The $18 Car Crash

Scooter vs. Van, who will win?

This year, Leonard and I have made Friday nights our date nights. We rotate through Ward Temple Night, Len & Jen date, Len & child date, Jen & child date, and the whole family date. So far, so good- we've been consistent. Anyway, this past Friday we decided to have a family date. We took the kids out to Chili's for dinner and then went to see the movie Enchanted. We all enjoyed ourselves, except during the movie Gavin threw up all over himself and Leonard. Luckily, I came prepared. We whipped off Gavin's clothes and put them in a plastic bag I brought and got him snuggled into his spare set of clothes. Len added his shirt to the plastic bag and just wore his jacket as a shirt. We were sitting in the side section and pretty much had it all to ourselves, so I don't think we distracted anyone from their viewing pleasure.

After the movie, we started turning right out of the parking lot when all of a sudden a scooter is in our lane heading straight for us. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop in time and we collided. Fortunately, we were only going about 5 mph and the scooter was only going about 10, so the driver appeared to be uninjured. As soon as we stopped, I jumped out of the van to see if he was ok. Len asked him if we should call an ambulance for him or the police or what we should do. We didn't really know the protocol since this was our first foreign traffic incident. The guy didn't say much, so Len gave him his office number and said to call him on Monday (his cell phone is lost and he didn't want to give him our home number). I picked up a piece of broken plastic from the scooter's light and handed it to the guy and he started the scooter and drove off into the night.

Monday at work, he called Leonard and said he had a broken arm and leg and asked Len what he would do about it. What the? If he had a broken arm and leg it was not from our collision. Len told him he would talk to his local staff and call him back. His assistant called the International Police who told her to call the Traffic Police. They told Len to set up an appointment with the guy and then they would come to hear both sides of the case.

So last night was the big "hearing." The scooter guy came with his mom who seemed surprised that the traffic cops were there. The boy showed his bandages on his arm and leg where they had been scratched and his doctor put iodine on them. So that was his broken arm and leg, apparently something got lost in translation earlier. He also said he paid $1,200 NT to repair his scooter. The cop asked if Len was willing to agree to 50/50 and pay $600 NT or if he'd rather file a report and wait months to see a Judge and then have the Insurance Companies pay, etc. Len voiced his concern that he wanted to be responsible for whatever was his fault, but he also didn't want to be taken advantage of either. He wanted assurance that if he paid now, there would be nothing else brought up in the future. The cop said he would write a report that the dispute was resolved between the parties and the case would be closed. Len then agreed to pay the entire $600 then (remember, this is only about $18 US). He also told the scooter guy that he had no hard feelings towards him, and he hoped for the same. The scooter guy told Len that he didn't, and the cop also assured him that they didn't think he was a crazy foreigner or anything. So then they all walked away, end of story.

When Len got home and told me, we were both so grateful and shocked that it was all so simple. Coming from litigating countries we were expecting much worse. It's too bad that people from our countries can't learn to be more civil towards their neighbors and get over the sue-happy way of life.