[01WS6]

Im new to the forum but have been driving OTR for about 18 months with no accidents or tickets on my driving record. But this is my situation: Last night i came out of local grocery store to find that a women had backed into my 4 wheeler breaking the headlight lenses and doing some minor damage to my front bumper and quarter panel. My deductible for my insurance is $1000 and the damage didnt look to excede that, so when the women begged me to just swap insurance info and not call the police I reluctantly agreed. Bad idea. An hour later the local police departent called me stating she was making an accident report and told them I rear ended her in front of the store! I told the officer my side of the story but he didnt seem to buy it. Hes coming to inspect my vehicle today to make a decision as to whos at fault. I had no witnesses and either did she other then her younger childrent (probably not even 10). I have a bad feeling that im going to get pinned for this and if so how badly is this going to effect my current and future job opportunities? Is there any way to dispute an officers decision as to whos at fault? We had both left the scene of the incident for over an hour so i cant understand how the officer can take my word over hers or vice versa. Any advice in this matter would be appreciated. The last thing i want is to be blacklisted because of a rear end collision. BTW, I live in Michigan if that helps.

[Silent Runner]

See if the store, or a nearby one, has an outside security camera that might show the accident.

See if the breakage is still in the parking lot. That may show who was parked and who wasn't at the time of the accident.

Ask the cops to get a statement from the children. Most will tell anything if asked in the correct manner, even if not admissible in court.

Is she claiming to be injured or just her car? If just her car, consider this a cheap lesson whether you get stuck with the bill or not.

Good luck to you.

[got mud?]

Originally Posted by 01WS6

Im new to the forum but have been driving OTR for about 18 months with no accidents or tickets on my driving record. But this is my situation: Last night i came out of local grocery store to find that a women had backed into my 4 wheeler breaking the headlight lenses and doing some minor damage to my front bumper and quarter panel. My deductible for my insurance is $1000 and the damage didnt look to excede that, so when the women begged me to just swap insurance info and not call the police I reluctantly agreed. Bad idea. An hour later the local police departent called me stating she was making an accident report and told them I rear ended her in front of the store! I told the officer my side of the story but he didnt seem to buy it. Hes coming to inspect my vehicle today to make a decision as to whos at fault. I had no witnesses and either did she other then her younger childrent (probably not even 10). I have a bad feeling that im going to get pinned for this and if so how badly is this going to effect my current and future job opportunities? Is there any way to dispute an officers decision as to whos at fault? We had both left the scene of the incident for over an hour so i cant understand how the officer can take my word over hers or vice versa. Any advice in this matter would be appreciated. The last thing i want is to be blacklisted because of a rear end collision. BTW, I live in Michigan if that helps.

you should have called the police just to CYA. you would not have had to turn the claim into the insurance company. you can have accidents all day long and never make a claim to your insurance company to pay for it. there is a reason you should REPORT ALL accidents to the police. it protects you from stuff like this.

on private property all the officer would have done is make a report and your butt would have been covered. bol sorry you had to learn this way.

to others CYA.

[01WS6]

Not calling the police was a big mistake that i will never repeat again, thats for sure. The other driver wasnt reporting any medical issues, just the damage to the car. But I called every store in the complex that this happenned in and none of them have cameras taping the parking lot. So at this point its more or less her word against mine and I think im pretty much screwed. Im waiting for the officer to return my call to come and look my vehicle over. If he decides in to believe her bs story maybe i can convince him to write the accident up as a side swipe or something, which would still look bad but not as bad as a rear-end collision. The passenger side of her bumper is damaged as it wraps around the back corner and the front end of my car has been hit on the angle she was backing up at.

[matcat]

From my understanding, if it is on private property, with no witnesses, and both parties left the scene, there is nothing they can put on either record.

[01WS6]

Originally Posted by matcat

From my understanding, if it is on private property, with no witnesses, and both parties left the scene, there is nothing they can put on either record.

I hope your right. My problem with that is that she is saying that the accident happenned on the road in front of the store. We left the scene but the cop was saying she met him back at the scene an hour later.

[GMAN]

If there was broken glass then there should be fragments where the accident happened. It should be evident if she was backing out of a parking spot at an angle the damage would appear differently than if you rear ended her straight on. In any case there should be some evidence where this happened. I would check the parking lot and if you can find something then I would call the cops and file a complaint. If you can prove that she is lying then she could be charged with filing a false police report.

[Snowman7]

Deny, deny, deny. Stick to your story. If it happened on private property the police can't write a ticket anyway. If she filed a report the police have to check it out even if they dont believe her so dont worry yet. Then if they decide to charge you with anything you still get your day in court and it should be pretty hard to prove with no witnesses. Kinda sounds like you were set up by this biotch. Hopefully the police can thru it.

[Silent Runner]

Thought of something else last night. Your grocery receipt should be time stamped, same with hers. If you don't have a receipt, the store will have a copy unless it is a Mom & Pop place. things to make the officer ponder: Why did you leave before her if she checked out ahead of you? If you rear ended her, how is it your vehicle has front damage and hers has rear damage? Store may have an indoor camera showing her leaving well in advance of you, too.

If it happened on the street, how could the breakage be in the in the parking lot, and how can she be claiming you rear ended her on the street?

Final thought for future use: if she hit you, your deductible should be irrelevant. She pays the damages for both vehicles. Get your insurance company to help you on this. Their fraud department will be much more interested in the truth than the cops are. See if she has a history of claims like this one.

[01WS6]

This is a total disaster. The cop wrote me at fault last night for the accident AND wrote me a ticket for CARELESS DRIVING! He had a ticket written up for me before he even inspected my vehicle! He said he found a couple small pieces of plastic lense from my front headlight on the street, which the ONLY way could have been in the road is if they fell out of the bottom of my bumper or something as i pulled out of the parking lot. I explained this to the officer he didnt buy it one bit. There were no cameras anywhere in that complex I asked every store yesterday and theres nothing. Now Im afraid that if his ticket holds in court im going to lose my job!
What should I do, get an attourney and hope for the best or go to court and go along with the other drivers story and pray that they drop the ticket to a non-moving violation?