Vehicle wrecked outside my house update

[Tacit Blue]

This past weekend, I woke up to the sound of my vehicle being hit outside my home. I go outside praying it wasn't my SUV, it infact it was... My neighbors saw the Tacoma drive away a few houses down and park. I got my clothes on and came outside to see my whole front-end of my vehicle was wrecked with skid marks. He hit my my vehicle so hard his air bag deployed and my SUV's frame is bent along with the hood.

I made contact with the neighbor who hit it and he admitted fault. He seemed a bit of out of it(Xannax maybe) and stalled when it came to giving him his insurance. I called the Sheriff's dept and they came out and told me " We can't do a DUI or field sobriety test now that he's inside his residence". As he told me that the scum bag drives off in another vehicle infront of us. I ask the Sheriff for a report since he was a traffic Deputy. He proceeds to tell me " We only do them when there's bodily harm involved". Overall, I'm dealing with a giant nightmare as I'm fighting with his insurance company because he technically didn't have " coverage at the time of the accident".

I'm wondering if what the Deputy told me is true and in your opinion do you think it was handled fair enough?

[roushstage2]

I'm curious why it wouldn't be dealt with as a hit and run, for nothing more than my own information. He hit the vehicle, fled the scene, and then he admitted to it on top of that.

[Tacit Blue]

I estimate he was going at least 35-40 MPH. My SUV as at least 15 ft of skid marks from it's parked original location.

[cbsdd00]

Lawsuit

[SoldierLife7]

I'm curious why it wouldn't be dealt with as a hit and run, for nothing more than my own information. He hit the vehicle, fled the scene, and then he admitted to it on top of that.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Who cares if he was sober or not... Last time I checked, hit and run was illegal.

[Tacit Blue]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Who cares if he was sober or not... Last time I checked, hit and run was illegal.

What I was wondering too. He did flee the scene.

[nobody33]

This past weekend, I woke up to the sound of my vehicle being hit outside my home. I go outside praying it wasn't my SUV, it infact it was... My neighbors saw the Tacoma drive away a few houses down and park. I got my clothes on and came outside to see my whole front-end of my vehicle was wrecked with skid marks. He hit my my vehicle so hard his air bag deployed and my SUV's frame is bent along with the hood.

I made contact with the neighbor who hit it and he admitted fault. He seemed a bit of out of it(Xannax maybe) and stalled when it came to giving him his insurance. I called the Sheriff's dept and they came out and told me " We can't do a DUI or field sobriety test now that he's inside his residence". As he told me that the scum bag drives off in another vehicle infront of us. I ask the Sheriff for a report since he was a traffic Deputy. He proceeds to tell me " We only do them when there's bodily harm involved". Overall, I'm dealing with a giant nightmare as I'm fighting with his insurance company because he technically didn't have " coverage at the time of the accident".

I'm wondering if what the Deputy told me is true and in your opinion do you think it was handled fair enough?

Yeah. That's how I would have handled it, except possibly issuing a citation for no insurance... which would do you no good. And a collision report would do nothing for you in this case, except make you feel better and waste the deputy's time. There's no hit and run here and they wouldn't get a DUI past the issuing DA. There's no hit and run because he just parked his car a few house away and admitted it right after the fact. A jury would never convict on that. It doesn't sound like hit and run at all.

In California you need full coverage insurance, to park off street, have a decent insurance company, and attorney. Or just be willing to write your car off. With all the illegals, uninsured, and unlicensed drivers, hit and runs and crashes like this are very common. Remember a collision is all a civil issue between you and the other driver. Law enforcement only gets involved (absent DUI/hit and run/etc) with injury collisions because the state wants the statistics, and for the government's own liability mitigation.

Even in legit hit and runs our DA won't prosceute if we track down the other driver and get the info exchanged. People just say they got scared and were "just about to call the police" and a jury would let them off. There is virtually no interest to deal with non violent crimes in California right now.

