As I was parking a rental car a very lightly touched a street pole. The scratch is so minor (a millimeter or two on the underside of the front bumper) that I was considering not even reporting it but a bit of paint was chipped so just to be safe I called the rental accident line.
After an amusing conversation with them where they inquired about the weather and who I thought the sign post might belong to, they recommended I call the police in the morning.
So I’m about to do that. Any advice for things I should/shouldn’t say? I’m assuming that this won’t be points on my license but this is Japan and I’m always ready to have my expectations subverted.
I’d like to just get the report as smoothly as possible without this spiraling into a whole thing.
r/japanlife doesn’t allow photos embedded in posts but if anyone’s curious I can make an Imgur link later of the scratch.
Edit: All done. They investigated like a crime scene. Lots of photos and questions. They were honestly surprised at how small the scratch was and they couldn’t find any damage to the pole. They were more curious about my being a foreign person driving in the country and who was in the car with me at the time but they were patient in explaining everything and fingers crossed I should be good. I got all the extra insurance with the rental company so I’m hoping I’ll be covered for any damage.
Edit 2: got a call from city hall inquiring about the pole. Told them the pole’s doing fine. They’re gonna follow up with the rental company….soooo…maybe now I’m done? They didn’t seem to have the contact info for the rental agency but they were able to get mine from the police, which is a bit odd. But these things are not for me to understand.
6 comments
We scratched the side of our rental car on a retaining wall, called the police and had them inspect everything as if a crime scene took place. Then returned the car and paid 70000 yen for the damage.
Let’s just say police ain’t gonna do anything unless someone owns that retaining wall and reported to them. So I wouldn’t worry too much other than paying.
I usuall6 use Toyota for my rental cars. I always get the insurance through them. I rented one of those big vans and bumped a brick wall once when the van was filled up and I had bad visibility.
The owner of the brick wall was upset, which is fair, but quickly changed his tone once I said it was a rental and I had insurance. He even went to buy me coffee while the police came.
I’m glad the pole doing fine.
Why not just hand it in and wait to get asked to pay for it?
I scraped the side of a rental pretty badly on a street lamp pole, but luckily I had paid Toyota an extra 1,000 yen for their full cover, so once I got a police report, I had zero financial liability, and they said I’ll be demoted to a blue licence next renewal, but no points.
Give it some beans mate