Crash into me...

Life in Ecuador has much in common with life anywhere.  We shop for groceries, we pay the electric bill, etc.  We also get into traffic accidents.

This might be an example of karma striking back.  Shortly after I wrote the blog on driving in Ecuador and my skills in incident avoidance, we were in our first traffic accident.  It was a rear-ending and completely out of my control.  Just saying...

Accidents happen here like anywhere; how they are resolved here is, of course, "foreign".  It's the resolution that's prompted the delay in this post.

Emily and I were going to La Libertad for our semi-monthly grocery run.  La Libertad is about an hour and a half away, depending on traffic, so this is a special event.  We try to buy most of our food locally; however, items such as dish soap, jumbo packs of TP and bacon are much easier to get at one of the larger supermarkets.  La Libertad has three such stores: Super Aki, SuperMaxi and Mi Comisariato.  The El Paseo mall (where Mi Comisariato is found) also has a movie theater and other shops that can't be found locally.

As is common around here, we told the other expats that we were going to be making the trip and asked if anyone needed supplies.  One of our friends said that he also had some shopping to do and asked to ride along.  (Since he was with us when we were rear-ended, he asked that I not mention him by name.  Therefore, in this entry I will refer to He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named as "Tom Marvolo", or "Tom" for short.)

We had just finished our shopping at El Paseo and were on our way out of La Libertad.  The main street in La Libertad, Ave Doceava, is a free-for-all with traffic alternately expanding from two lanes to four, contracting again, and miscellaneous (and unannounced) repairs occurring at random.  The road is shared by street vendors, dump trucks and tuk-tuks.

We were stopped at a red light with cars in front of us when we were hit.  Always trying to be aware of my surroundings, I saw the vehicles approaching and Emily also saw the collision coming from the side mirror.  Fortunately, Tom (riding in back) had raised his headrest at the mall.  Seeing the impending impact, I locked the brakes on our car and no one was hurt.

As best as we can reconstruct, the taxi stopped extremely quickly behind us, but did not hit us:

until, a split-second later, a Chevy SUV hit him:

(Fortunately, although the taxi driver did complain of a sore neck, no one was seriously hurt.)

In the on-coming traffic lane, a Transito had seen the whole thing unfold.  Between him and his partner who had been monitoring the corner (that's him in the upper-right of the picture), all of the vehicles were pulled to the side of the road to assess damage.  What happened next is where things start to go weird.

While the Transitos were discussing what happened and trying to recreate the accident, the female passenger in the white SUV approached us and said that it was our fault; we had stopped suddenly for a green light and caused the accident.  (Unfortunately, we didn't have DashCam going at the time.  We're religious about it now.)  She was visiting Ecuador and the driver of the white SUV was taking her to Guayaquil.  She spoke English; the driver did not.

My reflex, as one would do in the States, was to approach the driver of the white SUV, exchange information and let the insurance companies resolve the issue.  When I tried to offer him my contact card, though, he backed away before reluctantly taking it.  He offered no information in return.

Our damage, by the way, was minimal.  We would need a new bumper and some minor repairs:

In Ecuador, the person that hires a driver is responsible for the driver's actions and the consequences of his actions.  The female passenger was furious that she might be responsible for this accident and wanted it to just go away.

She approached me and said that if we couldn't resolve this right now that we would all go to jail until a court could resolve it in the coming days.  My reply: "That's okay - I've got time."  She didn't like that.  She then went to Tom with the same plea.  Tom's response: "I've been to an Ecuadorian prison; they're not that bad."  (Full disclosure here: Tom has been to an Ecuadorian jail but just as a visitor; he has never had to serve time for an offense.)

After some discussion, the Transitos had determined that the white SUV was at fault.  Tom called his attorney to act as a translator between us and the Transitos.  They told us that we were free to leave but we would need to stay around if we wanted any compensation from the female passenger.  We said that we did.  The Transitos decided that it would be best to get off of the main street, so our little parade of the Transito pickup and three vehicles headed to the local police station:

It was here that we negotiated a final settlement.  The woman, wanting to get to Guayaquil, settled with both us and the taxi driver.  (Again, Tom's attorney was invaluable in this process.  As Will Smith once famously said, "I have got to get me one of these!")  The taxi driver had received the majority of the damage and received 80% of the money that the woman had on her; we received the other 20%.  There were no claims to the other vehicle's insurance company and no written police report.  We all went on our way.

A couple of days later, we brought our car to the Chevy dealer in La Libertad (http://www.automotorescontinental.com.ec/).  (Also, I have since found a different route through town and no longer drive on Ave Doceava.)  Alvaro, the dealership manager, was someone who we had met before, and he could not have been more helpful.  They wrote up the report for our insurance company, filed the claim, and, once it was approved, completed all of the repairs.  Between our deductible and the cash that we received from the female passenger, we were out about $80 for repairs and $6 for a couple of long bus rides.

The car is as good as new.  We're back on the road, developing another House Hunters episode.