Person at fault lying on police report

[Rosie13]

Hello all. Recently I was involved in a motor vehicle accident where the person behind me hit the right rear fender of my car while in 5mph traffic. It seemed like they were trying to get out from behind me and go up the right side of everyone to cut the traffic off but due to them being in a large high-up vehicle and me in a small, low coupe, they clipped the side of my car near the right rear wheel, scraping off paint and leaving a dent. The person who hit me was a NYPD paramedic and had a partner with him in the car. When I stopped my car and got out, he immediately kept saying I didnt even feel me hit you. I asked him why he is lying, to which he said “im not saying I didnt hit you, i just didnt feel it” no duh, your vehicle is 3x the size of mine. Anyway, upon getting the police report to submit to insurance a couple weeks later, they lied and said THEY WERE PARKED and I went to go park infront of them and I CLIPPED their vehicle myself... meanwhile where the accident occured next to a bus stop and no parking is even allowed there. What do I do? I cannot submit a claim though insurance while it looks like it’s my fault on the report because I will be charged with a $500 deductible. I really wish I recorded him during our conversation after the incident. It is winter, the roads are salty, and where the paint was scraped off is rusting more and more, where do I go from here?

 

[Rosie13]

Hello all. Recently I was involved in a motor vehicle accident where the person behind me hit the right rear fender of my car while in 5mph traffic. It seemed like they were trying to get out from behind me and go up the right side of everyone to cut the traffic off but due to them being in a large high-up vehicle and me in a small, low coupe, they clipped the side of my car near the right rear wheel, scraping off paint and leaving a dent. The person who hit me was a NYPD paramedic and had a partner with him in the car. When I stopped my car and got out, he immediately kept saying I didnt even feel me hit you. I asked him why he is lying, to which he said “im not saying I didnt hit you, i just didnt feel it” no duh, your vehicle is 3x the size of mine. Anyway, upon getting the police report to submit to insurance a couple weeks later, they lied and said THEY WERE PARKED and I went to go park infront of them and I CLIPPED their vehicle myself... meanwhile where the accident occured next to a bus stop and no parking is even allowed there. What do I do? I cannot submit a claim though insurance while it looks like it’s my fault on the report because I will be charged with a $500 deductible. I really wish I recorded him during our conversation after the incident. It is winter, the roads are salty, and where the paint was scraped off is rusting more and more, where do I go from here?

If it helps, the damage is BEHIND my tire. Wouldn’t it be infront of it if I was the one moving forward and clipped them??? How do I prove my case on my own without getting a lawyer involved (even though part of me wants to go after them for lying on a police report, especially with them being paramedics who are entrusted with peoples lives)

 

[Taxing Matters]

Hello all. Recently I was involved in a motor vehicle accident where the person behind me hit the right rear fender of my car while in 5mph traffic. It seemed like they were trying to get out from behind me and go up the right side of everyone to cut the traffic off but due to them being in a large high-up vehicle and me in a small, low coupe, they clipped the side of my car near the right rear wheel, scraping off paint and leaving a dent. The person who hit me was a NYPD paramedic and had a partner with him in the car. When I stopped my car and got out, he immediately kept saying I didnt even feel me hit you. I asked him why he is lying, to which he said “im not saying I didnt hit you, i just didnt feel it” no duh, your vehicle is 3x the size of mine.

You accused the guy of lying straight away. Too often today people jump right to the conclusion the other person is lying when the other person gets some fact wrong or says something that disagrees with how they understand it. And in most cases, the other person is not lying; rather they believe what they are saying is the truth. Wrong they may be, but wrong does not make a liar. And in accusing the guy of lying, that puts the other person in a defensive mode and also makes it more likely that he will dislike you. That's a poor way to go when you want to resolve a matter. Unless you know the person is really lying, i.e. he knows what he says is not true rather than just being wrong, it often works much better to give the person the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps had you not gone down that road the guy would have been less inclined to say what he did on the police report.

