its not all one sided

[n210mp]

Today as I was driving down the main road in Huai Hai (I always forget how to spell it) A young man on a fairly battered old  motorbike came out of Soi 12 and hit the front left hand side  of my Vigo bending a very strong bull bar and pushing the bodywork onto the tyre , then doing more impact  damage to the Passenger door I think caused by his body. He was holding a young lad about maybe 4 years old , no helmets and as it turned out no licence or insurance either!

 

Well thank God no one was hurt other than a slight graze on the young mans knee. The kid was visibly upset but no more than that !

 

I phoned my insurance and waited together with the young man and kid.

Then what turned out to be hi older sister turned up and maybe his grandad or father both very loud and attempting to intimidate me.

 

The woman said to me that if I gave them 9000 Baht they would not call the Police. I said that they should call the police because as I was first class insured and the police together with the insurance would sort it out!

 

She called the Police.

To cut a long story short and after waiting ages at the Police station on the 331 (yes the 331) The woman finished up paying the police some money, it looked like 500 Baht, may have been a fine?  and then after checking my details sent me on my merry way

[KhunBENQ]

Thanks for sharing. Always afraid that sometime it will be my case. So many near misses.

Maybe you can give an update if case closed (by insurance).

 

15 minutes ago, n210mp said:

Huai Hai (I always forget how to spell it)

Seems Huai Yai (often: Huay Yai) from Sukhumvit to 331.

Huai Yai: big brook/stream/creek.

Drove there a couple of times with the car coming from north down 331.

(now given up driving long distance by car)

[KhunBENQ]

34 minutes ago, n210mp said:

To cut a long story short and after waiting ages at the Police station on the 331 (yes the 331)

Parts of Huai Yai rd. are under administration of Pattaya city, others not.

Complicated. Guess the accident was outside the boundaries of Pattaya (colored in blue):

 

EDIT: or police works by the traditional borders of the districts and not the "artificial" Pattaya borders? Uncertain.

[n210mp]

15 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Thanks for sharing. Always afraid that sometime it will be my case. So many near misses.

Maybe you can give an update if case closed (by insurance).

 

Seems Huai Yai (often: Huay Yai) from Sukhumvit to 331.

Huai Yai: big brook/stream/creek.

Drove there a couple of times with the car coming from north down 331.

(now given up driving long distance by car)

I think that the case is closed as the Insurance rep , who was with me all the time at the police station gave me some kind of form no doubt with all the details on it and  the business  card of a repair facility somewhere in banglamung, where I have to take the car tomorrow presumably to get some kind of estimate.

I did ask if that was it and he replied that it was but you never know if Thai folk without any knowledge of the  English language  really understand, so I will wait with breath bated!            

I think that in view of the fat that "they" had to pay some money and I didnt is a good sign!

[Rimmer]

It's good to have a dash cam in the car, I have two looking forward and one looking backward

[n210mp]

9 hours ago, Rimmer said:

It's good to have a dash cam in the car, I have two looking forward and one looking backward

Unless they stop recording for some reason Rimmer, mine was turned on and apparently working but it had stopped recording and we  (The insurance investigator and I) in spite of taking the memory  card out and him trying it in his phone contained no videos. 

 

Now maybe the  start of another thread really but what is the best Dash cam available, the last two I have had stopped working as this one did but I am at a loss for where to get a good quality one....Anyone know?  

[Rimmer]

2 hours ago, n210mp said:

Unless they stop recording for some reason Rimmer, mine was turned on and apparently working but it had stopped recording and we  (The insurance investigator and I) in spite of taking the memory  card out and him trying it in his phone contained no videos. 

 

Now maybe the  start of another thread really but what is the best Dash cam available, the last two I have had stopped working as this one did but I am at a loss for where to get a good quality one....Anyone know?  

Oh dear that is unfortunate it stopped working.

One of the reasons I have three cameras, I have also had faulty TF cards so maybe worth checking that as well.  

[petermik]

11 hours ago, n210mp said:

Unless they stop recording for some reason Rimmer, mine was turned on and apparently working but it had stopped recording and we  (The insurance investigator and I) in spite of taking the memory  card out and him trying it in his phone contained no videos. 

