Hit/Run Car Accident, No Insurance, Drivers License, Registration AND No Cops?

Okay, hopefully someone here can explain this to me because I am completely at a loss. I was driving to my little brother's high school this morning to take him lunch. Two teenage girls driving a Subaru Outback exited the parking lot of the school turning left crossing the southbound lane, the double yellow lines that frame the turning lane, and plowed right into the left side of my car. I sat on the horn trying to alert her of my presence, but she was apparently listening to the radio and did not hear the horn, as she later admitted. Initially, she left the scene and did not stop. I parked the car at the school and called the police, figuring the girls would have to come back to school eventually. They did. I asked her why she had left the scene of the accident and she responded: "I was scared and did not know what to do." I suggested, for future reference, that what you do is stop!

Since 20 minutes had passed by this time I let her know that I had called the police since, at the time I called, it was a hit/run. I explained that the damage was really THAT bad and so this made her leaving the scene all the more complicated because we could have just exchanged information. At that point she mentioned that she did not have her license, or have a license at all (not sure which), did not know where the registration was, and did not know if she had insurance. I guess we know why she left the scene initially? Have no fear, however, because her mom was on the way.

Her mom arrived and immediately went into "protect my daughter at all costs" mode, which I suppose I understand, to a point. At that point the police called me back on my cell phone to let me know that he was busy on another call and could not get to me for an hour or so. I told him that my little sister was at home, sick, and I was watching her so I really needed to get home. I told him that the girl had come back and that her mother was there, now, so I would get what information I could and he could come to my house later at his convenience. He said that would be fine. Meanwhile, the girl's mother called her insurance company who told her to call the police and cease talking to me?

I told the mother that I needed to get back to my little sister so I would be leaving now. She said that she had just called the police and I needed to stay. I told her I had just got off the phone with the police and they indicated otherwise.

When I got home the now female police officer who showed up rather quickly when this girl's mother called and telephoned me at home. She wanted to know if I needed any information. I explained I did because I did not have the girl's registration, driver's license, or insurance information. The officer said the mother says she gave you her name, driver's license number, phone number and policy number so that was all I needed. What? I said: "Well, the girl left the scene of the accident, had no license, insurance, or registration? She said: "Yeah, well, there is not enough damage for us to file a report and the girl came back to the scene and says she let her license at home so we are done with this." What?

Now my insurance company called me and said the mothers license number is not a valid one, nor is her insurance information, but at least the phone number she gave me was correct. Okay, what am I missing here?

how does someone plow into the front of you car eand then just drive away? did she back up and then drive away? how old is your little sister that you were able to go have lunch with your bro but then really had to get home to watch her ande could not wait for the police? what backwards town do you live in where it seems like there is only 2 police officers on the force?

Just asking....

It is policy in a lot of cities that police don't file reports for auto accidents that do not involve physical injury. I always take cell phone pics of the damage including the other cars and its license plates. I also ask to see the other driver's proof of insurance. With those pieces of information, it would be very hard for them to stiff you on the damages to your car even if there were no official police report.

Originally Posted by ter1413

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how does someone plow into the front of you car eand then just drive away? did she back up and then drive away? how old is your little sister that you were able to go have lunch with your bro but then really had to get home to watch her ande could not wait for the police? what backwards town do you live in where it seems like there is only 2 police officers on the force?

Just asking....
There's truth in this post. I think your insurance company has a fight on its hands.

Originally Posted by ter1413

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how does someone plow into the front of you car eand then just drive away? did she back up and then drive away? how old is your little sister that you were able to go have lunch with your bro but then really had to get home to watch her ande could not wait for the police? what backwards town do you live in where it seems like there is only 2 police officers on the force?

Just asking....

She slammed into the left side of my car and simply kept going. No need for her to back up. I did not go to have lunch with my litle bro, I was dropping off his lunch, which my dad normally does. My little sister is 13 and the school is less than a mile away. I would have been gone for 5 minutes, 10 tops, until the accident. I did wait, initially, 30 minutes for the cops, but could not wait longer than that since he called and said it would be more than an hour longer. The officer I talked to said it was fine if I went home and that he would contact me later. There are definitely more than two police officers in town, but I do wonder why on earth they don't seem to think the combination of circumstances relating to this accident are not serious enough for them to investigate? The girl had no license, no registration, no insurance information, and intially hit and run? Okay, she came back and that was the right thing to do, but she still had none of the other aforementioned information. I did get her mothers drivers license number, which turns out is not valid! I did get the insurance policy number from her mother, which also turns out to be invalid! I took a picture with my cell phone of the license plate and my insurance company has already run the plate and now has all of the correct information. But would failure to intially stop, failure to have all of the required documents, and then providing incorrect information all combine to lead one to be reasonably suspcious? Or am I being overly paranoid here? I have a half dozen names and phone numbers of eye witnesses who all saw the accident and my insurance company has already rated the accident as "zero percent my fault." I do have cell phone pictures of all the damage, to both cars, but since the girl did not have her drivers license I could not get a photo of it and her aggressive mother would not allow me to look at hers, much less photograph it, stating she was not involved in the accident and she was giving it to me "as a courtesy." Courtesy? Your daughter was driving without a license, insurance, registration, and intially left the scene of the accident and you are doing this as a "courtesy" to me?

you should have been leery at getting the wrong info...
my friend had something like that happen and they gave him the wrong info..was the fake insurance number I81U812?

and a 13 yr old can't wait a few more minutes in the safety of their own home while you take care of this? couldn't you have called her and let her know that you were running late? my..how times have changes. back in the days, my mom could leave me and my 2 sisters and bro at home and not have to worry about anything!!

