In a Car Accident Today

[Bosse137]

Where I come from,scandinavian country,you are always in the wrong if you hit another car from behind,because you are supposed to keep a safe distance to the car in front of you;just basic traficrule !!! Now,everybody can become confused by the action of the car in front of you,but that does not take away from the fact,that you were too close.Just because somebody drives slowly,doesn`t give you an excuse to hit it,right? Not if you are the skilled driver some of you think you are!

[bonobo]

About ten years ago I was driving to a Christmas Eve party in Pattaya. I saw my turn too late to safely make it, so like a good boy, I continued on until I could turn into a parking lot, then come back out and return to where I should have turned. I sat in the road, blinkers on, to turn right. I had to wait until the oncoming traffic stopped, and then I started my turn only to have a motorcyclist hit me from behind while I was in midturn in the oncoming lane.

My car door was smashed, his bike was smashed, and he had a broken ankle. A cop arrived and told my g/f at the time and the rider on the motorcycle that the motorcyclist had been in the wrong. He had tried to pass on the right and had no headlights on.

He wrote that up, then started getting statements. He found out I had class 1 insurance, but the cyclist had no insurance and no license. He then tore up his original statement and wrote it so I was at fault. I argued, and he told me that he knew I was not a fault, but the kid had no insurance and I had it, so it was only reasonable that my insurance pay for his ankle and his bike.

I was upset and even took photos of everything to prove my point. I told my insurance agent that I was not at fault, but he told me to forget it, as did my business partner (who pays for the car and insurance.) This is totally against US norms, but everyone here in Thailand seemed like it was normal, so I had to accept it.

[Phuketboy]

Yep, I had an accident of my own some 5 months ago and ended up rear-ending some old fart who slowly eased out of his lane to prepare to take a right onto a small side road while I was trying to pass him. I guess no one ever bothered to teach him how to properly apply the brakes and use the right-hand turn signal and THEN TURN so I ended ramming him in the rear and that was that. Of course I had every reason to be angry with the old country bumpkin's reckless driving but why bother? Where would it get me? Anyway, down to the police station and I'M the one who had to pay the 400Bt fine because I hit him in the rear (That's Thailand for ya, if you hit someone from behind you are ALWAYS wrong) but my insurance guy showed up and after 2 hours I was out of there. It really pissed me off, though. This is the first accident I've been in since I've been here (10 years) and my truck was less than a year old (Mazda Bt-50 4-door 3.2) but the real pain in the ass was having to wait almost 5 months just to get my front windshield replaced. Thank goodness the body damage was minimal so that was taken car of in about a month but the windshield took FOREVER. Anyways, not a good experience at all so remember 2 important things before you buy a car or truck and hit the road: 1) Never, NEVER assume that the other drivers around you know how to drive or understand the basics of driving because many, many don't. Therefore, ALWAYS be ready for some idiot to do something stupid because they will and you'd better be prepared for it. It will happen every day. 2) If you do wreck your vehicle, your dealer and/ or insurance company is not going to be in a hurry to get your car or truck back on the road again and sometimes it will take months before your car or truck is back to its original condition.

Not just in Thailand but in Australia as well. If you run up the arse of someone else you are at fault because you should be leaving enough room to allow to brake if something should happen. Basically, if you run up the arse of someone you are either travelling too close or not paying attention.

[culicine]

They will aprove the claim no problem if class 1 insurance. But be prepared for a long wait to get it fixed. My partner reversed into a police box and dented the tail gate insurance approved repair. Tailgate been in the body shop for 2 months already and they estimate a month more!

We have first class, but on my 10 year honda. Wanted some work done least year....would have been 6 months waiting. Told the insurer to find another garage who would do the work - turned out it was a honda dealer, and they did it in two weeks . They did a great job too, as I would have expeced from an official honda dealer.

There are loads of small cars with inexperienced drivers on the roads now, so there are huge numbers of claims going through. Hence the long queue.

