The alibi:
A representative of a car shop came to the police station to talk to us and explain what happened.
The owner apparently brought his van to a car shop to be fixed. On the night of the accident, the van was apparently being road tested by the mechanic. The mechanic got scared that’s why he ran off and according to the person we talked to, the mechanic also went into hiding in the province after the incident. Apparently the shop owner does not have any information that could point us to the driver. They do not even know his surname. According to the shop representative, this particular mechanic is only doing extra jobs for them and he is not actually a regular employee of the shop. Actually according to the representative they fixed the van outside the shop’s jurisdiction.
The flaw:
- Would you do a test drive at 9pm in the evening?
- If they do not have any information on the mechanic, how come he was allowed to test drive a customer’s car?
The good news though is that the owner of the shop accepted the responsibility of fixing my car. We even made a contract that they will fix it in 2 weeks and I have no liability in paying them for the fix. The investigator also asked us to bring the car to the police station after being fixed so that we can take care of the legal aspect of the case after.
I accepted the offer of the owner to just fix my car and pay for all the damages because I figured this should be ok, just to get over with this problem and spare us from the hassle of filling a court case. Knowing our judicial system, this is the best solution for me.
My dilemma now is that, should we still go and find the driver of the van and file a case to at least pay for the liability of running away from the scene of the accident and at the same time endangering our lives?
For now, I consider this case, closed. Thanks for all those who helped. :)
Good points on the flaw! Something is fishy with the owner.
I don’t know how good our police is in tracking down people like the ones you’re planning to hunt down….
For now just pray na matamaan ng kidlat yun! joke
I think that guy, who endangered your lives won’t have a peaceful sleep.
By: mimiguille on September 6, 2007
at 9:12 am
this is annoying… they have a very stupid alibi, but it worked gedemmit! now you have to ask yourself, should i just let it go or pursue it. i know you will win in court, but is the hassle worth it? demmit!! our judicial system is so fucked up that people don’t even want to file cases anymore, sheesh.
By: Bobby on September 7, 2007
at 10:35 am
is that a junk shop? because when our car was hit by a track before, we refused their offer to fix our car in their junk shop. Probably because first, our car has always been casa mantained; second, we dont trust them. Eh pano kung palitan pala nila yun parts ng car namin sa bulok? Eh di mas nalugi pa kami in the long run. The only good thing was we were covered by the insurance. We also had that dilemma. Initially we still wanted to go after the driver and the truck’s owner and have them paid the damages amounting to 50k (’twas quoted by casa). We could have easily done that by declaring what really happened. But then again, we thought that this person may go after us should they lose the case. Paranoia gets the better of us so we decided to declare it as some sort of hit-and-run.
Ang problema eh kung wala kaming insurance. Naku hindi ko ma-imagine ang mangyayari.
Hassle talaga ang mga ganyang pangyayari. nakakaburat talaga. Mga g*go kasi ang ibang driver eh. Kahit anong ingat mo kung g*go makakasabay mo, ikaw pa din talo sa huli.
Ako para sa akin, gobyerno talaga ang dapat sisihin dyan eh. Napaka daling kumuha ng lisensya. Kaya dumadami pa ang mga gagong driver sa Pilipinas. I remember I was watching Unang Hirit before. Meron portion si Love na mag-ra-random check sya ng mga drivers sa daan at itanong ang mga road signs. Siguro 1/100 lang ang nakakasagot sa kanya. Anak ng teteng talaga.
By: ems on September 8, 2007
at 11:13 am
It’s hard to trust our judicial system. You need to have lots of money or influence to win.
I have decided to let the judging be done by Him.
By: edge on September 10, 2007
at 11:46 am
@ems – It’s a repair shop. Unfortunately I gave in to their request that they’ll fix my car in their shop. Kailangan ko nalang tutukan gawa nila, as in everyday punta ako dun.
By: Ejay Cruz on September 10, 2007
at 11:52 am