17934: Laleau: Re: 17909: LOCCM: insurance in Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: NLaleau@aol.com
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Dear John -- When I had occasion to get a car licensed to drive in Haiti I
found out that I had to get insurance. But what I was told (in 1995) was
that
it didn't do any good, it was just a formality you had to go through to be
allowed to drive. I never tried to get insurance to pay for anything and I
don't know anybody else who did. Once I had a mild fender-bender on a
congested
intersection in P-au-P. The other driver (Haitian man) was driving a
pretty
beat-up Bogota, my car wasn't beat up but wasn't a new luxury car either,
and
rather than argue about who hit whom, we talked civilly about it and he
was
happy that I offered him $20 US. That was the end of it. No names or
insurance
ID exchanged. I imagine that something like this probably occurs in many
accidents, with relative power/$$$ exchanging hands. --nlaleau