 

Now maybe the  start of another thread really but what is the best Dash cam available, the last two I have had stopped working as this one did but I am at a loss for where to get a good quality one....Anyone know?  

Try another memory card in it.....mine would not record also some time ago due to a dodgy card bought a new genuine one and alls been well since......my dashcam was a cheapie from Lazada (800 baht I think) had it nearly 3 years and still working fine

[NanLaew]

5 hours ago, n210mp said:

Unless they stop recording for some reason Rimmer, mine was turned on and apparently working but it had stopped recording and we  (The insurance investigator and I) in spite of taking the memory  card out and him trying it in his phone contained no videos. 

 

Now maybe the  start of another thread really but what is the best Dash cam available, the last two I have had stopped working as this one did but I am at a loss for where to get a good quality one....Anyone know?  

If one has a cheap, 1k - 2k baht generic dash cam, take the SD card out of the camera once a week and check the video files on your laptop of computer. Then either reformat it before you stick it back in the dash cam or reformat it in the dash cam of that's an option.

 

Unless one forks out upwards of 5k baht for decent one with all the bells and whistles, the above should help reduce data loss when it is most needed.

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

Try another memory card in it.....mine would not record also some time ago due to a dodgy card bought a new genuine one and alls been well since......my dashcam was a cheapie from Lazada (800 baht I think) had it nearly 3 years and still working fine

That is a good point. A lot of the free SD cards that come bundled as a freebie with a dash cam are cheap, Chinese knock-offs that are either a lot smaller than their label says or simply get corrupted. Maybe try a quality SD card first before buying a more expensive dash cam.

 

It's still all caveat emptor but if one has a one and half-million baht motor and is forking out 25k baht a year for 1st class insurance but still relying on a 800 baht lazada special dashcam for 'protection'... well there you go.

[KneeDeep]

Dashcams need specialist cards. Samsung EVO or EVO Pro or another Pro SD card can be good choices.

 

https://carcamcentral.com/guide/recommended-sd-cards-avoid-sandisk-ultra-cards

[richard_smith237]

Op... You handled the situation exactly as it should be handled... 

 

Some people love to make threats in this situation... quite amusing how quick they were to attempt to extort you. 

 

It seems you played the game well... Just let the insurance deal with it and of course, not accepting any fault. 

 

It's now up to your insurance to deal with the Motorcyclist - if they even bother. Of course, you may no longer get a discount on your insurance premium next year as you have made a claim, but thats just the way it is here in Thailand. 

 

It's up to the Police to deal with the illegal motorcyclist riding with no license - of course, they won't bother. 

 

The law is obviously on your side. 

 

 

Regarding Dash-Cams... reliability is an issue with the cheaper models, but many models require a time to time re-formatting of the memory card (The memory card is SanDisk - Class 10)

 

I do this about every 6 months or so with mine (when I remember), but I've never had issues extracting a 3min file when checking it. 

I use BlackVue and have found them reliable...  their new models forwards and rear facing look good. 

 

Slightly Off topic - but of note for the motorcyclists: 

I've just ordered the Innovv K2 dash-cam for my motorcycle (forward and rear facing)... just to cover me under similar circumstances... hope I'll never need to. 

 

 

 

 

 

[connda]

On 12/7/2018 at 7:44 PM, n210mp said:

She called the Police.

To cut a long story short and after waiting ages at the Police station on the 331 (yes the 331) The woman finished up paying the police some money, it looked like 500 Baht, may have been a fine?  and then after checking my details sent me on my merry way

I'm more interested in how your insurance company handled the situation. 
Although it seems as neither the local drivers nor the police actually understand Thai laws that apply to driving, I'm sure that insurance companies do.  They are the ones who lose money.  The insurance company will need to pay for your damages because the motorcycle driver didn't have insurance, but that should also mean that the insurance company will go after that driver for compensation.  The 500 THB to the cops does not make the damage to your car go away.  The motorcycle driver is still on the hook for civil damages.

[connda]

On 12/7/2018 at 8:26 PM, Rimmer said:

It's good to have a dash cam in the car, I have two looking forward and one looking backward

Interesting.  I have the same setup.  I've thought people think that I'm overly cautious, but it's nice to see I'm not the only one.

