Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:05 pm
So above was the story of my second accident.
This was the first:
I pulled out and put my car's nose in front of a Nissan Titan, a large American, not inexpensive, pick-up truck. I pull in to the lane and look in my rear view and see the passenger motioning wildly with his hands that he is annoyed that the driver let me barge in. I was driving a Toyota Dyna flat bed van that day.
So Mr Titan after a couple of minutes drives over the central reservation (we were on a dual carriage way in heavy traffic) and starts driving down the wrong side of the road. But when he pulls out to cross the central reservation he appeared in my rear view precariously close to me. He then pulls in in front of me and we carry on. But 50m later on he gets out.
He examines the side of his truck and their is a huge scratch down the side - he had scraped the side of his truck along the bolts that fasten the drops sides on the back corners of a flat bed van.
He calls me a "FXXXing" whitey and attacks me. I was wearing some steel toe capped boots and was just about to kick him as hard as I could in the shins when my Angolan electrician who was with me intervenes and separates us.
The police arrive. They seem to side with Mr Titan immediately - perhaps he slipped them a bit of cash?
I could not speak Portuguguese very well then and could not articulate myself particularly well and so the policeman deems that I should hand my documments (driving licence etc) to Mr Titan and go with him and we all sit down and sort it out with my boss. I call my boss and he agrees. We travel in convoy so that if we get stopped by the police again, Mr Titan can explain that he is holding my licence.
So we set off. But the traffic is really bad and so afer two hours in traffic, all of a sudden Mr Titan does a u-turn and drives off - with my licence! I try calling him but it is engaged but then he calls me up a couple of minutes later and explains that he is too busy to meet my boss and will meet him tomorrow. I call my boss and he just says try and drive back without getting pulled again and that he will arrange to meet Mr Titan the next day.
Five minutes drive away from my house, I get pulled again. I had to pay $100 for driving with no licence.
My boss then goes to meet Mr Titan the next day but Mr Titan does not show. This happens the next day and the next. Meanwhile I can't really do much - I have to drive to jobs.
In the end we pay $400 to get me a new, replacement, licence.
We never heard from Mr Titan again.
The traffic was so bad he obviously decided he would prefer to pay locally to get his car fixed rather than drive and meet my boss but he decided to keep my licence.
Its not really a very good system though is it - handing your licence to others?
This was the first:
I pulled out and put my car's nose in front of a Nissan Titan, a large American, not inexpensive, pick-up truck. I pull in to the lane and look in my rear view and see the passenger motioning wildly with his hands that he is annoyed that the driver let me barge in. I was driving a Toyota Dyna flat bed van that day.
So Mr Titan after a couple of minutes drives over the central reservation (we were on a dual carriage way in heavy traffic) and starts driving down the wrong side of the road. But when he pulls out to cross the central reservation he appeared in my rear view precariously close to me. He then pulls in in front of me and we carry on. But 50m later on he gets out.
He examines the side of his truck and their is a huge scratch down the side - he had scraped the side of his truck along the bolts that fasten the drops sides on the back corners of a flat bed van.
He calls me a "FXXXing" whitey and attacks me. I was wearing some steel toe capped boots and was just about to kick him as hard as I could in the shins when my Angolan electrician who was with me intervenes and separates us.
The police arrive. They seem to side with Mr Titan immediately - perhaps he slipped them a bit of cash?
I could not speak Portuguguese very well then and could not articulate myself particularly well and so the policeman deems that I should hand my documments (driving licence etc) to Mr Titan and go with him and we all sit down and sort it out with my boss. I call my boss and he agrees. We travel in convoy so that if we get stopped by the police again, Mr Titan can explain that he is holding my licence.
So we set off. But the traffic is really bad and so afer two hours in traffic, all of a sudden Mr Titan does a u-turn and drives off - with my licence! I try calling him but it is engaged but then he calls me up a couple of minutes later and explains that he is too busy to meet my boss and will meet him tomorrow. I call my boss and he just says try and drive back without getting pulled again and that he will arrange to meet Mr Titan the next day.
Five minutes drive away from my house, I get pulled again. I had to pay $100 for driving with no licence.
My boss then goes to meet Mr Titan the next day but Mr Titan does not show. This happens the next day and the next. Meanwhile I can't really do much - I have to drive to jobs.
In the end we pay $400 to get me a new, replacement, licence.
We never heard from Mr Titan again.
The traffic was so bad he obviously decided he would prefer to pay locally to get his car fixed rather than drive and meet my boss but he decided to keep my licence.
Its not really a very good system though is it - handing your licence to others?
