Author Topic: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?  (Read 4664 times)

jeff2017

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When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« on: September 09, 2018, 10:30:14 PM »
Reading the forum tonight and saw a fender bender situation and was curious, when involved in an accident, do you always call the police?

Luckily, I have never been in an accident of any type that was my fault, but have been rear ended and had a few other relatively minor accidents over the years, the other person always being at fault. Anyways, growing up, my Dad said no less than 1,000 times to always call 911 and get a police report in these situations.

I've always followed this rule and a few times, the Officer seemed annoyed a few times (I think I just caught some lazy cops as they didn't want to spend the time writing anything up), but I've never had any issues and always got my vehicles taken care of, sometimes through insurance, sometimes the person paid out of pocket.

Curious if most here follow this line of thinking? From casual conversations, I've heard friends on both sides of getting a report or just working with the person that hit them. I just don't trust people hahaha. I remember one time, I got hit and my bumper was cracked and the person wanted to handle it between the two of us and suggested it might be a few hundred dollars, LOL that was a red flag, and I'm sure if I wouldn't have gotten a report, when the repair estimate came in at $2K+ (turned out to be more than just the bumper), they might have "remembered differently".

As a frame of reference, I live in a large Metro area, so certainly not the trustiest bunch of people here versus say a nice small town.

This might be better suited as a "Poll" (never created one before), but open to hearing everyone's thoughts.

Also, on this same note, what are your best practices or things you always do in this situation?

I had a friend get "hit and run", so I recall the last time I got hit, I got out of the vehicle and made sure to snap a quick picture of the license plate on the vehicle that hit me.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2018, 10:32:01 PM by jeff2017 »

englishteacheralex

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2018, 02:00:09 AM »
Was that my accident you read about? :)

I pretty much call the police unless...it's basically nothing. I had an accident three weeks ago that was a hit and run. The damage was negligible but it was definitely not my fault. I didn't get the plates or even a description of a car beyond "white SUV".

Called the police and they said state law is that they have to give me a fine for my expired safety check if I want them to write a report. Cool, I'll take the fine. Write the report.

They did, slightly begrudgingly, informing me that probably nothing would come of it. I don't know why, I just wanted that report written. Hit and run. No good. Needs to be reported.

Well, lo and behold, somebody witnessed the accident and phoned in the license plate number of the guy who hit me! He has insurance. I got an estimate and we're now waiting for his insurance to pay out $2400. Because it was a hit and run, the guy doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. We'll see if we ever get the money.

Totally worth the $70 fine, especially if we wind up getting $2400 from the guy's insurance. The car itself is probably worth $4000 without the accident; the ding probably knocked $500 off the price if we wanted to sell it.

Cranky

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2018, 05:25:01 AM »
We've always called the police if there's enough damage that we'd get it fixed.

Last week, my dd's Yaris was rear ended by a gigantic Hummer. The Yaris is still drivable, barely, but will either need major repairs or replaced, and they'll have to buy a new car seat. The insurance company says they won't do anything until they get the police report, and the difference will be about the deductible, I guess.

Were I there, this problem would be resolve a lot faster.

MrUpwardlyMobile

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2018, 05:50:36 AM »
It’s generally governed by the law of the state you’re in.... this is really more of a legal question than a question of peoples’ practices.

Louisville

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2018, 06:03:13 AM »
Some "collisions" result in nothing more than a mark one can scrub off with soap and water. Some result in nothing at all (hurray modern bumper design). In these cases, I'll ask the other driver what they want to do. If they don't want to report, then ok.
Any real damage however, and I get a police report.
I can't say I blame cops for being annoyed at handling minor traffic accident reports. I know it's part of their job, but I've always felt that there should be some other tier of public servant handling non-criminal issues, especially traffic. Seems like our police spend so much time dealing with people in cars that they don't have time for actually protecting our safety and property in other ways.

