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Ameer wrote:

jimlongley wrote:That's as far as anything went as far as I know. The police were very nice to Fred about it. Since there was no report of an accident from the owner of the 'Vette, they didn't hold Fred responsible. Although the 'Vette was wrecked, it was parked in a no parking 7am to 4pm spot and they felt the driver of the 'Vette would have been the responsible party. The 'Vette had been reported stolen several hours after the wreck, from the owner at his office, but nobody was able to explain how he knew it was stolen at that time.

We always thought that there was something else going on.

The local vice cops probably could have told you the most likely reason he was parked in that neighborhood.

Oh Yeah!

JALLEN wrote: . . . CHP surmised that the other driver didn't want anyone to know where he was, or with whom, or what he had in the car, etc. Whoever it was was in a heap of trouble!

A bunch of years ago my boss, Jack, at the phone company was riding with another boss, Fred, on the way to work, passing through a seedy rundown neighborhood near the telephone garage. There was a car on the two lane street ahead, waiting to turn left, so Fred (not my boss) pulled into the parking lane to go around the stopped vehicle and discovered that there was a Corvette parked a few feet ahead. It was sub zero weather and the very large plume of exhaust from the stopped car had obscured the Fred's view of the parking lane, not an excuse, merely explaining. The Corvette's body shattered in the cold, seriously, a bunch of us drove up to the scene on the way out of the garage that day, and it looked like the 'Vette had crumbled.

The Fred's car was drivable. They went from door to door in the apartment blocks along side the street and did not find anyone who claimed ownership of the 'Vette. They drove on down to the telco garage and reported the wreck and then Fred waited, for days, to hear anything from the police.

Having not heard anything from the police, Fred called our security department and had them do a check. It turned out the 'Vette was from a fancy suburban neighborhood twenty or more miles away, and the owner's wife, when contacted discreetly told them that her husband had told her the car was stolen while he was at work that day.

That's as far as anything went as far as I know. The police were very nice to Fred about it. Since there was no report of an accident from the owner of the 'Vette, they didn't hold Fred responsible. Although the 'Vette was wrecked, it was parked in a no parking 7am to 4pm spot and they felt the driver of the 'Vette would have been the responsible party. The 'Vette had been reported stolen several hours after the wreck, from the owner at his office, but nobody was able to explain how he knew it was stolen at that time.

We always thought that there was something else going on.

RPB wrote: . . . In short .. doesn't really/theoretically matter if the other guy got a ticket, although the Adjuster may try to use that as a point in negotiating the value of the claim. They'll use anything they can... either side will .. it's "negotiating"

People in hit and runs don't get tickets if they aren't caught, yet your own insurer may require you to file suit and show proof of contact to prove yo didn't take faulty evasive action.

Example, an intoxicated person stopped at a red light gets hit by a sober person who rear-ends him/her, the drunk gets cited for DWI, the person who rear-ended him/her dies in the crash so no citation is issued to the deceased... whose fault was the wreck?

What occurs in one court system/Family Court/Probate Court/Criminal Court isn't necessarily admissible in a Civil Trial, but yeah, Insurers sometimes look to how a citation was resolved during their investigation of fault/negligence-especially in arguing value.

You could call and ask why no ticket ... be nice to the officer though, you may need his help later.

Back a long time ago (1968) I came to an intersection that was under construction. It was going to be a 4 lane divided by 4 lane divided grade crossing controlled by multiple lights, but the lights had not yet been activated yet, so the entire mess was controlled by one light, hung off center above the intersection.

I was headed southbound and slowed for the green light in my direction and turned left to go eastbound and to my dismay I found myself in the westbound lane. I stopped my car and was about to put it in reverse when the light changed about four or five hundred feet ahead of me, where a cross street entered the westbound lane. Sitting at that light were two vehicles and as I watched in morbid fascination, the headlights of the one facing me in the lane I was in raised up and I could hear its engine roar as the driver drag raced with the other car. BTW, the other car was not racing with him.

With little or no time to do more than just sit there and watch, that's what I did, as the guy driving the car that was racing came right down that lane and hit me head on with enough velocity to push my '65 Merc Monterey backwards 35 feet with a '59 Nash Rambler wagon. The Merc was way heavier than the Rambler, so he really had to be hauling.

My right shoulder was dislocated, my left hand was broken, and my glasses had come off and broken and gashed my face, so I looked pretty bad. The other guy never even saw me because he was concentrating on watching for the other car, but he was not injured, although his passenger was pretty bashed up. I got out of my car, I'm not sure how, and while the driver of the other car ran up and down the median shouting at me and making a variety of threats against me, my family, and several generations in either direction, I noted that the passenger side of his windshield was in pretty bad shape, so my rescue squad instincts kicked in and I went over to check on his passenger.

It happened that I knew the passenger, so I got my big first aid kit (I was a Red Cross Instructor) out of the trunk of my car, about the only part that survived unbent, and tended to her injuries while the other driver demonstrated his lack of control by wetting his pants and the harassing the various arriving cops.

First they thought he was the driver of my car and vice versa, but I did eventually correct them, but he obviously had been drinking, quite a lot, and he ended up in the back of a squad car with cuffs on, arrested for DWI and a variety of other charges.

I was in the Navy at the time and had to return to my ship, but my insurance agent and attorney kept me apprised of what went on. Due to NY State laws in effect at the time, I was not held responsible for the wreck, even though I was in the wrong lane going the wrong direction, because the other guy was convicted of DWI and other stuff, and had had several previous convictions for traffic related stuff, including racing. Although he did hire a lawyer and send notice of intent to file suit, it never happened, and his (father's) insurance did not subrogate against my insurance, but my agent told me that his father's insurance was canceled and he was placed in a minimum coverage assigned risk pool with a restriction against the son driving his vehicles. My insurance paid for through the collision coverage on my vehicle, and did subrogate against the other driver because of his conviction, but I do not know whether that was successful.

A few months later I met and shortly married my first (late) wife who happened to be a CPCU and explained some of the arcane inner workings of NY State Insurance Law at the time, and such things were not unusual. That all changed when "No Fault" came in.