Road rage

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey Resident/ Pennsylvania Incident
I tapped a car in front of me at about 1-2 mph which then caused the male driver and female passenger to get out of there car screaming. At this point the female passenger came up to my passenger side window and punched out of rage. Fearing for my fiance and daughters life, i then drove off which caused the driver to punch the driver side window of my car. They then continued to follow and pull up to my driver side window, in an oncoming traffic lane, to scream "pull over you f***ing ******. I ignored him still and my fiance called 911 and started explaining everything that was going on. While on the phone with 911, we came to a red light when the car pulled up next to us. The man now got out of the car and ran up to the window and again punched my driver side window again. An officer than called us after we got off the phone and asked us what happened. He told us that in his report after speaking to the crazed man who filed for a hit and run said that two white people were in the car.... The officer was african american and i am jamaican/puerto rican with dark complexion that can not be confused with Caucasian. When we told him what happened, he agreed that what we did was understandable, but said we still needed to give insurance information in regards to an almost impossible speck of red paint on his car from when i tapped him at 1-2mph. My question is: From a legal standpoint, is there any charges i can press against this driver and passenger for attacking me and my family and then pursuing us just to attack us again? I honestly felt as if me and my family's life were in immediate danger because it happened in rural PA and from the conversation with 911 there were no police officers in the area the help.

If your car was damaged, you can get them for vandalism. Removing yourself from the scene and calling police was the right thing to do. You are still of course liable for any damage to their car, your insurance should take care of that.

I understand about the insurance aspect of it because it makes sense. There was no damage to my vehicle, but is there anything i can file against him for his "out of the normal" actions? I'm just worried for others who may encounter this man. If he "gets away" with his actions this time, than what will stop him from doing it again?

No, there is nothing you can file. If the police felt charges should be filed, they would have filed them. You were not injured and your property was not damaged. In the future, you should take care to leave a greater distance between you and the car in front of you, so you don't hit anyone else.

upon further inspection of my car i realized a fist/foot sized dent in the rear quater panel. I am 100% sure that it wasnt there earlier that day, as i am a car lover, and also there are no signs or paint rub or any paint chipping whatsoever as if a car hit my. I dont know where to go from here because the police officer said he would call to get my insurance information, but he called from a private line... because he said he was off of his shift...

Report the damage to the police and to your insurance company.

Pizzla96 said:

upon further inspection of my car i realized a fist/foot sized dent in the rear quater panel. I am 100% sure that it wasnt there earlier that day, as i am a car lover, and also there are no signs or paint rub or any paint chipping whatsoever as if a car hit my. I dont know where to go from here because the police officer said he would call to get my insurance information, but he called from a private line... because he said he was off of his shift...

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. Especially since you are a car lover, it would be reasonable to believe you looked over your car thoroughly to ascertain if there was any damage very shortly after the incident. Your belated claim of him causing the damage will be seen as suspect. I would doubt your claim will be given much consideration.

If this happened yesterday or even this weekend, I wouldn't call the discovery belated at this point. But your original story only mentioned the window being punched, not any other part of the car. When did the incident occur?

ecmst12 said:

If this happened yesterday or even this weekend, I wouldn't call the discovery belated at this point. But your original story only mentioned the window being punched, not any other part of the car. When did the incident occur?

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I am 100% sure that it wasnt there earlier that day, as i am a car lover, and also there are no signs or paint rub or any paint chipping whatsoever as if a car hit my.

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just as the OP claims he knows it wasn't there earlier that day, being a car lover, he surely would have noticed the damage after the road rage incident. Making a claim now will likely be suspect. OP is contemplating the possibility of another car hitting him causing the damage so OP surely has questionable belief the guy actually caused the damage. OP is merely speculating.

It should actually be possible to tell whether the dent was caused by another car or by a kick/punch. If it happened last night and it was dark, today would have been the first chance he had to look in the light. But if it happened last week, even if it's obviously a kick, I agree it would be very suspicious for him to only now report it.

after speaking to my insurance agent today it was brought to my attention that the guy who filed a report of hit and run and "major" damage to his vehicle has yet to file a claim against me.... Now i'm not sure but can insurance information be pulled from a license number? Replying to some questions. The accident was last night 9/5/10 at 930-10pm and so i was unable to see any dent until today when i went to the mall and noticed it on the rear driverside quaterpanel. Also i saw what looks to be skin on my window from his fist sliding against it. Regarding no insurance claim against me (if and only if he was able to get my insurance info from my license plate) it seems as if i might be screwing myself over by filing this claim as they are now "handing out free money" to someone who may have regretted what happened last night and wasnt going to pursue it today.
Honestly the fact that it is nearly impossible to get in contact with any of the police officers that spoke to my fiancee last night is making this whole thing more frustrating. Mainly because they keep calling from private cell numbers and not leaving messages for me to contact them again.
I'm starting to feel as if the cop made the decision to end the case and forget about it without letting me know whats going on.

Yes, the police can get your insurance information from the DMV and they will provide it to the other driver, who has two years to file a claim (though if they wait that long, they will have a hard time proving where the damage came from). But they don't have to do it within 24 hours either. Tell your insurance company everything, make sure they take a look at their car so if they claim major damage, they can refute the claim. But for the most part, when the damage claim comes in, your insurance will pay it. If you have full coverage, you can claim your dent under Comprehensive coverage.