What To Do In Case Of Not Serious Motorbike Accident?

[ydraw]

Again, the police are not judges and what they think about the accident is only 1 part of the story when it comes to court.

If the person in the accident wants to deal purely with the police then that's their problem. If they take it to court then their lawyer will be interested in hearing your statement even if the police are not.

The only reason to wanting to leave the courts out of it is if you have a plane to catch. The police are only interested in 2 things: Tea money and minimising paperwork. Why you would deal with them rather than a lawyer boggles the mind.

Edited February 19, 2012 by ydraw

[Tropicalevo]

Tourists have not choice to pay if the police are involved and are wrong then the police shall keep their passports or even jail them until they pay

Another ridiculous and completely 100% wrong comment.

The police cannot "keep your passports". Your passport remains remains property of your home government and they cannot retain possession of it for any reason. The police do not set the value of accident compensation, the courts do. So any amount quoted to you by a police officer is a bribe and nothing more. You can pay it if you want to avoid court, or you can not pay it and see a judge about the matter if you prefer. The police can not hold you in jail for refusing to bribe them.

But again, terrible advice like the few posts I have responded to here ("the police will take your passport" "the police will send you to jail") is why most tourists allow themselves to be shaken down.

I think that you should stop quoting from your book on "The Theory of Law in Thailand". Do you actually have any practical experience of the law in Thailand?

The police can confiscate your passport for a number of different reasons. They can certainly confiscate your passport if there is a dispute and they believe that you might be a flight risk.

Speaking from experience - when the police took my passport, I informed my embassy. The embassy faxed me a list of English speaking lawyers. (I already had one.) The police kept my passport until the dispute was finalised.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Tropicalevo

[ydraw]

The police cannot keep your passport for any reason, sorry your embassy wasn't helpful. Your passport doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the UK government (or whichever country you are from). If they believe you are a flight risk they can hold you in custody, but they can never confiscate your passport.

If your passport is held/lost/stolen, the embassy probably won't send an SAS team down to the police station to retrieve it, but they will cancel it and provide you with a new one.

Edited February 19, 2012 by ydraw

[Tropicalevo]

The police cannot keep your passport for any reason, sorry your embassy wasn't helpful. Your passport doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the UK government (or whichever country you are from). If they believe you are a flight risk they can hold you in custody, but they can never confiscate your passport.

If your passport is held/lost/stolen, the embassy probably won't send an SAS team down to the police station to retrieve it, but they will cancel it and provide you with a new one.

Great theory - now join the real world.

You are talking theory. I am relating what happens. (And the British embasy will not provide you with a new one.)

By the way, I forgot to mention that the immigration people tried to hit me with an overstay fine! I told them to collect the money from the police who had my passport.

Sorry we are now off topic - but there is some dodgy advice being given here.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Tropicalevo

[ydraw]

I'm not talking theory. Just because you didn't exercise your rights doesn't mean they don't exist. It's up to you to do that.

[Tropicalevo]

I'm not talking theory. Just because you didn't exercise your rights doesn't mean they don't exist. It's up to you to do that.

I bow to your obviously superior knowledge.

Now I just have to convince the police/lawyers/judges that they are all wrong!

[BigC]

I f you hae a problem that no one else cansolve then you eeed the A- team

[BigC]

The police cannot keep your passport for any reason, sorry your embassy wasn't helpful. Your passport doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the UK government (or whichever country you are from). If they believe you are a flight risk they can hold you in custody, but they can never confiscate your passport.

If your passport is held/lost/stolen, the embassy probably won't send an SAS team down to the police station to retrieve it, but they will cancel it and provide you with a new one.

I am sorry but your pot is nonsense. what ever laws we have in our own country are worth nothing over hear.

Of caorse the police can take your passprot. then can even beilive if or not lock you up in jail.

Just because this is a law from our wn country that we are not alloud to give a pssport out to anybody it is not against the law in anouther country what eber law that we have in our own country.

in other words they can do what they like.

if the pasport belongs to the government of the country that issued it then you may have to all the SAS so that the country can retreive their possession back

[BigC]

Tourists have not choice to pay if the police are involved and are wrong then the police shall keep their passports or even jail them until they pay

Another ridiculous and completely 100% wrong comment.

The police cannot "keep your passports". Your passport remains remains property of your home government and they cannot retain possession of it for any reason. The police do not set the value of accident compensation, the courts do. So any amount quoted to you by a police officer is a bribe and nothing more. You can pay it if you want to avoid court, or you can not pay it and see a judge about the matter if you prefer. The police can not hold you in jail for refusing to bribe them.

But again, terrible advice like the few posts I have responded to here ("the police will take your passport" "the police will send you to jail") is why most tourists allow themselves to be shaken down.

