Car Accident

[Big Booger]

I had a major car accident today. I hit a truck and trailer on the way home today. I destroyed my 2001 Mazada MPV and made the truck immobile too. My car was towed away. I was left with a Japanese friend and about 10 police answering all sorts of fucking question, walking the scene of the accident, re-enacting parts, giving statements, all kinds of shit... all the while my hands are drenched in blood and cut all to hell, I have a slight case of whiplash, my chest is pounding in pain from being slammed into the airbag/steering wheel...

And then I get blamed because I swerved out of the way of a crazy fucking bicycle and hit the oncoming truck that had ventured close to the center line to avoid hitting a traffic signal pole... But I got the fucking blame...

Now I have to deal with the insurance company. I went to the hospital tonight after putting up with the pain all day. I thought I could deal with being injured but it got progressively more painful and I had to have my injury checked to make sure I didn't break a bone. Now every time I breathe my chest hurts like hell... I cannot laugh or it kills me.

What a fucking day. Anyone have any advice on dealing with the insurance company/police/hospital... The emergency center made me pay full price and said I cannot use the health insurance card that I have to get the insurance company to pay. My insurance company is Axa Direct. I wonder if they are good and will pay up. I have a full coverage policy I think... Anyone have any thoughts?

[Number11]

I've been lucky, so I don't have any 1st person insurance advice, but I do hope you recover quickly. It looks like it could have been worse.

[Mulboyne]

Very sorry to hear your news BB. I'm afraid I don't have anything for you on the insurance but I hope you can get back on your feet quickly.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Rough news, bro. Did the cyclist even stick around?

[Cyka UchuuJin]

how awful that the police put 'procedure' before your injuries. you definitely need to see a doctor about the chest pain, that's some potentially serious shite!

obviously the cyclist is the one at fault, but the national system should cover the costs since his carelessness is what caused the accident.

7. What about traffic accidents?

National Health Insurance will cover costs for victims of traffic accidents when the perpetrator cannot be reached or is financially incapable of paying the victim's medical costs. When one is injured in a traffic accident or other circumstances by the careless or illegal acts of another person, that person is liable for all medical expenses incurred by the victim. After receiving medical treatment, National Health Insurance will invoice the person responsible for the accident, so please be sure to submit the necessary documents to the Citizens' Affairs Section of the Takayama Municipal Office soon after the accident. And be sure to submit the necessary forms before a court settlement is reached.

http://www.htia.org/e/info/health_i.html

if the police took statements from bystanders, surely someone saw the cyclist and said so in their statement.

despite the legal headaches, hope you recover quickly!

[Adhesive]

Ouch, that sucks. Glad you're OK. Unfortunately, can't offer any helpful advice either, but I'm interested to know what became of the bicyclist. Did he/she just swerve onto the road and then continue on after hearing the accident behind him/her? Wouldn't surprise me.

[Iraira]

Not sure if I could have remained calm around an idiot cop if I had blood all over my hands. Might have tried to fling some on the more annoying of the cops and say, "ooops, sorry, don't mind my Hep C". Speedy recovery to you!

[Mike Oxlong]

The auto garage I used to help register my first vehicle and got regular car maintenance at sold me an insurance policy, and was very helpful as a go-between with the insurance company and the other driver when I was hit by another car. Best of luck resolving your situation.

[Yokohammer]

Bicyclists scare the crap out of me. Did he/she swerve out in front of you, or appear suddenly from a side street (one of my favorites)? Did the cops acknowledge that a bicyclist was part of the cause?

The way I understand it nobody is every considered to be completely blame-free in these situations, unless the car was at a full stop. And even then you can be blamed if you're stopped in the wrong place. There's usually a "blame ratio" that the court and/or insurance companies work out based on similar cases. You might have to shoulder 60% of the cost while the other party pays 40%, for example.

Get well soon. Hope you're in better shape than your car.

[Sarutaro]

Did you or the truck cross the yellow center line? There is too little information to determine who is mostly at fault here...

I use Axa and always thought they were professional. Haven't been in any accident yet although a taxi scraped my side once. DIY repair took care of that...

[GuyJean]

Can't provide much besides a get well wish..

GJ

[kagemusha]

Get well man. It's a bummer and I can't help you with any advice but at least you didn't hurt anyone, that's a whole different story here.

[tidbits]

sorry to hear about the accident and hope your the injuries recover soon.

