Croatian road rules
During my trip to Croatia, we experience the full fury of the Croatian traffic court legal system. This was the result of an unfortunate traffic accident that resulted in my friend getting a one year driving ban (only in Croatia mind you) and a 2700 Kuna fine. Let's see if you still think this was just after I explain how it happended....
We had just left the airport and were taking our second turn out of the car hire parking lot. Now in Croatia, they don't believe in T junctions, instead they have Y junctions, which bring with it a number of complications. Firstly, to turn left you have to face almost directly into traffc and then cross the lane of oncoming traffic in the longest way possible, diagonally. Well, couple this with an obstruction requiring one to inch out quite far to see on-coming traffic an you have an accident waiting to happen.
Well, my friend was forced to do exactly this and in that moment of vulnerability was run into by a scooter ridden by a very fat man. Now given the fact that my friend was driving a red VW Polo and was stationary, you would have expected the scooter to have braked or at least swerved. However, this wasn't the case and the rider drove straight into the front fender of the car. The rider then proceeded to heave himself onto the windscreen and crack it before tumbling (in slow motion) to the ground.
Police and ambulance came to survey and address the scene. Blood was taken from the gentleman (we assumed he was drunk) and then after the passage of a far amount of time my friends statement was taken. He was required to be breathalised (came up 0.0) and then to appear before traffic court a few days later. A number of people at the scene corroborated my friends story that there was an obstruction and he was very cautious in his actions. Actually there were a large number of people milling about, surveying the scene and then philosophising about what happended in Croatian. We found this quite unnerving; however, the police officer at the scene was very touchy feely and kept patting my friend on the back as to console him.
During traffic court, none of the corroborating evidence was presented. Also the judge was in a vest and very casual. It appears that the driver of the scooter had neither drivers licence nor was the scooter registered. Not that my friend was told this until after the verdict. Actually, while my friend waited to be seen in court there were a number of other tourists who were also in court for traffic related incidents. A scam perhaps?
All I can say is that if you ever decide to travel to Croatia and rent a car, drive safely as neither the system nor the other drivers are working in your favour.