My husband got into a minor scooter accident (again, he had another one 6 months ago…). He was going forward in a residential area when another scooter coming up on his right side tried to cut in front of him. Both scooters went down.
My husband was the more injured of the two, but after going to the hospital, seemed nothing was broken and bruises with swelling was the extent of the injuries. This time, very thankfully, the other party was more than willing to settle and offered to pay for half of the cost of repairing the scooter. A much better outcome than the accident we had to deal with last summer.
My question is, is it OK if he just gives me the money and we call it even? Or should I get something in writing and signed? The other guy had a minor injury to his ankle but nothing else per the doctor.
If he cut in front and caused the accident, why would you accept half?
Is there CCTV video of the accident?
You can go to an arbitrator and settle it formally.
Get it in writing. I believe there are forms you can download online and fill in the blanks. When I got in my accident the other guy brought a form to sign and fill in.
Often times the police and/or mediator will have stuff to sign that makes the case closed. Not aure how iron clad they are, but certainly get something in writing stating everything is settled and.finished. some people are paranoid, so be polite and friendly avout it. No sense starting something that will be more painful to finish.
Police suggested to me last year: if you want to settle like this, they can include into the police report the settlement amount and the statement that each party considers the issue closed (so that there can be no further legal claims).
Typically you would pay something only in case it’s your fault, though. As @Wee mentioned, if it’s the other party’s fault, there seems no reason why you should accept half cost. Maybe this explains why the other party was so eager ^^
Thanks for the contract suggestions @cats_meow and @olm . I’ll first check with the other party if they have such a document already, if not will try to find one myself. And I’ll definitely ask about getting the settlement amount on the 30-day police report.
As for the accident itself, @Wee unfortunately the incident was not caught on any video. Thus it’s my husband’s word against the other party’s word, the guy could have turned on his blinker and given my husband fair warning. Of course I’m going to side with my husband’s story. However, I figured out some things from our first accident last year. Most importantly that the police report is not reliable to be reflective of fair blame given the events, and if the report is not in your favor and you are not prepared to escalate to the courts, you are really screwed. That is what happened to us last time - even though in that case it was 100% the other person’s fault (my husband was rear-ended as he was driving away - and there was even video footage).
Escalating to the courts is not something we’re prepared to do this time either. It’s way too much of a time commitment for us, my Chinese is poor and my husband’s is nonexistent, and it’s a minor case so not worth it. Waiting until mediation, could be an option, but I’m not convinced that it will be a net gain for us.
I’d agree with this. Last time, we were fighting the other party and on the defense for most of the time, and it was incredibly stressful, my husband had unexplained GI issues for months and panic attacks after the mediation failed. So this time, I just told the guy that the injuries and the damage to the scooter were all minor, therefore it was OK with me that we settle the matter quickly. He said he felt the same, and offered to pay half of the scooter bill. So if we wait til mediation and best case scenario he gets 70% blame and we get 30%, that means we’d be waiting two months to get 20% of an 8000nt bill? No, our peace of mind is worth a lot more than that.
Finally, I’d recommend one more thing, and that is if you get into an accident, make sure that you get injured more than the other party, because then everything will be in your favor.
Get some proper insurance and the insurance company will take care of everything for you. The minimum insurance required by law is pretty much useless. Go to your insurance company, or any insurance company large office near you and talk to them in person, they’ll set you up with a proper policy. It’s not even particularly expensive.
Question about that - what does the extended insurance cover exactly? For instance, in this case our ER bill was 700, and the doctor recommended 2 days off of work. So would insurance help to reimburse for the days of work lost? How about transportation reimbursement for the days while the scooter was being repaired, or supplemental costs for things like painkillers, massage, etc ?
My understanding is that our insurance would not actually cover us but the other party’s insurance would, and our ins company would just be doing the work of apply for it for us. Is that right?
