Screwed by the system, or just bad luck?

"Chairman Kaga" (mike-mckinnon) 08/26/2013 at 11:31 • Filed to: The Man

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The last day of high school, 1993. Andy Baxter calls me out of AP English to tell me a police officer would like to talk to me. Awesome. The class applauds.

It turns out someone had hit my 1971 VW Super Beetle while it was parked in the school lot. We had designated spots, and mine was on the far lower lot down by the elementary school.

The assistant principal walked down with me to me the officer. There was a state trooper standing by my car with a woman and about a dozen small kids. She immediately began apologizing profusely, although the officer repeatedly told her to not admit anything. This should have been my first clue.

She had been backing out of the space directly behind where I was parked, and hit the back of my beetle. However, instead of realizing what had happened, she thought there was something wrong with the van and continued using the accelerator to remedy the situation. She thought she was stuck on a rock or a log (!), and was trying to "rock over it". By the time someone ran up and told her she'd hit a car, the rear of the van had devoured the bumper, rear decklid and rear glass of by beetle.

So witnesses. Check.

The officer took our info and said we should call our insurance companies. Of course, the lady didn't have insurance. The cop said not to worry, Darla.

Darla?

ANYWAY, my insurance folks took my statement (pre-cellphone, so this happened several hours after the fact) and said they'd follow up with the other driver once a police report had been filed. Days. A week. Multiple weeks. I called the state police and they had no report on file. Because the officer never filed it. Because the other driver was his sister-in-law (I came to find out several YEARS later).

I filed ( meaning my dad filed) a complaint with the ethics commission, but we never even got a follow up. He asked a friend whose brother was a state trooper, and after a couple of days he instructed us we'd best drop the issue, if we didn't want to deal with "ramifications." I never did get the damned car fixed.

SO...

My wife and I watched the new Mike Birbiglia special on Netflix last night. My Girlfriend's Boyfriend. If you're into the more spoken word, story-telling comedy stylings of Bill Cosby or even going old skool with the likes of James Thurber, then I recommend it.

ANYWAY, the centerpiece of the show is a car crash, wherein Birbigs is t-boned at an intersection by a drunk driver. So you're going to have to either watch the special or listen to a segment of This American Life. Sorry.

My question is, how can a driver be responsible for an accident involving a drunk driver who flees the scene then causes another accident, then the police botch the accident report so badly it described the victim actually colliding with himself? I'd like to dig into this.

Have you ever been screwed by the man? Did you fight back? Did you come out a winner or a loser?

Takuro Spirit > Chairman Kaga 08/26/2013 at 11:45

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There's a new Birbigs special on Netflix?!?! SWEET!

moarpowerr > Chairman Kaga 08/26/2013 at 11:49

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I have never been screwed by the man but I recently was close to it. At least in Ontario, Canada, it is almost a rule that the perso who rear ends the other person is considered the guilty party by default. Yesterday I was on a small residential street. A woman was backing out her parking spot so I stopped a good distance away to let her go. She then continued to back up a good couple of meters down the street and bumped her rear into the front my car. Nothing really happened because I was stationary and she was going like 4 km/h. However she blamed me for it saying that I shouldn't be driving forward while she is backing up...Even though I stopped farther down the street than anyone should need. I would have gotten screwed by the insurance because I was the one behind her, and my front hit her rear bumper..

Chairman Kaga > moarpowerr 08/26/2013 at 12:18

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That's the "rule" back home in Arkansas too. Same thing happened to a friend of mine. Some jackass in a T/A was messing with him late one night. He stopped in the middle of the highway, put it in reverse and played a game of chicken. My fried didn't flinch. By the time the cops showed both drivers had guns drawn and were insulting one another's mothers. My friend was arrested for threatening an officer, drunk driving, public endangerment, reckless driving and several other charges. The T/A driver was let go. Fortunately the old coot on his porch who witnessed the whole thing agreed to appear in court. My friend had his charges dropped, the arresting officer was fired for lying on an official report, and the other driver booked for basically the same set of charges that were filed against my friend.

My friend still got the failure to stop ticket.

davedave1111 > Chairman Kaga 08/26/2013 at 12:21

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If you hit a drunk driver, the presumption is normally that the accident was his fault. If it can be proven otherwise, although he won't be in the clear with the regard to the drunk driving, you'll still be found to be at fault. If, for example, you pull-out of a give-way junction directly in front of a non-speeding, as-attentive-as-possible drunk driver, so close that a sober driver couldn't have stopped, it's clearly your fault - whether or not that can actually be proven.