A car backed up into me on the road

[123sunshine]

NJ

I was driving home. NJ got hit with a tropical storm yesterday. Downed trees/wires everywhere, streets closed, etc.
I drove down a street that was open to traffic. A car was in front of me. He stopped, I didn't see why. I saw that he braked and I stepped on my brakes. He immediately backs up and I leaned on my horn. He kept rolling back to do a reverse K turn. What happened was there was a yellow "do not cross" hung across the street because of a downed wire and he probably saw it just as he came to it.

I stepped out of my car and asked him "you didn't see me"????? I drive a truck LOL

He admitted fault and said he didn't look into his rear view mirror. I looked at my damage and he said "that's why we have both have collision" blah blah... we exchanged the paperwork. I called my husband and told him that a car backed up into me. He told me to call the police. Because of the post storm chaos, the police couldn't get there and they told me to file a report right at the station. Now, the man that hit me started changing his story around. He no longer took responsibility and changed his story. BTW, he mentioned that he was a retired police officer...

I started to carefully look over my car and he crushed my grilled guard, damaged my bumper and fender.

My husband called me back and told me to call the cops and insist they show up. So I did! I told the man to wait and I was calling the cops again. He became agitated. While I was calling the cops, he rounded up 3 young kids and pulled them into his car. They emerged with paper and pen in hand and the man started writing stuff down... That looked very suspicious to me. He finished that up and turned his car around. I asked him to stay till the cops showed up and he said NOPE, you had your chance, I'm leaving.... He sped off!

I reported this to his insurance company so let's see how he twists this story around.

 

[cbg]

Thank you for sharing your story. When you have a legal question for the board, please let us know.

 

[123sunshine]

I'm waiting to speak with his insurance company adjuster. How can I prepare myself in the event he turns his story around and blames me. I have never been involved in an auto accident but he clearly had some tricks up his sleeve after i insisted we wait for cops. Did he bribe those kids when they went into his car??? Just saying.

 

[Zigner]

I'm waiting to speak with his insurance company adjuster. How can I prepare myself in the event he turns his story around and blames me. I have never been involved in an auto accident but he clearly had some tricks up his sleeve after i insisted we wait for cops. Did he bribe those kids when they went into his car??? Just saying.

Absent some evidence to the contrary (beyond your statement), it's going to appear that you rear-ended him.
I know this isn't going to help for this accident, but you really should get a dash cam.

 

[123sunshine]

Absent some evidence to the contrary (beyond your statement), it's going to appear that you rear-ended him.
I know this isn't going to help for this accident, but you really should get a dash cam.

Yes, I'm sure but it's not quite how he spun it (after I told him I was calling the cops) but he quickly turned the blame on to me. He admitted fault initially when we both stepped out of our vehicles. He was likely startled, he was perhaps speaking with his wife who was in the car with him and he said he was lost because all cars were be re-routed. Maybe he panicked because he quickly backed up his car to do a reverse K turn to get away from downed wires.
What really upsets me is that he asked 3 innocent kids to step into his vehicle and than they all got out and started writing. Why did he wait till the very end while I was waiting for the cops, to get these kids involved. $$ talks
40 years of driving and I've never been involved in an accident so I am not quick on my feet to be that clever.

 

[Zigner]

Right - and now you're likely to be stuck with this.
Get a dash cam!

 

[zddoodah]

He told me to call the police. . . . My husband called me back and told me to call the cops and insist they show up

Calling the police for a minor, non-injury collision is irresponsible. Exchange information, take pictures, and drive away.

I'm waiting to speak with his insurance company adjuster. How can I prepare myself in the event he turns his story around and blames me.

I don't really understand the question. When you speak with the adjuster, simply tell the truth.

he clearly had some tricks up his sleeve after i insisted we wait for cops. Did he bribe those kids when they went into his car?

Wow....

 

[Zigner]

Calling the police for a minor, non-injury collision is irresponsible. Exchange information, take pictures, and drive away.

I completely disagree with your statement. This is one of the jobs of the police. In MY case, without the guy's candid confession to the cop (Highway Patrol officer, actually) who responded, I would have been left holding the bag for a $7,000 accident. Of course, this is what prompted my own purchase and installation of a dash cam...

 

[not2cleverRed]

Calling the police for a minor, non-injury collision is irresponsible. Exchange information, take pictures, and drive away.



I don't really understand the question. When you speak with the adjuster, simply tell the truth.



Wow....

Wrong.

In NJ, it is mandatory that the accident be reported to the police if there is more than $500 of damage.

There was more than $500 in damage. OP called 911 and was advised to go to the nearest police station to file a report. Frankly, given how the trees were going down in my area yesterday, were I in OP's situation, I would have stayed put too.

 

[123sunshine]

Calling the police for a minor, non-injury collision is irresponsible. Exchange information, take pictures, and drive away.



I don't really understand the question. When you speak with the adjuster, simply tell the truth.



Wow....

My husband insisted that the cops be called. It was a front end / rear end collision. Initially, when I got out of the car, he immediately claimed responsibility that he backed into me making a reverse K turn. When I told him I wanted the cops present, he began to change his story. I called my insurance company earlier and filed an "incident" report. I told him the entire story including how the man waved over the 3 kids and they were half leaning into his car for a few minutes. Eventually the 3 kids came back out of the car followed by the driver and his wife where they began to exchange information on a piece of paper. It looked very suspicious (my insurance claim rep said the exact same thing) and the man didn't know of their presence until after I called the cops again and they were on the way. Once the man had his info from the kids, he took off and told me he wasn't waiting around.

 

[zddoodah]

Wrong.

In NJ, it is mandatory that the accident be reported to the police if there is more than $500 of damage.

There was more than $500 in damage. OP called 911 and was advised to go to the nearest police station to file a report.

First, there is no mention in the original post about the amount of damages or the OP calling 911 for this obviously non-emergency situation. Second, if that's the law, that's the law, but it's a monumentally stupid law.

 

[123sunshine]

I just returned from the police station. He advised me of one thing. One often overlook violation is leaving the scene of a car accident, NJSA 39 4 129. When more than $500 worth of property damage occurs as a result of the accident, an official police MUST be filed. He told me to come back and get a summons issued. Also, I spoke with the adjuster for his insurance and told her the story after she told me he has a witness. I told her how he rounded up 3 kids and had them come 1/2 way into his car so he can presumably prep them and than they emerged and only started writing notes. She was actually interested in that story and wants an entire written report from me. The officer also noted that this man's insurance company absolutely will not be happy that he fled the scene of the accident when he knew the cop was on his way.

 

[123sunshine]

First, there is no mention in the original post about the amount of damages or the OP calling 911 for this obviously non-emergency situation. Second, if that's the law, that's the law, but it's a monumentally stupid law.

The amount of damage is about $600 for my stainless steel grill guard. My bumper is cracked as a result of the grill guard getting pushed into it and, the fender is dented with scratches on the paint. I would estimate a couple thousand dollars. Body shops are expensive.

 

[123sunshine]

First, there is no mention in the original post about the amount of damages or the OP calling 911 for this obviously non-emergency situation. Second, if that's the law, that's the law, but it's a monumentally stupid law.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the cops were able to come to the scene after my second call. He knew they were on the way and he left.

 

[Just Blue]

First, there is no mention in the original post about the amount of damages or the OP calling 911 for this obviously non-emergency situation. Second, if that's the law, that's the law, but it's a monumentally stupid law.

The OP did state that her grill guard was crushed and there was damage to the bumper. Those damage are easily over $500.00.