My car got hit today.

AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
113
So it happens, I was dropping off a friend on the road next to a pharmacy when a parked truck driver decides to back out without looking in the back. My friend saw immediately that he was going to hit my car which was stopped behind him. I never saw the guy as I was looking at the traffic on my side mirror to look for a clearance to dive off. My friend banged on the truck and even yelled that there was a car behind. When I heard the bangs, I thought he was banging on my trunk to have it opened. As I was about to open up the trunk from inside, I felt my car getting hit by the backing out truck.
the idiot was not even looking, just backing out from parking lot until he hit me. OOOOOOOHHHHH, I was so furious. I yelled at him for being so stupid to be just driving in reverse and not looking behind? He tried to pull a dominican on me by saying, " what are you doing behind me when I am backing out? Its not my fault, its your fault to be behind me."
This really got me boiling. Then he tells me that he has no money and he will not pay me. I can call the police if I liked. The damage was not big, just a tiny little dent on my rear door with paint chip off. But I was not about to get insulted by a punk who won't take responsibility for his actions. If he had apologized to me sincerely, I would have let him go. But he tried to play tough and challenged me to call police or to do whatever because he is not paying a penny.
I called the police and waited. I kept blocking him and prevented him from leaving. I also had plan B. I was going to break his window if the police hadn't arrived. just to do some damage to him.
Police arrives. I shake their hand, tell them I am the chiropractor in santiago and then proceeded to tell them my account of the events. Then I told the cops that this man refused to talk reason with me, and challenged me to call the cops because he doesn't care. He told me to do whatever because he will not pay me nor show me insurance papers.
police instantly took my side and told the guy to shut up and come to precent. One cop jumped in his car to make him go to police station. Once we arrived, i explained the whole event to the man in charge and told him how this man disrespected the law or the authorities. he doesn't care to take responsibility or worries about police actions. This didn't sound too good to the police. So when the man told them that it was not his problem that I was behind him and he didn't feel it was his fault for hitting someone behind him. The police snapped back at him by saying, if he was behind him (meaning the policeman, himself) and he (the truck driver) backed into him and crushed him without looking, he would still feel not responsible for his actions? I mean the guy was a fool, my friend banged on his truck and yelled at him to warn him of the car behind. but he kept going looking the other way for incoming traffic. He would have clearly seen me if he had looked in the side mirror.
So to make the long story short. Police intimidated him and pushed him to pay me to avoid all the troubles. He finally decided to pay me and clean up the mess right there. I was fair to him, I only demanded 1000 pesos for the tiny dent. I did it for principle to make him understand that he needs to take responsibility for his actions. I bet next time he will look behind before pulling out from a parking lot to busy street.
The police took him to his house and made him pay me. The man then apologized to me and shook my hand in peace.

This is a perfect example of how police helped me get out of a jam and helped me get compensated for my damage. So the moral of the story is: learn to speak good spanish and stop being the victims. take actions instead of walking away in fear. if I can do it, so can you.
AZB
 

BushBaby

Silver
Jan 1, 2002
3,829
329
0
79
www.casabush.org
EXCELLENT work AZB. I agree with everything especially the shaking hands at the end - very important so that face can be saved!!

Just ONE minor disagreement - What the HECK makes you think the lorry driver will learn from this??:ermm: ?? Are You the eternal optimist or something? :cheeky: ~ Grahame.
 

SantiagoDR

The "REAL" SantiagoDR
Jan 12, 2006
5,808
948
113
When you went to his house you should have checked his computer. Maybe he is also the one that stole your Hotmail password.

Have to agree with Grahame on this one, what makes you think he learned anything about driving?

PS: They also don't look when going forward. I was stopped in traffic and the driver of the garbage collection trucked stopped to my left picking up trash never bothered to look in front of him when he got back into the truck. Almost turned over my car (Driver side hit), then claimed I hit him. I have one of those new fangle cars that can be driven sideways apparently.

Don - SantiagoDR
 

Snuffy

Bronze
May 3, 2002
1,462
6
0
AZBs point is that if you learn Spanish you have better control of such situations. I don't know how many times I have wanted to better explain myself but could not. Of course in this type of situation I would have just left. The way I look at it now here is that these type things happening are just part of living here. So when they happen I expect it. But, this is AZBs new car and if my car were new then I might have did the same thing.

Yea AZB, I hate that dominican logic of deception. Man looks right at you and is flat out unreasonable. Had a guy hit me from behind in Santo Domingo. His entire front end was crushed. You know what the moron told me, "you are responsible, because you stopped to fast".
 

AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
113
Aftab, if the guy was parked in front of you, how did he manage to get your rear door? And nothing else.

Maybe it's my visualisation problems..............

ok, how can I explain this better. Its complicated to explain without a picture. It was a pharmacy on a main road, the truck was parked in the sidewalk type parking space in perpendicular to the street. I stopped on the street, right behind the truch. The truck was not moving. So I was actually perpendicular to the truck, but behind. He could have seen me in the driver side mirror if he had bothered to look. Instead he was looking out from the right side window to check on the on-coming traffic. He reversed, he was warned by friend who actually banged on his truck (small pickup type converted truck), he yelled at him "hay carro atras". The truck kept going back untill he hit me. It happened in like few seconds. When I heard the banging on the truck, I actually thought he was banging on my trunk to open it, maybe he had something in my trunk.
I have a feeling he settled in the police station because he might have been lacking proper documents example: insurance.
Grahame is right, he will keep on driving the same but I hope he wouldn't kill anyone on the road.
AZB
 

Lambada

Gold
Mar 4, 2004
9,478
410
0
80
www.ginniebedggood.com
OK Gotcha. As soon as I saw the word 'perpendicular'; prior to that I thought it was one behind the other. :rolleyes: And I agree with the others particularly about ending the encounter as 'friends'.

Not so sure I agree with those who interpret the driver's reaction as deception, though. It's really hot air, bluff, a child-like response to place blame elsewhere. The minute it is challenged people back down. We know this is going to be the reaction in 99% of cases so we should be prepared for it. It can actually be used to one's own advantage........I did it once (no accident, just a near miss) in a situation where we were both at fault and the Dominican driver was so gobsmacked that here was a gringa pulling a 'Dominican' response, that he just quietly drove away.........:cheeky:
 

Rocky

Honorificabilitudinitatibus
Apr 4, 2002
13,993
208
0
111
www.rockysbar.com
Am I too optimistic?
I think they do learn from an "AZB" type lesson.
It cost the guy time and money, and worst yet, losing face.
I'm convinced he will be more careful when backing up in future, except when properly Brugaled.