Sideswiped!

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DozerMite

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We were on our way to my MIL's and a SUV came flying up beside us and ran right into the side of my truck just as we came to the red light.
The kid got out and headed toward us and I told him to go through the light that I was calling 911, so we didn't hold up traffic.
I asked my wife to write down his plate number. when the light turned green, he turned left and took off.
I called 911 and reported it and a sherriff finally showed up 40 mins. later. She took down my info. and what happened and ran the plate number. She told me she was headed to the address that the plate was registered to.
I got a call about a half an hour later and she said she found the kid and vehicle, but she wasn't charging him with hit and run because he had a lot of problems with the law. His parents said they have insurance and will take care of the repairs, but it was still hit and run.
I have to fill out a form and get the police report Tue. so I can send it to my insurance company.
Can't wait for this insurance run around. I'll have to wait and see what happens.

Sorry for ranting...
 
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Why not report the accident as well as the Sherriff to the state police for investigation. The insurance run around is minimized when charges are filed.
 
We reward bad behavior, big problem in this country it takes way too much paper work for the police to process in an incident. In my city a DUI is 4 hours of paper work, half of the shift is spent doing paper work for 1 incident! Along with budget and manning cuts doesn't leave much time to answer calls. Good luck with the insurance claim.
 
hunter-27 said:
Why not report the accident as well as the Sherriff to the state police for investigation. The insurance run around is minimized when charges are filed.
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With our luck, I can only imagine the negetive results from doing that.
As long as my truck is put back to the way it was, I will be satisfied.
 
Sounds to me like TWO sets of charges should be filed. One on the kid for leaving the scene of the accident, and one on the officer for willful failure to enforce the law.

Perhaps some "wampum" changed hands between the parents and the officer. Here such an omission would warrant a criminal investigation.

Fortunately, where I live, the law is the law, regardless of who you are or who you know. Our Sheriff has three "world famous" notches in his gun belt. He got Dwight York life without parole, barred Wesley Snipes and his entire entourage from ever returning to this county, and finally put his OWN MOTHER in jail without bond over a weekend for DUI.

We take law enforcement seriously here. Sheriff Howard thinks "Sheriff Arizona Joe" is a pansy.
 
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PenMan1 said:
Sounds to me like TWO sets of charges should be filed. One on the kid for leaving the scene of the accident, and one on the officer for willful failure to enforce the law.

Perhaps some "wampum" changed hands between the parents and the officer. Here such an omission would warrant a criminal investigation.

Fortunately, where I live, the law is the law, regardless of who you are or who you know. Our Sheriff has three notches in his gun belt. He got Dwight York life without parole, barred Wesley Snipes and his entire entourage from ever returning to this county, and finally put his OWN MOTHER in jail without bond over a weekend for DUI.

We take law enforcement seriously here.
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Agreed!
Years ago our county sheriff got a call from one of his deputies. He said he had his son pulled over for OUI and wanted to know how he should handle it? The Sheriff was IRATE and told his officer "You handle it just as you would any offense .... by the book"!

There can't be two sets of rules!
 
You don't file an official report with the state police what grounds do you have for collecting any monetary damages from them if they decide not to pay for your repairs.
 
I have to agree with everyone else.Seems like there is something fishey going on here and you should follow this up the ladder and then with the state police.sounds like she is covering up for someone.I had a similar issue like this and pushed it.Come to find out the kid was one of the judges sons.(go figure).
Good luck!!
JIM
 
DozerMite said:
hunter-27 said:
Why not report the accident as well as the Sherriff to the state police for investigation. The insurance run around is minimized when charges are filed.
Click to expand...


With our luck, I can only imagine the negetive results from doing that.
As long as my truck is put back to the way it was, I will be satisfied.
Click to expand...

Then the guy can go out and do it again to someone else..

But maybe the next time he kills some one. He left the seine, he has charges coming.
In order for the sys to work we sometimes need to get involved and give it a shove. We are becoming a society that expects the police to do their job as long as it does not put us out

In the good old days Your Dad would take you back of the wood shed and the cop would know Your Dad would make sure you did not do it again.
Now we cant do that and look at the mess we are in

I guess Working in the Prisons for as long as I have has made me a bit bitter with society as a whole.

We all have to stand up to have the laws enforced now, not like 30 years ago.
Now our Prison population has grown buy leaps and bounds. Wonder how much it would have been reduced if Dad could still bring Justice home in a way no other could

In the end we all pay
 
Sounds like dereliction of duty to me and the deputy also wants to be the judge because he has problems? If you want to press charges she has no choice. What has this young man learned? Not a damn thing because mom and dad are going to fix it again.
If he has problems with the law he may end up at the cross bar hotel and I would hope that if I pushed the issue, it gets him the free ride there.

I don't want to speculate whether the deputy knows the kid or his parents but wrong is wrong and she is NOT doing her job.
 
