Goudaner Scratched by Drunk Driver

Life is bitter, for my car. Around 7:00 PM, at the parking lot, a Hyundai Sonata backed to the parking lot. My car was stopped nearby and the Hyundai’s head scratched the rear of my car. Bang! I checked my car. It was not very badly hurt but my heart was hurt.

I went to the driver. I was surprised to see the driver seemed cannot understand what I said. Later, I found out that the driver, about 40 years old, was completely drunk. He even could not step out of the car. With his friends’ help, his friends have to support his hands so he could walk. The air suddenly was full of the smell of alcohol. I could not imagine how he managed to drive to the parking lot. The driver seems to be the big boss. There is a guy jump out and tell his boss that nothing happened. He will handle everything and sent his boss away. It is obvious that this guy don’t want others to know the driver was drunk. I guess he is the big boss’s executive assistant or some role like that.

The big boss was certainly not satisfied with what his assistant told him to do. He managed to come to my face and was very angry. “What is your name?” He pointed to my nose and asked. Haha. I guess he was more seriously drunk than I thought. His assistance finally managed to let his boss calm down and agree to hand over everything to his assistant.

After that, the driver and other people left. There is only me and the guy. The argument was boring and he finally only agree to pay me 300 RMB. Anyway. I don’t care about it, but I care so much that the boss dare to drive after so badly drunk.

I called 110 for the police. But it is a pity that every body disappeared before the slow police arrived. I told him, everybody had gone. He got it and went away too.

The “good citizen” inside me raise again and I called the police of Xujiahui and they gave me a number. I called and reported again. He recorded everything and suggest me to go to their office tomorrow morning and bring all my witness. Again, I was not happy with what I was told. I said, the driver is drunk. The car is there. They have to get back soon. It does not make sense to handle it tomorrow when the evidence of the drunk driver disappear. The police said they will investigate. One hour later, I called again, and he said, thanks for calling back, but we have nothing to do since the driver is not there. There are more drunk driver on the road of Shanghai than I thought, since the police is not as efficient as I thought.

Ironically, on the day of the first month of my new car (April 15, 2004), I scratched the car for the first time. The car went very well in the following five months without anything wrong, and today is exactly half year after I bought my car (March 15, 2004).

20 thoughts on “Goudaner Scratched by Drunk Driver

  1. Did you really not notice the car’s license plate ???!!!!!

    This incident will send the driver in prison for years in western countries !!!

    And leave him without any respect of the public.

    Please comment, Jianshuo.

  2. I’m sorry to hear about your car receiving some damage. That’s terrible to hear that the driver was getting in your face for something that was obviously his fault. What I have begun doing for situations similar to this are to carry a information form that is available through the Automobile Club. This will have spaces to fill out for all the information you need to gather for accidents. I also carry one of those disposable cameras around in the glove box for those moments.

    Over here in California the drunk driving laws are very strict. They used to not be this way, but after years of people causing damage and killing people while driving drunk they have changed. I have to admit when I was younger I would often drive drunk, but now that I am older I do not, the consequences are not worth it.

    First time drunk driving offense: The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will suspend your license for 90 days. You will have to go to go before a $$ judge to plead your case. You have to pay $ ticket (usually not very expensive). The police can impound your vehicle and you will have to pay an impoundment fee $$ for them to release it. Your are required to attend $$ traffic school, attend and $$$ AA meetings. Also you may have to serve some hours of community service (usually picking up trash along the highways). When all is said and done it could cost anyone from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the nature of the circumstances and location.

    I wish you good luck and hope that something will come of the police report you filed.

  3. Yes, always need to take down their license plate.

    Sorry to hear this. It is not easy to drive in Shanghai at all. I could never drive in Shanghai.

    Hope it is not too expensive for you to fix it up. Good luck!

  4. If you have written down this person’s license plate number, then you might try to sue him in the court in Shanghai. The physical evidence includes: scratches to your car’s real bumper, and the scratches to the front bumber of his car. And these physical evidence match to show that your car was real-ended (parked when hit) by the other car’s front bumper. Here in California, I would find out about this driver’s information from the DMV and then sue him in the court. You should also get an estimate about the repair / damages. Please let me know if you can track him down and get the money from him.

    Donald

  5. Thanks everybody. I surely note down the plate number and as a habit after I started this blog, I always bring a camera with me so I took picture of this car (with plate) and my car and the guy (who looked like assistant). The problem is, the police does not want to investigate on this. I called them 4 times and it seems the case has been closed and no need to argue. I called all the number I know and they all told me, “If I cannot bring the drunk driver to their face, they have nothing to do on this.” Now I keep the photo of their car and the license plate number. Anway, to help to protect their privacy (although they did something seriously wrong), I won’t publish their plate.