FindingFI

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2018, 07:40:22 AM »
Around where I live, it's legally required to file an accident report for any traffic incident causing more than $1,000 in a damage.  Since repairing a minor scratch seems to run at least a grand these days, basically any accident requires a report.  Though when I was rear-ended earlier this year, the cops said to go online and file the report myself and took off before I could get their names.  They didn't have to do anything, so whether or not they need to be called to the scene of the accident is another question. 

jeff2017

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2018, 08:52:47 AM »
Some "collisions" result in nothing more than a mark one can scrub off with soap and water. Some result in nothing at all (hurray modern bumper design). In these cases, I'll ask the other driver what they want to do. If they don't want to report, then ok.
Any real damage however, and I get a police report.
I can't say I blame cops for being annoyed at handling minor traffic accident reports. I know it's part of their job, but I've always felt that there should be some other tier of public servant handling non-criminal issues, especially traffic. Seems like our police spend so much time dealing with people in cars that they don't have time for actually protecting our safety and property in other ways.

I hear where you are coming from and perhaps you are more mechanically inclined than me, but things aren't always as they seem, so why not error on the side of caution and cover your a** by having the report? One thing that is universally true it seems, is that car repairs are nearly always moreee expensive than most anticipate.

I'm very pro-police, but I mean their job description is to protect and serve the public, so asking them to spend 5 minutes writing up a report doesn't seem like a big task, particularly when compared to the alternative scenario, 5 minutes of their time vs thousands of dollars in headaches if things aren't as they seem.

RyanAtTanagra

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #7 on: September 10, 2018, 02:23:36 PM »
I've been in 4 accidents, never had to involve the police.  They were all minor fender benders, except one where I rear ended a jeep in my sundance that did absolutely nothing to his bumper but did $1600 in damage to my front end and hood.

bognish

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2018, 02:31:14 PM »
I learned the hard way that some people make the first monthly payment to get an insurance card and then stop paying. I was rear ended right in front of a police officer. Got the police report and swapped insurance. When I called to make my claim I found out they had not paid for 5 months.

Next time I got in an accident I called their insurance and started a claim from the side of the road. Their insurance company told me I would not need a police report since they admitted responsibility.

Also take pictures of everything: car, license plate, any damage, driver, drivers license, insurance cards.

MilesTeg

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2018, 02:47:51 PM »
Reading the forum tonight and saw a fender bender situation and was curious, when involved in an accident, do you always call the police?

Luckily, I have never been in an accident of any type that was my fault, but have been rear ended and had a few other relatively minor accidents over the years, the other person always being at fault. Anyways, growing up, my Dad said no less than 1,000 times to always call 911 and get a police report in these situations.

I've always followed this rule and a few times, the Officer seemed annoyed a few times (I think I just caught some lazy cops as they didn't want to spend the time writing anything up), but I've never had any issues and always got my vehicles taken care of, sometimes through insurance, sometimes the person paid out of pocket.

Curious if most here follow this line of thinking? From casual conversations, I've heard friends on both sides of getting a report or just working with the person that hit them. I just don't trust people hahaha. I remember one time, I got hit and my bumper was cracked and the person wanted to handle it between the two of us and suggested it might be a few hundred dollars, LOL that was a red flag, and I'm sure if I wouldn't have gotten a report, when the repair estimate came in at $2K+ (turned out to be more than just the bumper), they might have "remembered differently".

As a frame of reference, I live in a large Metro area, so certainly not the trustiest bunch of people here versus say a nice small town.

This might be better suited as a "Poll" (never created one before), but open to hearing everyone's thoughts.

Also, on this same note, what are your best practices or things you always do in this situation?

I had a friend get "hit and run", so I recall the last time I got hit, I got out of the vehicle and made sure to snap a quick picture of the license plate on the vehicle that hit me.

Yes, you need to establish the facts of the situation formally even if the other guy is at fault and admits that to you. Yep, the cop might be annoyed if it's a minor fender bender. You never know what might come of an accident such as injuries or other issues (real or merely claimed).

LaineyAZ

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2018, 02:57:39 PM »
I'm leaning towards always call the police to make a report.  Reason is that a friend was recently involved in a minor fender bender.  No one injured, minor damage to each car.  When they both pulled over to the side of the road the other driver immediately called "his attorney" and barely took a moment to exchange information. 
However Other Driver later filed a claim with my friend's insurance claiming thousands of dollars of chiropractic work, which, according to the attorney was completely payable by my friend because he was "completely at fault."

So what started out as a simple couple hundred dollar/no injury incident morphed into injury claims, and without a police report or other witness stating otherwise, it's now probably going to have to be paid.   

