Accident help!

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

Hello, everyone. First post here is a somber one. I need some advice.

I was riding home from a motorcycle trip around the north of Taiwan when a driver turned left into my lane right in front of me, giving me no time to stop, and the next thing I knew, my bike was under her car and my girlfriend and I were sitting on the side of the road, beaten and bruised. Police arrived, determined no one was drunk, took some pictures, and we took a taxi to the hospital. Fortunately nothing was broken, but my bike has 30k in repairs (her insurance apparently only covers the medical costs) and I’ve spent the last week dizzy, missing work, in constant pain, and suffering from a relatively serious concussion, despite the fact that I had just purchased a new full-sized helmet. [Will be paying up for a top-of-the-line one next].

We have been in contact with the driver, whose mechanic informed her that I “must have been” driving too fast owing to the damage to her bumper. I do not believe this to be the case, and have no doubt that he has never seen damage to that precise part of the bumper from a vehicle weighing the same as mine. As of now, no footage is available of the accident, since her dash cam hasn’t yielded anything useful. She claims to be, at most, 60% at fault, and perhaps not at all owing to a law here that (apparently) says that once a driver is in your lane turning across it, you must yield to them. Even if it’s impossible, since you’re at full speed and the driver turns right into you.

Bottom line is that she is entirely at fault, and I need to make sure I get some compensation for her negligence and incompetence.

Do I need legal counsel for a matter like this? Any suggestions on where? Will I be reimbursed for the costs of the counsel once she’s found at fault? Although I can’t put a price on the week of my life I’ve spent at home in a concussed, bruised haze, how can I get at least a modicum of compensation for it? Is she legally responsible for the sum of damages that she caused, and how ought I to secure it?

Very much appreciated for your thoughts and experiences, ahead of time.

2

You need to get all your papers in order, hospital, repair etc. and then go to the police and file a complaint. Contact the insurance company too. And try to figure out if there are video cameras on that stretch of road. Look for legal counsel if needed.
You have about six months before you decide to sue if needed.
As for medical problems, let the doctors write down everything, it’s very important to have these papers. Mechanical repairs are the least of your worries, but the other party has to pay if at fault.
Don’t let these people bullshit you.

Don’t sign anything you do not understand.

4 Likes
3

First thing is get the accident reference number from the police, if they wrote up an official report with road measurements etc, your statement and hers there will be a reference number. Go to your insurance company and get free advice from their lawyer, their main office will have a staff of lawyers. Hopefully you will have purchased a few levels up from the most basic insurance, if you’ve gone high enough in coverage the insurance company will take the case for you and handle everything. It sounds like the other driver only purchased the minimum although even that should cover a small third party material claim. Neither the police nor her mechanic decide who is at fault in the accident so ignore any blame sharing BS at this time and get on the official procedure.

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4

Forgot that one.

5

The counter parts insurance company will probably try to let you sign papers that everything is settled, don’t! Remember you have six months.

6

Thanks for the quick replies, Belgian and Super. My girlfriend’s Taiwanese and will get in touch with my insurance company. I [facepalm] did not know there were many options for insurance here. I was led to believe that for motorcycle insurance, it was a binary situation of having or not.

She wants us to go to a third party court that determines percentage of fault. Apparently, it’s extremely rare for parties to ever receive total fault. Any experience here or downside to agreeing?

Will be updating.

7

One of the parties can be 100% at fault.

1 Like
8

The 2 accidents I was involved in here were both 100% the other parties fault, no injuries but their insurance paid for all the repairs at a garage of my choice.

It took my first accident to realise how terrible the insurance system is here and how badly under insured I was. It actually costs very little to get to a reasonable insurance level. I was used to having either third party insurance where 100% of property and injuries for the other party are covered or fully comprehensive where everything is covered for everyone back home. Here there are an infinite number of levels, you yourself decide how much you want to insure against third party claims, the lowest level (which most people have) would barely cover the wing mirror for a modern higher end car and covers about 500K in personal injuries. I upped my car insurance to somewhere around 5KK for property, 20KK for injuries and then an additional pool of 50KK for both, it cost a few thousand extra but also gets me lawyer coverage so the insurance company will chase the other party in any accident. Given how poorly insured most vehicles on the road are I don’t think I would ever put a decent car on the road here, ah huang writes it off in his little blue truck and you get 50K because that’s all he insured for and he doesn’t have any money.