  6. Jianshuo,

    You should publish their plate number! That drunk deserves more than public humiliation, he needs to go to jail! It only shows that the cops in Shanghai are just as corrupt, useless, and lazy as in any 3rd world country. I lived in Mexico City for some time, the citizens do not trust the cops at all! Not that the cops in California are any better, but at least they will follow up and check the drunk’s license number.

    I have another suggestion, do you know any journalist or reporter friends? The use of media is a powerful tool for you. Drunk drivers should be severely punished!

  7. It’s just a bunch of wimps in the police force here…

    Your photos are very valuable evidence !

    I’ll suggest that you go to your car insurance company.

    Someone there can value the damage done to your car.

    I guess it will be more than 300 RMB, and perhaps you can claim money for the “value loss”

    of your new car too, because the car will have a lower value,

    if it have had any damages in its lifetime.

    They will be able to charge the bad guy directly,

    and then the police hopefully will get out of the hole.

    Perhaps the bad guy have friends in the police, I have seen that before.

    Talk about corruption…

    A couple I know (Jiangxinese, but working in Zhejiang Province) was beaten up a month ago by a gang of Sichuanese guys who were envious at them to work in Zhejiang, “stealing their jobs”.

    Naturally they wanted to report this to the police, but the police was gone home on that late friday, so they called by phone. “Nono, we won’t do anything now, wait until monday, and bring the guys with you too, by the way”. Wimps too !

    I don’t think anyone will be able to bring the violator(s) to the police by themselves !

    In my country it is in fact possible to sue the police for bad case handling,

    but I guess it is rather useless here in China.

  8. From the number plate I would try to find out the address of the car owner. Go together with a friend there (also as a witness/help) and talk with him. I would tell him that you mainly care about the damage of your car and that you want to have the damage fixed. Maybe you can even go with his assistant to a garage and try to find one who can fix it for a reasonable price.

    I believe he knows by himself he made the failure to drive “drunk” and he fears you will go to the police. So he denies everything. But if you talk with him and tell that you have no interest to charge him because he was drunk he might pay you the actual amount of the repair. The police or court for a damage of 2’000-3’000 RMB is not a big help. It’s peanuts for them. You should try to negociate with him directly.

  9. HI Jianshuo,

    Although it sounds natural to me as the cops’ handling, I am still very angry about this. Maybe you can try some media friends. Like Dong Fang Re xian? Although the media power is also not that high in China, let us have a try.

  10. See if you can do something further, that drunk driver might have killed someone before punched your car!

  11. hello, haven’t been here for a while, and sudden come to hear the bad news. feel sorry to hear that, a car to any person could be one of the most precious item, and anything happen to it is going to cause a rush in adrenalin. if i saw someone scratch my car right at the scene, dont care if he is drunk or stupid, i bash the head out of him, afterthat, probably sit down and have a talk about the compensation…:P

  12. Mr. Wang,

    I noticed you mention the guy try to pay you off with $300, I don’t know whether it is enough to cover the damage.

    As matter of curious, does vehicle in Shanghai bears insurance against all perils, in your case, who is going to pay the arrears of the damage?

    Stephen

  13. They paid me 300 RMB. It should be OK if I just repaint the part, instead of replacing it with a brand new part (which cost most than 1000 RMB).

    According to the law, an vehicle here in China has to buy insurance. By theory, it should be the drunk driver’s insurance company paying me to fix the damage. I can use my insurance too, if I cannot find the driver, but it covers only 50% – 80%.

    For small damage like this, people just don’t want to go through insurance because it takes quite some time and cause an increase in insurance fee in the next year. They’d rather pay it from their pocket.

  14. Wow, the media even said “the police are doing the right thing?” Damn! That’s really lame. Now, I’m wondering why I want to work in Shanghai. :-(

  15. Give poor Goudaner a little pat for me on the scratched part, Jian Shuo. I’m very sorry to hear your beautiful new car was damaged!

  16. DWI, drunk driving, dui, and a license to drink.

    Copyright: 1987-2005 © Bruce Alm.

    The answer to the problem of drunk driving, etc. could be this; a permit for the purchase and consumption of alcohol beverages.

