In Romania, if one's car is damaged even slightly, one needs to visit the nearest police station and make an accident report. Without this report, one cannot get one's car repaired, or claim on one's insurance. Moreover, if stopped later by the police, one risks prosecution without this accident report.
The village policeman has just told me something very interesting.
One of my neighbours had reversed carelessly and dented his car. When he went to the police station to obtain an accident report, he explained what had happened.....reversed carelessly, dented his car, nobody hurt or put at risk, etc. As the policeman said, that automatically made him guilty of a minor road traffic offence for which he must be fined and given a couple of points on his license.
The village policeman is not over-fond of prosecuting his neighbours. So, he suggested, we'll write on the form that "a horse cart hit your car". That way, the policeman doesn't have to charge anyone, and no-one gets fined. If the policeman wrote that "another car did the damage in a hit and run incident", he'd need to justify why the other motorist wasn't caught, and would have an unsolved case blighting his record.
I was told that attributing minor dents to cars to fictitious anonymous horse carts is common practice within the rural police force. It's a regular dodge.
I can begin to see why the statistics claim that "10% of reported accidents involve horse carts". Now we are seeing the consequences emerge.
How frustrating! It's terrible that the system is set up to penalize such a large majority of the population. I really hope there's enough of an outcry that laws will be changed regarding the animals!.
Posted by: Jackie | January 15, 2008 at 08:29 PM
Now I don’t know what debate is more heated and fun to watch – current presidential nomination or your blog :) My second reply to your previous post went on the second page (I didn’t even know there was a second page!). I’ve never seen so many comments to any of your posts. You’re right, Julian, and anybody knowing the reality of rural life over there would support you. You are also slightly idealist, in the good sense. While in England laws are made and expected to be obeyed, in Romania quite a few are made for a good laugh and makeshift adjustments. The advice you got from the village policeman reporting a fake accident to avoid a baloney rule is just an example. Of course, everybody realizes that it just does not make sense to have laws that make no sense. But instead of dealing with the nonsense and correcting it, Romanians go around it and “adjust”. Mentality takes a long time to change. Ask local people for countless “adjustments” they were forced to make during the “Golden Age” regarding livestock, reporting calf births, milk production, animal weights and many others. Ask the village doctor about reporting stillbirths, underweight newborns, infant deaths and so on. You will get enough material to write a book, a textbook about nonsense. Romanians are wonderful people, still. They just have to stop finding a way around and learn how to approach issues straight on.
Posted by: emil | January 15, 2008 at 10:33 PM
Julian, this is extremely interesting... I find it particularly interesting at the moment since I am taking a lot of stats course for the conclusion of my econ major, and one of the big issues they stress is that gathering data and the definition of data is a very noteworthy point. This is such a prime example of how numbers can never fully explain a situation and how innocuous sounding data collection can be turned around and used in support of a biased claim. The fact that you have to file a police report for such a small incident is absurdly bureaucratic as well.
Posted by: Laura | January 15, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Hmmm. I think the legal system might upset me if I were to live there.
Posted by: Sarah | January 16, 2008 at 02:32 AM
Emil: you're right about all the "adjustments". I've heard very many stories. The problem now is that government is interested in "looking modern", rather than making an organic transition to wherever the country is going. My view is that it's a problem of residual communist mentality in government: I'd be interested in your opinion. On the subject of the future, one thing that disturbs me is the lack of any positive vision for the country. Official "predictions" are bleak: falling population, increasing inequality. They are just an extrapolation of data, with all the failings of that approach. There needs to be a positive vision: the best outcome for Romania and the steps to take to get there. Romania is fortunate to have excellent farmland, plentiful forests, capacity for alternative energy generation, a diverse population that can live peacefully together, and so on. It has the potential to become a relatively sustainable land as oil becomes scarcer and more expensive. I wish that there were a civic organisation dedicated to promoting the best future for Romania. Do you know of one?
Laura: as you say, statistics are limited by inaccuracy in data collection. Back in Britain, the police historically weren't interested in recording data on minor road accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists, nor domestic violence or racism. Because the figures were artificially low, government didn't treat these problems as seriously as they merited.
Posted by: Transylvanianhorseman | January 16, 2008 at 07:56 AM
What a frustrating waste of time that would be. Does it make for more careful drivers to avoid the inconvenience?
Now as for the cart & horse owner, I wouldn't much like taking the rap for every ding and dent about town.
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