Every wagon masters nightmare

[Tequila]

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)

[MEXICOWANDERER]

"Hah! When they start driving up onto the sidewalk to make a right turn beating you at a red light it gets a person nervous. Before Quicksilver hits the road again, it's going to have a rear view camera and 8" diameter blind-spot mirror on the passenger side. There must be 50-times more cars now, than there was in 1964. And my reaction time and eyesight are far worse than the were back then.

[Tequila]

One lesson we have learned is that we need a green angel tail gunner all the time . we use them a lot,but not all the time on roads they usually patrol we will in future up our prices modestly and have one behind us all the time . the company owner is Mexican and has the connections to arrange it.he arranges them for fantasy caravans as well.it would have provided a witness and avoided a mad cop scaring a customer.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

OOPS! Double Post. Hit Quote instead of Edit. :S

[Canadian_Rainbi]

We had a similar experience in a small town in the interior. Clipped a taxi who was coming towards us, swerved to our side of the street and parked a foot from the curb. Trying to avoid the oncoming truck behind him I side swiped the taxi. What could I say? He was parked, I was moving.

A transito happened to be on the spot. I asked what the driver thought the dammage was. The transito mentioned 2 or 3 hundred pesos, the taxixta wasn't really happy with that. I suggested that I could call my insurance. The transito saud Yes, I could, then pointed out to the poor taxista that he would have to stay until both our adjusters arrived. The taxista had a customer waiting, which is why he pulled in where he did. (Never mind that it was a stupid move and he would have been ticketed NOB I asked if 500 pesos would be OK and he accepted it and we went on our way. (More or less but that is a different story! Scroll down to Mazamitla to Coyutlan)

In Mexico, in a non injury accident, the police will not get involved if both parties agree on a financial settlement. This is what we have insurance for. In our case, I offered our deductible which appeared to be satisfactory.

[Talleyho69]

Tequila, beautifully handled, and you earned every penny of your minimal pay.

Thanks for helping all of these people enjoy the country that many of us love.

We choose to pay off a taxi drive that hit us in Puerto Vallarta after the cops left to have us settle it. Cheaper, easier, and may have saved his job.

[navegator]

Potholes on roads in Mexico are abundant well spaced and designed to make driving a nightmare, avoiding the pavement arround them is the challenging thing to do so stay allert and aim for the potholes and not the pavement.

navegator

[Tequila]

valhalla360 wrote:

azdryheat wrote:
I'll bet you paid for the Mexican trucker's previously damaged truck. lol

That's my guess. Sounds a lot like a scam. Trucker, SUV owner and federali all had a good day.

Even with cheap labor, parts on a heavy truck are likely going to be above $200.

No scam, IMO, the mounts for the strut where it broke were clean, fixable with a welding job. You could see the fresh scuff marks on the triee involved, and many of the riding light lenses on the one side of the trailer were broken, and you could tell itwas recent. There was an embankment on the right hand side. This was a Federale, nto a transito.

[bighatnohorse]

I've seen this happen in Guadalajara between two Mexicans. The car parked curbside had his mirror clipped by another driver.
The driver stopped, there was a short discussion, driver paid the car owner some pesos and it was settled.

Having enough cash on hand is important.

[Valkyriebush]

Tequila wrote:
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)

Similar incident happen to me while leading a small convoy from Subic Bay to Clark AFB after Pinatubo. Mirror to mirror accident. Money talked. Glad it went well. Never liked convoying anyway.

[valhalla360]

azdryheat wrote:
I'll bet you paid for the Mexican trucker's previously damaged truck. lol

That's my guess. Sounds a lot like a scam. Trucker, SUV owner and federali all had a good day.

Even with cheap labor, parts on a heavy truck are likely going to be above $200.

[Tequila]

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.

[dave17352]

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]

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.

[navegator]

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