Leo question regarding Ft Worth PD

[lws380]

Scenario:

Rear ended in minor fender bender. Leo responds. Says (as Ft Worth policy) he/they will not issue a police report since no one injured and all parties have insurance. Says file blue form with TX DOT and let insurance companies figure it out.

Asked if he would do police report if requested. No! Seems like a bad policy to me and certainly not customer/citizen friendly. Is that a common practice among larger cities? Seems liability is fairly easy in a rear end collision. But in questionable cases and he said she said cases, it seems to me a police report would be beneficial to at least one party.

BTW, CHL was non-issue!

[Originalist]

If you were on private property -- LEO will not do a minor accident report. i.e. private drive, etc. Nothing about a minor accident is questionable. If there are questions that are not easily answered then it is a major accident

[lws380]

If you were on private property -- LEO will not do a minor accident report. i.e. private drive, etc. Nothing about a minor accident is questionable. If there are questions that are not easily answered then it is a major accident

Public street

[KRM45]

This is getting more and more common. Many police agencies will respond when called, but will not do the paper work if there are no injuries, no public property damage, and both cars are driveable. The agency I work for would have done the paper work and issued a citation to the party that caused the wreck if it could be determined that they violated the traffic code, and the accident was a result of the violation.

[C-dub]

I wonder if the police are changing this policy because of insurance companies. In the minor accidents we still need to prove who was at fault for insurance claims and if they are having to do extra work because of this or are coming under fire because the average officer may not be trained in accident investigation. They may not want the hassle, but it is probably a simple money issue.

Either way, it becomes more difficult for us to prove that we were the victim in this minor accident that may have caused $1,000+ damage to our vehicle and then the hit on our insurance because of the claim or just the fact that we were in an accident. ARGH!

[Purplehood]

I remember this exact issue coming up years ago in CA. The default "rear-end collisions are simple to resolve" is not a reality, especially in light of todays nasty-drivers.

I hit the rear-end of a vehicle. The cops asked (on the phone) if there were any injuries. Told them no. They advised me that no one would be responding. Insurance company told me that it was my fault. I said, No. I told them that it was the result of an illegal lane change (the guy cut in front of me and jammed on his brakes). I went round and round with the Insurance Company and kept quoting the verbage from the CA Traffic Code regarding Illegal Lane Changes. In the end they agreed with me. Go figure.

What finally swayed them was the angle of the damage. If it had been a legitimate "rear-ender", there would have been damage across the rear of the bumper. But this guy had jammed into my lane from my right, and had a nice dent in the left rear-corner. I pointed out that a lane-change is not legal if there is not a safe-distance between you and the traffic that was in the lane you were trying to get into.

Moral: Never let the Insurance Companies make the decision for you.

[lws380]

I was involved in a rear ender many years ago. Felt fine at the time. But when I woke up the next day, I could not turn my neck and it hurt big time. So when it appears there are no injuries, it does not mean there will not be any.

I'm surprised when you ask them to do a police report they do not. Its all about money, and someone has come up with a great idea to give little or no service to the community. In the case involved I would guess there is $3,000-5,000 and maybe more damage to both vehicles, the worse being the vehicle that rear ended the stopped vehicle. Its hard to not have a few thousand dollars of dammage even if you sneeze on a vehicle.

[Captain Matt]

How can the LEO be sure there are no injuries? Is he practicing medicine?

[The Annoyed Man]

Tuesday before last, my wife was in an accident in Grapevine (Original Thread Here). When she went to the police station to make a report, the officer she spoke to (who later confirmed it to my personally) advised her to use the self-reporting form. His explanation was that, if the police take the report, then under Texas law, the accident goes on my wife's driving record; but that if she self-files the report, then it doesn't. I assume that is correct information. In any case, that may be what the officer in question in your case was trying to convey.

[Oldgringo]

lws380 wrote:

...Its all about money, ...

{***sigh***} Yepper, everything is about money.

[TLE2]

Used to live in FW, long time ago. Wouldn't report unless over $x damage. I'm sure the x has changed in the upward direction.

[srothstein]

This is one of my pet peeves about current police work. Many cities have stopped investigating accidents if there is no injury. Some counties refuse to investigate accidents at all, just notifying DPS of it. This is poor customer service.

The reason behind it is the same as the reason for many other cuts in police service. The claim that it costs too much money and takes too much time. I thought this is what we pay taxes for, and if the budget needs to be higher to cover all of the required services, cut the money given away to non-critical services (like donations to various charities or arts programs).

I am a firm believer in full service police departments where an officer shows up to take a report if you call 911 about anything (and yes, I have had some very unusual calls).

And the comment about the self-reported accident not showing up on your driving record is not true. The law does require all accidents investigated by police to be reported to DPS, but they keep all accidents on your driving record, no matter how it gets reported.

The only good thing about police not handling minor accidents is that two mature and reasonable people can work it out between themselves if they want, with no police or insurance getting involved. That just seems so rare in today's society as to not justify a department not investigating it.

[3dfxMM]

lws380 wrote:

...Its all about money, ...

{***sigh***} Yepper, everything is about money.

To be fair to the police on this one, the OP's concern was also about money. :)

[dicion]

Houston is the same way. Unless it's a major accident (injuries, etc), they won't even show up.
However, there's a simple way to guarantee they show up and write a report.

I would only do this in very few situations

If the other person vohemiently denies fault. and you know they will continue to do so.
And if you are 10,000% sure it is the other person's fault, by law, and will be OBVIOUS to any officer that shows, or you have witnesses there at the scene willing to confirm so. (People riding with you don't count)
And if you know that you will be out Thousands of dollars, either due to Liability only, or the other driver NOT having insurance.

Also, if the accident, because of it's damage, will PREVENT you from getting to work, or living your daily life, until you find the money to get it fixed. Why should your life be uplifted by someone else's mistake.

911: "...are there any injuries?"
You: "My Neck Hurts"

Be prepared to take a ride in an ambulance, and spend some time in the hospital though.

Is it right? No. But neither is the current system.
It's simply playing by their rules.

I was in an accident 6mos ago where a lady decided to cross 3 lanes, directly into the side of my vehicle. She knocked me up onto the curb, and almost into a fire plug.
I whacked my head on the window, but it wasn't anything serious. She got out of her car immediately, and came over, practically crying,
"omg, are you hurt? I'm so sorry, it was all my fault.. do you need an ambulance?"
"no thanks, I'll be okay. Let's just trade information"
"Oh alright. It was totally my fault.. I'm so sorry, let me get you my insurance information"

Needless to say, I pretty much knew she was going to tell her insurance that it was all her fault, so I didn't need an officer there. That, plus the damage to the cars (her front right corner, my drivers side door and panel) sort of told the story. I could have easily told 911 that i was injured (hell, I was, even if just barely.. even my wife yelled at me for not doing it "You could have gotten a concussion and not known it!!") and had an officer there to take it all down.

[aardwolf]

If it's not worth the time for a police officer to write an accident report when it's a few thousand dollars of damage then the logical conclusion is it's really not worth the time for a police officer to write a ticket for speeding or anything else with a penalty less than a few thousand dollars.