[waruta]

Get well soon. Remember to have someone (independent of the police) read over your statement again before you submit it for the final time. Those farking traffic guys have an interesting way to twist your words, making the statement sound like you confessed to everything....

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I hope you're OK and please get treatment ASAP.
Sorry to be the bearer of more painful news, but as the designated perpetrator, you're probably going to find the insurance agency will be an absolute prick...

[james]

Bicyclists scare the crap out of me. Did he/she swerve out in front of you, or appear suddenly from a side street (one of my favorites)?

not too many cyclists out here but the old codgers on the mopeds really piss me off.

[Taro Toporific]

....nobody is every considered to be completely blame-free in these situations, unless the car was at a full stop. And even then you can be blamed if you're stopped in the wrong place. There's usually a "blame ratio" that the court and/or insurance companies work out based on similar cases. You might have to shoulder 60% of the cost while the other party pays 40%, for example....

Man, sorry to hear about your injures. Dealing with the batshit insane Japanese system that you share some of the blame no-matter-what-happened has made me go ballistic in my past fender bender. (I had turned off my car and was dicking around my keitai for a few minutes when my driver's door was hit. The cops assigned me with some blame because I hadn't put money in the parking meter). AXA was my insurance company and they paid to make the problem go away quite promptly.

[FG Lurker]

Anyone have any advice on dealing with the insurance company/police/hospital... The emergency center made me pay full price and said I cannot use the health insurance card that I have to get the insurance company to pay. My insurance company is Axa Direct. I wonder if they are good and will pay up. I have a full coverage policy I think... Anyone have any thoughts?

Sorry to hear about the accident, glad that everyone is still on the right side of the ground.

I got rear-ended here once, and my wife had a parking-lot accident.

The hardest time I had was with the rear-end, the other guy got the blame (obviously) but his insurance at first didn't want to pay 100%, they wanted me to pay a certain percentage and didn't want to pay for a loner car at first. A bit of gaijin anger helped them see the light. I don't know who his insurance company was but they paid in the end, both for the repairs and directly to the hospital for the "treatment" (total joke) I got for neck pain.

My insurance company (Nihon Seimei) paid up no problem for the wife's parking lot accident.

Your rates will probably jump considerably next year but if you have been with the same company for a long time and been accident free they may not go up too much (seems to be a point-based system at most companies.)

You do want to be careful of the police situation though. You could get charged with "professional negligence" if they think you really screwed up and caused the accident.

[Yokohammer]

not too many cyclists out here but the old codgers on the mopeds really piss me off.

There are bicycle-riding jijis and babas and kids all over the place where I am. There are also old-style shoten-gai with virtually no differentiation between sidewalk and road, and they just suddenly swerve across the road or come barreling onto the road from a side street without even looking. It's scary, so the only thing to do is drive at a snail's pace through those areas.

If you hit a bicyclist while driving a car it's your fault, period, no matter how suicidally insane the bicyclist might have been. Same goes for pedestrians.

At the risk of nudging the thread further off course ... route 6 runs by near where I live. The speed limit is 50, but the actual flow of traffic is between 60 and 70. The traffic is quite heavy all the time. There are fields on either side of the road in many places, and you often see an oba-san or oji-san tottering across the road with a wheelbarrow in the midst of 70 km/h traffic. Apparently it's a major cause of accidents in this area.

It seems that one of the foremost road rules in Japan is "don't expect people to behave sensibly."

Farkin' terrifying at times.

[Samurai_Jerk]

If you hit a bicyclist while driving a car it's your fault, period, no matter how suicidally insane the bicyclist might have been. Same goes for pedestrians.

I've always heard this but it's not 100% true. I used to work with a girl who was in an accident involving a bicycle and she wasn't assigned any blame. I thought she was pretty lucky considering she was a gaijin and the cyclist was a junior high school girl. Of course in her case the bicycle hit her car.

[Yokohammer]

I've always heard this but it's not 100% true. I used to work with a girl who was in an accident involving a bicycle and she wasn't assigned any blame. I thought she was pretty lucky considering she was a gaijin and the cyclist was a junior high school girl. Of course in her case the bicycle hit her car.

That would be the case if the car was at a full stop when hit by the bicycle. Either way, I'm sure as hell not going to try it to find out.

