Video: Driver left scene of an accident / Update: driver caught

[dragonxt]

Her story checks out for those of you still skeptical. @molder101 Playing back the video with headphones, you can hear yelling from the car.

 

[devilmountain]

I'm in Northern CA and this happened to me..and Honda. I was leasing a Honda Fit EV and Honda included the auto insurance in the lease payment. I was rear ended on West Bound I-80 near Northgate Blvd. Damage was over $30,000 and took almost 4 months for repair. I was hoping Honda would just total the car, but to my surprise, they decided to have it repaired. Rumor was, Honda wanted it back on the road because it was a compliance car.

In any case, I got a call from the insurance company (State Farm) of the guy who hit me about 9 months later .... months after I had already turned the car back in to Honda. He wanted me to sign something to close the file of the case. He then told me, the guy who hit me only carried the state minimum $5,000 insurance for property damage. Honda elected to eat the cost and not pursue legal action against the guy who hit me to recover the $25,000 balance for the repairs. I personally now suspect there are a lot of people driving around with the bare minimum amount of insurance.

My wife was rear-ended at 680/4; she was at a complete stop when the guy hit her at 60 MPH. The guy that hit her totaled at least two out of the three cars involved and he only had state minimums.

 

[Silicon Desert]

So are you totally on board with the explanation? The one that came from a person that broke the law running the stop sign, running from the scene of the accident? And failing to tell the OP (plenty of chances, he's right next door, and any failed attempt would have been recorded by the Nest LOL)? Yeah, they are surely 100% trustworthy...... I do agree that there is always another possibility

Certainly agree with all that. Oh yes of course. I was on board with it not being intentional as soon as I saw the video. It's sad that there are people in the world that just charge off and don't take responsibility for their actions.

 

[molder101]

Agreed. I’m also not entire sure it was legally parked, but the camera angle makes it tough to tell. It’s 30 feet minimum from a Stop Sign (some places are more - but as a general rule it’s 30 feet).

Not that this has anything to do with the situation here, but I’d never be parked in that location, not even for 60 seconds.

Completely legal parking that does not obstruct the view of the stop sign. It's about 25 feet from the stop sign.

 

[molder101]

What's the situation with the driver? Moved from Florida? Single parent? Super curious.... I agree, seems to back up to see the sign to see what cross street was or something, and forgot the Tesla in the blind spot. Still it's the worst type of offense... hit and run.... I'd turn her in.

Yes, moved from Florida about a week ago and is a single parent with a pre-1YO baby. First time I met her as she was so new to the neighborhood.

I gave her information to the officer, once I had it, and told him I wasn't interested in her getting any charges, if possible. He said he would probably have to give her at least a "leaving the scene of an accident" which he seemed to infer was required. I sort of understand that.

The problem she had is she was emotional on the phone with the guy she was talking to and it distracted her from driving carefully. No phone = no accident. Plenty of space to move around and my car is easily visible out of side mirrors, based on where her car was.

Her speeding off was the result of a very unexpected accident on her part... but that is part for the course when you are not paying attention.

 

[molder101]

While she didn't intend to hit your car according to her conversation with you, she did intentionally ignore taking responsibility for it like she should have. Like you said if you hadn't had the camera and approached her it sounds doubtful she would owned up to it. Kind of bad to be in a situation where your neighbor damages your property and doesn't say anything.

So what did you say to the police? Does she realize she committed hit and run damage? If she wasn't going to fess up to property damage what if she had hit a pedestrian walking by your car. I'd say even less likelihood she would have spoken up...just like she didn't this time.

How does any State let someone own and operate a vehicle with only $5K coverage for something like this?

I do agree with the responsibility issue, but she is young, no husband and has a kid. I'm don't want to make that into something it's not, but single parents can often be the result of irresponsibility. My conversation with her led me to believe she is struggling. Folks that are struggling do silly things at times - not to say folks that are struggling don't - because they can too. I simply mean that when you're struggling it's easy to justify actions ... like "it's his fault for having a nice car" or "why did he park there" or "I'm sure his insurance will cover it anyway" or a million other justifications. None of them answer the underlying problem which is inattention/distracted driving can lead to [serious] accidents. If you are in a tight spot in life, it's all the more reason to be sure you are not putting yourself in situations that could further make your life difficult.

