Help! In an accident today... Now what?

Without details it's hard to say who was at fault. In some states even non-preventable accidents go on your driving record. Follow the rules and your good to go.

 

Any time a vehicle is towed away, it becomes a DOT reportable. There is nothing you can do to change this. You can have all the pictures you want, it is meaningless, once that hook arrives. Best of luck to you, you will get whacked with an accident on your record now.

 

HAHA!!! He should sue the b!%@# for damages. She's driving a fancy car and probably has money. Demanding that her car to be unnecessarily towed bumped a minor fender bender up to a DOT reportable crash, which affects a driver's ability to work and earn a living...which costs that driver money, both in reduced wages (he's not as valuable to a potential employer with the CSA 2010 points and the DOT reportable wreck on his record) or LOST wages if he should be fired/suspended as a result of the wreck being listed as "DOT reportable" instead of just a minor incident.

 

Better go get your pee test done You should have already filled out an accident report, take time to write down everything you remember around that time. Keep this record with you at all times when being questioned(Trust me it's coming) about this accident.

Make dual copies of those pictures,keep a set for yourself.

 

Benny haha,

I think your name is due to change soon...........

 

Just remember to follow your company policies, get copies of the pic's you took (dont just send to company and not keep copies) keep all the exchange info for your self including the police officer's Name,Badge number or call number, Officer's car number, as well as his/her contact info as well as any otes he may have jotted down(he may not write a ticket but is probably required to do an incident report at the least if no accident report was done. You also need any witness info and the tow truck driver's info as well as his company name and any contact info. You also need to sit down and recollect the incident. Putdown to paper all you remember to include time ,date,weather conditions,road conditions,traffic conditions don't forget to include road names and the direction of travel for both vehicles as well as 2 lane 4 lane 5 lane or what ever it may have been. You need to recreate the incident on paper. Also i hope you didn't admit fault at the scene if you did or didn't don't do it from here on out. Also in todays day and age if you were near businesses or stop light intersection check for camera's wheter it be ATM's, red light camera's, or even security camera's at businesses. I know this sounds like a lotbut it could be the difference between being fired or not and maybe even being sued personally and losing all you've worked for. Hope this helps but remember CYA your company will cover theirs.

 

He can sue anyone he wants, but does that mean he will win. The other driver probably has a very good lawyer on retainer, what will he have as a truck driver? Then given the location, was he a resident of the area, or the state? DO you think that if he is from out of state, he will get very far suing a resident, who was minding her own business when he crashed into her?

The ending result is the car was towed away. It IS a DOT reportable, it goes on his record. Depending on his tenure (or lack of it) with his company, he very well may be unemployed, from his company, and unemployable in the near future. But he has to have all his documents in order, but the photos of the wrecked car will still be meaningless, as one can say the transmission was messed up, and needed to be towed. One cannot believe what the cops says, as the cop IS NOT a body shop repairman or an insurance adjuster.

If any lawsuit will take place, and we KNOW ONE WILL, she will come out winning, not him. If his company is self insured, they will cut her a check for what her lawyer demands, the company will not spend copious amounts of time defending any lawsuit.

I wish him well, but he is going to go through a rough time.

 

Dont stress it...
No biggie if its DOT reportable AS LONG AS YOU WERE NOT CHARGED for it and its concidered a NON-Preventable on your part....
I put a car in the ditch in Jan 2010 it was towed away and NO injuries. Car was charged with failure to maintain control..I never saw the inside of a court room...
JUST MAKE SURE YOU GET A COPY OF THE ACCIDENT report...to CYA anyway...
its just this simple NOT YOUR FAULT not a problem

 

I wasn't arguing with you...merely agreeing that the car was towed and it WAS a DOT reportable incident, and that the intentional actions of the car driver (calling for an unnecessary hook) could adversely affect the career of the truck driver involved.

Who wins depends a lot upon how well your lawyer presents your legal case, and not so much where you are from or what you do for a living.

If the damage to the car was purely cosmetic...as in the repair bills do not indicate any repairs affecting the ability of the vehicle to be safely driven (which would be easy enough to find out in discovery)...and there was no other reason for the vehicle being towed other than "owner request", thus causing the wreck to be listed as "DOT reportable" on the driver's record thereby adversely affecting his ability to find/retain work at the pay level of work he would have been able to find/retain had the incident NOT been classified as "DOT reportable", the driver has absolutely suffered harm and financial loss through the unnecessary actions of the other motorist.

Even if he caused the wreck, and received a citation for the wreck, he could still win the civil suit stemming from the severity of the recording requirements under the DOT regulations as a result of the car owner's decision to have a perfectly drivable car. All that is necessary is to prove with a preponderance of evidence that the willful actions of the car driver after the crash made the situation worse than it would have been if the car driver had NOT taken those actions but instead acted as any other reasonable person might have done in a similar situation.

I do not know any reasonable people, who if uninjured in a crash with only minor cosmetic damage to their vehicle, would call a tow truck to tow their car from the scene and then have to arrange another ride to wherever it was they were going. A jury full of reasonable people who would have climbed into their car and driven it away from the scene would likely see the ridiculousness of her actions and award a judgment in the driver's favor to compensate for the losses suffered as a result of the unnecessary "DOT reportable" status of the crash.

Of course, the hardest part is finding a lawyer willing to accept such a case. Most go after the truck driver/trucking company because they view them as having deep pockets....not many will DEFEND the truck driver or sue on the truck driver's behalf.