Armless bandit
On the beach smuggled cigarettes are sold by a boy with no hands. During military service, he lost them in a premature grenade explosion. He still has elbows, but he does everything with them.
In Thailand there are no social insurances, so there are only two options left, begging or trying to earn a living anyway. Everyone admires his perseverance, so his business is going well. So good that he can afford a car and drives it frantically, probably to prove he can do anything. The car has not been modified in any way. He does the same, and that's even more convenient, although that's not the right word, on a motorcycle. He is married and has a daughter of about fourteen years old and two years ago the couple was delighted with the birth of a son.
About a year ago I passed a place where an accident had just happened. A car had hit a motorcyclist and the latter lay dead on the ground. The driver of the car was the man with no hands. Bystanders stated that the accident was absolutely not his fault, because the motorcycle had come at full speed from a side street onto the main road. Apparently the police had also come to that view, because nothing changed in his situation. Yet you involuntarily feel that it is irresponsible for it to continue driving, because there is no denying that without hands you have less grip on the steering wheel than with one. On the other hand, you're glad he's getting through life just fine.
He will be cremated today. A complicated car accident. Twelve dead. He drove into the back of another car at high speed. Probably his fault. Wife and children are left unattended. This is Thailand.
NB this story was written in 2001
Also what I experienced is Thailand,
Last Saturday on the way to the family on the largest go-kart track in the world I was pulled over at the 4th checkpoint.
I was not aware of any harm just had to pay 1000.- Thb because the car insurance had expired for 2 weeks.
No company that just sent 1 message and my partner who normally arranges this just forgot that.
To my anger I had her call immediately but that could not be done until Monday.
No problem !
I only had to pay 800 because I couldn't help it and received 1 letter that I could drive without insurance for 8 days,
Today on the way back at 1 check no problem, I showed the police dispensation while holding back the fax that I was insured again since yesterday.
It is impossible to imagine what the consequences could have been if I had experienced one collision with my note.
The family appreciated my performance and reimbursed my travel expenses, which is also Thailand.
Hello Pim,
I understand your whole story, I have read it 5 times and still do not understand it, but I would like to understand it from there ...... You had to pay 1000 bht on Saturday? Then you were angry? the insurance because it was not possible before? Then you write about paying 800 bht because you couldn't help it, when did you have to pay that 800 bht? When did you receive that letter that you can drive around for a week and from whom? That letter is that the fax you withheld and from whom did you receive it? After your arrest on Saturday by the police, did you just drive on after yes arrest? And are you sure that your girlfriend has not received a letter from the insurance company with a giro collection form? We will continue, although it remains stupid that you were not insured because you are responsible for it at all times!
Mark .
To make 1 short story long.
At that moment you are angry with the insurance agent because we consider it normal to receive notice well in advance that your policy is about to expire.
To my partner, because he has the task of arranging all payments on time with us, unfortunately it is common in Thailand that if you can do something tomorrow, why would you do it today.
The result is that there is a lot of loss of time and forgetfulness.
The police heard her calling and also understood that the insurance office was closed.
This was also not my fault and so I was allowed to pay 800,- Thb on the spot.
After the payment I received that letter that to my surprise the police allowed me to drive on.
I myself do not think it is responsible to drive here without insurance, so my story is to warn others.
On Monday I immediately received the fax from the insurance company that I am insured.
I kept this one back to see if it worked with that police release, so YES..
Yes it is stupid to continue driving, I would have been better off walking the remaining 450 km or letting my girlfriend drive without driving experience.
That is always so much fun on the road, they drive like crazy and crazy drive at 60 km per hour on the right side,
Yet they are not crazy, they usually do that because the left side is so bumpy with those defective shock absorbers.
And make sure that my girlfriend has not had a bill, which I have now paid right away with the road tax.
Don't forget to pay road tax, that includes your unpaid fines.
Hi Pim,
Thank you Pim, this is very clearly described, now I even understand it, haha
Shut up about driving in Thailand…..You have to keep your head up inderdda.
What a trick they are up to here!
Gr, Marco
I had the same thing 2 years ago, 1 day late in Spain without insurance (also stupid of me) 1200 euro fine, car on the side and lock on the steering wheel until the car was insured!
Frame.
That was the first thing I thought of and it made me angry that I probably wasn't allowed to drive any further.
1 car full of stuff that had to stay cool.
As a fahlang, you do not know what the consequences may be, but you must have a deposit for at least 1 thb in the event of a collision.
In any case , you do if your insurance is in order .
Many times I have seen that 1 perpetrator fled from 1 collision.
So again for everyone make sure you are insured.
This is almost 1 must to check if you rent 1 vehicle.
yes, of course it is important to be insured! Only we all know that most Thais do not drive around insured!
My urgent advice: Keep control in your own hands and don't assume that your Thai friend will do the same, because that can cause you big problems or even cost you your head. There are plenty of examples that I will not list here.
