Call the cops

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

Before I start my story, here’s some advice everyone must heed (Including your wife / husband, drag them over here right now and tell them).

If you’re ever in a motorvehicle accident, no matter how big or small, no matter injured or not, always call the cops immediately, and do not leave the scene.

My wife was in an accident on Tuesday, around 4pm. Not her fault.
A man (who works for Nissan, in Longtan) in a van or 4x4 hit her, she was on a scooter. (Happened right outside Nissan, the mans workplace)

She was a little banged up, so the guy insisted that he take her to the hospital for a checkup. BAD MOVE.
Got some X-Rays and a checkup, she’ll be fine. Nothing serious. Just a nasty bruise on her leg, and a stiff / sore left arm.
Pic of nasty baseball sized bruise, taken the day after.
The guy, let’s call him Mr X, paid for all hospital costs.

I tell her we should go to the police and at least report the accident. They took down our details and whatnot. (8pm) (Btw, my wife didn’t get the make/model or number plate of Mr X’s car. BAD MOVE)
We got the bike fixed last night, only $1500 worth of damage, pretty cheap. (8.30pm)
She called up Mr X last night and he said “It wasn’t my fault, I’m too busy right now.” and hung up (9.15pm).

We go down to the cop shop. (9.30pm)

They tell us pretty much what I had thought, since the cops weren’t notified when it happened, they can’t do anything.
They did, however, phone up Mr X for us and see what the deal was.
Mr X said something to the lines of “It wasn’t my fault”, tells them a phony story, even saying his engine was off, then “I already gave her the money”. WTF?!?! Bull$h!t! We haven’t received any money, yet.

Why would somebody not at fault pay for the hospital, and then tell the cops he already gave us the money, and tell the cops that he wasn’t at fault? What’s up with that? Doesn’t make sense, does it.
The cop didn’t pick up on the flaw in Mr X’s lie, and told us he can’t do anything. We left feeling rather disapointed.

My wife is going to try to get an Aunty to get the money from Mr X. She’s a tough little cookie.
If that fails, does anyone know what we could possibly do to resovle this matter? It really does seem hopeless, to me. But maybe there’s a chance.

I know $1500 isn’t much, but my wife isn’t working and we’re both very poor at the moment. $1500 is a lot to us, right now. (Will have to eat plain steamed rice for the next few days, nothing else.)

Thoughts?
Advice?

I always told my wife to call the cops if she’s ever in an accident, I still can’t understand why she didn’t!

2

Something like this.

3

This happened in Longtan?

Then the normal rules do not apply. There are several options you can take.

l. Threaten to sue.

  1. Keep bugging him until he pays you off to “go away”

  2. Make a formal complaint to Nissan corporate with maybe a nicely
    worded letter from one of our “barrister” types on Forumosa.

  3. Auntie makes a few calls to some of her “connected” buddies and pays the Nissan man a visit.

Longtan is a place where the locals rule, close knit Hakka community as you well know. If this guy isn’t a local, the odds are pretty good that “tough Auntie” will get the cash.

All of the suggestions above seem over the top for 1,500NT, but that’s the whole point. Make it more of a hassle for him then it’s worth, and the problem should resolve itself.

Hope your wife is feeling better…

4

Thanks Michael!
I’ll let her know your suggestions.

Martin

5

I think you’re being a cry baby over this. There were no serious injuries - you should count your blessings. Yes, your wife should have negotiated something for the bike repair, but that’s the benefit of hindsight.

Calling the cops - not a great idea if you can avoid it. The guy offered to settle civilized, no need for the cops. You might have even gone back to him with a receipt for the repairs and asked for some compensation - he might have paid. But you called the cops. Of course he’ll admit to nothing in front of the police, he doesn’t want to get sued. I don’t blame him a bit.

I’ll bet if the shoe was on the other foot, you’d act just like him, or worse.

Just be glad your wife wasn’t hurt, and NT$1500 is chicken feed. Things could be much worse. So stop crying.

6

Once he’s gone he’s gone. I agree - if there’s an injury call the cops right away. Looks like you’ve lost this battle.

7

Actually, we phoned him and told him how much the repairs were. His reply was something like, “I’m not paying a cent. It wasn’t my fault. (hangs up)”. It was at that time we went back to the police, where they then phoned him.

Until the police phoned him, he knew nothing of us reporting the accident.

Tough Aunty phoned Mr X up. He told her he will pay. He says he will phone tough Aunty tomorrow and tell her to come get the money.

Fingers crossed.

8

No.