I rented a car, and was driving in Kenting. It was a four-lane highway(two lanes either-way), with a double-yellow line down the middle. I was stopped in the left lane wanting to turn left, but DID NOT have my turning signal on. On-coming traffic was clear so I turned, and a scooter (so intelligently trying to pass me on the left) slammed into the car. I was driving on an international DL issued by AAA in America (I also have my Illinois DL), it was not authenticated by MoFA, but it was within the first 30 days I have been here. Being unsure of Taiwanese law, and unable to argue with the man myself (since I don’t speak a word of Taiwanese), we all agreed to part ways and that was that. I later had to pay $8000 NT to the rental company for the damages, which pissed me off. Anyway, what were my options there, what should I have done, who was at fault, etc.? I would like to know all this for future reference, as I intend to stay here for a while.
Thank you
Brian
With a double yellow line, you are in troubles already and even without turning light = you are in fault 100%
Like many other foreigners here, triple check everything you do when you drive and don’t forget the blind spot on your car.
also, fix you IDL legally or face problems in case of future car crash.
one old saying : you are responsible if you punch on the front but if behind, no more.
Another saying : when you pay, it’s finish, done, over.
The real advices : learn to speak basic Chinese, get a local driving license and always drive very carefully.
Ludovic
Wait, so I am at fault with the double yellow line? 
The scooter driver hit ME…he tried to pass ME, on my left, with the double yellow line, and I was the one without the turning signal on.
Also, I can speak pretty good chinese, but absolutly no Taiwanese, and that was the problem.
Thank you for your help.
I know it’s totally unfair but in a crash between a car and a scooter, cops will choose the smaller one. Somebody in this forum write about to carry a camera just in case.
That is the way Taiwanese people drive a scooter so be extra careful and don’t forget your turning lights.
Ludovic
That’s so messed up, it’s not even funny :fume:
Note to self: When driving perfectly legally, you are at fault…scooters always have the right of way…even if they are on the wrong side of the road and blowing a red light in the rain without a helmet on, and possibly going well over the 60kmph speed limit.
I’m not mad at you, Ludovic, just mad in general. Seriously, thanks for responding.
My advice is to become familiar with the local driving rules. There are a few rules that are really spastic and could catch more than a few people out, especially ones that make no sense at all, there are more than a few of those.
I hear other foreigners all the time complaining and saying “they can’t do that”, when, according to the Taiwanese road code, you can.
That’s definately good advice. And it’s my understanding that Scooters can’t even be in the left lane of a highway, ever…much less can anyone driving anything attempt to pass someone on the left if there’s a double yellow line…so I’m still hella confused as to why I’m at fault there.
The person with the lessor injury is always at fault. Scooter riders here don’t mind hitting the odd car as they know they’ll always get a few bob out of it.
In the case of two scooters, the person who tires of the argument first has to pay. (Loosely quoted from the Vietnam Lonely Planet - valid for Taiwan too)
I`m confused too. The guy made a bad call and perhaps is at fault for being careless. But you are at least as much in the wrong. You were parked in the middle of the road with no indicator showing what you were intending to do.
I know it’s the near universal practice in Taiwan but, in theory, it’s wrong to pass ‘on the inside’. When I did my driving test here that was certainly one of the answers to a questions asked… (amazingly enough in view of what happens 99.999 percent of the time). So the scooter-rider passed a stationary car in the middle of the road, with no indicator, ‘on the outside’. Reckless, of course. I’m a lawyer, not a traffic policeman, but frankly I’d do you both for ‘driving without due care and attention’.
In Taiwan I’ve seen enough crazy driving to stop if I could and see what the guy is going to do. But if I was back in Europe I’d pass ‘on the outside’, and be quite entitled to do so, double yellow or no double yellow. If the scooter wanted to be 100 percent safe and legal he should have stopped behind you and waited patiently for you to do something.
I appreciate why you think the scooter rider is partially at fault for zooming by with little concern for your safety or his own. But I cannot see why you seem to think you don’t bear at least an equal share of the responsibility: you were parked in the middle of the road with no indicator on and you pulled in front of someone who was overtaking you. It could be argued that he wasn’t to know if you would turn left or right at that point.
If your indicator was showing he knows what he has to do: pass on the inside. But it wasn’t.
The double yellow lines don’t mean a person can never pass. If there is an obstruction in the road a driver may have no choice.
You are thinking 'lines.
I am thinking ‘indicator’.
(Both equally important for safe driving.)
God alone knows, what the crazy scooter man was thinking! 
Well, I doubt he was thinking at all…
A double yellow line, in Taiwan and in the US, entails “No Passing Zone”. So, I don’t see how I can be held responsible for some jerk driving on the wrong side of the road. When making a left-hand turn, it’s not standard practice, nor thought essential (though, now I know it is), to make sure that someone isn’t coming from behind you on the wrong side of the road. I do, however, believe it’s standard practice, and thought essential to the general well-being of other drivers, to stay on your side of the road. If you want to drive on the wrong side of the road, I would think you’re willing to take all accountability for accidents you get in. I know I’m pretty far from the US, but that guy would be up shit’s creek in America.
