Well, lets hear about the automobile accidents......
It's ...odd
Riding a bicycle across the street at a corner, at a signal, we have the green light. We're in the marked crosswalk. Motorcycle completely across the intersection blows right through the red, doesn't slow down, doesn't swerve to avoid me, wham gets the back edge of the back tire. I saw the twit and was on it as hard as two 1/8 hp legs will go but it's almost as if the guy was trying to hit us. Girl on the back scratches her leg, motorcycle falls down, I run over and grab him to keep him from running away, huge crowd gathers to argue the rights and wrongs of ignoring a red light, going all the way across an intersection and managing to hit a foreigner. It might surprise you but there was a vocal group claiming it was my fault for ... not getting out of the way fast enough ?
Girl goes to hospital because "Blood ! Blood ! Tian na (chinese omg) I'm bleeding !" Her mom comes and gets into a screaming match with the drunk in the cigarette store on the corner who figured it was our fault and she must be a slut for being in the company of a foreigner. How dare we ride across the street under the green ? I'm still hanging on to the miscreant. Luckily his motorcycle is kinda smushed where he dumped it after hitting us, and kicking it straight before he could run away was too much, with me hanging on and all. A right cross would have settled that problem but if you are a foreigner, do not punch people in China. That's a no-no.
Cops finally come, they take away both vehicles and write some stuff. In an injury accident they impound all the vehicles. Next day supposed to go to the police station.
Nine thirty, we're there on time but the other guy is a no-show.
Ten o'clock, no guy.
Ten-thirty, no guy. Police look him up (they can look up anyone in a matter of seconds) and tell us where he lives. Cop at the desk says, "You can go get him if you want but I'd be careful. Lots of times these country people all live together in a house and they might beat you up or something."
Umm, what ? Made me giggle a little. Can you imagine a US cop saying "Yeah, here's his home address, you can go pick him up if you want" ??
Cops at the front desk are not very bright, I'm just observing this for posterity, the girl is angry, she has a scratch. And the bike has some bending and scratches. Maybe a pedal broken or something.
Eleven o'clock, the guy shows up.
Luckily a smarter cop comes out of the office area and deals with this. In fact he was really smart and psychologically astute. Gets the story from both sides, keeps the peace impartially when everyone starts yelling, takes the girl's figures for damages, takes long enough thinking to give the impression that he's being totally fair, first gave me a lecture that it's partly my fault, you're not supposed to ride people on the back of your bicycle (like, that had any bearing on someone blowing an entire intersection and still, with two lanes of road to use,
still managing to hit us ?) and then told the guy he owes 3,000 rmb. Payable now, thank you very much.
Guy's girlfriend goes off to get the money (I don't think they let the perp claim he's leaving to get money ?), we wait another hour or so, she comes back and pays us, we get the bicycle and he gets the motorcycle. Everybody leaves.
On the one hand, it's ridiculous. This took most of a day.
On the other hand, after one day it was all over. No court appearances, no three estimates, no towing and impound fees, no lawyers involved, no continuances, no problems collecting, no fines and fees and court costs, just pay the other person the real damages. I was a little miffed about getting a lecture for doing something that 3/4 of the population does on a daily basis but oh well. Considering everything, it was an okay method to deal with auto accidents.