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

I believe the driver has to be cited for it to be reportable . A couple of years ago a woman hit my truck. Her car was towed . She didn't appear to have injuries but went in an ambulance . I wasn't cited and our safety officer said it wasn't FMCSA reportable but company policy was drug and alcohol testing after any accident .

 

I'm a late comer to this thread but I thought I'd add my two cents. I'm a full time police officer, 14yrs. I drove truck prior to that and I still drive part time. Anyway, just because a vehicle is towed from a crash it is not automatically a reportable accident. If it is towed by "owner request" it is not reportable. Many people tow their cars to have it looked at by a shop. Thats on them. We also take it a step further, if the vehicle is not disabled at the point of impact and the driver can drive the vehicle to a place of safety, like a parking lot or the shoulder, we wll not classify that as reportable either.

As far as injury, if a person requests an ambulance just to be "checked out" it's not a reportable accident. I need to see obvious sign of injury or a "complaint of pain". If a person leaves the scene and wants to report an injury the next day, like the stiff neck, I'll note it in my report but I don't go back and change it to reportable.

 

Back in 2007 I was in MI on a 4 lane divided highway heading to a shipper. It was snowing and freezing rain. Roads were not in too bad of shape yet. Some dingbat was passing me and got a little to close to the edge of the road and panicked, then overcorrected the steering wheel and lost control, spun out, and hit the left front section of my truck. She ended up in the median on her roof. It was her fault and she knew it. She had no injuries, but there wasnt much left of her vehicle. My first thought was oh great there goes my job. She tried to say it was my fault. My saving grace was that there was an off duty Michigan State Trooper behind me and saw the whole thing. When the reporting agency (local police) showed up they took all of my information and told me not to worry they knew it was not my fault as they had a credible witness. She received 2 tickets. My truck had 10k of damage, but was still driveable, so once released from the scene I went to the nearest occupational clinic for a post accident drug and alcohol test as directed by my companies safety dept. Pretty much all companies require this as a CYA. Just recently I pulled my PSP report, and it shows on there as a non preventable tow accident, even though it was not my fault.

 

Wait. My company had a fender bender accident and 4wheeler said husband comming to change tire. Ended up on a hook.

Fine for not having driver drug tested in time, even though the hook was called AFTER THE DRIVER WAS RELEASED FROM THE ACCIDENT BY LAW ENFORCEMENT! Too bad....

Don't even ask about driving over the dead body after the fact. Fatality accident. On the record.

 

Benny hahaha, R U from the Detroit area, near New Baltimore?