[Samurai_Jerk]

That would be the case if the car was at a full stop when hit by the bicycle. Either way, I'm sure as hell not going to try it to find out.

It wasn't that simple. She pulled out of a parking lot and turned to go up a the street. Three girls on bikes were riding side-by-side going the wrong way down the middle of the street. They were looking at each other chatting and not watching where they were going. My friend had stopped and then panicked and tried to move out of the way but it was too late. She should have just hit the horn but she was the type that easily freaked out. Because she had moved her car it looked like she was going to be the one in trouble at first but luckily the witnesses took her side and girl wasn't too badly hurt so in the end the police backed off and didn't assign her any blame. I have a feeling that being a blond with big tits who liked to wear lowcut shirts probably helped her cause with the boys in blue. Had it been me I'm sure the outcome would have been very different. My big tits don't seem to have the same effect for some reason.

[Yokohammer]

It wasn't that simple. ... (snip) ... in the end the police backed off and didn't assign her any blame. I have a feeling that being a blond with big tits who liked to wear lowcut shirts probably helped her cause with the boys in blue. Had it been me I'm sure the outcome would have been very different. My big tits don't seem to have the same effect for some reason.

Lucky girl (the one driving the car, I mean)! I guess there is such a thing as a fair go here in the land of WTF after all, even if it requires blond hair and big tits as a catalyst. Good to hear.

BTW, if you're ever in an accident and a cop starts whispering sweet nothings in your ear about your big tits ... RUN!!!!

[Taka-Okami]

Man, sorry to hear about your injures. Dealing with the batshit insane Japanese system that you share some of the blame no-matter-what-happened has made me go ballistic in my past fender bender. (I had turned off my car and was dicking around my keitai for a few minutes when my driver's door was hit. The cops assigned me with some blame because I hadn't put money in the parking meter). AXA was my insurance company and they paid to make the problem go away quite promptly.

Sorry, you are wrong about "insane Japanese system that you share some of the blame no-matter-what-happened"

I was invloved in a motorcycle accident in Nagoya a few years ago, car drive was assigned 100% (he blew a red light, and I t-boned him going through a green light).

[Mike Oxlong]

Sorry, you are wrong about "insane Japanese system that you share some of the blame no-matter-what-happened"

I was invloved in a motorcycle accident in Nagoya a few years ago, car drive was assigned 100% (he blew a red light, and I t-boned him going through a green light).

That is one example of an exception to the rule, but I think in general Taro is correct.

If you have a decent insurance agent you may be able to negotiate the insurance split. One possible problem is that trucks are often company owned vehicles, and the company has more lobbying force with their insurer than many private citizens do.

[Taka-Okami]

That is one example of an exception to the rule, but I think in general Taro is correct.

If you have a decent insurance agent you may be able to negotiate the insurance split. One possible problem is that trucks are often company owned vehicles, and the company has more lobbying force with their insurer than many private citizens do.

The things in my favour were that he admitted he blew the light and accepted 100%, and that I was the smaller of the two. If I had been in a car I think it would have been a different story. Anyway, I was glad I wasnt badly injured!

[Big Booger]

I have been on and off the phone with the insurance company, the other driver, and my boss. I have been assigned 100% of the blame because my car went over the solid yellow more than the big truck and trailer. I accept that. Now I don't know the next step in this. I assume my insurance company will step up to cover the costs of repairing the truck and trailer, and I will receive some funds to help with the purchase of another car... as the agent determined that my car is no longer repairable. (Am I correct here despite this accident being assigned 100% my fault?)

Also I would like to remove my navi and ETC devices from my old car if possible. Does anyone know if this is possible? I will have a friend call about this and see if I can do so. I put them in and they are mine. I want to remove them from the damaged car so if I need them in my next vehicle I have them for that purpose.

I did go to the hospital and had Xrays. The insurance agency said they will pay 100% for the cost of that as well as pay for my absence from work.

I hope I don't get assigned any professional negligence charges. That would be insane as I only tried to avoid the bicycle. The driver of the truck said I was sleeping at the wheel.. which is absolutely incorrect. He made this assessment based on my poor Japanese. I tried to explain that I blacked out from the accident to him and the cops, and I guess he took it that I was sleeping at the wheel...

I am still waiting about the next stage of this matter. I am trying to stay home and just recover from this experience.

[BigInJapan]

Also I would like to remove my navi and ETC devices from my old car if possible. Does anyone know if this is possible?