Originally Posted by ter1413

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you should have been leery at getting the wrong info...
my friend had something like that happen and they gave him the wrong info..was the fake insurance number I81U812?

and a 13 yr old can't wait a few more minutes in the safety of their own home while you take care of this? couldn't you have called her and let her know that you were running late? my..how times have changes. back in the days, my mom could leave me and my 2 sisters and bro at home and not have to worry about anything!!

I did call my sister to let her know what happened and she immediately began to cry. She is a little girl! A few minutes, yes, not more than an hour. She is also sick and was left in my care. My parents have never left any of us at home, alone, which is why I was home today watching her, as a favor to my parents. Maybe that sounds weird, but my parents have always been very protective of us, even if we live in a very nice neighborhood. They have always said: "We trust you completely, it is a few bad people in the world that we don't trust." I have always found comfort in the fact that my parents cared enough to go above and beyond for all of us, the truth be known.

The insurance company will sort this out. You won't have to worry about it.

While sitting at a stop light I was hit by an uninsured driver very badly, over $40,000 in damages. The driver told the cop that he had insurance, and although I begged the cop to see proof, the cop refused to demand to see his card even though we're required to carry a card in this state. I had a feeling the driver was uninsured, and sure enough he had none. The driver declared bankruptcy. My insurance company took care of the damages.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by dah328

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It is policy in a lot of cities that police don't file reports for auto accidents that do not involve physical injury. I always take cell phone pics of the damage including the other cars and its license plates. I also ask to see the other driver's proof of insurance. With those pieces of information, it would be very hard for them to stiff you on the damages to your car even if there were no official police report.

The officer involved at the time told me that the police were not "required" to take a report if there was less than $1500 worth of damage. Actually, Idaho state code says something quite different:

TITLE 49
MOTOR VEHICLES
CHAPTER 13
ACCIDENTS
49-1305.IMMEDIATE NOTICE OF ACCIDENTS. (1) The driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to or death of any person, or damage to the property of any one (1) person in excess of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) shall immediately, by the quickest means of communication, give notice of the accident to the local police department if the accident occurs within a city, otherwise to the office of the county sheriff or the nearest office of the state police.

In this instance, I was not "required" to report the accident if there was less than $1500 worth of damage. As it turns out, there was, but that is not the issue. I called the police because the girl had fled the scene of the accident. Fleeing the scene is a reportable felony violation of the law that requires local law enforcement to respond. Once they do respond, and in this case they eventually did, they must file a report within 24 hours and I am entitled to get that report.

TITLE 49
MOTOR VEHICLES
CHAPTER 13
ACCIDENTS
49-1306.WRITTEN REPORTS OF ACCIDENTS. (1) Every law enforcement officer, who in the regular course of duty investigates a motor vehicle accident, either at the time of and at the scene of the accident, or thereafter by interviewing participants or witnesses, shall within twenty-four (24) hours after completing the investigation forward a written report of the accident to the department.
(2) Written reports required to be forwarded by law enforcement officers and the information contained in them shall not be privileged or held confidential.

Add to all of this the fact that the girl NEVER provided me with her name, address, drivers license, proof of insurance, and registration. What does state law say about that?

TITLE 49
MOTOR VEHICLES
CHAPTER 13
ACCIDENTS
49-1302.DUTY TO GIVE INFORMATION IN ACCIDENT INVOLVING DAMAGE TO A VEHICLE. (1) The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in damage to any vehicle which is driven or attended by any person shall, at the scene of the accident, give his name, address and, if available, at the scene of the accident, he shall exhibit his driver's license, proof of registration and certificate or proof of liability insurance to the person struck or to the driver or person attending any vehicle collided with.
(2) If a police officer is present, that officer shall make all reasonable efforts to facilitate the exchange of the required information provided by subsection (1) of this section between the parties involved.
(3) Any person who willfully fails to provide the information required to be given by subsection (1) of this section or who knowingly provides false information of the type required by this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

The information I was provided by the girls mother, who would not permit her daughter to talk to me, turned out to be false. Thankfully, I took a photograph of the license plate of the car and with that my insurance company was able to locate the registered owner. That said, without a police report my insurance company states they, too, cannot provide me with any of the information state law says the girl was required to give me at the scene.