Sounds to me like you are the Victim of two problems. 1. Dereliction of Duty.
2. Hit and Run Misdemeanor. If you were in any way hurt,minor back ache,neck etc. it becomes a Felony. This Officer should be brought up on charges.... In 1978 I was investigated for not assisting at an accident scene. Turns out a citizen wrote down the wrong Shop number of the Black and White. I would have received 5 days off NO PAY, for this. The Officer who was at the intersection was found and did receive his days off.
 
Maybe the kids dad is a Senator, town Council or some other politico! We all know what kind of justice they get. If this had happened in Memphis they would have cited you for backing into the kid sideways. But Memphis is a special place.
 
Dozermite,
First I am not going to say I agree with the way this went. I can, however, tell you what her thought process is....

Sometimes, when you get a kid that is a habitual screw-up but really is somewhat of a decent kid, the charges keep piling up, and his DL continues to suspended or revoked, his date of return on his DL just keeps getting further and further out. In Iowa, I have seen it up to 12 years and have heard of being barred for life.

This makes it terribly difficult for this kid to ever get anywhere, like work or college, and he will eventially become a drain on society financially, in extreme cases could go to Prison, or god knows what. That is the thought process.

Again, in Iowa, each officer has the descretion to issue a citation or not. This was her call. If you disagree, do not call the State Patrol or FBI , call her supervisor and ask this non issuance of a Cite to be investigated. My guess is it will get you no where. In larger or medium sized Depts complaints are commonplace.

Hope this helps explain--I am sure it doesn't make you feel any better.
 
I'm going to wait until I get the report tomorrow and see what it says.
I hate to push it when I know it will just create more problems than it's worth. With my luck, I would be the one that would end up in jail or having my license suspended. I am going to tell my insurance company about it, not that will change anything.

My truck isn't real bad (not the point, though) it has a bunch of marks down the side, paint scraped off and cracked and the molding messed up. I'm guessing somewhere around $500 worth of damage. Might be more because the most damage is on the silver and silver is hard to match and make look right. Might need the whole side painted? From the way it felt, I thought it was going to be much worse.

What really ****es me is, this is my only way around and I take great care of my truck. It's not a perfect truck, but it's mine and now it has this crap on the side of it at the hand of someone else.

Thanks for the advise, I may have to use it.
 
Your estimate of $500 may be way off.:eek:

My wife's car got hit in the rear quarter a few years ago .... didn't look like much ..... ended up being over $5000 worth. :eek:

I hope it all works out for you ok! What really stinks is you, through no fault of your own. are at the least going to be severley inconvenieced! :frown:
 
Lenny said:
Your estimate of $500 may be way off.:eek:

My wife's car got hit in the rear quarter a few years ago .... didn't look like much ..... ended up being over $5000 worth. :eek:

I hope it all works out for you ok! What really stinks is you, through no fault of your own. are at the least going to be severley inconvenieced! :frown:
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Now that is depressing.:frown:

Although, it could be $20,000, I don't care. I want it back to the way it was.
 
Senseless descruction and theft is my pet peeve. It seems a section of people just don't care about other people's property. I recently had a case where some kids were "car surfing"...this is where some kids go through many vehicles in a sub-division that are unlocked and take anything...sunglasses, change, CD's...you really can't believe what all they got. Eventually the found a brand new car that had the keys in it. They took it. We caught them, and the kids were adjudicated up to adult court. ( they were weeks away from being 18) Instead of a hand slapping, they actually got 6 months in an intermediate correctional facility. (Halfway House) Upon one of their release, he stole 4 cars in 3 days and dumped them in rivers, burned one, etc......

I have to say...sometime citations and time in jails or half-way houses really doesn't work either. For all the cops on this site, I bet every one will admit to saying," so what's the point", sometime in their career.

My point here is LE officals arrive at being synical by working with the system and the people...maybe that is another reason why she didn't issue a cite.
 
I don't want to depress you any more than you already are but $500 may cover the paint job.

My current wife isn't accustomed to driving in the country so I tried to explain to her that anything smaller than a cow is fair game, just relax, slow down and brace yourself. The insurance company will handle it and your less likely to get hurt as apposed to trying to avoid it and hitting a tree or running off the bank. Just stay on the road!
Well.......this past winter my wife was on her way to work on a back road and "tired" to avoid a deer :rolleyes: The problem is she saw it running down the road and came up behind it :confused: She slid sideways a couple of times and got into the guard rail and scraped up the passenger side of her new Ford Fiesta. Meanwhile the deer ran happily off without a scratch. There were no signs of deer on the car so the deductible went from $100 to $250.
We have all kinds of critters running all over the roads. I don't try to hit them but I'm not going to kill myself trying to avoid them either. Cost of repair $3500 and I guessed it at maybe $2000. Don't be surprised at the estimate and if your insurance company allows it make sure you get genuine replacement parts.
 
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