I was hit from behind while stopped at a red light several years ago (my SUV was not repairable), and I took out my stereo and CD changer without any problems. AFAIK you are allowed to take all personal possessions from the car. But, best to confirm it with the the garage where you car is being stored. If it's in police impound, then confirm with the keystones.
I hope you clear up the issue with the other driver claiming you were asleep at the wheel. From experience, I have found that a Japanese involved in an accident with a foreigner will try to have 100% of the blame heaped on the foreigner, no matter what.

[Taka-Okami]

I have been on and off the phone with the insurance company, the other driver, and my boss. I have been assigned 100% of the blame because my car went over the solid yellow more than the big truck and trailer. I accept that. Now I don't know the next step in this. I assume my insurance company will step up to cover the costs of repairing the truck and trailer, and I will receive some funds to help with the purchase of another car... as the agent determined that my car is no longer repairable. (Am I correct here despite this accident being assigned 100% my fault?)

Also I would like to remove my navi and ETC devices from my old car if possible. Does anyone know if this is possible? I will have a friend call about this and see if I can do so. I put them in and they are mine. I want to remove them from the damaged car so if I need them in my next vehicle I have them for that purpose.

I did go to the hospital and had Xrays. The insurance agency said they will pay 100% for the cost of that as well as pay for my absence from work.

I hope I don't get assigned any professional negligence charges. That would be insane as I only tried to avoid the bicycle. The driver of the truck said I was sleeping at the wheel.. which is absolutely incorrect. He made this assessment based on my poor Japanese. I tried to explain that I blacked out from the accident to him and the cops, and I guess he took it that I was sleeping at the wheel...

I am still waiting about the next stage of this matter. I am trying to stay home and just recover from this experience.

I don't know if all cases are the same. But because I was slightly injured, I had to go to the doctors a few times for treatments. Not until I said I was OK that the insurance man invited me to a restaurant to decide how much I would finally be paid for my damaged motorbike, clothes and hospital bills etc. I was never out of pocket as its was all billed up at the hospital & I was given a rental bike in the mean time. So I didnt see any cash for a few months! The insurance dude was real happy because I didnt not try the scam the system like almost all Japenese & gaijins do. Eg faking whiplash to scam more money ( I was getting a back massage fully paid for + 10,000yen per trip just for my inconvenience - even the massage place was telling me to keep coming for another few months!).

I wonder how long it will be until you see some cash?

[FG Lurker]

I have been assigned 100% of the blame because my car went over the solid yellow more than the big truck and trailer. I accept that.

I wouldn't accept that if I was you. If the other car was also over the yellow line you should bitch at the cops until they assign some of the blame to the other driver.

I assume my insurance company will step up to cover the costs of repairing the truck and trailer, and I will receive some funds to help with the purchase of another car... as the agent determined that my car is no longer repairable. (Am I correct here despite this accident being assigned 100% my fault?)

If your insurance covers your own car (an option that some people take and some don't) then you will get a the replacement value for your vehicle. This value seems to be somewhat negotiable from what I have been told. If they offer you an amount you are not happy with (which is likely to be the case) then tell them that you'd really sooner just get the car repaired cause you really, really like that car. Keep going on about this until they up the amount enough.

Also I would like to remove my navi and ETC devices from my old car if possible. Does anyone know if this is possible? I will have a friend call about this and see if I can do so. I put them in and they are mine. I want to remove them from the damaged car so if I need them in my next vehicle I have them for that purpose.

Sorry, can't help here.

I did go to the hospital and had Xrays. The insurance agency said they will pay 100% for the cost of that as well as pay for my absence from work.

It sounds like you have a good coverage package then. The insurance company should be able to work it out so that they pay the hospital directly and you don't have to front the money first.

I hope I don't get assigned any professional negligence charges. That would be insane as I only tried to avoid the bicycle. The driver of the truck said I was sleeping at the wheel.. which is absolutely incorrect. He made this assessment based on my poor Japanese. I tried to explain that I blacked out from the accident to him and the cops, and I guess he took it that I was sleeping at the wheel...

This might be why you were assigned 100% of the blame! Get this worked out ASAP!! Sleeping at the wheel is most definitely negligent but I have no idea what the j-cops will do.

I am still waiting about the next stage of this matter. I am trying to stay home and just recover from this experience.

Get well soon!