Funny comment “Kart track” Personally, I always imagine that I am participating in a video game, where you can reach multiple levels and possibly get bonus points. After many years of participating in traffic, I have now pretty much mastered the rules of the game. I'm always afraid when you're alone in the car, without your partner, you shouldn't get into a collision or accident, as a farang you're always at a disadvantage.
watch out in thailand: they have very different rules here e.g. the bigger the vehicle the more debt. e.g. you sit in your toyota 4WD neatly to the left of the road. on top of your 4WD. Guilty you because your vehicle is bigger. Advice pay right away don't meow don't protest because then you'll only make it worse. moreover, you are farang so the cash cow, you keep your mouth tight and let your thai partner arrange everything. he knows the tricks of the trade.and don't forget the smaller the injury to the other party the worse.the very best:sell that bitch (not the partner but the 4WD)because you can never win in a country where the law is applied arbitrarily .and sooner or later you will be screwed. That does not apply to a rich Thai in an expensive car, then that motorcyclist would be screwed. Too bad, but that's how it works here.
own people first in Thailand, in Belgium and the Netherlands it is just the other way around
Maybe the farang on the bike, or is he also the loser in a collision?
I bought a car from a Swiss in March last year.
Road tax and first class insurance until October.
When we went to pay the road tax and renew the insurance in October, it turned out that I had been driving without insurance for 7 months. The seller, who told me the insurance belonged to the car and not to the owner, had canceled the insurance and asked for a refund while I had the policy.
I still don't understand how it is possible, but I was glad that nothing happened in that time.
That is remarkable. Officially, an insurance can only be terminated here if the company receives the original policy back. So either the company broke rules, or the old owner had a police report made that her original policy was gone. Such a police report will be accepted again. But that a Swiss does something like that????
Thai insurance companies are not checked by anything and no one. Even if you had damage and wanted to claim, you just have to wait and see if they actually pay. Sometimes they wait for the court hearing. It can take a long time. It has to be lambed first. Tourist police is sometimes OK, sometimes they do They don't say anything. But the Thai says that nothing is certain. With trial and error one becomes wise. What is the wisdom? That it is better not to drive a car here as a foreigner. Sooner or later everyone will find out. Safety first.
That Thai companies are not controlled by anything and anyone is a big misunderstanding. The OIC (Office of Insurance Commission) regulates the entire insurance market in Thailand. These even have an ombudsman function where every consumer can easily submit a complaint.
Of course there are sometimes disagreements, but each company must adhere to its own terms and conditions (and even these must be approved in advance by the OIC). Don't forget that foreign multinationals are quite active on the Thai market. This may be because they have a major interest in Thai society, but also by simply working under their own name. A well-known example is AXA, the largest insurance company in the world. These foreign influences ensure that everything is organized more and more in a “Western” way.
In all the years that we have been working as an insurance office, we have not yet experienced any real excesses.
Of course, sometimes someone is wrongly blamed for a collision. But society cannot do anything about this either, in fact, they are the victims of it financially. Personally, as an insured person, I wouldn't worry about this for a second. After all, the company pays if you have a first class insurance?
However, choose a company with a good reputation, good coverage and English-language back-up. Sitting with a small Thai-Thai company with low cover and no English-speaking back-up may make it cheaper, but certainly not easier if the need arises.
With car insurance, you get what you pay for.
Dear Matthieu, Thank you for your response. I can generally sense from this and other insurance policies that you mean it quite well. And I also realize that because you have to earn your living with this, you cannot put it in any other way. Still just a question: if If you are hit in the Netherlands by someone who is not insured (which happened to my father at the time), the damage is paid from the guarantee fund, which is a fund into which all companies are required to put money every year. The question is, is there also a guarantee fund in Thailand and so on? Don't you have a decent buffer yourself to help? One more question finally: how long have you been in business as AA brokers?
@Andrew
I understand well that you think that I am not completely objective and there is probably little I can change about that image. I can only say factually that we have never really had any problems in the field of car insurance.
A guarantee fund as we know it in the Netherlands does not exist in Thailand.
However, if you have first class insurance and you have a collision with someone who is not insured, your own insurance company will pay for the damage. In that case, as an insured person, you do not miss the net. The same applies if you are hit as a pedestrian. In addition to the coverage for medical costs of the compulsory insurance (and almost everyone has it, including the Thai) I assume that almost every foreigner who lives here has a health insurance that covers this.
Your question about the buffer: we are a broker, comparable to the intermediary as we know it in the Netherlands. We advise on finding the best insurance.
If a customer decides not to insure a certain risk, for example by taking out only 3rd class insurance for the car (which does not cover damage to their own car), and the car of that same customer is subsequently hit by someone who is not is properly insured, then I don't think it's our job to cough up that amount of damage or to create a buffer for situations like that.
And the last question: we can blow out 5 candles at the end of this year.