Stop At An Accident?

[logbags]

It is culture in Thailand for the rich party of an accident to cover damages for both parties, as the poor motocy rider cant pay

## This is correct. It is not law it is cultural. Thais have to pay too. This again is not a farang/Thai thing. My nieces son hit a car load of people. She has had to pay over 1 million baht in damages and hosptital bills.

Obviously as a farang people will try it on. I've stopped many times to help people ranging from seriously injured to mildly injured and never been dragged into being blamed.

Also you should not be in the right hand lane on a motorbike. You must be on the left unless moving over to turn right or U turn. You'll never be innocent if your riding in the right lane on a motorbike. Never. I know everyone does and I recently tried to run a checkpoint hidden behind a fortuner in the right lane. The coppers spotted me and I had no helmet on.

The village scout manning the right lane smiled and said quick quick and let me past. The cop yelled out "Police see everything" as I rode off laughing.

[katabeachbum]

It is culture in Thailand for the rich party of an accident to cover damages for both parties, as the poor motocy rider cant pay

## This is correct. It is not law it is cultural. Thais have to pay too. This again is not a farang/Thai thing. My nieces son hit a car load of people. She has had to pay over 1 million baht in damages and hosptital bills.

Obviously as a farang people will try it on. I've stopped many times to help people ranging from seriously injured to mildly injured and never been dragged into being blamed.

Also you should not be in the right hand lane on a motorbike. You must be on the left unless moving over to turn right or U turn. You'll never be innocent if your riding in the right lane on a motorbike. Never. I know everyone does and I recently tried to run a checkpoint hidden behind a fortuner in the right lane. The coppers spotted me and I had no helmet on.

The village scout manning the right lane smiled and said quick quick and let me past. The cop yelled out "Police see everything" as I rode off laughing.

yepp

motocy must use left lane only. If 3 lanes, allowed to use 2 left lanes. Only legal way to be spotted in right lane is indicating right to turn or U-turn where legal.

kinda annoying riding a R bike doing 0-100 kmh in less than 4 seconds

but i dont believe this part of trafic code will be changed as long as one motocy drivers lisence covers all sizes of bikes

BTW motocy rearended in right lane by car/truck, and not having indicator on to right turn or u-turn, no chance of insurance cover

[Old Croc]

Today I was driving out on the headland at Kamala and came across the scene of an accident where a bike had driven into a culvet and the rider was obviously injured.

Two other bikes had stopped to assist so I thought there was probably little I could do to help and, with this thread fresh in my mind, not wanting to blamed as a farang, I drove on.

Coming back ten minutes later I could see the rider was out of the gully and was now alone, and lying there bleeding from a number of nasty cuts.

He was a young farang.

This time I did stop and did what I could to establish he was ok and that help (ambulance) was on the way. I made sure he didn't have any head injury or any other life threatening problem. The stupid kid (Australian, I think) was obviously very drunk, or drugged, and will have a few scars to carry for the rest of his life.

[DougLee]

For the 10th time at least, i just saw an ambulance, 5meters from the hospital, all it needed to do was a uturn. Nobody even moved an inch to let it go. The driver had to say 'i have someone dying inside' to get 2 cars to move.. 1min later.. he said it again 1 more car moved.. then an other time 2 cars moved.

Then while trying to do a u turn, most thais swerved around the ambulance to make sure it could not turn.

From seeing this many times, i will not stop to help any thai in an accident, even if it were at no risk to me. I know they'd rather block the way of my ambulance if i was dying, so id rather leave them there to rot and die a painful death instead of helping them(i was trained to help victims of accidents)

last month i had a stupid honda wave on my side on a small road, he could not wait 3secs and stay behind me(he was going slower than me in traffic), his foot got stuck on my bumper, he fell and i left laughing, no thais stopped. I was going completely straight, following traffic. Idiots that can't follow simple traffic rules do not deserve my help. This was a corner away from an other hospital and no thai stopped to help him, the cars just moved around him. He wasn't seriously hurt and no 1 chased me, i stopped about 20meters later in a parking to get to my appointment and could still see no 1 cared.

