[quote=“european”]Here is a question.
A one lane road. Two cars waiting in traffic with scooterA in-between. To ride past you would have to ride to the right (side) of the cars which involves riding past in and out of the red no parking line into the man hole/grids/drain cover part of the road.
ScooterA in-between the waiting cars decided to move around the car in front. He slowly approached the right side. A scooterB on the right hand side approached. Seeing scooterA move closer to the right side (scooterA’s front wheel in view but not in the path of scooterB which could have ridden on with no contact), scooterB braked on a grid/drain cover, stumbled and skidded about 1-2 meters. ScooterB made no contact with the car to his left or ScooterA apart from a tiny brush on scooterA’s foot. ScooterB’s rider got up and pulled his bike up. (ScooterB may have had a scooter behind him make contact with him, but it wouldn’t have been anything serious). ScooterA drove off.
My question is, (regarding Taiwan traffic laws) is scooterA to blame in anyway here?
What are the laws for this in Taiwan?
Cheers.[/quote]
Some people will tell you that if no contact is made then no fault can be placed…they’d be wrong. I had a guy come at me head on in MY lane and I braked too hard and crashed without touching him. He was found at fault in court and forced to pay me. What helped most is that the first thing I did after crashing was make a video showing that he was on the wrong side of the road.
But in this case Scooter A wasn’t doing anything overtly illegal. And the rule with filtering is that you shouldn’t be doing more than 10km/hr than the cars you are filtering through. So if the cars were stationary then “by law” you should have been doing about 10km/hr…and in that case you would’ve been able to brake easily when Scooter A popped out in front of you.
So…as an educated guess…I don’t think Scooter A would be at fault without contact. But if you had hit him…then your speed would be over looked by him pulling out in front of you…and he’d be at fault.
Comprehensive insurance is very competitively priced in Taiwan due to it being non mandatory. My car customers will typically pay around NT$5,000 a year for NT$500,000 payout for third party property and up to NT$20,000,000 for persons.
That wouldn’t include damages to one’s own vehicle however. Most don’t apply for that as the majority of damages rarely exceed a few tens of thousands. The cost of covering one’s own vehicle is obviously dependant upon the vehicle’s value. The insurance companies almost always greatly underestimate the value of one’s own vehicle, but this can be negotiated to some degree.
Not this time though, since I was 20Km away at the time. Typhoon picked up the car and shoved or threw it 5m. It was in first gear with the handbrake on.
I reckon that qualifies as an act of god, so I pushed my car back to where it was, whistling innocently .I don’t have the optional third party cover because I drive so little, but maybe I should get some.
If anyone asks that departed tree did it. Tainan lost a lot of trees this weekend.
Sorry. Missed that. The government doesn’t offer vehicle insurance.
I have used Fubon (bank), CHina Trust, and Tokyo Marine. There are a ton of others. You can usually fine an insurance company beside any government’smental Motor Vehicle Office.
[quote=“sulavaca”]Sorry. Missed that. The government doesn’t offer vehicle insurance.
I have used Fubon (bank), CHina Trust, and Tokyo Marine. There are a ton of others. You can usually fine an insurance company beside any government’smental Motor Vehicle Office. [/quote]
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.
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 . 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.”
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.
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.
Now we wait until full recovery to file for mediation. Probably beginning of next year.
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.