I think that you should stop quoting from your book on "The Theory of Law in Thailand". Do you actually have any practical experience of the law in Thailand?

The police can confiscate your passport for a number of different reasons. They can certainly confiscate your passport if there is a dispute and they believe that you might be a flight risk.

Speaking from experience - when the police took my passport, I informed my embassy. The embassy faxed me a list of English speaking lawyers. (I already had one.) The police kept my passport until the dispute was finalised.

so what you are saying is that the police have no power over fornags. you don't think that if you were to try andleave after commiting a crtime then there might be an arrest warrent out for you and you would be stopped at immergation.

EVen if you do gain a new passport then you might wish to change your name so you can leave the country plus u have to get visa or some sort of permission to leav or they shall ee no stamps in your passport and arrest you for being ana Alien

[BigC]

There's some ridiculous advice in this thread. Of course you do not have to pay when the accident is clearly not your fault. Thailand has a court system and the judges are not idiots.

The reason most tourists choose to pay is that they do not want the hassle of going to court on their holiday. The police know this and will use the threat of the Thai court system to scare you into settling, because it's less work for them and they will get a cut. But if you ignore them and go to court you can expect a fair outcome, but obviously it depends how much your time is worth to you.

the only redulars post is yours. Being a foreigner hwo do you know if you are int he right or the wrong plus what ever the police say is allot stronger than some forang who is in a bit of trouble.

unless you have read the thai law book in full then you might find that you are wrong as what might be not wrong in england is probablyw rong in thailand.

Anyway if you are not wrong then the police shall not charge you.

If you really belive that you are telling the truth and the thai is lying then if you are lucky with the 1000 7/11's and family marts on the island they may have a copy on cctv. if not then you need a proper thai translater. if your lawyer is ready to come out to crash sites then i am interested i would like his number. probably cost me mor ethan the accident but still ight be worth it. Unless the lawyer is not on the deal.\\

[ydraw]

so what you are saying is that the police have no power over fornags.

No, I'm saying they can't hold your passport if you aren't in custody. A passport isn't a bargaining chip, it's property of HM government. If you are imprisoned then obviously they will hold it along with the rest of your possessions but they can't simply take it from you in order to make you pay someone money.

you don't think that if you were to try andleave after commiting a crtime then there might be an arrest warrent out for you and you would be stopped at immergation.

There won't be an arrest warrant because the reason the police want you to pay the money to the other party is so that they can avoid all that work. The Thai police do not have the power to order you to pay someone compensation for accidents. The courts do. Any money paid to anyone without going to court is a bribe, nothing more.

[Rooo]

How many times do you hear from different countries, that passports have been held by authorities to deter the person from leaving the country? If there is probable cause, they will hold it.

Secondly you have to show just cause of why you need a replacement Passport, they are not just issued . If you have a police matter pending you will not be issued one. If you report it lost & get a police report from another area, this is a criminal act.

[BigC]

so what you are saying is that the police have no power over fornags.

No, I'm saying they can't hold your passport if you aren't in custody. A passport isn't a bargaining chip, it's property of HM government. If you are imprisoned then obviously they will hold it along with the rest of your possessions but they can't simply take it from you in order to make you pay someone money.

you don't think that if you were to try andleave after commiting a crtime then there might be an arrest warrent out for you and you would be stopped at immergation.

There won't be an arrest warrant because the reason the police want you to pay the money to the other party is so that they can avoid all that work. The Thai police do not have the power to order you to pay someone compensation for accidents. The courts do. Any money paid to anyone without going to court is a bribe, nothing more.

Police like to avoid the paper work for 2 reasons.

1 is that they would rarther not do it because they are not so much lazy but could do with out more owrk

2 because they can already write a statement about who was wrong but if the forang wants to clear it straight away without loads of paper workk and drama then if is better for the forang and everyone unvolved.

If you really have not done anything wrong then you may wish to go down to the police statin and you shall need a translator to read out the statement before you sign it.

Then if the police want to take it further ot the other party wants t push it further then they can make a reyqest to send you to court.

In this case they can take your passport off you because you have a legal case to dispute.

SO basically if you are hear on a holiday and you want to leave quickly and the police beleive you are wrong then it might be in your interest to pay up keep your passport and leave.

If you have allot of time on your hands and money then it is up to you what you do just make sure o your visa is up to date. sometimes the police release passports to people when they are on bail to update their visa at nathong but it is up to them.

[tinfoilhat]

And no one died

none of the riding i saw in the video looks remotely like a typical thai (or bangkok) motorcyclist.

[stiggy]

Interesting opinions on here.

From experince I would do as follows.

Small shunt sort out on the spot if they have insurance they won't care about things being done via insurance, just keep calm no acting like a tosser would in europe waving arms about etc.