Edited December 17, 2010 by DougLee

[DougLee]

yepp

motocy must use left lane only. If 3 lanes, allowed to use 2 left lanes. Only legal way to be spotted in right lane is indicating right to turn or U-turn where legal.

kinda annoying riding a R bike doing 0-100 kmh in less than 4 seconds

but i dont believe this part of trafic code will be changed as long as one motocy drivers lisence covers all sizes of bikes

BTW motocy rearended in right lane by car/truck, and not having indicator on to right turn or u-turn, no chance of insurance cover

They never do though, today saw 2 25-30years old farang in phuket town, driving a saladang.. YES a salandang.. in the third lane, at 30km/h. Hopefully they are on their way to bangkok hospital by now and deporte. the one on the side cart could not even sit fully in it, it was cheaply made. Sad sight... gotta stop driving around those teacher housings

[stevenl]

Wow, you have some serious issues.

[simon43]

I've learnt the best thing to do if I'm involved in an accident is to jump out of my car, start to take photos of the accident/other driver with my mobile phone, and immediately ask in Thai 'why did you hit my car?'

This has worked for me on the few occasions when I've been involved in a minor accident. The other drivers make a quick 'exit' without anyone trying to claim it was my fault

As to whether I would stop or not to assist in a major accident, as was previously mentioned, I would only do this if I had my police ID.

Simon

[JetsetBkk]

They never do though, today saw 2 25-30years old farang in phuket town, driving a saladang.. YES a salandang.. in the third lane, at 30km/h. Hopefully they are on their way to bangkok hospital by now and deporte. the one on the side cart could not even sit fully in it, it was cheaply made. Sad sight... gotta stop driving around those teacher housings

A couple of days ago I saw an unbelievably rusty old tuk-tuk near Robinson, Phuket town. He was in the right lane and trying to pull over to the left to turn at the lights towards immigration and I wanted to go straight on so I was cursing the stupid old Thai... until I saw it was a farang!

Might be someone on here...

[crusty]

What depressing reading this litany of helpful souls set upon in the face of tragedy. I am lost for words. All I can do is wonder.

I wonder when this attitude of blame-the-outsider first began? What began it? Is it due to too many foreigners being here? This act of complicit false blame is some way to have revenge over imaginary injustices.

Don't despair, it's not always like that. I was driving North from Kata to Karon and near Club Med. is a T junction and a bus in front of me slowed down to turn right. I moved to the inside to continue on when two girls on a bike came out of the road and as I was hidden by the bus, they crashed into me. I stopped and seeing they were ok, helped the girls pick up their money and belongings from the road when two Thai guys on a bike who had seen everything, came over and helped the girls right their bike, examined the small scratch on my track and asked "ok ?" I said "ok" and they waved me on remarking in Thai " better the police don't come"

[DougLee]

They never do though, today saw 2 25-30years old farang in phuket town, driving a saladang.. YES a salandang.. in the third lane, at 30km/h. Hopefully they are on their way to bangkok hospital by now and deporte. the one on the side cart could not even sit fully in it, it was cheaply made. Sad sight... gotta stop driving around those teacher housings

A couple of days ago I saw an unbelievably rusty old tuk-tuk near Robinson, Phuket town. He was in the right lane and trying to pull over to the left to turn at the lights towards immigration and I wanted to go straight on so I was cursing the stupid old Thai... until I saw it was a farang!

Might be someone on here...

hehe, i doubt they can afford internet at home, no time for thaivisa, they gotta get their tesco coupons then run without paying from the internet shop

[MissChris]

It's OK for us farang who have some form of Social Security back home if we are permanently injured.

Just because you don't see people with disabilities in the street in Phuket, doesn't mean there are not heaps shut up at home.

It is difficult to know how serious or permanent an injury will be when it's being assessed by professionals in hospital. It must be agonising for poor people to be facing the possibility of not being able to work and support a family. I'd be keen to get as much money as I could from a rich person if I had been injured in an accident.

BTW What's the name of that insurance company? How much did the policy cost?

I really like the idea of taking photos with your mobile. I'll be doing that if I find myself in an accident in future. Very useful advice.

[katabeachbum]

whenever involved in an accident, take photo of drivers face, reg plate, tax sticker in windshield (contains vehicles VIN), and of course accident scene, vehicles position, roadsigns, road markings/paint

bunch of problems solved, and the other party more defensive

[carmine]

The last person i know of to have stopped at the scene of a "bike accident" ended up having a gun put to his head and robbed in what is becoming an all too common set up.

