Thaddeus

Prosecute. Hit and run is a crime. Unlike an earlier thread that caused some debate, this is an adult and she needs to be held fully accountable.

Thaddeus

IceShark

Unfortunately, it may be too late to prosecute at this point so he better hurry and find out if he can press charges.

I don't fully understand motor vehicle laws but they can be pretty strange. I had a woman back up into my car at a gasoline station. I was outside of my car helplessly watching this happen. We did the information exchange, I called her insurance company and it turns out that maybe she wasn't insured.

So I call the local cops and State Patrol to inquire about having her charged with being uninsured to use as leverage in getting her to fork over the $700 in damages. The cops said they wouldn't do aything because they weren't there to see it. WTF sort of deal is this? I got all her info in her own handwriting and a picture of her standing by the wreck. And a couple gas station clerks as witnesses. Tough luck.

Fortunately she finally paid but the police were no help at all. And here I thought driving without insurance was akin to DWI/DUI. It isn't.

VectorGuy

I've got an idea.. You should have chased her down, yelled at her until she cried, taken some pictures of her and posted them here..and then confiscate her BIKE!!

Oh yea, she wasn't on a bike..sorry.
wrong post, same topic:
Crime and Punishment

Dave

I think I should explain the reasoning behind my previous reply.
Jon Hanson Said;
And Iceshark's statement;
In many places, the police will not issue a ticket for anything that they didn't witness, or at least see enough evidence to sign the ticket themselves. Your only option at that point is to file a complaint yourself, in which case, YOU have the responsibility of prosecuting the case not the state. As much as it sucks to know that somebody is getting away with a hit and run, is it worth the agrivation to you to take this through the legal system?

If it weren't for that I'd say SHE SHOULD BE TORN INTO ITSY BITSY PIECES....AND BURIED ALIVE!

FTR, my car was hit while parked last Jan. After the hit aand run accident report was filed, I found out that the truck that hit it was owned by the company I work for, and the driver was someone I had almost fired a month or two before. The company's Ins co. waited a month before offering to settle for $6700, and no buyback (total). After getting my Ins co. involved, I ended up with $8200 and a $500 buyback. It took until May to put the car back together. That was enough stress, I would hate to think about a court battle on top of it.

Second incident, Last summer on the way home from a weekend at the marina, an elderly man in an ancient, beat-up Lincoln, changed lanes into the back corner of my wife's 2001 Chrysler minivan (occupied by myself, wife and 19 month old son). I followed him honking and flashing the lights for 3 miles, while he weaved in and out of traffic (and the shoulder) like a drunk. I called 911 and reported both the hit and run, and the posible DWI. The guy staggered out of the car, but it turned out that he's not drunk, just old, He didn't know he hit me, didn't see me chasing him, and as a lawyer, planned to sue me for slander for claiming he had commited a hit and run. There was blue paint on his bumper that matched the scrape on the vans back corner. The trooper's advice was let it go, it's not worth the trouble for such minor damage.

It's your desision of course, but if you are going to solicit opinions, mine's "cut your losses". YMMV

Antonio

In NY it would have been her word against yours. Without third party witnesses is a lost cause. Unless of course there were injuries, in which case it would have automatically started a criminal inquiry. I think that Fletch's approach to the matter is appropriate: scare her but not tie the overburden court system with a trivial issue. I'm surprised to see how many people are willing to through the book at this (irresponsible) woman. I guess we all behave responsibly at all times when we drive our Porsches on public roads.

Greg Hammond

Hearing stories like this get my fuming mad! I would have her brought into court and explain to the Judge just what was so important for her to ignore the law and leave the scene of the accident without so much as a "screw you" on the way out.

There's not much difference between scuffing your rubber bumper pad and causing $1000 in property damage - rest assured the penalty in the eyes of the law is the SAME. It's a hit and run, and it carries a stiff penalty in most localities.