I have since contacted the Mayor's Office with my concerns who in turn contacted the Chief of Police who in turn contacted me wanting to know what I required. I stated that what I required was for Idaho State Law to be enforced. Police responded to the scene of an accident because of an initial complaint of felony hit and run and did not file a report, as is required, within 24 hours. And while the other driver ultimately returned to the scene, she did not provide me with any of the information State Law requires, a misdemeanor, and the information provided by her mother was false, also a misdemeanor. As such, what I want to make me happy is a police report that addresses all of these concerns. He explained to me that the police would come to my house tomorrow, Saturday, and take the report after which I will be provided with all of the information I was always entitled to in the first place.

Now, since the time of the accident, I was able to get 6 written sworn affidavits from independent eye witnesses, all students, who just happened to see the accident my way. Upon reporting this to my insurance adjuster and demanding that he pass this information on to the other drivers insurer, what do you know, they have accepted responsibility for the accident after first trying to claim it was a "he said, she said" and each insurance company should take care of their own driver. I cannot help but wonder how many people get screwed every day because they fail to learn what their rights are?

This is really eating you up, isn't it?

**** female police officers. I have had a couple run ins with them and they have been nothing but bitches, and that's how I would describe them at a funeral in front of their families to be polite and not say how I really feel.

It sounds like the cop the mother talked to is siding with her and taking her word over yours. Which is bullshit because she wasn't there.

If this happened in the US can't you just sue them? I'm not really sure what goes on there but that is definitely one of the biggest American stereotypes out there. That, and the fat thing.

Anyway, good luck and I hope that little **** that hit you car gets what she has coming, especially if she is unlicenced.

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

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This is really eating you up, isn't it?

Eating me up? Are you kidding me? Let me guess? You, too, believe that because the other driver was a teenage girl that she ought get a free pass and be treated differently than say, an adult male would be in this exact same situation?

Bottom line is had she simply done the right thing in the first place nothing bad would have happened to her or anyone else. She didn't. I didn't do this to her. She did this to herself. It is called personal responsiblity. I know, that is not very politically correct these days, but it is how I was raised.

At 11AM the cops will finally make a police report. They will have to cover their a**es for failing to file one in the first place, now that the Mayor and Chief of Police are watching, and will have to include all of those inconvenient little facts: 1. Fled the scene; 2. No license; 3. No registration; 4. No proof of insurance; 5. Failing to provide name and address; 6. Providing false information. I suspect things are going to get much worse for this teenage girl now than they ever should have or needed to be, but I certainly don't feel guilty about it. Then again, her mother could simply admit she was the driving force behind the false information and ask the law to punish her, not her daughter. I won't hold my breath waiting for that one.

I am not responsible for any of this and I certainly wasn't going to just pay my $500 deductable and let this "little girl" walk away clean and free. If she is old enough to drive then she is old enough to drive responsibly. If you feel that bad for her then maybe I should forward her information, when I get it, to you and you could represent her pro-bono? Or, in the alternative, you could pay my $500 deductable for me so her insurance company won't have to.

As to my somewhat lengthy post, to include citations from the Idaho Civil Code, I thought it would be helpful to let others know that just because the cops say something is true, i.e unless their is $1500 worth of damage no police report is required, does not make it so. Do your own homework. Do NOT take their word for it. They are not lawyers or judges, they are cops.

So, a couple years back a friend of mine was backing out of another friends driveway and hit an F150s door and fucked it pretty badly. This was at 4am so he goes back inside and tells our friends dad what happened, he says go home and come back early and we'll sort it out. He arrives back at 8am, the ford owner had already called the cops and he got nailed with a hit and run because he originally left. Our friends father vouched for him but the cop was a total dick.

That girl should be getting some pretty serious charges laid on her.

Originally Posted by LatinStyleLover

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I have since contacted the Mayor's Office with my concerns who in turn contacted the Chief of Police who in turn contacted me wanting to know what I required. I stated that what I required was for Idaho State Law to be enforced. Police responded to the scene of an accident because of an initial complaint of felony hit and run and did not file a report, as is required, within 24 hours. And while the other driver ultimately returned to the scene, she did not provide me with any of the information State Law requires, a misdemeanor, and the information provided by her mother was false, also a misdemeanor. As such, what I want to make me happy is a police report that addresses all of these concerns. He explained to me that the police would come to my house tomorrow, Saturday, and take the report after which I will be provided with all of the information I was always entitled to in the first place.

Now, since the time of the accident, I was able to get 6 written sworn affidavits from independent eye witnesses, all students, who just happened to see the accident my way. Upon reporting this to my insurance adjuster and demanding that he pass this information on to the other drivers insurer, what do you know, they have accepted responsibility for the accident after first trying to claim it was a "he said, she said" and each insurance company should take care of their own driver. I cannot help but wonder how many people get screwed every day because they fail to learn what their rights are?
Good work. You're fortunate to have had witnesses to the accident.

Originally Posted by LatinStyleLover

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As to my somewhat lengthy post, to include citations from the Idaho Civil Code, I thought it would be helpful to let others know that just because the cops say something is true, i.e unless their is $1500 worth of damage no police report is required, does not make it so. Do your own homework. Do NOT take their word for it. They are not lawyers or judges, they are cops.
Oh how I agree with this. I've had more than one occasion where a cop thought they were Billy Joe Badass and they knew the law and I did not. The fact is they generally do not know the law on a great many things.