Job Discussion Forums

[1st Sgt Welsh]

Well, it had to happen! Last night, for the first time in two and half years, I got pulled over by the cops just as I was leaving work. Was driving in District 3 and I'd forgotten to turn my headlights on . A group of three traffic police were on the sidewalk taking donations and one of them walked out onto the road, waved his white stick and blocked my path. I stopped, put the bike in neutral, quickly apologized, turned on my headlights, waved and then tried to drive away but, because the engine was cold, my motorbike stalled . Anyway I didn't get far before receiving the expected tap on the shoulder and I was told to park on the side walk.

The cop who had pulled me up greeted me and saluted . To begin with he was very pleasant and he had excellent English. Apparently, due to my infringement, I was informed that I would have to pay a 500,000 dong 'fine'. I said that half a million dong was way too much. He then said that he would confiscate my bike for a month but I told him that the bike was rented so, if he wanted to take it, then he would have to speak to the shop that owned it. He then said that I could pay 200,000 dong. We settled for 100,000. He pocketed the 100,000 and told me that next time I wouldn't be so lucky and told me to drive off.

I know the above is a very 'garden-variety' case but it got me thinking. Some of the posters here must have some really interesting stories about this sort of thing so if you don't mind sharing it would be great to hear from you .

[mark_in_saigon]

Craziest thing. I never wear a mask, so it is obvious I am an expat. Often I have a tie on too. 3 times I have had cops come out to pull me over, each time when I got close enough to be identified as an expat, they moved the magic wand to someone else. Once it was totally freaking obvious it was gonna be me, he had it pointing at me like a gun or something, and as I got closer and closer it just stayed pointing at me only til I got almost within spittin distance, then it moved to some lucky VNez. My suggestion; look western, maybe they will not screw with you.

The next time you won't be so lucky story is total bs. That cop will never see you again, or be able to pick you out of the millions. They do not log all their corruptions into their computers, assuming they have a computer system.

By the way, did they want to see your ownership card? Is it really a rented bike? Any discussion about drivers licenses?

[kurtz]

Well played, Sarge. I had a close moment the other day. A cop started waving his magic money wand, only for the guy next to me get dragged in; it certainly got the blood flowing. A friend of my who's a bit of a newb got done 500,000 for not wearing in helmet on the back of a bike. The cops then divided the money between themselves right there in front of her and then told her to F off......charming people.

[inhanoi]

mark: "My suggestion; look western, maybe they will not screw with you."

I'd like to quote this every time a westerner complains about having to pay the "foreigner tax," which unlike traffic fines is usually less than 10 cents. For every minor overcharge, our lives here are balanced by getting away with stuff that would never be allowed in our home countries and/or never allowed for locals.

As for getting fined for not wearing a helmet, that woman should also have been fined for being stupid.

[mark_in_saigon]

[toiyeuthitmeo]

From a recent story from a close friend, and the OP, that's a few times now I've heard about cops with very nice English using those skills to exact some money.

I wonder if, as a Western looking person, you could wave your arms and act like you're from a non English speaking European country... preferably not one that might have received many VN visitors in the Comm era?

From my own personal experience, if the cops suspected for one moment that you were going to give them a hard time communication-wise, they seemed to cut their losses and wave you on. (I was in another city where there was very little Eng in the force and all you had to do was look confused when they stopped you to get a free pass).

So yeah, I reckon I'd just look very confused, say "Portuguesa! Portuguesa! Nao Ingles" and see what happens.

Oh and if you are out there doing something dangerous like speeding, driving drunk, riding helmet-less, blowing red lights, etc, you deserve to get fined. I've known a handful of people who came out on the "dead" side of traffic in this country, at least partly due to their own poor decisions. No one expects to get off the hook for those things in our home countries. It's a shame that the fines are collected corruptly, as we lose sight of what traffic policing should do for public safety.

[Rincewind]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones too, as I've only been stopped once in my 3+ years driving.
A quiet Sunday morning where I was driving in the middle lane, instead of the right hand lane. He waved me down, but as I made no move toward my wallet, and his English couldn't keep up - he just told me to go.

[1st Sgt Welsh]

Thanks for all the responses!

[snollygoster]

In Nha Trang my partner, a quite small female, and a 'tay" was wearing helmet, face mask, and driving behind me when we came across a road trap. I, no mask, so obviously "tay' was waved past, my lady friend was pulled up. When the Policeman approached her and she took off her mask and helmet and shook out her long blonde hair, his face almost fell off. She asked "yes-what can I do for you?" and in faltering English he said "Have nice time in Vietnam".

Another time I was pulled up on a country road wearing helmet mask and sunnies, and when I took them off, looked bewildered. As I drove away, I yelled back at the policeman (in Vietnamese) "Bye for now, have a nice day". He yelled out and waved his stick, but I was gone.