[culicine]

Yep, I had an accident of my own some 5 months ago and ended up rear-ending some old fart who slowly eased out of his lane to prepare to take a right onto a small side road while I was trying to pass him. I guess no one ever bothered to teach him how to properly apply the brakes and use the right-hand turn signal and THEN TURN so I ended ramming him in the rear and that was that. Of course I had every reason to be angry with the old country bumpkin's reckless driving but why bother? Where would it get me? Anyway, down to the police station and I'M the one who had to pay the 400Bt fine because I hit him in the rear (That's Thailand for ya, if you hit someone from behind you are ALWAYS wrong) but my insurance guy showed up and after 2 hours I was out of there. It really pissed me off, though. This is the first accident I've been in since I've been here (10 years) and my truck was less than a year old (Mazda Bt-50 4-door 3.2) but the real pain in the ass was having to wait almost 5 months just to get my front windshield replaced. Thank goodness the body damage was minimal so that was taken car of in about a month but the windshield took FOREVER. Anyways, not a good experience at all so remember 2 important things before you buy a car or truck and hit the road: 1) Never, NEVER assume that the other drivers around you know how to drive or understand the basics of driving because many, many don't. Therefore, ALWAYS be ready for some idiot to do something stupid because they will and you'd better be prepared for it. It will happen every day. 2) If you do wreck your vehicle, your dealer and/ or insurance company is not going to be in a hurry to get your car or truck back on the road again and sometimes it will take months before your car or truck is back to its original condition.

Not just in Thailand but in Australia as well. If you run up the arse of someone else you are at fault because you should be leaving enough room to allow to brake if something should happen. Basically, if you run up the arse of someone you are either travelling too close or not paying attention.

True, but what if someone in front fails to indicate they are turning, or worse still, jumps into your braking space then hammers on the brakes for whatever reason. I really hate it when someone moves into my breathing space...so I have to slow down even more to widen the gap again.

[realenglish1]

You should have no problem with your insurance company Its not your fault.

I had a problem with a guy running a red light and I hit him on my green light and this was in the province. I thought I was going to get blamed but

the cop heard both sides of the story, talked to some witnesses and they did lay the blame in the guy who ran the red light

So all is not bad here in Thailand We usually hear the horror stories not the good ones

[Ronn68]

A bit off subject but do you really think medical care in the USA is better than Thailand? Other than maybe a special issue like cancer or a spinal injury I fully disagree. I bet some other posters disagree also.

There are tons of doctors here who graduated from the US and are American trained. Unless you have some rare condition that can't be treated here I see no reason to have to go to the States to get medical help. The prices here are great and there are top-of-the-line hospitals in Bangkok. Medical care in the States is, as you should know, ridiculously expensive.

[Balance]

Yep, I had an accident of my own some 5 months ago and ended up rear-ending some old fart who slowly eased out of his lane to prepare to take a right onto a small side road while I was trying to pass him. I guess no one ever bothered to teach him how to properly apply the brakes and use the right-hand turn signal and THEN TURN so I ended ramming him in the rear and that was that. Of course I had every reason to be angry with the old country bumpkin's reckless driving but why bother? Where would it get me? Anyway, down to the police station and I'M the one who had to pay the 400Bt fine because I hit him in the rear (That's Thailand for ya, if you hit someone from behind you are ALWAYS wrong) but my insurance guy showed up and after 2 hours I was out of there. It really pissed me off, though. This is the first accident I've been in since I've been here (10 years) and my truck was less than a year old (Mazda Bt-50 4-door 3.2) but the real pain in the ass was having to wait almost 5 months just to get my front windshield replaced. Thank goodness the body damage was minimal so that was taken car of in about a month but the windshield took FOREVER. Anyways, not a good experience at all so remember 2 important things before you buy a car or truck and hit the road: 1) Never, NEVER assume that the other drivers around you know how to drive or understand the basics of driving because many, many don't. Therefore, ALWAYS be ready for some idiot to do something stupid because they will and you'd better be prepared for it. It will happen every day. 2) If you do wreck your vehicle, your dealer and/ or insurance company is not going to be in a hurry to get your car or truck back on the road again and sometimes it will take months before your car or truck is back to its original condition.

Sorry, it to you 10 years to learn that you have to drive defensively? Really? You are lucky to be alive.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Balance

[Ronn68]

No. it took me 10 years to finally ram one of these Thai suckers despite constantly being on the alert. I have never been a defensive drive but have always been a very alert driver. Yes, there is a difference.

Edited September 11, 2014 by metisdead
Bold font removed.

