Accident between a Foreigner / Indonesian

[sakumabali]

Hey guys,

I've a question, I'm living here since quite some years, never had a serious headache with the locals; ok you keep hearing all these horror stories about road rage (I know some bules here with some sad sad experience), corrupt lazy police, cheating notaries, uncapable contractors etc etc yes we know all this but why we're still living here? Because we LOVE it!!

But recently I heard sth so weird that I 'm asking myself how could this be? Imagine there's a foreigner on a motorbike, light on, with helmet, driving on the LEFT side of the road and he has an accident with three indonesian ladies on a bike driving on the RIGHT side of the road, without helmet & lights...

than they had the great idea to switch lanes just before him, the police came, his bike got confiscated, they blame him...
Is this possible? There are also RULES here in Indonesia, could they blame him just because he's a foreigner? And there's nothing we can do about it in a similar situation????

Too be honest I'm confused!!

[Rangi]

That sounds like a bad situation to be in and you wouldnt think in this day and age it would be possible but again it is bali . . If it was me i would call up one of my local mates to come down and be a witness for me . I know its not the most ethical thing to do but sometimes you got to fight fire with fire

[motormouth]

It never ceases to amaze me about these sort of stories here.I have heard many similar stories over the years, how they were resolved, l do not know.
The funny thing is, try getting a book on road rules in ths country.....there isn't any.
Driving here is a daily nightmare and its only going to worse.

[CanonMan]

I heard of cases in south Africa where the blacks are now jumping in front of flashy cars in the hope of getting insurance payouts, crazy world.

Over here the situation in almost every accident involving a Bule ends up with the Bule paying, irrespective of right or wrong. At the end of the day the golden nugget used to sum up the situation goes something along the lines of "the accident wouldn't have happened if you weren't in Indonesia" I kid ye not. Learned and wise 'officials' have used this line from the bent copper on the road side to high court judges, learned folk indeed

Cheers,
Cam

[calitobali]

The situation is not unusual at all although it is possible to talk your way out of it. If a person has been here for less than a year minimum however I wouldn't expect them to have the learned skills to be able to talk their way out of it. It is possible though.

[gilbert de jong]

at least in South Africa they still jump themself in front of a car...
here in the north, they just throw their death at a car and then say "you killed him"

just joking....although it really did happen once, near Lovina.

[ronb]

I have been thinking about this. First an observation on the English language - we can say "the correct side is the left side, and the incorrect side is the right side" - but we could also say "the right side is left and the wrong side is right" - which just sounds like saying "black is white" twice over.

But back to the story.
Motobikes in Bali travel on the right side when
1. they have just turned right onto a main road and are waiting for the opportunity to cross to the left (most likely what happened here)
2. they are preparing to turn right and cross to the right side before they get to the turn
3. they are just travelling a short distance and crossing the road is a hassle
4. the left side of the road is full of holes
When you get used to this, it's no big problem, but early on people on the wrong side would alarm me and cause me sometimes to hit the brakes a bit hard so that you get others nearly running into the back, and then they shout.
The "no lights" is silly because motorbikes always have lights although sometimes they may not work. But pedestrians don't have lights, food cards often don't have lights, etc. So with our own headlights on, we should see them and hopefully avoid them.

So maybe the policeman was harsh, and taking advantage of a foreigner without any apparent local support, and maybe the locals had influential connections. But on the other hand, maybe he could not understand why the foreigner hit the locals who should have been quite visible and easy enough to avoid. Just a thought.

[mat]

I always have problems traveling in bad weather, on unlit country at night. When I see oncoming motorcycles lights I automatically want to pass on the left. If they are on my side of the road I find myself heading for the ditch/ricefield. Nasty.

[ronb]

Yes, and approaching traffic with lights on high-beam can make it very difficult also.

[sakumabali]

1. they have just turned right onto a main road and are waiting for the opportunity to cross to the left (most likely what happened here)

There's nothing more in bali traffic I HATE more than this, first it's totally inefficient (I did it with indo friends many times they turn right, driving on the right side and than stuck on the right side / me waited some seconds on the left side before turn right and in most of the times I was faster),

and it's dangerous too cause when at a junction (usually busy I want to turn left and they come on my side of the road)

For me it's the best way to explain somebody the often inefficient way of indonesian politics / business / etc; better you can move 20 meter in the beginning than wait 20 seconds as long you have a better start! So it's more important how you look when you start than when you arrive....same with indo projects: " we will build the best this / that in Asia" We decide today we will blablabla",
they look good at the very beginning but than what??