Keep camera phones ready during traffic accidents

[kitester]

So on my way to work Monday, a driver not paying attention to slow traffic ran into the back of my car. It was not a real hard hit but it did about a thousand dollars worth of damage. I pulled over and she did too. Of course I got out of the car and went back to see the crumpled parts of my car. She got out and started begging me not to call the police. That was not going to happen. She was telling me how she was going to have a baby and pleading with me not to call. When she saw that I was going to call she went back to her car. I thought she was just going to move it closer to the curb. Instead she cut her wheels the other way. I started to walk over and ask her to stop when she stomped on the gas an almost ran me over me speeding up 95 north. She missed me by about three inches! Before I could get a pic she was gone. So the moral to the story is if you are involved in a crash grab your phone and turn on the camera FIRST. Don't call 911. There will be plenty of time for that later. The cops say there is nothing they can do cause I was not 100% sure of the plate number. The truck was a big lifted red pickup and I think it was a dodge. Looked new too. The only way to describe her is to say that if you looked up "trailer trash" on the net you might see a pick of her. Late 30s to 40s, long stringy light brown hair, spotty complection about 5 ft tall. dumpy build. She had short jeans shorts and a sleavless light colored top. And a real redneck  tone of voice. When she sped off I think she had a cigerette in her mouth. I doubt the truck was hers or that she had insurance. She probably did not have a good licence either. Her truck left pieces on the road. I was so mad that i found myself wishing that  she would hit a concreat light post and lose a leg or something. Or perhaps the truck belongs to an abusive boyfriend and he gets real mad at her for wrecking the front of it. Or maybe my hitch went through her radiator or oil cooler and she burns up the engine. In fact I am mostly mad at myself for not taking pictures of her, her truck or her plates. Lesson learned. Don't call 911,TURN ON YOUR CAMERA. Don't be distracted by someone yelling or begging you not to call the cops. TURN ON YOUR CAMERA! Then it won't matter when the cops get there.

[acme54321]

I would have followed while on the phone with 911

[ChriswUfGator]

I've been involved in 3 accidents in jacksonville that were severe enough to warrant significant body work on the vehicle I was driving, and my father was involved in another one causing serious injury that he needed surgery for on the south bank, in every case the other driver's fault. In 3 of these 4 incidents, the other driver drove off, or at least tried to. I chased one down, and a witness followed the one who hit my father and made her stop. His car was totaled he tried to follow her but it wasn't drivable. The third one got away by driving through a wet ditch/median in his pickup truck and going the other way on 95, I couldn't follow in a BMW it would've got stuck immediately. The two that were chased down both had no insurance, and I'm guessing the one who got away didn't either or he wouldn't have run. The only one who didn't run had state-minimums that didn't even cover the full amount of damage to my car. These are all separate incidents by the way.

This place is the no/under insured driving capital of the world, you need to beef up your own UM and comp/collision coverages, then you don't have to worry about it. The car chases don't help, the end result is they have no insurance and your company winds up paying anyway. That's why they run in the first place. I just upgraded my UM and comp/collision coverages and quit worrying about it. Is it crappy that I have to pay extra because anecdotally somewhere around half the city appears to drive without insurance? Yeah. But it is what it is, what else are you gonna do? They're not worth suing, the only thing of value they normally own is a house you can't take (homestead exemption) and the car they were driving that's usually next to worthless especially after its damaged in the uninsured accident. Just upgrade your own coverage and call it a day.

There was actually a 5th one, that I don't really count where this girl ran into my parked car on Herschel street and totaled it. The car was parked and unoccupied, I was in South Florida that week. Big surprise guess what, she had no insurance. She tried to drive off and the neighbors stopped her. The car was owned by her grandmother, who I sued just out of principle, and got an uncollectible judgment that isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Eventually the PR of the estate will have to settle the claim for $0.12 on the dollar or whatever it is. Like I said, just upgrade your own UM and comp/collision coverages and quit worrying about it, that's the only solution.

[ChriswUfGator]

Oh I just remembered the funny part of the last one who hit my parked car, her name was in fact Ebone Muff, and I'm not kidding! When I got back into town and I saw the police report, I immediately called up the cop who wrote it and asked him verbatim wtf did you only get her stripper name? He started laughing and said that he had to triple check it because when he first saw it he thought it had to be a fake id, but it turned out that was actually her real name. Priceless.

[kitester]

Chasing people who drive off is a dangerous decision. Years ago we were standing  in our front yard when someone in a car did a drive by shooting. They were useing a a BB gun and did not hit us although BBs were hitting everything around us. I chased them all through the neighborhood. I was hopping that I would see a cop some where along the way. I was on a a motorcycle, they were in a car so there was no way they could out run me. They did try. They took out a stop sign, just missed parked cars and finally they went at high speed through a narrow construction area and through a stop sign. I gave up and let them go before they killed someone. Camera phones are still the best defense. UM coverage is our societies'  bandaid but it is the best choice for many people.  If i had chased that trailer trash bi+€h and if she killed someone i would get sued. it could be even worse if i caused an accident directly while chasing. i would not recamend it. I have an older car. It's not special but it's not a jalopy either. It's expensive to insure an older car. Insurance companies don't want to pay to fix your older favorite car. Parts are hard to get and body work on older cars is more expensive because they are usually very solid and harder to fix. So you really have to choose between paying up front just in case you have an accident or paying for the repair when you need one.

[urbaknight]

99.9% of bad drivers are also bad people in general. The other .001% just make mistakes, but I wish unspeakable horrors on those 99.9%. They think they own the road and that their selfishness should go unchallenged, FUCK THEM!!!

[ChriswUfGator]

Chasing people who drive off is a dangerous decision. Years ago we were standing  in our front yard when someone in a car did a drive by shooting. They were useing a a BB gun and did not hit us although BBs were hitting everything around us. I chased them all through the neighborhood. I was hopping that I would see a cop some where along the way. I was on a a motorcycle, they were in a car so there was no way they could out run me. They did try. They took out a stop sign, just missed parked cars and finally they went at high speed through a narrow construction area and through a stop sign. I gave up and let them go before they killed someone. Camera phones are still the best defense. UM coverage is our societies'  bandaid but it is the best choice for many people.  If i had chased that trailer trash bi+€h and if she killed someone i would get sued. it could be even worse if i caused an accident directly while chasing. i would not recamend it. I have an older car. It's not special but it's not a jalopy either. It's expensive to insure an older car. Insurance companies don't want to pay to fix your older favorite car. Parts are hard to get and body work on older cars is more expensive because they are usually very solid and harder to fix. So you really have to choose between paying up front just in case you have an accident or paying for the repair when you need one.

I've done the car chases only to learn they have no insurance and I'm responsible for it anyway, so you really need comp/collision. Its not just about fixing the car, if it's totaled and the other driver is uninsured and you lack the proper coverages then you're the one out a car, the carrier pays nothing under that circumstance. Is comprehensive coverage expensive? Very. It costs more than the liability portion of most policies. But it's really a necessity around here, I'm dead serious, somewhere around half this city drives with no insurance. I'm well aware of the cost, but it's still worth it.