Forum Discussion

Tequila's avatar
Tequila
Explorer
Apr 02, 2016

Every wagon masters nightmare

After a flawless 82 day trip, we were about 50 miles from the border when an incident happened. The rig at the rear position (A 5th wheel) cut off a semi in a lane change and unbeknownst to him drove him off the road. A guy in an SUV behind saw it happen and stopped a federale parked 2 miles down the road and told him. I heard from people on teh CB further back that one of ours had been stopepd and it took me over 5 min to find a place to ge tthem all parked and to turn around & go back to help. When I got there the Federale was furious, he spoke no English and was brow beating the customer big time. I tried to cross the road but he started yeelling at me, so I waited until he traffic died down and pulled my rig across. At that point he started talking to me so fast I had problems understanding, but it was apparent he thought our customer had known what happened and kept on going. I finally settled him down, managed to get my partner on the phone to talk in Spainish to him. About that time the semi in question showed up. He had been driven into an embankment so had not rolled , but there was a strut broken on his suspension and some scratches on the box. At this point my customer who was convinced he was going to jail started apologizing to the truck driver. I asked the truck driver what he thought the damage would cost fix and he said about 3000 pesos (about $200). I paid him and managed to convince the cop that our customer had not been aware of what happened behind him. The long & short of it was that everybody was happy and myself, the customer, the cop & the driver had a group hug (I am not kidding, literally we did)
  • navegator wrote:
    On the next caravans instruct your chargers not to pull in intil they see both head lights in the rear right mirror and to be alert for the idiots in cars that have to pass no matter what on the right side

    I am glad that no one went to the comandancia and beyond.

    navegator


    I think he may have swerved to avoid a pothole. It was just north of Magdalena and there were a lot of them.

    I have had some pretty good experiences with mexican cops (some of them hilarious). Most I have found to be pretty decent. Especially Federales.
  • That was real cheap. Good thing the cop and driver where not con artists or corrupt. I know, yes I am paranoid! Good thing he was in a group with a wagon master that had a handle on things!
  • Naio's avatar
    Naio
    Explorer II
    kalynzoo wrote:
    $200 is getting away real cheap.


    Oh, hellz yes. And a group hug is the best outcome of a traffic accident I have ever heard of! OP and his partner deserve an award.
  • On the next caravans instruct your chargers not to pull in intil they see both head lights in the rear right mirror and to be alert for the idiots in cars that have to pass no matter what on the right side

    I am glad that no one went to the comandancia and beyond.

    navegator
  • I'll bet you paid for the Mexican trucker's previously damaged truck. lol
  • Tom N wrote:
    Cash always speaks the loudest, in all languages. LOL!

    Yep, loud and clear. I'm glad it worked out for everyone involved.
    I don't think Mexican jails are are on the top ten list of places to visit while south of the border.
  • Cash always speaks the loudest, in all languages. LOL!