Suffice to say, i won't be stopping at an accident at nightime and the last poster can make whatever he or she wants to. Isn't karma when a situation like this is created HERE and due to that people very understandedly choose the safe option and don't stop?

[DaengJonesie]

Well it seems I'm not alone on this one and to make a remark about a previous poster about stopping at an accident to find all be a setup and he was robbed just gives me more reason. Yes, this can happen anywhere in the world and it does like in the movies, but my life is not a movie and reading the replies I don't now feel so bad at my unwillingness to help in the unfortunate event of an accident.

Good luck and safe driving to you all.

[stevenl]

If you hit someone, hopefully they die as it will be cheaper than them recovering in hospital.

Even a Thai guy told me if you hit someone and they aren't dead, put the car in reverse and finish them off.

True, that is the same all over the world.

The last person i know of to have stopped at the scene of a "bike accident" ended up having a gun put to his head and robbed in what is becoming an all too common set up.

Is this really becoming a common set up?

[carmine]

If you hit someone, hopefully they die as it will be cheaper than them recovering in hospital.

Even a Thai guy told me if you hit someone and they aren't dead, put the car in reverse and finish them off.

True, that is the same all over the world.

The last person i know of to have stopped at the scene of a "bike accident" ended up having a gun put to his head and robbed in what is becoming an all too common set up.

Is this really becoming a common set up?

The answer to that is yes, and it's becoming all too regular. What do you expect with this police force? It's a no brainer even for the apologists.

[stevenl]

Got any reliable source to support this claim?

[madmitch]

Got any reliable source to support this claim?

Stevenl, you are so predictable!

[stevenl]

Somebody claims fake accidents with the aim of robbing others are becoming commonplace. I doubt that, so would like to know where he gets his information from.

[F1fanatic]

We were involved in an accident around 4 years ago where our car was overturned. Nobody thought for one moment it was our fault, but the policeman said ' unless you are prepared to go to court - admit fault, and let the insurance deal with it'.

The insurance agent was there by this time, (long story), but said the same thing.....

Long story short, all the Thais involved told us it would be simpler (and cost us nothing) to admit fault. Husband (understandably) was not happy with this - but I persuaded him to forget pride, concentrate on looking for our dog.

Bad mistake - we never found our dog and the rich Thai idiot that ploughed into our car got away with it....

Edited December 19, 2010 by F1fanatic

[katabeachbum]

We were involved in an accident around 4 years ago where our car was overturned. Nobody thought for one moment it was our fault, but the policeman said ' unless you are prepared to go to court - admit fault, and let the insurance deal with it'.

The insurance agent was there by this time, (long story), but said the same thing.....

Long story short, all the Thais involved told us it would be simpler (and cost us nothing) to admit fault. Husband (understandably) was not happy with this - but I persuaded him to forget pride, concentrate on looking for our dog.

Bad mistake - we never found our dog and the rich Thai idiot that ploughed into our car got away with it....

ALL Thai insurance policys say "do not admit being at fault". Let the insurance company deal with it, and if they want you to be at fault and you disagree on being at fault, make insurance state what part of the traffic code you are in breach of. Later you can study this, and send report to insurancecompany to avoid loss of No Claim Bonus. Human errors occure among insurance reps, and on occasions they are heavily pressured by police or other party to make you at fault. The cost of loss of NCB can be removed.

[stevenl]

ALL Thai insurance policys say "do not admit being at fault". Let the insurance company deal with it, and if they want you to be at fault and you disagree on being at fault, make insurance state what part of the traffic code you are in breach of. Later you can study this, and send report to insurancecompany to avoid loss of No Claim Bonus. Human errors occure among insurance reps, and on occasions they are heavily pressured by police or other party to make you at fault. The cost of loss of NCB can be removed.

That is worldwide: do not admit fault.

In this particular case, I am wondering whether the person who appeared at the scene was a representative of the insurance company or the broker the insurance was bought through. I am asking, because if 'not to blame' there must be some real heavy pressure exerted for the insurance company to accept blame anyway, whereas the agent/broker would not care.