver did no wrong here.

[redscouse]

OK I see cbr has changed tack a little

[thaicbr]

Nope not changed tack at all. I believe that in the instance that the OP quoted that he is indeed responsible to a small degree for not paying attention and reading the road ahead. I also said that it WAS the motorcyclists fault.

"It can be said that if stopping suddenly can cause an accident then it might be better to go through the light, although in thailand this has its dangers as people will set off while still on red."

So we all have to drive more carefully.

Many of us have been in a situation like the OP's one.

Just yesterday i was driving along highway 4 to Nakhom Pathom, coming up to a u-turn i slow down slightly and flash the single car at the u-turn. as i get closer i see that the 2 other cars are stationary in the fast lane ( i only see this as the 2nd car indicates to go past the 1st car) NO BRAKE light's showing. So i brake heavily and had to change direction into the 2nd then the 1st lane(no ABS). Luckily nothing was coming. YES if i had hit the car it would have been my fault BUT the fact the other car was stationary in the fast lane and not showing brake lights would have made him at least slightly responsible. because after all that's what brake lights are for to WARN other road users that you are braking or in this case stationary.

I learnt from that one. All i would like others to do is look at any accident OR INCIDENT they might have and speculate what could i have done to have not been in that position.

Edited June 16, 2009 by thaicbr

[PattayaParent]

Another theory I'm thinking of is this...

Just like Thaicbr says, I'll slow down if the light has been green for a while... and if it doesn't turn amber, I continue to proceed at that slower rate until I hit a "point of no return" (say, 5-10 meters from the junction?).

If I hit the "point of no return" then I speed up and proceed regardless of what happens to the light, and bear the (smaller) risk of being caught by a copper on the other side if it does turn amber after the point of no return.

(But at least I won't have an accident, because the amber is 3 seconds, and the "allowance" after the amber before the intersecting green is 2+ seconds; giving me a total of 5 seconds ++ before any accident could actually happen... unless some intersecting dumbo decides to "factor in" the same allowance and jump the light).

Any comments on this "system"?

(If all you're gona do is "bash", then save your saliva... I won't give a f.ck... I really want to know your honestly logical opinion over a system like this..)

That's actually the correct way to approach an intersection.

[ScubaBuddha]

Every light is ran, and every light is jumped. I haven't figured out how Thai's (and the occasional farang) don't all end up in one big pile in the center of the intersection every cycle of the light.

[skippybangkok]

Yes, but (1) I'm a foreigner, and (2) I had a car and he only had a "lowly" vehicle, a motorcycle.

Other threads on Thaivisa suggest that in this scenario, "they" are likely to conveniently pin blame on me.

not always......

had a motorbike come out of ekamai onto suk. thru a red light - shit him self when he saw me coming thu green, and crashed the bike........

picked himself up after the cops scolded him, and he was on his way

[Chivas]

you are lucky to get away with it,must be your birthday

Why is/was he lucky to get away with it !!!

Its this kind of moronic thinking that encourages abuse !

[torrenova]

Similar to me, hit up the back when stationary but not at a light rather waiting for the truck in front to turn right. Don't agree with the OP not getting his vehicle fixed. If the bike guy has no insurance (ha ha ha) then he's got to pay up or get locked up. I did get my vehicle fixed and the bike kid paid.

[technocracy]

I think some people commenting on this thread need to redo their driving test!

Traffic lights should be approached with caution regardless . . this is what is taught in western driving tests - just because it's green doesn't mean you put your foot down and don't have to look!

For nearly all traffic lights you'll have good vision of the lights and if you see they are green and you are approaching them from some distance you can be pretty dam_n sure they will change and you should be prepared for this.

An amber light is a warning that and one that should be heeded to stop UNLESS you it is unsafe or impossible to do so when it is displayed i.e. it changes to amber and you do not have sufficient safe stopping distance. You do not have 'every right to proceed' on amber' - EVER!

Without knowing the stopping distance when the amber was shown it hard to judge but the fact that you didn't check you obviously didn't check your mirror before slamming your brakes on to stop and he was probably to close the blame is 50/50.

Edited June 21, 2009 by technocracy