I also am appaled at the way the road rules are applied by the police- or more to the point NOT applied. If they were there to actually curb the road toll instead of using their position to rake in the bribes, it would be wonderful. There are so many instances of dangerous driving they would still make a good living by being honest and fining the idiots.

[mark_in_saigon]

[DNK]

You do realize that what does a lot of the protection in a crash isn't the hard outer shell so much as the light foam on the inside? Unless, of course, you land on a pile of rocks or something, when you'll actually need that shell. The actual usefulness in most 20-40kph crashes in the city is going to be reducing the rate of deceleration of your brain and skull by a fraction of a second. A "light" helmet can accomplish that as well as a heavy one.

How much harder is your head hitting the ground getting thrown from a motorbike at 15kph versus getting thrown from a bicycle back home when you hit something unexpected? In both cases, you're hitting the ground at about the same speed, yet most cycling enthusiasts back home see the "light" foam-only, shell-less helmets as sufficient...

The real issue with most of the helmets here, imo, is incomplete head protection, poor chinstraps, and poor usage (or size). People driving around with the helmets half hanging off their heads (or not even fitting on them at all) and using foamless novelty helmets abound. But I think most "proper" looking helmets probably suffice for the likely accidents their users will encounter.

That said, I use a full head - half face with shield Andes helmet. Funny thing is that a lot of the "good" helmets have basically the same amount of foam as the typical helmets you'll see on the roads (perhaps it's denser, though).



Re car drivers: I imagine them as being the equivalent of cows: large, stupid, and mentally absent, mooing(honking) regularly for no apparent reason.

[snollygoster]

I may be slow, but after a few years I got a moto with crash bars front and rear. The sight of them makes the locals stay back, therefore lessening the liklihood of a bone breaking impact. EXCEPT-for the idiots who decide they want to crash into them anyway, and end up on the pavement. (It really DOES happen).
My own take on driving is to be aware of the invisible "bubble" around you and try to keep others out of it.
Despite this, I have had other people's brains on my shoes on two occassions when (in both cases) helmetless go-fast "hero" drivers with green fluro wheels on mobile chain-saws decided to drive disregarding normal earth-bound physics. Not a pleasant experience, and one I do not want to repeat.
Texting whilst driving is a personal bugbear, as I and my family were passengers in a bus into which a lady with a helmetless child in a high chair crashed as she was texting, and killed her baby.
An aside- Question to an adult class- "which is safer-a helmet or a baseball cap when driving?" Answer- Baseball cap. Why? If you throw a helmet from a bridge onto the roadway below, it will smash- but a baseball cap remains intact. How can you argue with such credible logic?

[Oh My God]

[I'm With Stupid]

I had a really dodgy cop recently (is there any other kind?). I was driving home and noticed a group of traffic cops ahead of me numbering about 8. There were so many of them that they blocked the entire motorbike lane, so when I pulled out to go past them, they stopped me for driving in the car lane. That particularly annoyed me, because until then, I'd never heard of anyone being pulled over unless they'd actually done something wrong.

Incidentally, a friend of mine told me that he just spoke German when he was pulled over and they let him go because they didn't know what to do. Although I've heard that some of them have a sheet with translations for different languages, but I suspect you could feign ignorance for long enough that they can't be bothered with the effort. I guess you need enough knowledge of a foreign language to make it vaguely convincing though.

[Andy123]

I can not complain at all regarding my treatment from the police. We all know what the reality is when driving in Viet Nam. I was always treated fairly and openly told my Viet friends this.

The woman whose head was run over by a truck still haunts me to this day. The accident was due to her husband�s foolishness and disregard for common sense. You know you have become numb after you stop counting the dead ones.

Too many times I saw an accident victim (in most cases dead due to head trauma) pulled out of the street by their heals. Speaking of that, it still amazes me how an accident victim can be pulled out of their tied shoes after impact. Just imagine the impact the brain must undergo.

Snolly, I never lived in the central tay areas of the city. I mostly lived in the countryside sections and drove to the city center. On more times than I care to admit I was hit purposely. We all know a rush hour bump, tap or push. In every case of intentional hitting they spoke English to me either wanting to show their education and/or prejudge. Two of the harder hits had the potential to have injured me, them or others badly.

The last time someone hit me it resulted in a horrific accident. Senseless.

I do not know if it is my character, upbringing or my education but I would never go up to someone and try to hurt them physically because of a personal bias. Do all people have bias? Of course. It is human nature. If there ever comes a time in my life that I behave in such a manner I would have the Doc put me down like a dog.

Drive carefully and realize that everything in life has a risk. God gives us choices to minimize those risks but sometimes we have no real control on the outcome.