Editor,
Re: Farang’s fault (PM Mailbag Friday, 16 October 2015) – It’s not only us westerners that pay when/if you have an accident with a motorbike. I lent my pickup truck to my brother in law (he’s Thai) to attend a family funeral about 120 miles away. He got 20 miles out of the village when a 12 year old kid flew out of a side road in a village he was driving through smacked straight into the nearside wing and ended up on the bonnet before falling in the road. Fortunately only cuts and bruises to the boy, who still needed hospital treatment.
Police and my insurance agent came to settle the incident at the police station, with the boy’s family. The boy obviously had no licence, insurance, or helmet. Police took no action with the boy’s family about that.
My brother in law had to pay the boy’s family 10,000 baht. They also wanted money to repair the motorbike. My insurance man said no, or words to that effect. My insurance paid up fully for the car repair, but not for my expenses getting it to or from the repair shop, a considerable distance away. No loan car either.
Apparently 10,000 baht is the going rate for motorbikes crashing into you, unless you’re a westerner and it would have been double, the cops told me if I had been driving!
All this happened in deepest Issan. I don’t know if the same applies around Bangkok or Pattaya. If you have a car/pickup always have number one insurance.
Amazing Thailand.
Chris Gibb