FL_MM

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2018, 04:14:37 PM »
I’d suggest that you always call it in to the police, even if they don’t come out to investigate or write a report. This protects you in case the other party decides to make any ridiculous claims.
The worst example I’ve seen of this was a car that backed into another at a stop sign. Very little damage so they both went their separate ways. Later the backing car driver decides to report that the other car rear ended her and fled the scene in a hit and run. She claims an injury. She provides the tag number and description. The innocent driver had to hire an attorney to fight criminal charges.
Take pictures and make a phone call. It only takes a minute and it protects you.

patchyfacialhair

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2018, 04:28:03 PM »
CYA!

The answer is always "yes"

OtherJen

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2018, 06:10:10 PM »
I've been in two and was not at fault either time.

The first: I didn't call the police. I was stopped at a red light, and the kid behind me was on his phone, looked up, and hit the brake but not in time. We pulled over, I saw that there was no damage beyond a little scuff, gave him an annoyed mom-style scolding, and managed to make it to my doctor's appointment only a couple of minutes late (I was sick and really didn't want to miss a much-needed appointment).

The second: I didn't have a choice because a patrolling police cruiser caused the accident. I was approaching a two-way stop on my own street and noticed the cruiser stopped at the intersection. As I had the right of way, I proceeded through the intersection, only to get T-boned by the rookie cop who hit his gas pedal without bothering to check his front window. I doubt most minor accidents get so much attention from a city sergeant, and so quickly! Fortunately, the police department accepted fault so I didn't have to pay the $500 insurance deductible to have both driver's side doors and the vertical support beam replaced.

ETBen

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2018, 07:23:27 PM »
This is a good question. I grew up rural. You don’t call the police for minor accidents, if they are drivable, or no one needs a medic.

I moved to a metro area almost 20 years ago and it drives me insane that people call the polic for fender benders. The traffic already sucks so why hold it up longer if you only need to exchange information?

Now. People who leave their vehicles in the road for a minor fender bender while waiting for the police?  There’s a special place in hell for them.

Cpa Cat

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #15 on: September 10, 2018, 07:45:14 PM »
Two stories.

1. Back in high school, I had a friend who got rear ended by another high school student. The at-fault driver cried and begged to not call the police. Promised her dad would take care of it (he was on the phone). So my friend agrees. She can't get a hold of them. When she tries to make a claim on their insurance, the at-fault driver claims she's scamming, that she backed up into them in the middle of the road. Her father was no help. She was never compensated.

2. I got rear ended on my way somewhere. The girl who rear ended me was on her way to class, I had someplace to be too. The damage was a scratched bumper. She asked if we could settle it between us. I said fine. When I got the estimate, her father got involved and decided that the estimate was too high and he didn't think he should pay, because he didn't think the scratched bumper was worth fixing. In this case, I had photos and an copy of her license and insurance, so I could have made a claim. I was annoyed that we were suddenly playing "let's make a deal" when I was the one with the damage. I ended up taking cash anyway.

SimpleCycle

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #16 on: September 11, 2018, 06:45:36 AM »
I live in Chicago.  The police don't respond to accidents if both cars can drive away from the scene and there are no injuries.  You are directed to the nearest station to make a report.  I haven't been in an accident here, but my instinct is I'd only make a report for substantial damage.

Steeze

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #17 on: September 11, 2018, 07:52:46 AM »
If you need to make an insurance claim call the police. If you don't then no worries, cash is king.

I've handled the three that were my fault without the police. I paid cash to the owner based on the estimated cost from their mechanic on 1. On the second the other driver was high as a kite and begged me not to call the cops (my fault) and said no worries about damages. Third one, scrapped the car after rolling it a couple times, no cops, no other car involved.

Only time I have called the cops was when someone broke into my car and I needed windows replaced by the insurance company.

No accidents on my driving record, only speeding tickets and a DUI. Now that I haven't owned a car for several years i have a great driving record! Funny how that works.

Gondolin

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #18 on: September 11, 2018, 08:34:27 AM »
Quote
I live in Chicago.  The police don't respond to accidents if both cars can drive away from the scene and there are no injuries.  You are directed to the nearest station to make a report.  I haven't been in an accident here, but my instinct is I'd only make a report for substantial damage

I live in Chicago. I was rear-ended on the Kennedy six months ago. No injuries, both cars drivable and the police most definitely responded.

