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near death experience

Filed under: Belgium — Thomas @ 14:50

2009-04-04
14:50

Yesterday Kristien was crossing over, with a bus stopping for her on the one side, and another car coming from the other direction. She was crossing over with her bike in her hand. While she was passing the bus, a motorcycle was racing past the bus, with no intention to stop. In a reflex, Kristien jumped forward, so the motorcycle only hit the back of her bike.

The back of her bike was completely squashed. The motorcycle slowed down a little, looked behind him, then raced away, even as other cars were trying to block him from fleeing.

The car that was stopped in the other direction originally pulled a U-turn and pursued the motorcycle. He was able to write down the cycle's license plate before the guy fled.

On the one hand I'm incredibly relieved Kristien's fine, beside a broken nail. On the other hand I want to make sure the guy that did this is taken off the streets. I have little hope of the police finding him, from what the police is saying, even if someone did give them the license plate.

If anyone knows how I can track down the owner of a Polish license plate, feel free to let me know. Irresponsible scum should be taken off the streets.

The witnesses, and the people that chased the bike to get the license plate, where all incredibly friendly and helpful. This kind of thing restores my faith in humanity. All of them where what people sometimes euphemistically call 'New Belgians'. Thank you all.

13 Comments »

  1. Email me the license plate, I’ll see if I can do anything.

    Comment by Patryk (Patrys) Zawadzki — 2009-04-04 @ 15:23

  2. AFAIR you cannot do it privately. You should report this to any Polish police officer. You have to make a case (like hit-and-run accident), place your testimony. If you know the license plate the police can find the person easily. It’s best to do it as fast as possible though! If you want some help feel free to ask.

    Comment by Zygmunt Krynicki — 2009-04-04 @ 15:27

  3. I have a half-polish friend who is a good guy, I will ask him if he can help (like talking to some officials over there).
    You might drop me a line with either some specific info or just that you have it under control.

    Best wishes,
    I

    Comment by I — 2009-04-04 @ 15:41

  4. It was accident for what that bastard can get his license revoked. You have to go to police and better start track down all witnesses who save the deal. With that, they maybe even fine him heavily.

    Comment by Peteris Krisjanis — 2009-04-04 @ 16:31

  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_car_number_plates
    I’ve tried some searches in Google Translate (which allows you to search in Polish and have everything translated back into English)
    Did not find anything convincing.
    Try to ask your ambassy in Poland. They might help.

    Comment by Pierre — 2009-04-04 @ 16:43

  6. Heh @ “New Belgians” – I hadn’t heard that one before, but I so get it.

    Comment by nona — 2009-04-04 @ 16:52

  7. „If anyone knows how I can track down the owner of a Polish license plate, feel free to let me know.”

    Well, you can’t. Only polish Police and polish Departaments of Communication can do it – you know, Act of Personal Data Protection prohibits it. So, you can only contact them, wait half a year and pray…

    Comment by PaweÅ‚ Ciupak from Poland — 2009-04-04 @ 19:19

  8. To play Devil’s Advocate here: he did turn his head and look back, yeah? Maybe he’s a good guy and was racing for his life (or someone else’s.) Just a thought…

    Comment by Donny Viszneki — 2009-04-04 @ 19:27

  9. Without police help you won’t be able to trace the owner, only the county of owner’s registered address of residence

    Comment by Osiris — 2009-04-04 @ 21:38

  10. I am Polish. I can help you. But I think it is job for your Police department.

    Comment by Peter — 2009-04-05 @ 00:31

  11. @Donny Viszneki , he turned his head because he wanted to check what happened, but then he tried to escape, he didn’t help. He should by sentenced ASAP.

    @Thomas, if you have plates than just remind, remind, remind this case to the Police. Belgium is in UE and the same for Poland. UE member states *do have a law especially for dealing with such cases*. Police is able to locate name of this guy easily after contacting Polish Police, you just have to motivate officers which deal with case of your friend/girl/wife.

    Comment by Another guy fro mPoland — 2009-04-05 @ 11:52

  12. It’s not easy to get personal information using a license plate from foreign countries, even within the EU. All the Belgian police can do is ask the Polish police to look up the information. Even then, they probably have no idea where the person is and having someone extradited for a motorcycle accident sounds unlikely.

    They may be able to put quite a heavy fine on him though, and there are procedures for collecting these.

    Comment by me — 2009-04-06 @ 10:14

  13. Fucking hell. Thank god for good reflexes!

    Comment by fons — 2009-04-06 @ 15:51

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