Regardless, thank you all for your input.
[quote=“hexuan”]The person with the lessor injury is always at fault. Scooter riders here don’t mind hitting the odd car as they know they’ll always get a few bob out of it.
In the case of two scooters, the person who tires of the argument first has to pay. (Loosely quoted from the Vietnam Lonely Planet - valid for Taiwan too)[/quote]
Wow, this kind of reminds me of the occasional homeless man who throws himself in front of a car in America, just to get money.
Second note to self: stay the hell off of Taiwanese roads.
There is some way off- base reckoning here.
The only reason that the guy agreed to no compensation was that he wasn’t wearing a helmet, which makes him automatically at fault after the inception of the helmet laws a few years ago.
Unless the guy was pretty old, he did his no mandarin dance after realizing you could communicate/contact the police.
Now, having said all that, the odds you would have your rental car paid for by the errant scooter are pretty slim, but at least you’d have the satisfaction of knowing he got a fine for his stupidity.
Just out of curiosity, why didn’t you have your turn signal on?
[quote=“MJB”]
Just out of curiosity, why didn’t you have your turn signal on?[/quote]
That’s a good question. I can only defend myself by saying that it’s a fairly common practice in America to not use a turn signal, albeit an illegal one(practice)…especially when it seems traffic will be clear very shortly. That’s not an excuse, but a reason. My excuse would be “I’m utterly stupid” or “Completely lazy”. I’d like to say the whole ordeal would probably have been avoided had I used my turn signal …but that would be putting myself at fault. I just have a hard time justifying that man’s driving.
No signal light, you’re at fault simple. That’d be the case in the states too.
A person is allowed to pass on the left or the right of a stationary vehicle if it’s “safe.” I’ve had to pass a car that was stationary on the left side when the right wasn’t very passable. Double lines were there too. Of course I slowed down in case that idiot wasn’t using his signal lights and made a turn therefore causing me to slam on the breaks and scream curses at him/her.
No signal light, you’re at fault simple. That’d be the case in the states too.
A person is allowed to pass on the left or the right of a stationary vehicle if it’s “safe.” I’ve had to pass a car that was stationary on the left side when the right wasn’t very passable. Double lines were there too. Of course I slowed down in case that idiot wasn’t using his signal lights and made a turn therefore causing me to slam on the breaks and scream curses at him/her.
I’d have to disagree with you there…double yellow line entails that the road is such that you’ll never know if it is or isn’t safe to pass. The driver will have to (heaven forbid)slow down, or stop, and wait until the right is clear.
If a scooter and a car hit the car is always at fault. Bullsh*t
This is in no way true…maybe it was at one point but not anymore. And value of the vehicles doesn’t come into as much consderation anymore in the polices eyes. If you don’t leave the scene of the accident and wait for the police. The police will come and take pictures and measurements of the accident. The will then look at all the evidence and decide according to traffic laws who is at fault. They do this in a compulsive over anal manner. I have seen a car rear end another car. And instead of moving the cars of the side they wait for police and then the police start taking pictures! I’m thinking why waste your F’ing film? He rear ended him! It’s obviously his fault. So they go by traffic laws and all the people on this thread stating otherwise are full of it…the only exception being is if one of the involved are seriously connected mafia or an off duty police officer.
There is one thing no one has mentioned in this thread that I can’t belive you are all overlooking: If there was a solid double yellow line…Then it’s completely illegal to turn left! By law you would have to continue until finding a broken line and then make a U-turn heading back to where you wanted to turn. So although the scooter wasn’t allowed to pass you or even be in that lane. You weren’t allowed to be turning. Solid lines mean you can not pass over them passing or turning. You will notice that on good painted roads ( like the ones in Canada) the solid line will change to a segmented line just in front of certain driveways and parking lots.
So you both had fault and whoever was able to yell louder should have been payed by the other one 
.
I am surprised that you are still fighting this one out. You are choosing to focus on the factors that minimise your part in the accident and maximise the other party’s responsibility. Almost certainly, you were both at fault.
You clearly have you mind made up and I don’t know why you asked for other people’s opinions in the first place.
Half the time I think it’s up to the whim of the line painters how the lines are applied.
Take the Bing hai Road for example. There is one section after a tunnel going toward Aoti where you have a 1km plus unobstructed view. No passing. Then in Fulong, 100 meters past the main traffic light going into a blind sweeping left corner is a passing lane… :fume:
I don’t pay much attention to them anymore… :s
Sorry Axiom, but I’m going to have to agree, you were both at fault, your fault being the lack of the signal, and in Taiwan, larger vehicles carry the bulk of responsibility, which is (unfortunately) the only method (as opposed to proper education and enforcement) used by the government here to prevent larger vehicles from bullying and even mowing down the smaller ones. So, if both are at fault, the fault ends up being yours, being the larger vehicle… It is unfair, but that’s the reality here. Time to swallow hard, chalk it up to experience, and get over it.