The law in Illinois is that accidents involving injury or > $1500 in total property damage must be reported to the DOT.

jlcnuke

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #19 on: September 11, 2018, 11:37:51 AM »
I call and report any accident that has damage or injuries. If there are no damage or injuries, then as far as I'm concerned there wasn't an accident to report.

trollwithamustache

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #20 on: September 11, 2018, 11:53:05 AM »
Carry uninsured motorist as part of your insurance and always call the cops. You want any liability flowing to the people who took it off your hands and the police report starts that.

saguaro

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #21 on: September 11, 2018, 12:12:10 PM »
I always get a police report even if the police don't get called or show up.  Last accident, if you could call it that, was over 10 years ago, where I literally just tapped the bumper of the car ahead of me.   No visible damage to other car or mine, but woman was upset that I hit her car and insisted that one spot on the bumper was the "damage" I caused.  Ok, whatever.  We exchanged information but I went straight to the police station and got a report.  Officer who took it raised his eyebrows over the fact that there was no damage to either car, but he agreed it was the right thing to do and best to CYA.  Turns out that the other driver never had her "damage" repaired either but that's another story.

I worked in auto insurance claims and it's amazing how many claims reports I took from insureds who had the other party come back sometimes long after the fact (but just before the statute of limitations ran out, interestingly enough) and twist the truth.  Having a report goes a long way towards shutting that stuff down.

SimpleCycle

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #22 on: September 11, 2018, 12:58:43 PM »
Quote
I live in Chicago.  The police don't respond to accidents if both cars can drive away from the scene and there are no injuries.  You are directed to the nearest station to make a report.  I haven't been in an accident here, but my instinct is I'd only make a report for substantial damage

I live in Chicago. I was rear-ended on the Kennedy six months ago. No injuries, both cars drivable and the police most definitely responded.

The law in Illinois is that accidents involving injury or > $1500 in total property damage must be reported to the DOT.

Chicago PD responded, or the Illinois State Police?  The rules are different on the interstate.

http://directives.chicagopolice.org/directives/data/a7a57be2-12b5eb71-aa012-b5eb-98b07d71421c1348.html

http://directives.chicagopolice.org/directives/data/a7a57be2-12ac953b-aaf12-aca0-72d1f2755dafb70a.html

Gondolin

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #23 on: September 12, 2018, 03:03:23 PM »
Quote
Chicago PD responded, or the Illinois State Police?  The rules are different on the interstate.

ISP. You're right. The interstate/local divide didn't occur to me until after I posted

Retire-Canada

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #24 on: September 12, 2018, 03:19:34 PM »
Reading the forum tonight and saw a fender bender situation and was curious, when involved in an accident, do you always call the police?

This is from our Provincial insurer:

Quote
The Motor Vehicle Act requires all individuals involved in a motor vehicle accident to remain at the accident scene, to render assistance and to exchange vehicle registration and license information with all parties involved in the accident. The Motor Vehicle Act also requires those involved in the accident to report the accident to the local police force within 24 hours in urban areas and within 48 hours in rural areas. The need to report only applies if the damages exceed $1,000 ($600 if a motorcycle is involved). When in doubt, it is best to simply report the accident to the police as soon as possible. Indeed, it is good practice, unless the accident was extremely minor and all parties agree to exchange information and leave the scene, to call the police from the accident scene. If it is a relatively minor accident without injuries, the police likely will not attend the accident scene but if it is more serious, with injuries involved, the police will attend the accident scene.

I've smacked another vehicle's side mirror in a parking lot and had my running board scratched in a parking lot. In both situations we exchanged info and didn't call the police as there did not seem to be a point for a few $$ of damage.

DreamFIRE

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #25 on: September 12, 2018, 05:50:58 PM »

About 15 years ago in Florida, I knew a guy who was driving drunk around 2 AM and whipped into someone's driveway too fast, slid, and hit a tree totaling his car.  He was wasted, the car wouldn't even start, and no one came outside, so he took off on foot and left the car there smashed up against the tree.  Several hours later after sleeping and sobering up, he walked several blocks back to where his car was to find a cop on-site, neighbors standing around, and a tow truck at the scene.  He got a ticket for something like failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, but he avoided the whole DUI thing.  He said the cop never uttered a word about whether he had been drinking.  He just told the cop that he didn't want to wake anyone up in the middle of the night since no harm was done (except to the car and the tree).

