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| Le visiteur F 09 Visitor F 09 |
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| Le rétroviseur cassé The broken mirror |
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| La voiture déjà bien abîmée avant l'accident The car already damaged before the accident |
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| La trace sur le pneu de Bip Bip The trace on Bip Bip's tire |
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| le policier qui nous a accompagné à la sation The pliceman whom accompany us to the station |
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| notre escorte privée our private escort |
Nous avons dû nous arrêter sur le côte un peu plus loin dans la rue et l'autre conducteur a fait tout un spectacle. En fait, sa voiture était déjà bien abimée d'un précédent accident. En tout cas, le miroir de son retroviseur était cassé. Bip Bip n'a eu strictement rien.
Le monsieur a voulu qu'on lui donne 1000 pesos en liquide, ce que nous avons catégoriquement refusé. Il a alors interpellé un policier dans la rue chargé de la circulation. celui-ci a appelé ses collègues. une voiture puis une autre voiture de flics sont arrivés. Les policiers ont tous été très gentils avec nous et l'un d'eux parlait anglais.
Nous avons dû aller à la station de police après avoir appelé notre assurance HDI. Un policier est venu dans notre véhicule. Arrivés à la station et après un bon moment d'attente, Chris a eu droit a une visite médicale qui se limitait en fait à un test d'alcoolémie et a un badge Visitante F09.
Un représentant de notre assurance est venu au commissariat. Il a écouté notre version puis la version de l'autre conducteur. Aucun représentant n'est venu pour l'autre monsieur. Ensuite tous sont allés discuter pour trouver un terrain d'entente... Nous ne savons pas exactement ce qui s'est passé mais ils ont dû profiter de notre manque de connaissance en espagnol pour que l'autre conducteur se fasse désendommager de 1500 pesos. Le tout payé par l'assurance (heureusement) et avant même d'avoir vu les véhicules et encore moins avant de faire un devis par un garagiste.
Le tout nous a pris 3 heures de notre temps.
A la fin du processus, les policiers nous ont escorté juste pour nous montrer un parking pour qu'on puisse visiter la ville.
Malgré tout: tout est bien qui fini bien!
We had just arrived in downtown Merida and were looking for a parking space in the street (which is almost impossible). At an intersection, we were making a left turn when a car behind us forced his way from behind and cut the inside left corner. We bumped surprise surprise.
We had to stop on the shouler a little further down the street and the other driver put on a show (when he was able to put down his phone. Phone? hmmmm???). Clearly his white Town and Country was a little worse for wear (again not surprising) showing many many other dents, wrinkles, scrapes and duct tape. It was truly difficult to find any evidence of the impact with BipBip but the guy was sure trying to point out his broken right mirror (previously reconnected with...rivets!). It took a while but we found the point of impact on BipBip - the left REAR tire was rubbed clean of the road grime. One advantage of BipBip's tall stance!
We started the dance...but then he demanded 1000 pesos in cash for the 'damage' we couldn't see: to which we categorically refused. He then called a police officer (Damn! THAT was not supposed to happen, but then there is a cop on EVERY corner to MANAGE?? traffic) in charge of the street traffic to intervene. Of course HE called two friends who called two friends who called two....you get the picture. The police have all been very kind to us and one of them spoke English. They were laughing at the drama for so little damage. But then its too late and the ball is rolling.
We had to go to the police station after calling our insurance HDI. A policeman got to ride in BipBip to direct us to the impound lot. We arrived at the station and after waiting a while, Chris was entitled to a medical examination, which was in fact limited to an alcohol test and he got he pleasure of wearing badge Visitante F09.
A representative from our insurance came to the police to take statements. He listened to our version (he had extra-limited English) and the version of the other driver. No representative came for the other driver, indicating something was up. Then all went to sit down and find common ground ... We do not know exactly what happened but they had clearly 'worked things out' in our lack of Spanish, for the bastard was awarded 1500 pesos for his 'damage' for sticking his nose where he shouldn't have. It was a cost borne by the insurance (thankfully)... you see the insurance adjustor, MY insurance adjustor never did see the cars beforehand and we never got a quote from the garage. The whole thing stinks rank. I wonder how the split went down?
Everything took us three hours of our time. But we had fun.
At the end of the process, the police escorted (all lights and waving and traffic stopping) us just to show us to a car parking lot so we can visit the city. How cool is that?
Nevertheless: all's well that ends well!
Glad I am not the only one running into folks! Though I did cause a bit more damage than you guys, We were able to handle it without police for about ~$150 US
ReplyDeletehttp://homeonthehighway.com/accidentes-in-oaxaca/
The thing is there was NO damage to his car. And that HE jammed his car into a slot that was closing seems to me that it was his problem. But seeing us strangers he tried to extort 1500 pesos out of us. This was clearly not going to happen. In Merida at that time of day there was a cop at every corner 'directing' traffic ('course if he was doing his job and not playing with his phone he would have stopped our guy from playing chicken). When the negotiations went bad our guy just wistled over the cops and then the day went into another direction.....
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