Driving in the DR

Most cars in  the DR are not this nice but this is the kind of car that hit us today as Grace, Daniel's secretary, was waiting for the light to turn green. I was in the back seat and felt the impact. We stopped the cars, got out to find a woman wearing a bikini driving her Mercedes Benz, she was with a young girl too so they were coming or going to the beach.

It is Easter week and people are often drunk. We discussed what had happend and she was blaming us so I took a picture of the damage but didn't think of taking a picture of her plates or asked for her driver license or her insurance information. Duh!  We waited for her to show up at the police station to report the accident which is what people do here.She followed us pretending she was going to meet us there but turned around and left the scene because she knew it was her fault and she was probably drunk so we couldn't report the accident without knowing who did it. Lesson learned. What is sad to me is that she was with a child. What is she teaching her?

I always tell my husband how I don't think we need to bother fixing cars here because we know these type of  fender benders happen all the time and it is almost useless but he says that these are the Church's vehicles and that there is a standard they keep so what I am upset about is that someone with a lot of money took advantage of us buy not paying for the damages she caused to The Church's  car but on the other hand she could be a woman of influence and could have blame it on us and got her way. It is always scary to deal with hartless people like that.

This only proves my point that I don't ever want to drive alone in countries where the law has no meaning. This is traffic anarchy like you have never seen. When we go out, I step my foot on the floor thinking that I would avoid any close encounters. You see motorcycles zigzagging and driving on either side of the road, public cars or taxis stopping for clients just about anywhere, and traffic at times coming against oncoming traffic. Not to mention pedestrians and stray animals. I can only say, my hat off to those brave people out there driving.