Gondolin

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #26 on: September 13, 2018, 07:46:04 AM »
Quote
He said the cop never uttered a word about whether he had been drinking

Makes sense insofar as it was no longer possible to prove the driver's state at the time of the accident.

GuitarStv

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #27 on: September 13, 2018, 08:42:05 AM »
I've been rear ended twice, and hit from the side once.  All three accidents were judged 100% fault for the other party by my insurance company.  Even though the damage appeared quite minor in two of the accidents, repairs came to several thousand dollars in each case.  In Ontario, you are required to report an accident to police if damages come to more than 2000$.

LaineyAZ

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #28 on: September 13, 2018, 09:22:36 AM »
I think the "do not bother the police" folks are assuming that both parties are sane and honest.

The police report is needed for those jerks who will later lie and claim injuries and inflated damages.  The only way to shut that down is to have a contemporaneous report with facts and photos.  CYA, indeed.

GuitarStv

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #29 on: September 13, 2018, 10:07:00 AM »
I think the "do not bother the police" folks are assuming that both parties are sane and honest.

The police report is needed for those jerks who will later lie and claim injuries and inflated damages.  The only way to shut that down is to have a contemporaneous report with facts and photos.  CYA, indeed.

When I was talking to one of the guys who rear ended me, he told me not to go through insurance or the police . . . he would pay for everything.  Then he told me that I had to have all repairs done at a garage about 70 km from my home.  I told him I wanted to use my own mechanic and he started to get really angry at me.

I'm generally pretty trusting, but don't have a lot of faith in a random person who drove into my car.  CYA.

Retire-Canada

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #30 on: September 13, 2018, 10:15:52 AM »
Our insurance is setup so that you can go through them to settle a claim and still pay out of pocket if you want to avoid having the claim on your driving record. The nice thing about this is they do the repair at a discounted rate and they do all the communications/management of the repair process. Given how much I had to pay vs. the damage done it seems like they don't add in a markup for their overhead and the repair cost was surprisingly low.

So even if I or the other party wanted to pay for the repair I would still go through my insurance claim process.

robartsd

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #31 on: September 13, 2018, 01:51:00 PM »
In California, all involved drivers are required by state law to report collisions where anyone is injured or there is more that $500 of property damage. However, report does not have to be made immediately on site. Police can be helpful in establishing the facts if there is any question of fault (though witnesses would likely be better).

esq

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #32 on: September 13, 2018, 01:51:18 PM »
Dashcams, people, dashcams.

Will they prevent all of this mess? Most certainly not. But living in a big city there are enough scammers, liars and downright crazy people to justify the expense.

My story (predashcam days): young girl, music blasting, backs out of her parking space without looking and plows into me. Luckily we were both going slow, so very little discernible damage to our already old beat up cars. She cried and cried saying her daddy would hurt her, please don't call the police. So I didn't (young and completely inexperienced with car accidents). Her insurance company, Geico, ended up telling me at one point that she never hit me at all, that there was no car accident. And so when I asked them why on Earth would she give me her insurance information if there was no accident, they told me she thought I was a crazy lady and she was scared of me. So she gave me her insurance so I wouldn't hurt her. Don't you know that was a great story going around in the Geico offices that day.

Also, she told me where she worked. When Geico said they couldn't find her, I thought I would make points with them by telling them her place of employment. That joke was on me LOL. It took them a month to find her by the way.

It's because of people like her that I have dash cams for myself and my kids.

pdxvandal

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Re: When in a Car Accident, do you ALWAYS call the Police?
« Reply #33 on: September 13, 2018, 07:46:30 PM »
Just got in a minor fender bender a few days ago and no, didn't call the police or waste their time. I got the info I needed, took my own photos and had a witness. Claim is being handled by the offender's insurance.

If it was a big collision, injuries involved, or I get a bad feeling from the other person, then yes, I would. I got rear-ended pretty hard by a pizza-delivery driver as I was driving home the Thanksgiving turkey a few years ago. I called the police in that instance.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!