My car got hit yesterday when I was parked in front of Seniore's at 4am. I just parked on the side, and from keeping an eye on the surroundings as I park like I always do, I knew the nearest car down the street was more than 2 blocks behind me on the other side of the street. My friend sitting behind me opened her door right then when I hear bam, and all I see is a car flash by.

First thing of course, we made sure our friend was alright. It didn't even occur to me that this was a hit and run yet. After checking my passengers, making sure they were all alright, I took a look at the damage as I dialed 411 to get in touch with the police.

Now, for you mods reading this, this is where the story gets interesting. Officers on this forum are welcome to comment since I know it really depends on the area and the officer, not the force as a whole.

I get through to the station pretty much immediately and some lady answers. I tell her exactly where I am, and that someone just did a hit and run on me. Basically, she asks me if anybody got a good look at the car.

(I basically stated... can't remember the exact words now)
"Looked like a Geo Metro. I couldn't see the color since it's dark and the car was moving so fast."

"Since we don't know what car it was, we can't help." Wait... WTF???

Then she goes on to tell me that they can't get an officer to come by the scene even though there were tons driving by a few blocks away the entire time, that I need to go to the station to file a report. I'm fine with that, but I'm at a busy restaurant with tons of witnesses sitting there...

You know, at 4am, I just wanted my slice of pizza and get back to this chick's place and get some sleep so I can wake up for my niece's Christianizing in the morning. I end up spending all this time dealing with insurance, calling to file a report and wanting to catch this guy, but the police was just useless.

Don't know... I'm just a bit too disappointed in the system right now... don't know what to say... I think I'm just going to handle it my way next time.

/RANT

 

Damn sorry to hear that Don......
that sucks I wish you could have at least seen the guy.


I am glad you guys were not hurt, I guess that is the bright side

 

u at hte 19th ave one?

 

Sorry to hear that Don....that does suck. Glad to hear no one got hurt. How bad was the damage?

 

It might have been better that the guy didn't stop...

Looks like a door... that means I'm gonna have to order a new door, take the trim off, weld, sand, bondo, sand, paint, and tint unless the window can be reused. I'm just worried about where the hinges are right now. I guess I'll order the a new bumper, lip and trunk while I'm at it... and take care of the bodywork I've been holdnig off on for so long.

 

Try some junk yards...you might be able to get a door for alot cheaper there.

I know some good cliffs if you need to use one

 

Naw... I'm gonna let insurance take care of it all... I'm by 9... we have plenty of cliff here

What really irks me the most is how the cops handle these situations... She basically said that the officers are too busy cruising the streets to respond to a situation like this, while a block away, I see a cop car turn the corner. To me, that just means that while they can burn our tax money rolling around pulling people over speeding (because we all know how dangerous speeding is), when something happens, they won't do sh*t about it.

It's just nice to know that our tax dollars are going to good work!

 

Sorry to hear about the bad experience. Maybe I can shed some light. I don't mean to excuse the PD from anything, just gonna tell you from this side of thing that may have been going on. My agency's policy is "shall" document all collisions. PD's typicall don't respond to property damage only collisions. Sometimes they are really too busy to send an officer. Since you were unable to obtain a plate number, a hit and run collision with no follow up is low on their priority. My agency only does this on rain days since we are usually getting our azzes handed to us from so many collisions. Remember, I'm not trying to excuse the PD from their actions, just shedding some light. Many times PD will ask us if we can handle a crash for them and write what we call a 'courtesy report' because they, for some strange reason, need all 1400 of their officers to assist with a homicide. Huh? Yeah, I've been there too. You can still go to the police station and file a Counter report and give that to your insurance. In some respects, it can be pointless to file a report if there is no way to catch the other person without follow up info. Besides, from the way you described the details of the collision, it sounds like your passenger is at fault anyhow, so you may not want to file that report.

22517. No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side
available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and
can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic,
nor shall any person leave a door open on the side of a vehicle
available to moving traffic for a period of time longer than
necessary to load or unload passengers.

 

Uh, I hope you are joking.

 

Chippie, I respect, check that, I love your responses. You are one of the few officers here that are straight up about a situation, giving us insight we won't otherwise see or hear about instead of trying to make excuses for somebody else. Like I stated in my original post, in case I did not make it clear enough... I don't trust these specific cops, I don't feel that way about all of them.

Thing is, this was a 3 lane street. I parked on the right side on the curb, while a second before the car hit mine, the only other car on the road at the time was just more than 2 blocks behind me, on the left lane. That's a huge difference.

 

Sorry to hear, my friend was recently driving on like 85 or 101 or something and a car merged onto him, he was able to swerve out of the way for the most part but ended up doing a 180 across 3 lanes into the median. The police said they would file a report but wouldnt really do anything even though he had a bunch of witnesses see a red integra with damage on the side do it. Oh ya and almost a month later they still havent finished the report which he needs for his insurance to do the repairs.

 

BTW, does it not matter that I wasn't the one to flee from the scene?

 

Kinda, I was being sarcastic with my words... but serious as a whole, if that makes any sense. At the worst, I just really needed to vent somewhere to put this behind me, even if half of what I said don't make sense.

 

Two things:

First of all, it doesn't matter how many lanes of traffic there are. If you passenger opened the door into the lane in front of the car then its her fault. The driver of the other car can drive in whatever lane they want.

Second of all, a person can be guilty of hit and run and NOT be at fault. It happens all the time. People get rearended and go, "Oh crap, I don't have a license" or "I'm suspended", "I have warrants, no insurance, or drunk, I f'ing out of here!" The aren't at fault for the collision, but are guilty of hit and run.

Unfortunately, it happended to a coworker of mine that was in my junior class at the Academy. He payed with his life. He stepped in front of a car to hand stop it. But, he stepped in front of the car while it was so close, there was no way the car could stop in time. It sucks, but it was his fault. The car hit him and then fled the scene. Well, all the driver is guilty of is felony hit and run. He got the max 4 years. If the driver had been at fault, he would have been looking a hit and run plus, at minimum vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence. Unless of course he was drunk. Who knows, that may be why he fled. But still, the officer was at fault.

http://camemorial.org/2001-present/clearman.php

 

Well, the fact that the car covered two blocks that fast should matter too, no? He was well above the speed limit of 35...

Damn... that really sucks. I'm sorry to hear about that... I don't know what to say...