[WarpSpeed]

A bit off subject but do you really think medical care in the USA is better than Thailand? Other than maybe a special issue like cancer or a spinal injury I fully disagree. I bet some other posters disagree also.

without question it is..Horridly expensive but the preponderance of doctors and nurses in Thailand don't eve realize the benefit of washing their hands, I know personally I've had that argument multiple times with various doctors and nurses around Thailand when we were there with out children.. Just brought my youngest to a childrens hospital recently as he had fallen off of some monkey bars and cracked his head fortunately not open and the hospital was heads above anything we ever visited in Thailand and that's without a language barrier and being able to communicate well in language both understand is critical in medical situations, no room for ambiguity and no comparison can even be made equally.. Anyway that's my personal opinion from my experiences and one of greatest concerns and frustrations while there for all of us was being able for them to understand the circumstances well enough and have modern equipment and knowledge to deal with the crisis.

My eldest had 2 asthma attacks that required hospitalization at one emergency room in Phuket we brought him in and the emergency room staff had called our boys pediatrician to get advice on treatment but he just confirmed what I had already told them he needed which was ramping up of an Albuteral humidifier to get his lungs to open and they got the prescript from both myself and the doctor backwards and when they told us what they were going to do I said that's all wrong and to call the doctor back as it was backwards, they did and they were wrong. That doctor was Thai but worked in Florida for 16 years on a fellowship and he spoke very good English too. he knew how to deal with allergies and such and was hired by the hospital to try to bring new training to the Thai staff including small things like washing hands. He got so frustrated himself shortly after his hire he quit and came back to the states.

Had a similar problem with the same child when he was born with having the umbilical wrapped around his neck and no one noticing his pulse dropping on the monitor but me and iI had to alert them luckily I was there to be able to do so, that's also rare in Thailand to be present when your child is born. So NO IMO it is not better. Anyway that's off topic but you brought it up sorry OP if that hijacked your OP? No more responses on the topic will be forthcoming from me anyway.

[jaywalker]

Sounds scary what most have posted with regards to repairs at the shop, on the other items being destroyed instead of just the bodywork. So what do you guys think could have happened? Since your car is in their area for a long time, they took it for a rough drive? Have you checked the odometers? etc.?

That's one of the reasons I like to maintain my own cars, we could never really see what those "trusty" mechanics done to our cars. Making it worse or better? You be the judge.

Took my Toyota truck to Car Buddy near the Ocean Marina once to get the oil & filter changed.

Next day I had an oil puddle in my driveway......They had, ummm..forgotten to actually tighten the oil plug.

----------------------

Working as a contractor last year on some Air Farce trucks. I had SHOWED THEM 10 times how to torque the head bolts........They ignored me........Fair enough, but they had hired me to make sure they did it right. Luckily they had a new piston rod in stock......a week later they were where they should have been a week before.

It was supposed to be a 6 month contract......it turned into 10 months,

I was met with opposition every step of the way.......Why they hired me, to just say "We think it's better to do it this way" can only be attributed to the fact that I'm a factory trained rep Token Farang.

I showed the boss a PICTURE of an engine stand, straight out of the FACTORY tech manual...........He had not one, but 3 engine stands built that were absolutely nothing like what I needed.

Luckily there was a Thai guy around there that had lived in California for 27 years and he had one we could borrow......DUH!!!!! They FINALLY saw what was going on & copied the shit out of it.

They had a forklift with ZERO brakes on it.....Boss was renting space in a junk yard & forklift came with it. Had a pavilion roof that leaked & zero drainage = a 4 inch deep lake almost every day.

Little squat hole to go blow yer butt, IF you could get by the junkyard dog that guarded said hole...He'd try to eat you alive. I think the owner must've fed him gunpowder.

Two other cool dogs there.....They jumped on a 3 foot long monitor lizard right behind my desk once. I though that was cool.

I could/ probably should write a book, I could go on and on about stuff Westerners would never believe.

I will NEVER try to work with Thai's again though.

Don't get me wrong. Any of the guys I worked with would jump out and stop a bullet for me, they just do things the way they want to do things.

I'm 48, married to a Thai for 14 years, 9 year old daughter........I'll be doing marriage - retirement visas from now on.

--------

EDIT: I took that contract as I thought it would make me drink less...Errr...WOW!

