A Learning Experience

Well a few weeks back I had a bad experience of hitting a motorcyclist and his pillion rider on one of our Federal roads as I was heading to my wife's kampong after attending a wedding ceremony. The guy who we suspected was under the influence froze in the middle of the road after he saw me coming towards him when he made a right turn without giving any indication light, thus even though I swerved left to avoid him by turning to the sideroad, I still swiped the tail of his motorcycle and both of them were thrown off the bike in the middle road. Look at all the junk strew about and it is a testimony that I took all due care to avoid him and was driving slowly that both of them only suffered minor injuries even though they were not wearing helmets and their motorbike was none the worse for wear. Luckily the Police accepted my version and I escaped the summons that usually accompanies a reported vehicle accident, as I showed that I took all possible action to avoid the accident. This was especially since the other party did not bother to make a police report themselves, as they showed during the ride to the hospital something was wrong as they were begging for us not to make a police report or bring them to the hospital. This basically confirmed our suspicions that the guy did not have any licence or insurance when he did not make any police report after the grace period was over, and in fact when we were in the police station he let slip that the bike may even be a possible illegal machine as it was not even registered. So it was no surprise that the guy did not even bother to make the report.

Thus I was left only with a huge repair bill as even though the car only swiped the motorbike, the modern car making technology of crumple zones ensured that whichever part touched them subsequently crumpled and the panels thus needed to be replaced. The funny thing was the bugger was saying in the ride to the police station that if we did not report the accident he was willing to pay some 'coffee money' to close the case, and I retorted how much he could pay and he said a couple of hundred. I sneered at the offer and told him I expected the bill to be in the tens of thousands, and there is no way that I could make an insurance claim without making a police report. Anyway enough of that as I would like to advise you readers to make a police report no matter what. Imagine my surprise when I made a claim through my car manufacturer's workshop that it is current insurers' policy that in the event of any accidents with motorcyclists, taxies or lorries of less than 5 tonnes, there is no way we can claim against the other party's insurance even though the blame may be entirely theirs, and the claim will be taken out against your own insurance resulting in your loss of No Claim Discount. Fortunately in my case the claim was close to mark as the bill exceeded six thousand ringgit, so the NCD loss should be covered in a couple of years. If I had accepted the coffee money offer, I would be up the creek without a paddle as even though I made plans to repair at my own cost if the bill did not exceed two thousand in order to save my NCD, this bill was a bit to rich to bear. So take my advise and make sure you report any accident to the police even though you may be summoned for the accident. You can always defend yourself if you are in the right but in any case 300 ringgit is a small price to pay if your bill is in the thousands right.

Another advise is if your car manufacturer's workshop is in your insurer's panel, please try to send to their workshop as their claim process should be online to your insurer. This means that you do not need to fork out any monies in advance of the claim approval, and the process should be quite quick and convenient as the insurer's loss adjustors would find it easier to accept any recommended repairs and replacement that your vehicle needs. You also have the confidence that the experts will be putting your vehicle back together as it was before the accident without any hint that it was in an accident, and I can vouch that this would be the case as evidenced by the after photos featured here. Anyway I thank god that everybody in my car was safe that day and my vehicle is now the same as before, and hopefully I will not meet with another accident again. Amin!