Was in a minor accident, no injuries, driver was tailgating in a single Lane that split into two and hit me after I braked.
She was apologetic up until I said I wanted a police report made. I wasn’t even sure at the time who was at fault and still am not. I had to be in the right lane and it was a single lane that split, she was riding so far up my butt. She said “why do we need police? Let’s just exchange numbers and insurance and go”
Then she said I swerved and hit her… I called the police anyway. She got upset that they were taking too long (a lengthy 5 minutes) to arrive and said she had to go. She ended up getting defensive with the officer too but he sided with me.
Personally I feel like it’s always a best bet to have a police report made, whether I’m at fault or not. A friend of mine never had a police report made, got sued for 30K by some rich kid who hit her and claimed she caused him a spinal injury (later found to be an injury from falling out of a bunk bed)
Why would the other driver not want police called to an accident?
byu/The_only_hannah inInsurance
Posted by The_only_hannah
6 Comments
Not really an insurance question, roll a d20 for your answer
* drunk or high
* suspended license
* priors
* warrants
And so on
A police report doesn’t determine fault with regards to insurance. Unless the officer witnessed the accident, their report will be a summary of what you each tell him, along with his observations. They’re certainly good to get, but they’re not some end-all be-all with regards to the insurance claims.
As far as insurance goes, they’ll get a statement from you, and from the other driver. They’ll factor in things like independent witness statements or dashcam footage. They’ll read the police report. But for the reasons stated above, they’ll just use it as another factor in their decision making process. Then they’ll decide on fault.
In terms of who is at fault here, it’s not 100% clear. Normally, the driver who rear ends the other car is at fault. But if she was following close, she moved over to the right lane, and you did drift over and merge into her, then it gets less clear. If her story is that she merged over, was in the lane, and you went to merge over and you hit her b/c you didn’t see her/assumed she wouldn’t be there, it would put blame on you. Where is the impact on each car? Like full front end/rear end impacts? Or is there some impact on your rear passenger panel/her front driver fender?
As for why this woman might not want to call the police, u/InternetDad already gave you a number of random things that it could be.
Most people mistakenly believe that the police report determines fault for insurance. They may think that if the police show up, they won’t be able to lie about what happened and avoid responsibility. Unfortunately, this is untrue. The police are only there to help drivers exchange information, give tickets if necessary, and/or deal with injuries.
Drunk, warrents, no liscense, suspended liscense. No insurance, no registration to name some most.common.
The other posters have made good points, as it’s true police reports don’t matter in determining fault. There’s a couple of benefits they do provide though. People are less likely to give false information (name, contact info, insurance info, etc) to the police. Plus, the police report does establish that the other person was involved in the wreck, so if they go tell their own insurance company they weren’t even there, there’s evidence they were.
So, open a claim with your insurance company and move on with your life.