[P5Ret]

I think you'll find that agencies that take property damage only reports are in the minority, same with hit and run property damage. Unless there is a witness who can put the driver behind the wheel, and actually witnessed the collision. Getting a conviction on a hit and run without a witness is damn near impossible. So he admitted to you he was driving, do you think he will to the cops, or a jury also? I doubt it.

Best you could hope for is exactly what you got, you fighting with his insurance company even if there was a report, or a dui arrest. Sad to say that most insurance companies will deny coverage as a result of an illegal act. Sure the court can order restitution, just don't hold your breath when that happens, to see your money.

[Tacit Blue]

Thanks for the responses guys,

There were multiple witnesses this happened at 0830 in the morning so my neighbors saw him hit it and drive off. I don't see how he is even fit to drive, he was supposed to make a turn onto his street( plenty of distance) and instead drifted over and hit my vehicle head on. Had my vehicle not been there we would have ended up in my back yard

[RickD427]

It's hard to give you a detailed response without having any more information.

Here's my first impression from what was contained in your posting:

1) It doesn't sound like there was a "Hit and Run." The driver is required to stop and provide his driver's license and vehicle registration information. The failure to provide insurance information does not create a "Hit and Run." Please refer to Vehicle Code section 20002. Here is the applicable portion of the text:
2) Some police agencies have adopted polices of not responding to traffic accidents where there are no prosecutable violations of law. They view the fact finding process of accident investigation to be a business responsibility of the involved insurance companies. Such polices and the details vary widely by agency.

3) There is a problem doing FST's and chemical testing once the suspect has left the scene. Rather than explain, let me relate an observation from my early days. I was in court awaiting a case and there was a DUI trial going on before mine. An Alaska State Trooper had arrested the suspect who had been involved in a collision very much like the one you described. The officer went to his door and the suspect came out, failed the FSTs and went to jail where chemical test was done and the BAC quite high. The prosecution part of the trial went very smoothly. The was no real cross-examination and the defense attorney was being quite kind to the officer (that's unusual, many private DUI defense attorneys try to "beat up" on the officer so the defendant feels better about paying the fee). When the defense case came up, the defendant took the stand (also very unusual, no good attorney wants to put their client on the stand because they fear what might happen on cross-exam). The defense case was only one single question - "What did you do after the collision". The defendant replied - "I was so shook up, nervous, and scared, that I went home and drank a whole bottle of vodka - just to calm my nerves, and then the officer knocked on my door."

[bazineta]

TBH, in CA post prop 47, it seems that unless there's a body or a firearm involved, LE isn't going to be very interested.

[SkyHawk]

No coverage in an accident means he loses his license for a year, mandatory. After that he must file SR22 proof of insurance annually for several years.

I would file an SR1 with DMV, and include a cover letter that says the other driver did not have coverage, and request they conduct an investigation of such.

Hopefully you had uninsured motorist coverage. If not, I would call an attorney. I would also get sworn or signed statements asap from the witnesses who saw the driver leave, park and get out of the vehicle.

[sonofeugene]

What I can't figure out is, with the obvious hit to your car and evidence of impaired driving (should have been able to make the turn), why didn't the officer go after the driver when he took off again in another car. Seems like the circumstance of the first incident would be probable cause to pull him over for a sobriety check when he drove off.

Weird.

[tyrist]

Did you get the guys information?

How far away did he drive from the scene?

Did the witnesses actually see who was behind the wheel or just the vehicle?

[Tacit Blue]

Did you get the guys information?

How far away did he drive from the scene?

Did the witnesses actually see who was behind the wheel or just the vehicle?

After he hit the vehicle, my neighbors saw him get out and get back in moaning (injured from air bag) and he drove off like 10 houses down from me.

I got his insurance information. He gave he his card, I showed it to the deputy on the card it lists good through 2016. But the opposing party told me its not current because he's been missing payments.