Hound Dog
Apr 24, 2010, 9:49 AM
Post #1 of 25
(7095 views)
Shortcut
|
Well, there were the Dawg & Dawgette tooling between San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Lake Chapala on our quarterly (more or less) 1,500 kilometer drive between those two places we now arrogantly claim as home bases. This leg of the journey was northbound on the Autopista Minatitlan-Cosamalopan traversing the accursedly hot and humid Veracruz Gulf Coastal Plain and we had just crossed the wide and swampy Rio San Juan on its way to Tlacotalpan (a must see place) on its way to the Gulf when, out there in the middle of nowhere, we ran over a metal strip at about 110KPH and that sucker blew our left front tire and bounced up an did additional damage to the undercarraige of our XTrail and we hobbled onto a nearby dirt strip occupied at that point by one of the many pineapple juice vendors selling pineapples and juice tp passersby on that autopista. Stranded. Perplexed. Unsure of the extent of the damage to the car but certain that that expensive tire had been totally destroyed and was history. Now, to make matters even more fun, we then discovered that the tow truck operator who had towed our car in for repairs after one of us had an accident in Tapachula, Chiapas had stolen everything in the car including the jack so we had no way to change the tire and were stuck there in Dante´s Inferno with no way out.
Enter CAPUFE (Caminos y Puentes Federales de Ingresos y Servicios Conexos) and I am telling you folks about this adventure since, if you travel Mexico on Federal toll roads, these are the people who will save not only your butt but a substantial amount of your pesos since it is a fact, as advertised, that the operators of each toll road carry insurance to cover problems you may experience as a result of damage to your vehicle caused by problems with the roadway- meaning any kind of problem from potholes to, in our case, metal objects in the road that cause damage upon impact with your car.
Now, CAPUFE will handle everything but you need to know some groundrules and these are those the CAPUFE representatives told me were nationally consistent but I will only warrant that these rules apply upon toll roads in Veracruz State because that is where we happened to be at that hour.
We were standing there in the Veracruz hellish heat and humidity hoping the Green Angels would come along but in the entire four hours we waited there they never drove by even once. However, the CAPUFE truck that was out there to pick up the metal that had disabled our car did pass by and stopped to help us. They were most gracious and admitted to liability as they had been apprised of the dangerous metal strip in the roadway and hsd even taken pictures of that object.
Here is what we learned haviing had that experience:
* The toll road operators do indeed carry insurance to cover problems you may encounter as a result of road hazards on their segments of the toll highways. However, the representatives of CAPUFE may not admit that unless you assert that the accident was their responsibility. Let them know courteously that you know of your rights and be firm but polite in that assertion. After all, you are out in the swamps and at their mercy. You want them to find you an amenable and pleasant person but not a rollover.
* Always carry a camera so you can document your accident and its reasons.
* Do not leave the scene of the accident if it is not too dangerous there and do not go on to the next caseta de cobro or return to the last one if you can help it. Wait there for the insurance adjuster if at all possible as that adjuster will carefully document the incident, take a number of photographs and complete a written report which you must the sign and upon which you must recount the event. In our case, the adjuster had to come all the way from Coatzacoalcos which, if you know that area, is quite a drive from the area of the incident. We were tempted several times to just drive on to the next caseta which turned out to be far away indeed but we stayed even though our plans to get from San Cristóbal to Puebla that day were thwarted. Now, we can tell you that our patience probably saved us $10,000 Pesos or more so waiting for the adjuster is the best alternative if you can do so. I would not wait out on that lonely autopista at night, however, if I were you. You´d be a sitting duck on that dark and deserted autopista at night so it ain´t worth the risk and you could probably prevail in a claim anyway if drove to the next caseta and presented your case there.
* We were told that repairs and tire replacement could only be performed by approved tallers and that, should we wish to return to our destination of Jalisco, there were three places authorized to perform that work; two in Guadalajara and one in Ciudad Guzman. No way they would pay if we chose to choose our own taller and the nearest one to the accident scene was a backtrack to Coatzaoalcos where we might be stuck for a week or so. No thanks; so we drove back to Lake Chapala from there without a spare or a jack but with the good graces of De Lawd, made it.
Now, all this is made even more complicated by the fact that we were traveling with three dawgs.
We got our tire changed by CAPUFE, hit the road four hours after the catastrophe and, instead of spending the night in Puebla as originally planned, we stayed in Orizaba, Veracruz at the Cascada Hotel - a fine place- and had the best shrimp dinner we have had in ten years living in Mexico. Not as good as the Alabama Gulf but damn near.
s
(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Apr 24, 2010, 10:00 AM)
|
Forums Index
Search Posts
Who's Online
Log In or Sign Up
