Recently a strange incident happened to me. I thought its good enough to document in my blog. One fine afternoon, the receptionist from my office called me and mentioned the driver of the car LG-AS-XXXX has been accused with hit and drive case (Umfallflucht) on 26th Jan at 18.26. I was shocked and perplexed to the core after hearing that news. I was given the number of police to contact directly and sort out the issue. Unfortunately, the concerned police work only half time and she already left the office.I was asking myself when did I do some accident and when did I run away. It was a terrible night for me asking myself how could this happen and I was rewinding all possible actions on that day. Nothing came to my mind. I was googling around all the articles for this mistake (Fahrenflucht) what could be the penalty? Who should pay the cost to the damaged car? Will my hard earned driving license be in threat? I was asking all my German friends what I should do in this situation. Everybody advised me to go to the Police and collect the information. If things are complicated, then we can go to the lawyer. Next morning had appointment with the police, thanks to my good friend and colleague Henrik who came along with me to police to help and ease out the situation.
The police was very polite and explained the situation in a relaxed manner. One old German lady saw me parking my car. During the parking, it seems my car touched the other car. The old German lady called to police that I damaged the other car and I didn’t take any necessary action and she gave both the car numbers. Police examined my car and found no damages in my car. Police called the damaged car owner and asked for whether there was any damage to your car? Police could only reach the mother of the car owner and said they can’t make any decision unless and otherwise the owner of the car gives a statement that nothing has been damaged. The police gave the following possibilities.
Case A: If the owner of the car says nothing has been damaged, then I am completely safe. The case will anyway go to the city traffic attorney but he will simply reject the case because there was no damage done. The best ideal case which I was longing for.
Case B: If the owner of the car says, “yes damage has been done”. Then the police will inspect both the cars and estimate the damage caused and I will be penalized and there might be a chance that I can lose my license. The worst case which I was praying for not to happen.
The police clearly stated that she can give her decision only after talking with the owner of the car. I was totally frustrated and asked why didn’t the old lady didn’t come directly to me and say that you touched the other car, please inform police or concerned person. Why the heck she reported this incident to police. Because everything is insured here. Had she informed me, I should have taken necessary actions to inform police or inform the owner of the car. I was really disappointed with the action of the old lady.
I requested police that I wanted to meet this old lady and want to give some flowers and gifts ;) Police denied that it’s not possible to give this old lady’s information and said may be they can ask that I wanted to meet her. Then we came from the police station to work hoping that the owner of the other car would say that nothing has been damaged. I was very confident that I didn’t damage any car. There was an ethical discussion whether what the old lady did is right or wrong, does it make sense to meet that old lady and give some flowers ;)
After all the discussion, I received the call from police and they stated everything is fine. Nothing to worry and no damage has been done to the car. I was finally relaxed. The police also apologized for all the hardships caused to me and said it was not the old lady who gave this complaint but it was driving school teacher who was driving lorry gave them this complaint lol. The police asked me do you still want to meet this guy and give some flowers and presents. I paused for a while and said lets close this matter and thanked Police for all the cooperation.
I would like to compare similar incident which happened to me in Chennai, India. Anita was driving the car in Chennai. Suddenly one motorist tried to overtake our car; unfortunately, the motorist slightly collided with our car and auto (Tok-Tok). After the entire tussle between the auto (Tok-Tok) driver and the motorist, nothing happened. We just had to proceed with minor scratch in our car. No police complaint, no reclamation and nothing. Just wanted to give a comparison of how different society functions in different parts of the world. When society functions so organized and structured without much crime and robbery, I can expect what kind of cases the police has to deal in Germany ;)
I would like to pose the following ethical questions to the readers of this article.
1. Do you think what the old lady or the guy did is correct of giving the complaint without properly assessing the situation?
2. Do you think giving some flowers and gifts to that old lady or the guy makes sense ;)?
3. Do you think the old lady or the guy should have informed me directly?
Looking forward for your thoughts to have healthy discussion. It’s definitely one of the most memorable incident which has happened to me in Germany. Thanks to Henrik who helped me in this tough and crazy situation to bail me out.
Life is bit adventurous sometimes! Now I understand the phrase from my German friend, you can even touch my wife or girlfriend but not my car ;)
Sathish Kumar S
4 comments:
Dear Sathish,
question 1: It is correct and that is the way how they are doing it here. They don't want - in most cases - to be directly involved. Leave clarification to the police.
question 2: No flowers no chocolate no beer.
Quesstion 3: See one. It is unusual that they will inform you. Want to avoid any trouble.
"No flowers no chocolate no beer."
thanks Harald - YMMD :-)
Q. 1 I know that people are always looking for lawbreakers and if one finds a culprit, then the police must be informed. However, sometimes you will always find a guy or a lady who may overdo this duty.
Although, it was not the case here, but if one causes any damage to a parked car, even if minor, and the owner is not present, one must then always leave the contact information on the windschield of the damaged car. Unfortunately, this does not happen often. I have seen scratches on my new car parked in a park house a couple of times, obviously caused by some careless driver while taking his car out of the parking or while parking next to me, without any information whatsoever left on my windshield. Such behaviour is indeed irritating.
Q2. If folwers are to be given then the recepient will be the owner of the damaged car, if the other car was damaged but not the witness in any case.
1) Yes, it seems old woman did over-react especially since there was no apparent damage done. It makes me wonder if perhaps her action was racially influenced? Or maybe you need to polish-up on your parking skills. (joke!)
2) No gifts to witness!-- that jives of bribery. Maybe to owner of other car would be okay.
3) It was correct that she took her report to the police. Better to let the authorities resolve the issue as the accused could potentially become belligerent.
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