I was wrong.

Edited September 11, 2014 by jaywalker

[Triplebank999]

Took my Toyota truck to Car Buddy near the Ocean Marina once to get the oil & filter changed.

Next day I had an oil puddle in my driveway......They had, ummm..forgotten to actually tighten the oil plug.

----------------------

Working as a contractor last year on some Air Farce trucks. I had SHOWED THEM 10 times how to torque the head bolts........They ignored me........Fair enough, but they had hired me to make sure they did it right. Luckily they had a new piston rod in stock......a week later they were where they should have been a week before.

It was supposed to be a 6 month contract......it turned into 10 months,

I was met with opposition every step of the way.......Why they hired me, to just say "We think it's better to do it this way" can only be attributed to the fact that I'm a factory trained rep Token Farang.

I showed the boss a PICTURE of an engine stand, straight out of the FACTORY tech manual...........He had not one, but 3 engine stands built that were absolutely nothing like what I needed.

Luckily there was a Thai guy around there that had lived in California for 27 years and he had one we could borrow......DUH!!!!! They FINALLY saw what was going on & copied the shit out of it.

They had a forklift with ZERO brakes on it.....Boss was renting space in a junk yard & forklift came with it. Had a pavilion roof that leaked & zero drainage = a 4 inch deep lake almost every day.

Little squat hole to go blow yer butt, IF you could get by the junkyard dog that guarded said hole...He'd try to eat you alive. I think the owner must've fed him gunpowder.

Two other cool dogs there.....They jumped on a 3 foot long monitor lizard right behind my desk once. I though that was cool.

I could/ probably should write a book, I could go on and on about stuff Westerners would never believe.

I will NEVER try to work with Thai's again though.

Don't get me wrong. Any of the guys I worked with would jump out and stop a bullet for me, they just do things the way they want to do things.

I'm 48, married to a Thai for 14 years, 9 year old daughter........I'll be doing marriage - retirement visas from now on.

--------

EDIT: I took that contract as I thought it would make me drink less...Errr...WOW!

I was wrong.

"I could/ probably should write a book,". No, no, probably you shouldn't, the least you could do is spare us from that.

"I could go on and on about stuff..." No kidding. The caps key probably wouldn't survive the onslaught.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Triplebank999

[lostinisaan]

I almost got killed when a red light doing and speeding pick up truck hit my pick up. Nobody, and I mean nobody in Europe, or the States would even think about redoing the whole car, as the damages were strange.

I had serious injuries of my spine, broken ribs, various stitches, here and there, unconscious for about two hours. The doctors didn't even X-Ray me and sent me home after four hours, very close to a wheel chair.....

I even had to pay 400 baht to an employee of that hospital to drive me home, only 800 meters away....

It was clear that it was the guy's fault and I had a witness ,they're trying to bribe as well.

Took a few weeks to get the car from the police station to the shop of the insurance company. It took almost ONE year to get my car back, just to find out that the Chassis, brakes, steering and many other stuff wasn't done.....

It was clear that this "garage" would not get the car again, as even the insurance guys could see with their eyes how damaged the chassis still was, but the garage stated that they did the frame as well.....

Then the whole action was done-again- by Mitsubishi. They took it completely apart- again- welded the frame, chassis, renewed parts that the other garage forgot to put in and other nonsense.

Another four months of waiting. When I picked it up and went for an alignment, it turned out that various ball joints and important parts of the steering were still broken, all in all a very dangerous issues to drive that car.

After a "chat" with the Mitsubishi foreman, they agreed to repair most of it and I had to pay for some stuff out of my own pocket.

Just my own personal nightmare or pretty much common here? Had to go back to Mitsubishi several times after 16 months waiting.

Counting all the visits to check on the car, I must have spent a fortune for gasoline. Enjoy Thailand's roads and its drivers. Cheers.-

[WarpSpeed]

1) Never, NEVER assume that the other drivers around you know how to drive or understand the basics of driving because many, many don't. Therefore, ALWAYS be ready for some idiot to do something stupid because they will and you'd better be prepared for it. It will happen every day.

I see EXACTLY what you mean.. Who rear ended who again? Not just everyday but many times per day..

Edited September 13, 2014 by WarpSpeed