or What should you do?
For all tourists who plan to rent a car in Mexico, because “I know how to drive…
“Buses are for ……..”, here’s a brief test. (Assuming you could easily navigate all the odds and ends listed in Driving in Mexico (cruising?)
Aha! Mexico is a belt and suspenders kind of country, eh?
You stop, right?
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Now what should you do?
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You should stop, right?
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This time go,
or hesitate, and then go? (pull a California Stop?)
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Clearly time to stop.
(Yucatan really is a safety minded place, which is why we only had one murder last year in a city of 1 million people.)
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I’ve shown the extra examples to prove that the first 2 examples weren’t just quirks or the sign installers union gone bonkers (or Photoshop jobs).
Those were easy. . .
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Now what???
GO! right?
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Unnngh, “Go” was not the right choice…..
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And now what?
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I was stopped at this weird ½-glorieta**, as the first car in line, dead-even with the semaforo on the left, so, I couldn’t see the first light, and could only see the second. Green Arrow derecho lights up: I drove into the intersection and almost got . . .
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T-Boned by a car flying-in, horns blaring,
from the left.
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Still planning to drive that rental car in Mexico?
**½-Glorietas: The weird ones where there is a smallish-circle in the middle of the intersection, but has peculiar little 2-car-length turn-out/around lanes on the right and left sides of the main through-way, where drivers are allowed to use the turn-out lanes to make left turns at some glorietas and not at others: if unsure, check all lights and proceed cautiously. . .
Anybody got their own stories/fotos to share?
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Feel free to copy with proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read-on MacDuff . . .
Surviving Yucatan 
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I’m learning to drive for the first time, here in Mexico no less, and I find it quite terrifying. But I just “do as the Romans do” and learn from the other cars how to avoid all the baches, which lights to stop at even when the lights are not actually working, etc.
Steve,
While lunching with friends my wife was told a storey of a Canadian woman involved in an accident in which the other driver, a Mexican citizen, died. Although ” fully insured ” she was jailed until the authorities felt the deceased family was compensated for their loss. The Canadian’s husband had to pay a lot of money to free his wife from incarceration.
Is this the norm? Doesn’t insurance cover such events? Did the death create a crime not possible to be covered through insurance? We are about to apply for permanent resident cards and purchase a car but have pu t our plans on hold due to this concern. I can speak with a lawyer or insurance agent but wonder if you or your readers have local knowledge of similar situations. Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi Gringo,
Yes, we’ve had several articles on this very thing…
Since 2012 … we have had to carry at least $4 million in insurance protection against each death, because we ALL go to jail, until we can prove that we can pay the family the $3 million to $5 million … in cash … for the loss of life.
Read this old article (see below) to know what special insurance coverage is needed:
https://yucalandia.com/2013/02/04/updated-insurance-auto-coverage-limits-for-mexico/
To stay out of jail, you need to have your insurance company rep come to the site of the accident… and prove to the police that you have Fiscal Bond coverage large enough to pay ALL possible~likely expenses of the other parties … including vehicle replacement, property damage, and accidental death benefits…
Imagine totalling some rich guy’s $75,000 USD Porsche Cayenne … and someone is killed … => at least $3.5 million pesos in Yucatan for the death + $1.5 million pesos for the car => $5 million in Fiscal Bond coverage … to have a chance to avoid jail.
Still, in many cases of a traffic death, they put everyone involved in jail, until it’s sorted out (within 72 hrs)… as even witnesses are sometimes jailed in serious cases …
So, yes, it can require both good insurance, and the right policy … and a good insurance adjustor~rep on site at the accident …
Come to our Merida Mens Club breakfast next Tuesday Morning at the Hyatt Regency … on Av. Colon before 8:00 AM… to ask a fine insurance agent … how to avoid this…
and yes… Knowledge~education sometimes comes with a cost … for those who aren’t prepared.
*sigh*
Happy Trails,
steve