[Kerryd]

The 500 baht to the police (that the other party paid) was probably the fine for "being involved in an accident". I had that happen last Spring when an old couple on a crap scooter cut across 2 lanes and then tried to make a right turn directly in front of me.

The police arrived very quickly (as they had been doing traffic checks at an intersection barely 500 meters away). I had a GoPro but those are crap as the batteries only last a couple hours at best.
 

The police took our statements, the insurance rep (mine, as, of course, they didn't have a license or insurance at all) took pics and wrote a report. The old couple and I both had to pay a fine for being involved in an accident and that was it.
(In fact, while still at the scene of the accident and talking to the senior police officer, I pulled out the 24 hour contact info for the insurance company. As soon as the officer saw that he asked "Insurance ?". When I said yes, that basically ended the whole affair. Everyone packed up and left the scene and we went to the police station. Couple hours later (after paying the fine) I was at a hotel waiting for my buddy to come pick up my bike.)

 

Insurance paid for (most) of the repairs to my bike and then, a few months later when my insurance was due for renewal, they doubled my rates. 

No further action taken by anyone. Had there been significant injuries (to either party) the outcome may have been different.

I bought a proper camera system for the bike after that, with front and rear cameras. It runs off of vehicle power so no worries about battery life. It also is set up to start automatically when I start the bike and I've set it to shut off a minute after I shut the bike off. If the camera senses a sudden change speed (like when you slam on the brakes) it is supposed to "lock" the current video file to prevent it from being overwritten in the event of an accident. I used a 64 gb memory card and I think I've got it set to limit file size to 10 minutes.

 

Only problem is, the video files are in some weird .mp4 format that I can't view. I've used 4 different players so far and none of them recognize the files. I've noticed a similar problem over the last year with some .jpg files as well. I'll take 20 pictures and for some reason, 16 of them can't be viewed (even on the camera or phone that took the pictures and the error is always the same "file format not recognized" (or not supported, etc).

 

 

[n210mp]

Thank you all for your helpful comments especially about the cheapo cards (Which I have)

I was going to bin the dashcam but now will do as you all advise and check the card and the dashcam on my PC.

 

Footnote

 

We have had this vigo since 2012, its done just over 80K, we have been in 3 accidents where damage has been done to the car and all from other people running into us.

 

The first, a Russian lady driver coming from soi Khao noi onto the railway bypass without stopping caved the front nearside of the vigo in sustaining major damage. She insisted on calling the police despite both of us having first class insurance and obviously her fault (a local Bobby who was directing traffic at the junction told her it was her fault) and she  finished up paying a fine at the Police station  hahaha

 

The second when I was stationary on the same byepass, a Bangkok taxi ran into the side of me sustaining minimal damage  (He did not stop)

 

The third whilst the lady wife was teaching herself how to handle the vigo a lamppost left its position on the stadium car park Chaiyapruk  and attacked the rear of the vigo sustaining damage to the  bumper bar.

 

The first class insurance paid out with no debate  in all cases   

[Daveyh]

First thing .... never admit liability. Second thing ........ car your insurance agent. Three ...... check out your car cam, ensure it was working. Do not argue ..... be polite, always the call police & your agent asap, do not pay anyone any cash, tell them it's recorded on the camcorder for insurance & police. Let the agent do all the talking & say nothing as your agent will protect you & his employers interests. It is why all farangs that drive here must have "first class" insurance to keep you out of trouble. It's the only protection you have if you are unfortunate enough to be involved in a road traffic accident. It's worth every penny ..... just let the insurance agent & police deal with it. Comply with the police requests, especially for alcohol tests etc ...... life really is easy here if you err on the side of caution.   

[moe666]

I think the days of the farang being to blame automaticely are over, insurance and cams have brought an end to that. I know to farangs who were involved in accidents resulting in deaths both were found not responsible and both had cams in their vehicles. A few weeks ago my car was rear ended by a old lady on amotorbike. It was determined by everyone involved it was her fault. In the end she or her family are poor no blood out a turnip the insurance will repair the car and I will get a big increase in insurance rate

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Kerryd said:

Only problem is, the video files are in some weird .mp4 format that I can't view. I've used 4 different players so far and none of them recognize the files. 

