Last year in September I had as accident in our little, blue Fiat Panda. After we had it repaired and such, I thought that the saga was over. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't. I received a letter in the mail after we returned back from the Netherlands in December which informed that they were going to make a decision about whether to punish me for causing the accident. My level of french isn't THAT good so when I read the bold words "Retrait du permis de conduire" - which translates to "Withdrawal of driving licence", I immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were going to take away my licence forever. I was driving myself crazy thinking that the rest of our stay in Switzerland would be really bad without having the ability to drive anywhere and that we should just sell our car and go back to Australia. Luckily I got my Swiss friend to read the whole letter and she explained that they were just trying to decide whether to withdraw my licence for a certain amount of time to teach me a lesson. The letter also said that I could write to them and explain the circumstances of the crash to help them make their decision.
We wrote a letter explaining that I am a good driver with a sound driving history (no accidents until then), that the intersection is a particularly 'crappy' one with a very large hedge obscuring the view of anybody trying to turn and various other factors that led to me neglecting to give way. I thought that taking the letter to the person would be better so he could see who I was which would hopefully help him get a better idea of what kind of person I was. He didn't speak a word of english which is fair enough. I shouldn't expect him to. He did however, call a colleague in who bridged the gap of our language and explained to me that he thought that my letter was a huge contradiction because I mentioned that there was a hedge preventing me from seeing cars clearly and also mentioning that I saw that the driver was at - the time of impact, looking down at his radio. I'm not sure that he realised the accident happened in the middle of the intersection (obviously) and that I saw the other driver looking down - in spite of the hedge which prevented me from seeing the driver, AFTER I entered the intersection. If he had have given the thought more than two seconds, he would have realised that no sane person would actually enter an intersection after seeing a car speeding towards it.
He also thought it funny/stupid/insane that I told him that I didn't speak french well enough to explain my situation, yet I gave him a letter which was written in perfect french. I don't think he thought it likely that I could have possibly known a person who could translate my very well thought out letter explaining the circumstances of my very unfortunate accident. I feel that he was possibly a little prejudice towards me and my lack of language. I managed to explain to him - via the lovely interpretor, that I wasn't there to try and get out of my punishment but merely there to explain the circumstances in order for him to make his decision based on personal encounters rather than just ticking the boxes. I managed to leave the office without crying/yelling/bribing and awaited his decision which - I was told, would arrive in the mail in due course.
Not so long after that I received the letter in the mail informing me of his decision. I was to lose my licence for one month and pay a fine which didn't sound so bad if you just looked at the cost of the fine. It was all of the added fees on top that pretty much doubled the cost of the fine and brought it to a whopping 422CHF. Fees included - 150CHF just to hand in my licence (the bureaucrat that handles the licence-taking desk must get a pretty paycheck), 50CHF for 'emolument' (definition - the returns arising from office or employment usually in the form of compensation or perquisites) and 12CHF for "contribution pour la sante" (contribution for health) - no idea what that fee is for. The positive thing out of it all was that I was given a choice as to which month to hand in my licence as long as it was before July. I was going to be sneaky/clever and hand it in when we left the country (in August) but it needed to be done within 6 months.
So after our visitors left us in February and I had no real reason to need my licence, I decided to hand it in. After handing it in and realising that you get it back on the same date the next month I was glad that I did it in February because it's the shortest month of the year. Even though it didn't make that much of a difference because it's not that much shorter, I still felt a little happy knowing that I cheated their system.. not really, but I'm going to keep thinking that anyway.
I finished my month of 'doing time' and received my licence back last week! So now I'm back behind the wheel! Look out Switzerland!
We wrote a letter explaining that I am a good driver with a sound driving history (no accidents until then), that the intersection is a particularly 'crappy' one with a very large hedge obscuring the view of anybody trying to turn and various other factors that led to me neglecting to give way. I thought that taking the letter to the person would be better so he could see who I was which would hopefully help him get a better idea of what kind of person I was. He didn't speak a word of english which is fair enough. I shouldn't expect him to. He did however, call a colleague in who bridged the gap of our language and explained to me that he thought that my letter was a huge contradiction because I mentioned that there was a hedge preventing me from seeing cars clearly and also mentioning that I saw that the driver was at - the time of impact, looking down at his radio. I'm not sure that he realised the accident happened in the middle of the intersection (obviously) and that I saw the other driver looking down - in spite of the hedge which prevented me from seeing the driver, AFTER I entered the intersection. If he had have given the thought more than two seconds, he would have realised that no sane person would actually enter an intersection after seeing a car speeding towards it.
He also thought it funny/stupid/insane that I told him that I didn't speak french well enough to explain my situation, yet I gave him a letter which was written in perfect french. I don't think he thought it likely that I could have possibly known a person who could translate my very well thought out letter explaining the circumstances of my very unfortunate accident. I feel that he was possibly a little prejudice towards me and my lack of language. I managed to explain to him - via the lovely interpretor, that I wasn't there to try and get out of my punishment but merely there to explain the circumstances in order for him to make his decision based on personal encounters rather than just ticking the boxes. I managed to leave the office without crying/yelling/bribing and awaited his decision which - I was told, would arrive in the mail in due course.
Not so long after that I received the letter in the mail informing me of his decision. I was to lose my licence for one month and pay a fine which didn't sound so bad if you just looked at the cost of the fine. It was all of the added fees on top that pretty much doubled the cost of the fine and brought it to a whopping 422CHF. Fees included - 150CHF just to hand in my licence (the bureaucrat that handles the licence-taking desk must get a pretty paycheck), 50CHF for 'emolument' (definition - the returns arising from office or employment usually in the form of compensation or perquisites) and 12CHF for "contribution pour la sante" (contribution for health) - no idea what that fee is for. The positive thing out of it all was that I was given a choice as to which month to hand in my licence as long as it was before July. I was going to be sneaky/clever and hand it in when we left the country (in August) but it needed to be done within 6 months.
So after our visitors left us in February and I had no real reason to need my licence, I decided to hand it in. After handing it in and realising that you get it back on the same date the next month I was glad that I did it in February because it's the shortest month of the year. Even though it didn't make that much of a difference because it's not that much shorter, I still felt a little happy knowing that I cheated their system.. not really, but I'm going to keep thinking that anyway.
I finished my month of 'doing time' and received my licence back last week! So now I'm back behind the wheel! Look out Switzerland!
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