My fun morning - hit and run accident

The BBQ Pit
1

I finally got my car back today, it has been getting various problems worked on for about 6 weeks now. After much time and expense and hassle I am gleefully happy to be driving it again.

I am sitting at a light on my way to work, when I notice a car backing out of a driveway right next to me. It is a 2 lane road, I am in the left lane and he is backing out into the right lane. A fleeting thought enters my head - “watch that guy hit me on my first morning with my car back.” Then it happens.

He backs into the passenger side of my car, hard enough to make my car shake pretty good. NOOOOOOOOOooooo. Then he pulls forward into the lane and turns on his right turn signal. I pull into the lane after him, thinking he is going onto the side street to pull over out of traffic. He turns right and keeps going to the next side street, and turns right again. He keeps going. By now I realize he is not pulling over, so I flash my lights and honk at him a few times. He pulls out onto another street, and by this time I have his license plate number and a description of the car, so I don’t follow him any more.

I am pissed and cursing up a storm but I am also 8+ months pregnant and really don’t want to get in a confrontation with anyone, even though this guy looks about 70 and is with a woman (presumably his wife). At this point I don’t even know if he realizes he hit me or not. (Although he gave me a decent shove, but I probably felt it more because he hit me on the side). Maybe I scared the crap out of him because he thought a crazy woman was following him and honking, I don’t know.

Now I have to go down to the police station after work and file a report. I don’t see any obvious damage, but I have been hit before and found damage later, so I don’t want to take a chance. Plus I want to report him, because he either did hit me and drove off anyway, in which case he deserves to be caught, or he hit me and didn’t realize it, in which case maybe he shouldn’t be driving. His wife looked back at me when he hit me, so I thought she saw him do it, but I could be wrong.
Does anyone know what will happen to him after I make a report? Will the police go find him and charge him with hit and run if he didn’t know he hit me?

Now that I’ve calmed down I’m pretty sure it is the second case and I do feel a little bad about reporting him when there may be no damage if he didn’t know he hit me, but I’m still going to. As someone at work pointed out, maybe he has a history and needs to lose his license.

Anyway, I’m glad no one was hurt and apparently the car is ok and all that, but did he have to hit me in the first 10 minutes I got to drive my car? I just want to drive my car again, ok? Do not make me lose my car again!

2

You shouldn’t feel bad about reporting the hit and run. The guy didn’t even stop to check if you were injured.

3

Report him. As you say, if he he hit you, he doesn’t deserve to drive. If he didn’t notice, he shouldn’t be allowed to drive. It’s a basic safety measure. No one got hurt this time. What about next time?

4

Gaah! :smack: That should be “…if he knows he hit you…”

5

Do you have any witnesses? If you don’t it’s your word against his and his wife’s.

6

I don’t have info on any witnesses, although I am sure someone else must have seen it happen. There were quite a few cars waiting for the light with me, at least the car right behind me must have seen it. No one stopped though, although since I followed the car for a while it’s possible someone saw it but didn’t bother following us around after it happened.

I have all the info on his car though, so I don’t see how he could say I just made the whole thing up. What reason would I have for picking his car out at random, especially if I don’t report damage? I don’t gain anything from saying he hit my car.

7

Heh-heh. I got hit pulling into my driveway ON THE WAY HOME FROM BUYING MY TRUCK. Nothing serious, but I felt like I must’ve been wearing a sign that said, “Hit Me.”