Opinions welcome

shannon25 · #1 01-15-2006, 10:01 PM

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio

My mom was involved in a car accident yesterday. She was proceeding through an intersection in the left lane of a 4 lane steet and was hit in the left rear side of her car by a car that went through a red light. The person fled the scene, but a couple who were in the right lane and slightly behind my mom (who were also preceeding through their green light) stopped to see if they could help.

The cop was terrible and did nothing except took my mom's insurance info and left. The nice couple who witnessed the accident went into the intersection and found the license plate of the car who fled which had come off in the crash. They called the cop back and gave it to him.

The cop called this morning and said the other driver was a 16 year old girl. The girl said she was scared and that's why she ran and he didn't want to press charges for her fleeing. He also said the girl claims she had the green light and she had a friend in the car who is acting as her witness.

Now the cop is telling us that since there is a witness on both sides and they don't know for sure who's telling the truth, they can't cite anybody. (Pretty ridiculous considering the girl fled the scene...how can they believe a witness they can't prove was in the car since she didn't stop?!) This means that even though the girl ran a red light and hit my mom, we have to pay a $500 deductible, etc. (which my parents can't even afford.)

My mom is having neck and back pain but thankfully nothing more serious happened. (She did get checked out at the ER.) She's supposed to follow up with her doc. which will cost more money. Her car is actually ok on the exterior, but died out, had to be towed and will be looked at tomorrow, so we don't know what the actually damage is yet.

We are very angry and frustrated that this girl is lying and getting off especially after fleeing the scene. Does anyone have any advice? Is there anyway we can get justice? Thanks in advance.

teflon_jones · #2 01-15-2006, 10:28 PM

Your mother needs to submit a claim with her insurance company and give the contact information for her witnesses. She can then let her insurance company handle it and hopefully they can resolve this.

Unfortunately, it's a case of her word against the other party. The fact that they fled the scene doesn't help them, but it also doesn't prove that they ran a red light. It's at the discretion of the officer whether to cite the other driver or not. If your mother isn't happy that she wasn't cited, there's really not too much she can do about it. She can try writing a letter to the chief of police to complain, and also to the local prosecutor, but that may or may not prompt them to do anything. In a case like this with only minor injuries, they'll probably ignore it.

shannon25 · #3 01-15-2006, 10:47 PM

Thanks for the reply.

She talked to the insurance company. They don't seem too interested in trying to fight it. She plans to make a complaint to the chief. Would a lawyer be able to do anything? Is it possible to go to court and win a case like this or something?

teflon_jones · #4 01-15-2006, 10:50 PM

What's the value of your mother's car? Her insurance company is not going to want to pay for the car, but if it's not worth much, then they don't have much incentive to fight the other insurance company since that'll cost them more time and money than just paying the claim themselves.

If your mother can get her witnesses to agree to show up in court for her, it's probably worth it to file a small claims court case in the hopes that the other girl isn't able to get her witnesses to come or falls apart in front of a judge and admits fault. In most areas it's less than $50 to file a small claims court case.

shannon25 · #5 01-15-2006, 11:13 PM

The car's old so not worth much. I'm sure that's what the insurance company must be thinking.

I think the witnesses would testify for us...they were mad when they found out the girl is lying about it. They already had to go back down to the police station to give their statements that the cop never took.

I still don't understand how they can say it's just one person's word versus the other. If the girl fled the scene, there's no proof that she even had the witness. Even if she did it's a friend whereas my mom's witnesses were total strangers who would have no reason to lie to help her.

This is so frustrating! I guess you don't need to take responsibility for your actions anymore...you can just lie your way out of it.

Thanks for the advice.