Had an accident? Going to have one? Look here first

I stayed in Itashao, in sun moon lake, last week, and rented a motor scooter for Friday-Sunday. On Sunday morning at 3AM, we had to evacuate my hostel because the neighboring building was on fire. It ended up reaching our hostel, and my motor scooter ended up exploding.

Clearly the fire wasn’t my fault, but the scooter company still wants compensation for the damage, understandably. What I don’t understand is why they insist on getting it from me. They told me I can pay them, and then ask the owner of the building for compensation. I’m wondering why it isn’t simple enough that they get the money from the owner of the building. I’ve tried contacting police stations, but most of the police have suggested that I just pay the scooter company. Disagreeing, I’m now trying to figure out how to avoid paying them. I’m not going to just give them cash up front, and I’m not sure how they will get money from me, but I don’t want to find out. What I want is to figure out how to get myself out of this situation without any more damage.

[quote=“Jonathanlp”]I stayed in Itashao, in sun moon lake, last week, and rented a motor scooter for Friday-Sunday. On Sunday morning at 3AM, we had to evacuate my hostel because the neighboring building was on fire. It ended up reaching our hostel, and my motor scooter ended up exploding.

Clearly the fire wasn’t my fault, but the scooter company still wants compensation for the damage, understandably. What I don’t understand is why they insist on getting it from me. They told me I can pay them, and then ask the owner of the building for compensation. I’m wondering why it isn’t simple enough that they get the money from the owner of the building. I’ve tried contacting police stations, but most of the police have suggested that I just pay the scooter company. Disagreeing, I’m now trying to figure out how to avoid paying them. I’m not going to just give them cash up front, and I’m not sure how they will get money from me, but I don’t want to find out. What I want is to figure out how to get myself out of this situation without any more damage.[/quote]

I think, either don’t pay them and tell tell them where they can go for a refund.
Or, pay them, but make sure the scooter is yours on paper, dated to before the fire occurred.

Maybe you can negotiate a higher price on paper. :wink:

Don’t understand. I’m not picky about vehicles, but even I can’t see the attraction of “paper ownership” (which presumably means a receipt) of an exploded scooter.

Absolutely zero attraction!
However, if he decides to pay the rental company for the scooter, I can’t see how he can reclaim his money.
Also, if the rental company still owns the scooter, they could first take his money and then try to get it from that hotel one more time.

Absolutely zero attraction!
However, if he decides to pay the rental company for the scooter, I can’t see how he can reclaim his money.
Also, if the rental company still owns the scooter, they could first take his money and then try to get it from that hotel one more time.[/quote]

OK, though in the first case they’d have to give him a receipt anyway, and he’d presumably then try to recover from the hotel, who in the second case would realize they were being double-dipped.

I have a few questions about aftermath of accidents.
I am not directly involved. My mother-in-law handles the case for our family so far.

My wife’s father and sister had an accident. A car hit their scooter turning right. Driver claimed he did not see them. The police determined the fault was with the car driver.
Sister had minor injuries. Big scratches on leg and hand from the fall. FIL (father-in-law) had serious injuries. His fibula (thinner bone lower leg) was badly broken. He had surgery and metal is now in his leg, holding it together to heal. He was a week in hospital. The cost for hospital was covered by our special accident insurance so far. He got a private room and could choose more expensive treatment. The doctor implied if we chose the more expensive option, then he can do surgery immediately, otherwise he had to wait :wink: :wink:. He got expensive powder applied to the bone, which makes healing better and faster. More than 100k so far covered by our accident insurance. I guess our insurance will claim those cost back from the other party’s insurance.

Now comes the hard part. FIL works in Vietnam and was back on holiday. It will be harder to prove how much he is making. Now he will be out for at least 90 days. There is a possibility that he will be let go. Also his job requires quite a lot of walking. So this injury might make him not able to do this job in the future. He is besides me the breadwinner for the family. So a long legal battle will strain my finances for years as I now have to support a family of seven (wife and my 2 kids included).

Any suggestions on how much is reasonable to demand in such a situation when we go to mediation/court?
How long does it take if you go all the way?

The other party was already asking for pity: “The man is hard working and trying to feed his family. Don’t sue us for too much.” :roll_eyes:

My wife talked to someone at the police station. They said with 100% fault at the other party and those injuries, we should ask no less than 500k TWD up to 650k.
If the other party is able to pay that, that’s another question. I guess the mediation meetings will fail as they will most likely not agree voluntarily to pay a large amount.

An update:

Several sources confirmed that in an accident where both vehicles were moving you will have at least 30% fault. Only if you were not moving and got hit it is possible for the other party to get 100% fault. :man_shrugging:

Now we wait until full recovery to file for mediation. Probably beginning of next year.

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That’s interesting.
Could you share your sources?

One was a family friend that works at insurance company and deals with stuff like that.

The other was a high up police officer who handles the counties traffic accidents.
Through Guanxi we had a meeting with him and he pulled and reviewed the case and video footage, giving us his opinion what to expect.

Btw. anyone can request video footage, police charges like 6k TWD processing fees though. No need as it will be added to the court proceedings as evidence anyway.

For the third source I did not ask further.

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Good to know.
But if requested, does it mean one can keep a copy of it?

Yes. 6k fees for a copy

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Thanks.
Although it’ll be added to the court proceedings, it’s good to have this option, you know, just in case one is afraid the footage may somehow “disappear”…

Agree. This should be done asap if the other party is a gangster intermingling with police. Not in our case.
You should be able to request the footage from any police district as the footage is saved centrally.

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This thread makes me wonder as I was employed to race and had a bad accident . Could not work for ages due to broken back and hand . I was happy enough that the health care was very good , but never looked at whether there was any additional help as I felt Taiwan had paid enough to fix me . Perhaps my employer had some responsibility but they were pretty good to me so I wouldn’t pursue . I doubt whether racing a car would be covered by anything :blush:

This is why you should always wear a helmet:
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1173512477507772417/pu/vid/360x198/XL3lA0hI9skPRHPb.mp4

So, there I was, driving my car in the way home.
Before arriving in my building, I hit the turn signal and once I got in front of the garage, I proceeded to turn right to enter it.
Suddenly, for my surprise, I heard the sound of braking tires, then saw from my side mirror a scooter coming to a few centimeters of my car.
Nothing happened, the scooter didn’t hit my car, it went on its way and I continued to enter my building’s garage.
I really didn’t see the scooter before pulling in, so I guess it was coming fast on the slow lane.
Although nothing happened, it made me think: What if the scooter had hit me? Who would be at fault?

Probably you. May have mentioned this in this thread previously ~ foreign colleague was turning into the entrance to our office car park and a lady on a scooter a car length back braked too heavily and fell off, breaking her wrist. Colleague, being a nice guy, stopped to make sure she was OK. IN return she sued him. Even though she never made contact with his car he was found responsible and had to pay a quite large sum in compensation after the case went to court. It was stated that he turned in too sharply thus scaring her into braking too hard…

Yeah, I forgot that being a foreigner means it is always my fault…
Okay, suppose I was taiwanese. Would it be different?

Not clear how much, if any, impact him being a foreigner made. If he was Taiwanese he likely would have had enough insight to know not to stop or to nego before court if necessary.