    This would not only be a major assault on the problem of drunk driving, but would also have an effect on virtually all other crimes such as these;

    murder, assault, burglary, robbery, suicide, vandalism, wife beating, child beating, child molestation, the spread of aids, college binge drinking, animal cruelty, etc., the list is endless.

    If this proposition was made law, there could be a major reduction in all these areas of concern, even though the emphasis concerning alcohol abuse seems to be drunk driving in particular.

    There could also be many other positive results;

    families healed, better work performance, booze money spent on products that would help the economy (we’ve all heard of the guy who spends half his check in the bar on payday,) would spare many health problems, etc.

    This new law could go something like this:

    Any person found guilty of any crime where drinking was a factor would lose the right to purchase and/or consume alcohol beverages.

    For a first misdemeanor, a three year revocation. a second misdemeanor, a ten year revocation. a third misdemeanor, a lifetime revocation. Any felony crime, an automatic lifetime revocation.

    Anyone caught drinking alcohol without a permit would receive a possible $1000 fine and/or jail sentence. those who would supply alcohol to people without a drinking permit (and possibly make money at it,) would also lose his/her right to purchase alcohol beverages.

    What wife or husband would buy an alcoholic spouse a bottle?

    What friend would give a problem drinker a drink at the possible cost of a thousand bucks and the loss of their own privilege? This could be a total discouragement to these would-be pushers.

    This permit doesn’t seem as though it would be a problem to put into effect. It could simply be a large X, or whatever, on the back of any drivers license in any state, to show who has been revoked, and cannot purchase alcohol.

    Most people of drinking age have a driver’s license, but one area that might be a problem could be New York City, where many people don’t drive.

    This problem could be resolved, however, by a license-type I.D. specifically for the purchase of alcohol beverages. Most, if not all states have these already for the purpose of identification.

    This could be a small price to pay for the saved lives of thousands of Americans each and every year.

    After this, it would simply be a matter of drinking establishments checking I.D.s at the time of purchase.

    In the case of crowded bars, they could simply check I.D.s at the door, as they do now.

    Would this be a violation of rights?

    There can be no argument here since they already check I.D.s of people who look as though they may not be old enough to drink.

    This could be a good saying, “If a person who doesn’t know how to drive shouldn’t have a license to drive, a person who doesn’t know how to drink shouldn’t have a license to drink.”

    Here are some other pluses to this idea:

    A good percentage of people in correctional institutions are there because of alcohol related offences . Because of this, court, penal, and law enforcement costs could drop dramatically.

    The need for A.A., ALANON, MADD, SADD, etc., could be greatly diminished as well.

    What the alcoholic fears most, is the temptation to have that first drink, usually a spur of the moment type thing. Without the ability to do this, he/she is fairly safe. To start drinking again would almost have to be planned in advance. and to maintain steady drinking would be extremely difficult, in most cases.

    Even though A.A. members as a group don’t become involved in political movements, it seems as individuals, they would all be in favor of a situation like this. Any person who wants to quit drinking, even if never having been in trouble with the law, could simply turn in their license for the non-drinking type.

    A woman from MAAD, on the NBC TODAY show, said “One out of every ten Americans has a drinking problem, and that 10% consumes 60% of all alcohol beverages sold in the U.S..”

    If this is true, there could be financial problems for breweries, liquor stores, bars, rehab centers, etc., as well as lawyers, massive amounts of tax revenue ‘down the drain,’ and so on.

    But it doesn’t seem as though anyone would have a valid argument against a proposal such as this for financial reasons. To do so would be morally wrong, and could be likened to a drug-pusher attitude.

    Even with the problems this new law could present, it still could, in one sense, be considered the simple solution to the number one drug problem in the U.S. and elsewhere. Alcoholism.

    P.S.

    What ever happened to the skid row drunk?

    http://www.geocities.com/dwi_dui/index.html

  17. though im late to post about this issue , but if i were you i would pursue this case no matter it costed me another 10000 rmb,{recently i dragged some lanlord not returning deposit of 900 rmb?i got it but spent 1 day and 100 rmb from my pocket} what if it was not a car but a old lady or some kid whom this drunkard had hit? saving a criminal u have done a crime, now that man must be more proud of his power and would never stop untill he kills or injures soemone and u r responsible partly for that.

  18. Its a strange experience for you on that night. Surprisingly how he drive the car when he is in drunken stage. Its very pity that that even police officer who helps the people in problem has created a problem for him. I think its our mistake that we should not inform them even though someone has violated the rules.

    =========================================================

    steve

    california dui

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