Greg

brh986

I would have had her arrested in heartbeat. B***H is right. I had the same thing happen to me, minor damage. Lead me on a wild chase, she was passing on double yellows, running red lights, etc. When I finally caught up with her she played dumb, "I didn't realize, etc." Right... if she didn't know she hit me then she would view me as some crazed psycho chasing her for no reason and never would've stopped. Long story short the cops believed her BS story and wouldn't even write her a ticket, not for the hit and run, not for the wreckless driving, nothing.

Tabor

Greg and brh986, I would hope that your charges would not stick if it was your word against thiers. I don't want some guy falsifying charges against me.

fletch.

I figured I should close this out with the final chapter. unfortunatly it's nothing. I did not hear back from the CHP after they visited the offending B**CH.

I think if I had it to do over again I would have had her sighted for leaving the scene of a accident.

my944

Fletch,

I feel your pain, especially today. I just went to the post office to mail a few Christmas presents and when I came out, I saw a beautiful, large white dent in my front passenger-side fender. AWSOME PRESENT! Just what I always wanted! A nice swatch of white paint in a dent on my black 944!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

PS: Toolbox Tabor, you really should take some Ammodium AD...You have such bad diarhea of the mouth!

H Dog

This is not an isolated incident, and sorry to say, you should have had the cops throw the book at this wench.

I was tooling along on I 75 near Detroit a few years back in my Bimmer, in the left lane about 10 mph faster than the limit in the rain. Traffic was pretty heavy, but I was still passing middle lane traffic regularly when some guy in a Taurus comes up behind me, gets pissed that I'm not going faster (I've driven in Germany, so I know how to clear the left lane for faster traffic). So he rear ends me -- tries to tap me out of the way! We stopped the cars, and he explained that he was in a hurry -- then saw my infant children in the car, and started getting all apologetic. I decided wrongly, since there was no real damage, to let him go, since I had somewhere I needed to be, too.

I should have called the cops and pressed charges.

deni durrell

fletch, just a guess, but that *had* to be on the 280 right? and you dealt with SFPD? or ? the cops here are most chill as compared to LAPD. Dan (in Pas.) could probably comment. upon reading your post, i thought about a scene that i did not see, but drove by. i was going northbound on the 280 near the offramp to the 1 (daly city). some guy in a grey or black 944 hit (rear-ended) someone else and stopped traffic for hours. this was probably in summer time, this year. my only thought was about the car (!) the front end was MESSED up as well as the rear, from who ever was behind him. it was weird seeing that crumpled up mess when the freeway is such a large place with plenty of room (even though i am not forgetting it's a different place in rush hour)..... suffice to say - good to hear you're not hurt and your car is still ok too. AT LEAST! (the commute to marin from the City ain't any better, even it *is* against flow)

my944: what's up with those comments re: tabor..? damn dude.

sb944

I was in a hit and run a few years back. Sitting in the back of a friends car we told him pretty late where a turnoff was. We were already on a tight bend and he broke hard to make the turn. Some guy hit us probably travelling ~70km/h (40km/h bend)before braking and caused a lot of rear end damage as well as myself and the other back seat passenger hitting our heads on the front seats. He drove off and we were fortunate enough to be able to chase and we followed him to "his" house. He got out, looked at us and then stumbled into the house with an opened carton of beer that he had in the front seat. We got the plates and house number and kept going.

We rang the cops when getting to the intended friends house, and they said not to bother doing anything. Because if they went round there at the time and the guy was drunk insurance companies won't cover the cost for you or the other guy and you could end up getting no money. So my friend filed a claim to insurance after the weekend and got his money no drama. This is in Australia, so I'm not sure if things are different here.

Once again the important thing was no one was hurt, just. However it would have been nice to see that guy getting done for drink driving and losing everything.

Sam.

fletch.

Deni, your correct it was on the 380 to 280 exchange north bound. I usually drive my truck, but that day the Porsche needed a run, it had been a few weeks since she had left the confort of my garage. I live very close to the 1 in Pacifica so I know the area well.

Good call.