Moscow - Москва - Moskau / Russia
Posts 1-1 of 1
-
Chris Helmbrecht Premium Member Group moderator AmbassadorThe company name is only visible to registered members.Moscow: Car accident & Streetfight. Its about who you know....
One can see (and learn) a lot when he travels, even more when you actually live in another country. Sometimes cultures are so different. Living in Russia, I feel sheltered when I’m back home in Germany, like last week when I went for 2 days to Berlin for business. Anyways, a few days ago I visited a friend. While we sat in his living room and chatted, we heard a mild bang outside. It wasn’t dramatic enough for us to jump up and look, but a few minutes later I checked the street below his window and saw an accident.
Two Mercedes had crashed into each other and a few other cars seemed to be involved. The drivers and their passengers were standing on the sidewalk discussing the situation. My friend than explained to me, how you handle traffic accidents in Moscow. First, you pull your cell-phone and call support. That may be someone high up in the hierarchy, who sends some loyal cops or some other people to handle the situation for you. It doesn’t matter who has made a mistake, he says. It matters who has the strongest support. I didn’t quite understand what he meant, but about 30 minutes later I should learn and see.
That’s when a black Lada (with black windows) arrived at the scene and 4 black haired people in black leather jackets got out of the car. I didn’t pay much attention when they walked to the group of the discussing parties, but shortly after one of the drivers lays on the ground. First I thought, he fell unconsciousness because of the accident and the stress, but my friend told me, that the other party had “beating” arguments. The victim stayed on the ground for about 15 minutes laying there in the rain, while some people try to get him back on his feet. It has been a true knockout.
By that time some traffic cops have arrived and they must have called backup and an ambulance. Shortly after 2 militia (police) Ladas arrived at the scene. The (I call him) victim is back in his feet and they continue to argue. Than, the beating starts again, but the cops get in between. The victim is obviously bleeding, because he is holding something to his mouth and nose, but now there are other people involved in the beating and it turns out to be a streetfight. The cops arrest 2 of the violent supporters (tha black leather jackets), but when one of them sits in the police car already another driver comes by the police car and gets hit and kicked by him again.
From there on it was silent, apart from some mysterious guy who arrived at the scene later. He was also a supporter of the guy who called the beat-up team. He went straight to the cop in charge (there were many, but he knew exactly who is in charge) and introduced himself. The cop saluted and after a 5 minute chat the cop seemed to have gotten an explanation of what happened from that mysterious supporter, which shortly after went back to his car and drove away with a hot tire. That’s when the ambulance arrived with siren and blue lights on. 3 hours later!! Man, I hope I never have an accident in Moscow (of no kind). I'll probably die before someone comes to help me.
When I left my friends house around midnight, the “evacuator”, a tow car was stuck on the wet ground trying to pull the silver Mercedes jeep out of the grass and I guess the scene was going on for another 2 hours before everybody got home. Over all it was a 5 hour event until I left. Nobody got hurt, apart from the beating and the cars were not damaged so bad, but that’s how you handle an accident in Moscow. Hope I never have one, because as a foreigner, I’d not know who to call for my support and at the end I’d end up loosing and probably paying or being beat up by some southern type mafia guys.
You can see photos and a video on my blog:
http://www.cyber-generation.net/blog/
This post was modified on 24 Jun 2005 at 07:58 am.- 23 Jun 2005, 12:23 pm