VLC will play almost everything, but sometimes the files need to be exported from the camera, and just trying to play from the SD card doesn't work.

[AlQaholic]

Almost exactly the same thing happened to me, many years ago in Banglamung. I was easing out into an intersection and got hit from the side. No insurance, no license etc. The whole family of 10 people eventually showed up, wanting money. Local police quickly lost interest when I showed my insurance and all other documents were in order, no money for them there. Insurance guy comes, difficult to determine who's at fault, apparent local traffic rules everybody local knows about. The family wants to file a complaint at local police headquarters, so off we go. Police don't care about no license or insurance. Eventually, to get out of it all I paid the Family 4,000 Bath.

[Saraphee]

On 12/8/2018 at 6:29 AM, n210mp said:

Unless they stop recording for some reason Rimmer, mine was turned on and apparently working but it had stopped recording and we  (The insurance investigator and I) in spite of taking the memory  card out and him trying it in his phone contained no videos. 

 

Now maybe the  start of another thread really but what is the best Dash cam available, the last two I have had stopped working as this one did but I am at a loss for where to get a good quality one....Anyone know?  

I have 3 mirror cams - all came from eBay at around $75 each all working fine with front & rear view cams

[LukKrueng]

On 12/7/2018 at 8:22 PM, n210mp said:

I think that the case is closed as the Insurance rep , who was with me all the time at the police station gave me some kind of form no doubt with all the details on it and  the business  card of a repair facility somewhere in banglamung, where I have to take the car tomorrow presumably to get some kind of estimate.

I did ask if that was it and he replied that it was but you never know if Thai folk without any knowledge of the  English language  really understand, so I will wait with breath bated!            

I think that in view of the fat that "they" had to pay some money and I didnt is a good sign!

usually the police won't get involved in accidents with no injuries unless there is no agreement who's fault it was. Seems like the biker or his family were trying to argue you were at fault and your insurance guy determined it was the biker's fault. In such cases the police come in and according to what is presented to them (and sometimes by visiting the accident location)the police will determine who's wrong. if the guilty party accepts the police decision he then has to pay a fine of 400 baht or so for the opening of the police investigation. If the police can't resolve it, it can go to court.

so in your case, seems the police found the other guy at fault and that he accepted and paid the fine. The form issued by your insurance guy is to be presented to a garage that your insurance is working with so they get a quote for fixing your car. Usually it's valid for a year

[Morty T]

Good for you, You did everything exactly as you should. My story is much the same, with the screaming relatives demanding money. After the police showed up and the dashcam screening, they were all Wais. 

[l4ml4m]

Nothing special here, just normal, but you are not so good, you should have pushed all these idiots to give you some cash for your time and trouble.

 

[l4ml4m]

On 12/8/2018 at 6:29 AM, n210mp said:

Unless they stop recording for some reason Rimmer, mine was turned on and apparently working but it had stopped recording and we  (The insurance investigator and I) in spite of taking the memory  card out and him trying it in his phone contained no videos. 

 

Now maybe the  start of another thread really but what is the best Dash cam available, the last two I have had stopped working as this one did but I am at a loss for where to get a good quality one....Anyone know?  

 

Testing once a month that your dashcam still works is not so difficult...

 

 

[ebonykap]

12 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Op... You handled the situation exactly as it should be handled... 

 

Some people love to make threats in this situation... quite amusing how quick they were to attempt to extort you. 

 

It seems you played the game well... Just let the insurance deal with it and of course, not accepting any fault. 

 

It's now up to your insurance to deal with the Motorcyclist - if they even bother. Of course, you may no longer get a discount on your insurance premium next year as you have made a claim, but thats just the way it is here in Thailand. 

 

It's up to the Police to deal with the illegal motorcyclist riding with no license - of course, they won't bother. 

 

The law is obviously on your side. 

 

 

Regarding Dash-Cams... reliability is an issue with the cheaper models, but many models require a time to time re-formatting of the memory card (The memory card is SanDisk - Class 10)

 

I do this about every 6 months or so with mine (when I remember), but I've never had issues extracting a 3min file when checking it. 

