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Any police officers around here?

yennyfire

yennyfire

Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Jun 6, 2010
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I was in a fender bender in the parking lot at the grocery store last night. Basically, I was backing out (I had looked in my rearview mirror and have a backup camera, which was not showing anything, nor beeping) and felt a bump. I was literally all the way out of the space and in drive, about to pull forward when I felt the bump.

The driver (a 19 year old with his mother) said the exact same thing (i.e. he was out of the space, about to drive forward). We are probably equally at fault. The police officer arrives and says that he can't give anyone a citation because it's on private property, but he can file a repot. Fine...even though I am not planning on filing with my insurance, since the damage to my car is minor, as is the damage to their car.

I tell the officer what happened (IMO), including the back-up camera, being in drive, ready to pull forward, etc. After I finished, he said I could leave and he turned to take their statement (so I didn't hear what he said to the officer) and went home to deal with a sick child.

I check the report online this morning and the officer left out most of what I said and implied that it was my fault. I took photos showing that we "met" in the middle of the lot, which isn't what he said in his report. Do I have any recourse? I did call the precinct this morning and left a message asking him to call me. Any advice as to how I should handle this with the officer? Obviously, I don't want to irritate him, but I do want the report to be accurate and to support the photos that I took.

Here's his report:

Driver #1 stated that she exiting her parking space and did not see any cars behind her or
coming from either way. Driver #1 stated that while she was backing out of her space she
felt a collision with an object. Driver #1 got out of her vehicle and saw that she and
vehicle #2 had collided.
Driver #2 stated that he had backed out of his parking space and was stopped to place his
vehicle into drive in the center straight area of the parking lot. Driver #2 stated that
when he stopped to place the vehicle in driver vehicle #1 backed into the vehicle from
behind.
Debris from vehicle #2 were all the way in the center of the driving area and vehicle #1 was
not fully out of its parking space when I arrived on scene.


Is it possible for him to revise his report? Is there anything else I should do at this point? Thanks for any help/guidance. I am so upset (not because of the damage, though that's no fun, but because I feel that I'm being taken advantage of and am going to be blamed for something that this kid and I were equally at fault for).
 
Guess not...thanks anyway! :blackeye:
 
Sorry yenny, I have no idea :( It doesn't sound too terrible though, but definitely unpleasant how they tweaked the story. Is this going to affect your record somehow? I hope it works out!
 
Thanks gemfever! I have no idea what the outcome will be. The bottom line is that the damage to both cars is negligible, so reporting it to either/both of our insurance companies will only result in higher premiums for both of us (I guess if you report that you have been *involved* in an accident, even if it's not your fault, it's still a black mark on your file and your premiums will go up). So, in the case where the damage is well below the deductable, it just doesn't make sense to report it. However, she seems to be one of those out to get everything she can, even if she's equally to blame. She just doesn't get that there's no win/win for either of us in this situation. :knockout:

Sigh....I was just hoping to get some advice about how to approach this officer, since I'm sure he's not going to be happy that I'm *challenging* him....and truly, I don't want to challenge him, but he left out half of what I said (salient details, no less) and the report is very one sided. Double sigh....
 
Yenny - Can you call a different officer and get advice? I would do this just to set your mind at ease. FWIW, my dh was rear ended a while back and the girl (16) who hit him climbed out of the car crying that her parents would be upset. DH agreed not to file a report bc he felt sorry for her, her dad called us a few times saying he'd cover the damage to my dh's car to avoid having insurance involved. Since DH works long hours, I was the one who went in to get repair quotes. All were over $1K. As soon as we learned the amount, the dad turned into a nutcase and told me that he would have his daughter lie that they were not even there at the scene (not witnesses/no report) and it sure taught me that regardless of what happens at the accident scene, there is ALWAYS a chance people will change their stories around.

In our case, I called the police and I talked to a couple of different officers and all gave helpful advice. You might want to talk to someone because the last thing you want is for the people in the other car to suddenly have their necks "hurt" or whatever...you know how that can go. Protect yourself.
 
Good point MC. Sorry that you and DH had to deal with that. I'll also call one of several attorney friends so that I understand how the law works in "he said/she said" situations. Grrr...the if only's keep piling up. If only I had sent DH to the store, if only I had taken the time to shop for the week's meals instead of just grabbing my DD's medication, if only I had thought to video tape the conversation I had with the officer so I had a record of what I said.....
 
Something similar happened with my husband a while back. Long story short, he protested the charges and brought photos of evidence that exonerated him.I'm not sure if you can get copies of any photos, etc. to contest/correct what was reported. But whatever you do, be exceedingly polite to the police.
 
DH is a deputy sheriff. I'll ask him and get back to you....
 
Most definitely want to be polite partgypsy (I am always polite, especially when the officer is simply doing his job, to the best of his ability).

Thanks amc80, I appreciate it and will be anxious to hear what your DH suggests.
 
According to the DMV handbook, the person backing out of the space has the right of way.
 
Thanks for checking mandasand. We were both backing out at the same time and bumped cars smack in the middle of the lane. :nono:
 
This makes me so angry Yenny!!! It's not the damage of the car but of the officer's report! He shouldn't have been biased on this! I don't know what the next step to take is, but I just wanted to post how angry I am for you!
 
Yenny, as a general rule of thumb (and this isn't always the case), the officer will usually list the person at fault in the first box. My brother is an officer and told me that awhile back. It's just habit of what a lot of officers do for uniformity. So if you are in box 1 (which it appears you are), then the officer most likely sees you more at fault.

You can call - doesn't hurt, but I'm pretty sure the officer will not change that report.
 
Thanks YT! It's nice to have someone in my corner.

Actually, I just had a very nice convo with the officer who wrote the report and he agreed to write a supplemental report to clarify the statements I was concerned about. He said he can't change a report that had already been filed, but he could attach an addendum.

So, hopefully when this woman contacts her insurance, they will find that we were equally at fault and that will be the end of it. I just want to get my car fixed and be done with it!
 
Oh good! I'm so glad! Hope all goes well!
 
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