A Car Accident

A Car Accident

In July 2012, on a Sunday morning, I was returning from Jomtien to Nakhon Ratchasima.
I had spend 5 days in Jomtien whilst my daughter was doing a diving course.

I was approaching the bus station in Korat and had green light but I noticed a pedestrian who was crossing the street at the same time. I honked to let the pedestrian know that I had green light. He stopped walking, but as I arrived a few meters from him he started walking again. I could not stop in time and hit him.

Although I was driving at low speed, about 70 km/hr, he flew a few meters in the air and landed about 3 meters to the left of my car.

I stepped out of my car to help the guy. At the same time, a "Chinese Ambulance (Body Snatchers)" who were stationed at the bus station came to help the guy and they wanted to take him to the hospital.

The "Chinese Ambulance" are volunteers who are stationed at dangerous crossings or drive around to be first when an accident happens and bring the injured people to the hospital in order to collect the ambulance fee. I declined their help and called the Maharat hospital (people hospital) which was a few kilometer away. The "Chinese Ambulance" guys started to argue, but a policeman who was at the Police boot at the bus station came to the accident site and told the Chinese Ambulance to wait for the Maharat ambulance.

A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived and after administering first aid they drove the injured man away.

The police officer had called other police officers with his phone and started to clear the street.
The left bumper of my car was damaged by the accident and was blocking my left wheel.
So, he called the mechanics of the Toyota station located near the bus station to take care of my car.
In the mean time, my daughter had left the car and we went to the police boot to file a police report.

I had called my insurance and the insurance agent arrived at the police boot and started to handle everything. We settle to meet the next day, Monday, at 9 am at the police station. The mechanic at the Toyota service station had managed to free my left wheel and I drove home.

The next day, Monday, after dropping my daughter to school, I went to the main police station in the city. I presented myself to the police desk at the main entrance and was shown where I was supposed to be.

Arrived at the desk of the police officer who was handling the case, nearly half of a village of farmers dressed in their sarong and shirt were waiting there also. An old woman presented herself in Thai language as the mother (mae) of the injured person and spoke a few words in Khmer which I didn't understand. They were coming from a village in Buriram and spend a lot of money to come to Korat. I apologised for what had happened and didn't engaged in further talkings.

A few minutes later, everybody was called into the room of the police officer.
The police officer didn't spoke English, but tried to explain what was going on in "Thinglish".

He had received the report from the hospital and the victim was in very bad condition and would need to remain at the hospital for at least 1 month.

A Broken leg, a ruptured long and several bruises.
He explained to me that every case where the victim was required to stay longer than 2 weeks in the hospital was considered a grave case.

I tried to explain to him that I was driving trough a green light when the victim chosed to cross my path and I could not stop in time, but that was not an excuse for hitting a pedestrian according to him.

Then he started to talk to the village people, and as far as I could understand, the victim was the only breadwinner of the whole village and now they had lost their breadwinner. I should be required at least to pay a big sum to compensate the loss of the village.

Meanwhile, the mother was sitting next to me and was mumbling in Thai "Sahm saen baht (300,000 Baht)". I chose to ignore her rambling as 300,000 baht was the sum to be paid when the victim was dead.

The police officer had been listening to the rant of the mother and proposed everybody to go home and come back on Friday. On Friday, a translator would be present and the police would have an update from the hospital.

From the afternoon until Friday, my phone kept ringing with calls from people in the village asking for money and telling that I was a bad foreigner who didn't belong to be in Thailand.

I realized that this case would cost me a lot of money, and I called my lawyer who had also did handled my divorce a few years before.

I meet him on Tuesday in the afternoon, told the story as it really happened and he proposed to handle the case for 25,000 Baht (about 750 USD). I agreed and he took the case over.

He told me to go with one of his employees to visit the victim and bring him a basket of energy drinks as usual done by the Thai people. I should also apologize to him for what happened. This would put me in a better position. I went with one of his lawyer to visit the victim who was pleased to see my gesture and thanked me for the visit.

On Friday morning, very early, the lawyer called me and asked me to meet him in a cafe in front of the police station before meeting the police.

I went to the meeting and he explained to me that he had send one of his lawyers (a very young and good looking lady) to visit the victim and the victim would have said to her "that he had been drinking a lot and was not aware what he was doing". He showed me the recording of this chat on his phone. I showed him the phone calls I was receiving from the village and I was told to not say anything at the police meeting and let him do the talk.

At 10 am we went to the police meeting, and the village seemed to have gained more people who were depending on the victim for their daily bowl of rice.

At the meeting there were also the agents from the insurance (compulsory and car insurance).

The police officer started with the health report of the victim, who was making a good progress and would maybe released from the hospital soon.
The village people was demanding a donation from me, but that was cut short by the police officer.

My lawyer stepped in and showed the recording of the victim to the police officer and the insurance agents, to which the police dropped the case against me and told the village people, except the mother, to take their belongings and leave the police room.

My lawyer, the police officer and the insurance agents made a deal to pay to the victim a lump sum of money to cover the hospital expenses (50,000 Baht or 1,500 USD) and close the case.

According to my lawyer, the victim was released a day before the 2 weeks deadline.