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

I can tell you have not been to many collision scenes, especially invovling a truck. Let me guess, some rich woman in a Mercedes gets run into and her car gets cracked up. She's probably a basket case emotionally, hence why she doesn't want to drive it. As far as sueing her because she won't drive a cracked up car that just has cosmetic damage, good luck with that one Johnny Cochran. You should really read what you type before you post, the only ridiculousness is your post.

 

Been to plenty of crashes to clean 'em up when I ran a wrecker. Never once towed a car away from the scene of a crash that was drivable unless the driver was either injured and hauled off in a meat wagon or the cops ordered the tow for DUI or other license/insurance/registration problems.

And if her action caused harm to another person, especially if that action was unnecessary or intentional, that other person can sue. The fact that the injured party in the lawsuit would be a truck driver does NOT prohibit that injured party from filing a lawsuit to recover damages. A judgment in civil court does not require "clear and concise" evidence, and your case does not have to be proved "beyond all reasonable doubt"....it only requires a "preponderance of the evidence".

The low burden of proof is how a man judged to be "not guilty" in criminal court can still be judged to be "responsible" in civil court. All it takes is a few jurors to say "That lady COULD have driven that car away" and the truck driver has met the burden of proof. If he lost his job, or if the incident being recorded as DOT preventable prevents him from getting a better job, there is financial loss....which would be the basis for any awards issued.

Hell, a lady can place her own cup of coffee between her own legs in her car (instead of using the factory-installed cup holders), remove the lid to add "extras" to that cup of coffee, and spill her own coffee on herself......and then sue the restaurant which sold her the cup of coffee for the coffee being "too hot". I don't know about you, but I EXPECT coffee to be hot when I buy it. What I suggested wasn't nearly as ridiculous as that case, but she won.

Truck drivers have a bad habit of bending over and taking whatever is dished out to them, without ever drawing a line in the sand and saying "enough is enough". The decision to pursue a career as a commercial vehicle operator does NOT exempt a person from the protections afforded under the Constitution, nor does it render the person a lower class of citizen.

Think about this for a minute: You are a police officer, and as such you carry a firearm. To do this, you must meet all eligibility requirements to possess a firearm in order for you to remain in your job. Suppose your kid is playing in the yard one day and a bully decides to harass your child. You see your child pinned on the ground by the bully, and you go out and pull the bully off your child, and tell that bully you don't ever want to see him around your kids....and maybe in the heat of the moment, you throw in an "or else...". In the process, the bully gets a bruise from where you grabbed his arm. The bully's parents see the bruise, and the bully makes up a story about how you grabbed him by the arm and tossed him around a bit before you threatened him (except he conveniently leaves out everything you said BEFORE the "or else"). His parents go down to the local police department, repeat what their "perfect little angel" told them, and begin the process to have an order of protection taken out against you after the threats you made against their child. If they are successful, you are now prohibited under federal law from being in possession of your issued firearm...if you still have a job, you are on desk duty and disarmed.

But hey, it would be RIDICULOUS for you to sue, right? After all, that kid was probably just an emotional wreck after you picked him up and tossed him off your child....

I bet its easy for you to be condescending while hiding behind your badge and gun.

 

I don't hide behind my badge and gun. In your scenario, I'll lock the little bully up for assault. That's right I'm not just a DOT guy, that's right 24/7 365 I'm a Trooper that will enforce the laws of my State. So see, the little perfect angel can tell his mommy and daddy what he wants to, Juvenile services will deal with Junior.

What I'm saying is this, I guess your wrecker days never taught you this. Anyone can have their vehicle towed whether it's damaged or not. If I'm driving my perfectly fine car and decide to tow it, I can. I've seen plenty of minor wrecks where, surprise even a man and not a rich ol lady, has not wanted to drive it until a mechanic or repair shop looked at the damage so they wouldn't damage it further or worse, ride down the road and lose a wheel or something similiar. I seriously doubt the rich woman would have a clue about DOT reportable wreck. My guess is what others have posted, just because it is DOT reportable it always doesn't get reported. I know in my State, they always don't get reported back to FMCSA. Some officers leave off the DOT number because they do not have a clue on the accident reports. When we get dispatched to a serious or fatal wreck, I have to fill out a seperate Federal Accident report that gets turned in for the DOT reportable, that doesn't happen on every minor fender bender.


But to sue someone for calling a tow truck, that is ridiculous. You can say what you want.

 

call ooida, get hooked up with their lawyers ASAP, It probley wont go on your record if you weren't ticketed, "no paper trail" And is that state a no-fault insurance state?
OOIDA law firm has helped me in the same sort of situation, and it isnt on my record,

 

Absolutely correct, and isn't the requirement for a "recordable"/reportable accident that a vehicle incur "disabling damage" "requiring" it to be towed?

Kinda answers Benny haha's original post.

 

32 hrs for drugs, and 2 hrs for alcohol.

 

One point I think we can take away from this is when in doubt cover your ###, I've been hit 2 times by cars merging onto the interstate which means not at fault and each time better the state cop to issue me an on the spot drug test, once he called for a dot officer that did just that the other he followed me to Concerta and signed he had done such and I had taken a test. This is extreme but there is no way for a greedy lawyer to bring up "well if he could have been under the influence of (n e random drug) which made him unable to avoid the crash and therefore he should pay for (who knows).

Also nost times we all over think things in accident situations and what I have learned from my operations/business management background is on the scene of any accident you are involved in the best bet is to be as close to a slow thinking mime as possible while being respectful of the officer (law,OSHA, safety)
By this I mean simply don't sign any release forms, witness affidavits, DON'T ever say "I'm Sorry" (it's considered an admission of being at fault regardless of context/situation), and like wise carry liability release forms with you in your truck and get those signed by others ASAP before they have a chance to grasp the situation, also if you have forms made up that essentially state in plain English that the other person is at fault get those out and signed BEFORE officers show up then use that form as your only account of the incident (IE what happened was we were involved in an accident and the other party admitted guilt in this signed dated document before you arrived officer) This helps you protect yourself and company in the event of any incident.

 

Thanks for all the input everyone!
So far so good, still was assigned a dedicated route I was in the running for and started that this week. Company was not happy about the expenses that will be incurred due to my little situation, but assured me that it's not the end of the world... These things happen, we just have to make it priority #1 to avoid them whenever humanly possible.
Just for the record... I have no intention of a lawsuit over whether or not she should have been towed. Her car, her call. I just want to be able to prove that it was cosmetic damage only and not a serious collision. If I ever need to find a new job it would be good to be able to show that if asked about an accident resulting in a vehicle towed from the scene that pops up on my driving record.
Thanks again everybody! Stay safe out there.

 

Soooooooooooo,

Benny.......no problems yet ??