He was driving to a meeting when a Premier taxi came out suddenly from a parking lot and collided with his Porsche Carrera 911.
He made this simple post on Facebook:
“A day started with my car got [sic] scratches. Taxi Uncle also steady admit his fault, no argument. Told me times are bad & ask me don’t claim against him. I accepted $1 & move [sic] on.”
Fed Wu, director of workshop and car dealership company Allmotoring Pte Ltd, was on his way to meet the council members of the Automobile Megamart at Ubi after buying beancurd at Rochor Beancurd House in Geylang for them when the taxi hit his car.
“I was not angry or upset. It’s a small matter,” Wu tells The Pride. His only worry was that the accident would make him late for his meeting.
“The taxi uncle did not argue that it was his fault, and insisted on paying me because he was worried that I would make an insurance claim against him.”
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He pleaded with Mr Wu not to make a claim and said he had only $200.
“I told him it was OK, he could pay me just $200, even though I knew the repairs and respraying work would cost a lot more,” said Wu.
However, the taxi driver, who identified himself only as Ong, did not have enough cash in his wallet.
“I explained that I was in a rush to get to a meeting and told him not to worry since we had each other’s mobile number.
According to Wu, an insurance claim against the taxi driver would have amounted to at least $8,000, and that’s just the cost of replacing the bumper. He added that there would also be respraying, loss of use, legal fees, surveyor’s fees and downtime.
And the $200 that Ong offered wouldn’t have been enough to cover the respraying job, which would normally cost $800.
“I contacted my workshop and they said the lowest they could charge for respraying the car was $500, so I told the taxi uncle not to worry, he could pay me just $200 and that I would settle the rest,” Wu recounted. “If I had made an insurance claim, he would have had to forfeit the $1,500 deposit to his taxi company.”
However, when Wu received a text message from Ong that $200 had been transferred to him, he recalled an incident from his youth.
“When I was in the meeting room, I could feel the worry and pain that Ong was going through during this period when business is bad,” explained Wu.
“It reminded me of when I was 17 years old and riding a motorcycle to school. I accidentally hit the wing mirror of a car. At that time, I was really broke and was down to my last $10. However, the driver was kind to me and let me off. So, there are good people around. And what goes around, comes around.”
So Wu refunded $199 of the $200 that Ong had transferred to him, accepting just $1 as compensation for the damage.
He texted Ong: “I understand driving (a) taxi during this period is hard and high risk.” He also added that no further claim would be made against Ong.
“I felt that the kindness that had been shown to me years ago had to be repaid, and this was my chance to do that,” said Wu.