If person who has hit you is drunk or has no Insurance old bike no lights etc etc, sort out on spot they will know if in the wrong and sort accordingly expect to meet in the middle.

However consider the following, if you car/bike is not legal, not insured, you have been here over 3 months with no Thai liscence you need to sort yourself anyhow courts won't be interested and Police will have a field day.

If you have legal transport fully insured and appropriate licence etc let insurance deal with it easy.

As stated earlier do not move involved cars or bikes, take pictures if possible be ready to have patience tested always stay cool.

Other facts i have encountered, the average civil court case in Surat or samui takes 6 years for resolution involving compensation for incidents like this.

Compensation is usually max 30-35k if they have registered /insured bike car even when a fatality is involved.

Some extremes I have personally witnessed: western guy kills a sober 21 year old Burmese lad while drunk of his nut in his truck, pays 10 k to police to go home and sober up then 100k to family.

Westerner parked with keys in ignition engine off, has three thais on bike run into him one dead two severely injured they where drunk and rid in at high sped when they hit a legally parked stationary car.Judge eventually ruled in favour of Thais family for compensation stating, if westerner wasn't hear and had not taken a job that could be done by Thais incident wouldn't of happened.

Thai staff member had a drunk hit her father who was walking and killed him outright, 30 k payout no more said or done all on insurance.

I personally hit a police truck outside Bophut police station that was parked, whilst avoiding an idiot on wrong side of road.Police where great gave me a lift to final destination, my fine was I had to use Police mans family garage to fix damage to both cars was surprisingly cheap and high quality work besides insurance covered it.

[limbos]

Thanks for sharing Stiggy, good to hear some real life experience. My experiences are on the same level, as already told earlier, I was basically told by the men in brown to bugger off afetr I witnessed an incident where the Westerns were not at fault and in a different case, Thai police were not even interested in listening to Thai witnesses who clearly stated a Thai person was at fault.

[BigC]

Thanks for sharing Stiggy, good to hear some real life experience. My experiences are on the same level, as already told earlier, I was basically told by the men in brown to bugger off afetr I witnessed an incident where the Westerns were not at fault and in a different case, Thai police were not even interested in listening to Thai witnesses who clearly stated a Thai person was at fault.

yes we have to adapt to our surroundings you really need to own your own car out here and have full inssurence.

[ObsessiveAddict]

If you crash on a moped then use your head and common sence, do what you have to do and pay who you have to pay. If you weren't driving then realisticly you shouldent have to pay.. but dealing with thais as a Farang espiessialy over large amounts of money can in most cases, be a dead end. If the damage isen't too fatal on the bike it shouldent be more then 10,000 to 15,000 baht.

It is very easy to get ripped off by moped rental businesses. Don't get pushed around, be aggressive and bargain with them until you get the lowest price ( don't be rude ofcourse.)

I crashed my moped and got it repaired at a private repair shop for 2,000baht. ( new mirror, whole front, siding, ect.) I then took it back to the rental shop and got yelled at, he took all the parts off I repaired and tryed charging me 12,000 baht. He said his parts were custom made. fair enough. I talked him down to 9,000 baht which isent too scary. I've heard people paying 15,000 for a single scartch, up to 30,000 for more damage.

[BigC]

If you crash on a moped then use your head and common sence, do what you have to do and pay who you have to pay. If you weren't driving then realisticly you shouldent have to pay.. but dealing with thais as a Farang espiessialy over large amounts of money can in most cases, be a dead end. If the damage isen't too fatal on the bike it shouldent be more then 10,000 to 15,000 baht.

It is very easy to get ripped off by moped rental businesses. Don't get pushed around, be aggressive and bargain with them until you get the lowest price ( don't be rude ofcourse.)

I crashed my moped and got it repaired at a private repair shop for 2,000baht. ( new mirror, whole front, siding, ect.) I then took it back to the rental shop and got yelled at, he took all the parts off I repaired and tryed charging me 12,000 baht. He said his parts were custom made. fair enough. I talked him down to 9,000 baht which isent too scary. I've heard people paying 15,000 for a single scartch, up to 30,000 for more damage.

Single scratch is stupid but you have to rememeber that like it or not business is a business and you really have to take photos before you rent. there is a chance that someone did not even do the scratch.

If you have a smash and you pay more in the rental shop than in a motor bike shop then that is your fault. as it is there bike and they are a business. oh coarse they make a profit if they crash.

Then u have to account for the hours off the road plus the bike shall never ride the same after it has been smashed.

i had an accident on the go karts a while back . we were all racing and had a pile up.

we had to pay more than the parts were worth but i dod not complain if i did not crash then i would not pay and they are a business so if you buy a part your self or order it to get it cheaper then fit it your self then u r missing the point. The company charges what they want as it is there company and there prices.

some bike rentals have a price list for damaged parts.

set prices. u cannot argue with that