Mexwanderer in accident

Just tap your toes....there's no place like the USA-----there's no place like the USA.

Balderdash Mexico Wanderer.

Your trivel or drivel is not helpful...rather it is damaging. It's true, no one is going to hold your hand here if there is an accident, you should know what to do when travelling in areas foreign to you. Get real though, your post makes it sound like you can't help but get in trouble if you drive in Mexico. Balderdash again. As a long time resident of this country and after understanding it is not the USA....(lost on a few) they have rules, they have laws......follow them, you'll be fine. Now it's time for you to have another cold one and back away from the keyboard for a while, get a grip dude or dudess.

An aware traveler is a lot less sad than a traveler made aware of the REALITY of how things work down here. What I responded to is not to compete in a contest to see how best to hoodwink an innocent traveler. Neither one of the above posters has spent time either in a comandancia or a prison dealing with an unfortunate American who learns to his shock that what he was told turned out to be Jack In The Beanstalk ESTERICO.

It is EASY to educate with hard and brutal facts. Wishy-Washy half-truths only serve to damage innocent people who tried their best to stay out of harm's way only to learn the information they relied on was pure garbage.

qtla 9111, and mexicoruss, do something useful and offer to help folks in trouble. Try to educate even if it means turning the other cheek when it comes to de-bunking fallacies.

I was PREPARED to deal with cops on either shoulder when I exited the Seguro Social Hospital. For the life of me, unfortunates who return to the USA with true stories of shocking reality are difficult to counter.

I was PREPARED to threaten lazy USA Surplus Line Brokers with publicly exposure unless they got off their fat --- and dug up their claims adjuster so that a fully insured driver would avoid spending time in jail.

Slip on a NO BAD DAYS tee shirt and pretend reality does not exist. I prefer to lend credence to the fact that hookah grade nightmare BS is fully avoidable. In order to make the point I have to deal with reality. Call things like they really are and not how "They Should Be" This place is NOT the USA. Got it? I didn't think so...

qtla9111 wrote:
Very colorful writing that would scare the pants off of anyone wanting to visit Mexico for the first time only to end your story with "it's not a minefield". Hilarious.

ditto

Very colorful writing that would scare the pants off of anyone wanting to visit Mexico for the first time only to end your story with "it's not a minefield". Hilarious.

Great stuff David. We can attest to the assistance that Jim Lewis can provide, though our situation did not involve threat or risk of jail. We're putting his number in our cell phones.

There are forms provided to the police by the underwriter that assures payment to a plaintiff by a defendant. An individual can have a valid policy covering millions of dollars in damages but if for some reason an adjuster cannot show up in the event of an injury accident even if the injured is solo driving his own car he is placed in detention. Many folks elect to go to a hospital with aches and pains. Sorry but aches and pains are not first-aid therefore hospital $$$$$ charges can add up in one hell of a hurry. If you owe a bill at a hospital it must be satisfied in full before you leave or those great big cops with those great big guns standing in your way will get in your face - this is and was and will be standard operating procedure down here. if you do not go to the hospital you will go to la comandancia. Pray your adjuster show up. A stack of insurance certificates a meter tall does not satisfy the cops with regard to an injury accident. Only a real live breathing insurance rep can do that. If the adjuster does not show up into a cell you go with your fifty pounds of insurance coverage "proof".
This is why I am so adamant about having a USA Surplus Line Broker who is aggressive about hustling up a rep, ASAP. If legal representation is slow or non existent the individual who cannot pay is transferred to a PRISON after a few days. yeah. One of those with the twenty foot tall walls and guard towers.

Anyone who has been around knows about the KITTO INCIDENT as elaborated detailed on Fred Metcalf's Baja Information pages. He had insurance but no legal coverage and had to mortgage his house to get released from prison. I hope his insurance company reimbursed him.

Nobody likes to hear about stuff like this but it is stupid, incarnate, to deny it does not happen. Doubt any of this? Good! Call Jim Lewis at Lewis & Lewis and he will un cross-thread your misconception.

Avoid problems by learning from people who have actually undergone processing. With an aggressive Surplus Line Broker, they get on the phone to Mexico and stay on the phone until the detainee is released. And again for you sea lawyers, this if for injury accidents not fender scrapes. I had to haul sandwiches to a reclusorio for nine days while flake-in-the-bush grade surplus line broker took their time getting a client released in Tepic. This ain't fun and it ain't funny.

If you live down here among Mexicans the tales of gringos high tailing it to the border by bus, car and airplane after an accident, are rife. That's why cops are so touchy about releasing participants in an injury accident. While handcuffing seems a bit extreme, if a cops spots someone lacing up their track shoes, who knows what will happen. This seems to be especially true if the "extraneous" driver yells and curses and acts threatening to the other party.

I drive with the utter conviction that 99.999% of other drivers have zero insurance and zero ability to pay. No joke to have your USA Surplus Line Broker on speed dial on your cellular phone. Ever see a comandancia with a TelMex pay phone down here?

Good insurance with an aggressive Surplus Line Broker is the key. No worries. But remember this - if the cops accuse a driver of driving while intoxicated Dos XX, to Tequila, to hyperventilating White Widow or snorting Babbo, the insurance company walks away. I won't even allow a soused passenger into my rig. Hire a taxi - it just isn't worth it. If injured and hospitalized, demand a blood test right away to prove innocence and thwart nefarious innuendo.

It isn't a mine field and it is nothing to stress over. Do things by the numbers and relax.

Good to see MW back posting on some other forums again.

I've unfortunately been in two accidents while in Mexico. Once my fault and once the other parties. Both times all were insured and nobody was handcuffed or taken to jail. Insurance adjusters were called and all handled properly and then we went on our way. There were no injuries in either case just damage to the vehicles

One thing Navegator got right is that the antiquated laws have not changed. In most cases the Judge and the 2 lawyers decide the outcome. Juries are still rare. Court rooms can be closed to the public. When you see the photos of a drug dealer beside his huge stash do not for a moment think he is going straight to jail. The judge will often let them go due to a lack of evidence. Municipal police will not arrest a robber unless they see him committing the robbery. Most crimes do not result in a court case. Justice in Mexico was supposed to change but it remains hopeless. However I find it hard to believe that someone was handcuffed to a light post. There is more to this story.

Moisheh

navegator wrote:
My brother in law was broadsided by a bus in Guadalajara yesterday. It was not his fault, but the cops handcuffed one of his hands to a post. Is this normal?

I do not want to start an argument, I have dealt with Mexican law for more than 50 years on and off.

Why then was the person that was "T" boned and not at fault handcuffed to a pole?

They may have some courts, but the reality is still the same as it was 50+ years ago.

La verdad no peca, pero incomoda ( The truth does not commit any sins, but it is uncomfortable.)

In that sense Mexican laws are changing but very slow, the rich are innocent and the poor are guilty, it is the same as the USA, there was a lot of muddy water under Chappaquiddick's bridge.

navegator

We don't know the complete story. Was it even true and if so what else was behind it.

Have you personally heard of anyone being handcuffed to a post after an accident because "maybe" they didn't have insurance? Could they have been under the influence? Could they have possibly attacked someone physically or had drugs or weapons?