I use BlackVue and have found them reliable...  their new models forwards and rear facing look good. 

 

Slightly Off topic - but of note for the motorcyclists: 

I've just ordered the Innovv K2 dash-cam for my motorcycle (forward and rear facing)... just to cover me under similar circumstances... hope I'll never need to. 

 

 

 

 

 

Could you please tell me where you ordered the motorcycle dash cam from?

Thanks in advance.

[GoFaster]

2 hours ago, Kerryd said:

The 500 baht to the police (that the other party paid) was probably the fine for "being involved in an accident". I had that happen last Spring when an old couple on a crap scooter cut across 2 lanes and then tried to make a right turn directly in front of me.

The police arrived very quickly (as they had been doing traffic checks at an intersection barely 500 meters away). I had a GoPro but those are crap as the batteries only last a couple hours at best.
 

The police took our statements, the insurance rep (mine, as, of course, they didn't have a license or insurance at all) took pics and wrote a report. The old couple and I both had to pay a fine for being involved in an accident and that was it.
(In fact, while still at the scene of the accident and talking to the senior police officer, I pulled out the 24 hour contact info for the insurance company. As soon as the officer saw that he asked "Insurance ?". When I said yes, that basically ended the whole affair. Everyone packed up and left the scene and we went to the police station. Couple hours later (after paying the fine) I was at a hotel waiting for my buddy to come pick up my bike.)

 

Insurance paid for (most) of the repairs to my bike and then, a few months later when my insurance was due for renewal, they doubled my rates. 

No further action taken by anyone. Had there been significant injuries (to either party) the outcome may have been different.

I bought a proper camera system for the bike after that, with front and rear cameras. It runs off of vehicle power so no worries about battery life. It also is set up to start automatically when I start the bike and I've set it to shut off a minute after I shut the bike off. If the camera senses a sudden change speed (like when you slam on the brakes) it is supposed to "lock" the current video file to prevent it from being overwritten in the event of an accident. I used a 64 gb memory card and I think I've got it set to limit file size to 10 minutes.

 

Only problem is, the video files are in some weird .mp4 format that I can't view. I've used 4 different players so far and none of them recognize the files. I've noticed a similar problem over the last year with some .jpg files as well. I'll take 20 pictures and for some reason, 16 of them can't be viewed (even on the camera or phone that took the pictures and the error is always the same "file format not recognized" (or not supported, etc).

 

 

Most Go Pro's can be plugged into a power source while recording so will record for the length of the card size. Can also be set to loop so they delete old files when the card is full and keep recording. Im using an old Hero 3 like this with true HD

[IssanDad]

Most Dash Cam's these days record in HD. I found it best to spend more money and buy a HD Quality memory card. The standard memory cards are not reliable. i think i paid a couple of years ago about 1000-1300 baht for a high quality video memory card 32GB . I still use it now. 

- 4 hour loops are the best recording timeframe.

- Every time you check the video. Do reformat and clear the card.

- I found VLC player, plays all of the formats i have come across in dash cams.

 

Attached is a Dash Cam screen grab from the 2011 floods. I spent a month driving from Bkk Centre to Ban Pong, Ratchaburi every day for a month through the floods. It was quite an experience. Dash Cam was a GIO HD 

[n210mp]

48 minutes ago, ebonykap said:

Could you please tell me where you ordered the motorcycle dash cam from?

Thanks in advance.

Yes no problem I bought two from Lazada, payment on delivery and both of them have ben "duds" and worked only for a short time (It could have been they were part of a bad batch ) but the same type I previously bought to the 2 and  looked identical was perfect and worked for a long time until leaving it on the windscreen in the sun eventually burnt the motherboard ( I think) 

 

I will though take notice of the advice to buy a good storage dataq micro card 

[Odin Norway]

1 hour ago, l4ml4m said:

Nothing special here, just normal, but you are not so good, you should have pushed all these idiots to give you some cash for your time and trouble.

 

Exactly.Not at fault. Should not be without his car for the time it takes to repair it, but sometimes the insurance cover a substitute car when you're car is fixed. Follow up up the insurance after and make sure you don't get any claims in the register.