Traffic Accident

I had a traffic accident last week.  I was on my motorcycle, traveling at a normal rate of speed, when a car to my right -who had been stopped and waiting for me to pass, or so I thought- decided that it was his turn to use the road in front of me at the same time.  Seeing that we were going to hit, I pulled around the front of his car but my right break pedal caught the left corner of his bumper and as I spun around the front, my bike pulled his front bumper completely off the car!!

Lunch Hour Traffic Accident

Falling on my right side, I got up and stood there waiting for the elderly gentleman to get out of his car.  He did, but couldn't speak to me in either Malay (the national language) or English.  He rather called his daughter who came by within 5 minutes, and she and I did the negotiating.  Since her father had come out of an alley, and did not yield to traffic already on the road, he was clearly in the fault.  In a case like this, the one in fault will usually settle with the offended party rather than filing a police report.  Of course, if one wants to claim insurance, then a police report is required.  Police rarely come to the scene of an accident, but rather the parties need to go to the stations and fill out report forms.

The daughter followed me to the motorcycle workshop where I am known and have all of my service work done.  She settled up with the shop directly, paying the bill.  (The bill to repair the motorcycle was probably less than 1/10 the price to repair her father's car.)  Of course, some things cannot repaired, such as scratched chrome and scratches on plastic body parts.  Physically, I was okay with just some scratches on the right arm and leg, but there are deep-seated bruises that are still sore a week later.

I usually take pride in being a very defensive driver, trying to anticipate what other drivers will do, but despite that practice, accidents can still occur.