Did you make your own police report of the incident? Note that your insurer isn't going to believe the other guy just because of the statement he put in his report. Your choices are to report it to your insurance company, make a claim, and get compensated for the damage that way (which is what you pay insurance for) or you can sue the other driver in small claims court (unless your damages exceed the limit for that). In the meantime, get your car fixed. The additional rust you get from leaving the damage exposed is not something either the insurer or that other driver will have to pay for

 

[Rosie13]

That’s right, I forgot to mention, the person in their passenger seat was also saying “I dont even believe he hit you at all” and then with him also saying that he didn’t feel it, it seemed to me like they were going down that road of trying to make it seem like he did nothing, which is why I said that. Even after I took a picture of my damage and brought it over to him (they stayed in the vehicle the whole time, didn’t care to look at the damage on my vehicle or his) he continued to say he didn’t feel his vehicle hit mine. I was trying to be friendly and understanding to the driver at one point, and said something along the lines of “I understand that, my car is tiny so it is likely that I would feel the impact more.” I realize now that I shouldn’t have said anything and just talked to the police directly about it (lesson learned). As I said, I wish I had recorded him but I did not think to do that at the time. My problem with this whole situation is that I believe the police are trying to cover up for the guy because they are new york officials. The police officer even put MY VERSION of the accident incorrectly (that I said they pulled out and hit me, which, as stated in my original post, they were not parked at all and were driving behind me) which I tried to go to the police station twice to correct but during the time that they say he is going to be there, I show up and he is gone for the day. Also as I said, my insuance deductible is $500 and I dont think that the cost of the damage will even exceed that (2 inch paint scrape, scuffs, and quarter sized dent), so wouldn’t that mean i’d ultimately end up with nothing to help cover the cost of the damage and raised insurance rates? I did not make a citizen’s police report (I didn’t know that I could until a couple days ago) but I am the one who called the police to make a report at the scene of the accident.

 

[Zigner]

It is winter, the roads are salty, and where the paint was scraped off is rusting more and more, where do I go from here?

You get your car fixed so that you prevent any further damage. This is what's called mitigating the damage. They aren't responsible for additional damage caused by your failure to mitigate.

 

[HighwayMan]

How do you know these two people were NYPD paramedics, especially since there is no such thing?

 

[Taxing Matters]

How do you know these two people were NYPD paramedics, especially since there is no such thing?

But the NY city fire department does have paramedics. Might the OP have meant NYFD paramedics instead?

And yes, I realize that the fire department is generally abbreviated FDNY rather than NYFD, but the general public may not pay attention to that kind of detail.

As a side note, NYC has an acute shortage of EMTs and paramedics right now as over 900 of them have been promoted to fire fighters in the last 2 years alone. Firefighters make significantly more money than EMTs and paramedics and EMTs & paramedics get priority for firefighter slots over the general public, which is why pretty much ever new fire fighter the last two years are promoted EMTs and paramedics.

 

[Pinkie39]

You'd be surprised what seemingly minor appearing body damage can actually cost to repair.

My husband was driving our old vehicle (a sedan) on a narrow road a few years ago. A truck in the next lane, with a trailer on the back, was driving too close. The trailer swung out and hit the side of our car. The driver seemingly didn't notice, and didn't stop. The damage looked minor and the car still ran fine.

We weren't going to file an insurance claim, figuring it would cost less than the deductible to fix. We went ahead and filed, and I'm glad we did, because it ended up costing $5000 to repair. No exaggeration.

My sister had her parked car backed into recently (by a coworker!) in the parking lot at her job. $2000 worth of repairs for what also looked like minor damage.

I would go ahead and file that claim before it's too late.

 

[neanderthal]

Always take pictures of your damage, their damage, their license plate, them, any broken pieces of car on the ground (the accident site) and just ask for their insurance. Since you've already got their car model and license plate you can file a claim with your insurance if they refuse.