Car Accident

Damage done!

From the side. 

This is the truck that ran into us. 

Inside the door repair. 

Looking good in the shop. 

Just like new? 

Our work car has been under repair for the last few months and as a result we are using my car at work. Our work car saga is actually the story before the story but it's important to understand in the overall picture.

Towards the end of last year our work car, let's call it the Surf (Toyota Surf model), had a broken cylinder head. This was a pretty big repair and we didn't have the money to repair it for a few months. In December we finally scraped together the money and over the holiday it went for repair. Car repair here is not like in the developed world and finding a good mechanic is the holy grail of Tanzania. We had a guy, Rejabu, that we'd been using for about six months. He came off a recommendation from a co-worker's husband who owns a tour company so we were comfortable with having a link.

Rejabu worked out of a garage, which was typical for mechanics. Usually the free lancing repairmen will pay the garage owner a sort of rent each time he brings in a car to work on. A lot of garage owners also have parts shops so they get preferred treatment while buying parts. In the end it works out for everyone, except the consumer who does not benefit from the garage owner's indifference to the mechanics that work there.

When we returned from the holiday Rejabu said that there were more repairs needed as a result of the car sitting so long. He said the main issue was the turbo, which cost another healthy chunk of change. We vetted this process hard by demanding a used turbo and getting the turbo on credit to ensure that it worked properly. We were also aware of potential funny business and the convenient excuse of the car's long period being idle. It's common for mechanics to remove perfectly good parts and sell them on the second hand market.

Over the next few weeks, Rejabu began to act very strange. He claimed we needed a complete engine overhaul but when we pressed to see the car he got quiet. He wasn't communicating well and we all got a bit suspicious. He said he moved the car to another garage but all efforts to actually see the car were met with excuses. We didn't want to press him too hard in fear that he would disappear and in truth he had worked with us well for quite some time so we gave him some leeway in that perhaps he was having personal issues. Still, at this point I was worried we'd never see the car again.

It finally reached a point where I had to insinuate that we were going to go to the police. Our driver told him that we were just going to test the car and that our board of directors wanted to know the car was at least safe. Rejabu led our driver to the garage but our driver then in turn led Rejabu to our office. When he got out he told him the car was going to stay there and he could work on it there. He said the garage owner was going to be upset with him and it had to go back to the garage. Eventually he relented but was very nervous as he left.

A few hours later the garage owner came with the police. A standoff ensued with our security guard, driver, and the garage owner all yelling with the police. Large crowds gathered outside and I actually got a call from our neighbor before I got a call from our staff. Somehow how clinical officer got in the mix and apparently threats were made. The police said that since it is our car, we could keep it, and if there was a problem over the work then the case needed to go to civil court. I spoke on the phone with the garage owner and he was very upset claiming we owed him money and I simply told him we did not know who he was nor have any agreement with him so he'd have to talk with Rejabu. The night ended with our clinical officer going back to the police with complaints of vague threats but in the end the car was in our possession.

I waited about a week before even thinking of taking the car out and I expected Rejabu and the garage owner to come speak with us. This never happened and I was told through a mutual friend that the garage owner realized his mistake and that the problem was with Rejabu, not with us. I was still very uneasy about the situation but repeated to Rejabu that we had no business with him and all we wanted was our car.

Now that is the background...so after about a week I decided it was time to take the car on the road to test it.

I had to go for a meeting in town and our cooks needed to buy some food in the market. I told them to go and I would meet them at the market after my meeting. I instructed our driver to take the work car but for whatever reason he decided to take my car.

I met them in the market and they were not yet finished so I got some tea at a nearby shop next to the car. Out of nowhere a gigantic truck came around a corner and plowed into the side of my car. I was stunned but ran to the scene where the truck was trying to slowly pull away. Because it was a large diesel truck, acceleration was not its forte and I quickly caught up to it and action-movie-style jumped on the side and started banging. I shimmied my way up to the door and shouted at the guy to remove the key. He was a young guy and in obvious shock when he saw me swinging into the window and eventually he obliged and turned the car off.

At this point a very large crowd had gathered. Our driver was sitting in the car waiting and amazingly he was uninjured. I first checked if the guy had insurance, which he  did, but he was not the owner of the car, just the driver. I called the insurance company and they said we had to get a certain document from the police to file a report. What followed was a very time consuming process of going to the station to get police, having them come and draw a map and timeline of what happened, and then us all driving our vehicles to the police station.

The owner of the truck met us at the station and we began to discuss with the police. Everyone was acting a bit strange and eventually a police officer took me aside and said that we should try to negotiate with the guy directly instead of file an insurance report. I called one of my Tanzanian friends and he advised the same saying that because the damage isn't so major it would probably be more trouble and take much longer if we went through insurance.

Each of us brought a mechanic that could do body work to assess the damage and give an estimate. My mechanic (not Rejabu) said we needed a new door while the truck owner's mechanic didn't seem to think so. We then sought outside assistance from a third mechanic who came and said that we didn't need a new door and that we could come and check the progress as he went along to make sure it was returned in the original condition. The truck owner agreed on his price and we were all set. We asked where his garage was and he mentioned the same location as where our Surf was. After a few minutes we discovered that this was the garage owner that came to our center with the police! We all had some nervous laughs as he claimed he didn't have any problem with us and that everything was fine but I'd be lying if I said that I was confident handing my car over to him. Luckily we were at the police station so there were witnesses to everything but it was proof that Moshi is a small place. Now, just imagine if we had taken the Surf and it would have ended up back at his garage!