Officer knows the whole story and was going to get a formal statement from her. He was a bit perturbed she did what she did. The whole thing about it is it's far worse when you leave, than when you own up to it. It's tremendously worse when you do something like this and don't get caught. That type of stuff messes with your soul and does not result in a positive outcome in your life.

She is aware what she did was wrong, but more/less justified it with excuses and what she thought/wanted/was going to do (but never did until I approached her). Her BF, that she was talking to was, from what I could tell, feeding her terrible information... seemed like he was telling her not to worry about it... would be hard to track her down. That might be normally true, however in the age in which we live, just figure whatever you do is being recorded. Unfortunately, if it was an even more dire accident, like a pedestrian, I fear it may have had a similar outcome. Although I will say this... I totally understand the "fight or flight response"... we all have it. I just trust I'm never in a really tough situation where I have to make a choice like that... I know what is right and hope I would do just that.

Yes, NJ is crap when it comes to minimum insurance:

15k bodily injury per person
30k bodily injury per accident
5k property damage <- this is the worst because 5k in PD is practically nothing nowadays when you consider rental coverage, repairs, etc which is all in that figure

The fun part is the current administration wants to flood the streets with even more drivers that should not have licenses (my opinion) because they are in the country illegally (a fact) and the minimum insurance limits will remain. Sometimes folks who make government decisions really boggle my mind. I understand compromise, but there are times when you have to make the right (hard) decision not the convenient, emotional, "what people want" decision.

 

[molder101]

So she definitely is hot and single... and OP wants to be new father. Classic con game... it’s called the cuckhold shuffle.... hit a car, play the victim , next thing you know you have a kid and are paying for a 529... I’ve seen it a hundred times

I'm the OP and while you may know people that would do that, I'm not that person.

Hope that's not her play because she'll be sadly mistaken.

She did try the "well can I pay you instead of going through insurance" bit. I passed.

I would describe her as a "hot mess."

 

[molder101]

Can the OP please explain this madness and why you let her off the hook? Was she a supermodel or something? Are you lonely ? Is she a burn victim? Are you Jesus or something?

OP here: I just empathized with her situation and didn't want to make it worse. I did provide her info to the officer so it's out of my hands. If it was a serious situation, perhaps I would have been less lenient.

While I understand what happened is totally wrong... I'm not trying to beat the girl down. If it turned out she was a self-entitled person and rubbed me the wrong way... more definitely could have been done. Ultimately we're all just trying to make it through life and we'll screw up eventually. Nice when other people understand that we all make mistakes. (Will say that, if she had done this before, then that would play into my consideration differently as well. You get an opportunity to screw up... and make up... the second time is proof you learned nothing and repercussions are necessary.)

 

[molder101]

I don’t see anyone asking the REAL important question here...

Why didn’t you trim down that Nest video before you uploaded it to YouTube?

I agree that often videos go on and on. I thought it was short enough to include the "wait for it... wait for it... wait for it... awww dang!"

 

[molder101]

Her story checks out for those of you still skeptical. @molder101 Playing back the video with headphones, you can hear yelling from the car.

Will have to check that out... was just listening normal from the computer.

There are a lot of neighborhood kids with shrill voices however ... possible it was them as well.

I did take a screen shot of the driver, before I knew it was her, and felt reasonably certain it was a girl on her phone (looked like her right arm was holding her phone like talking on speaker).

 

[jebinc]

I'm the OP and while you may know people that would do that, I'm not that person.

Hope that's not her play because she'll be sadly mistaken.

She did try the "well can I pay you instead of going through insurance" bit. I passed.

I would describe her as a "hot mess."

"Hot Mess" - So there is something to the other poster's thoughts.... Anyway, I hope it all turns out well for you and that you get your car restored to your liking, and without additional "heart ache"...

 

[WilliamG]

Completely legal parking that does not obstruct the view of the stop sign. It's about 25 feet from the stop sign.

25 feet is illegal, no?

 

[SMAlset]

I agree that often videos go on and on. I thought it was short enough to include the "wait for it... wait for it... wait for it... awww dang!"

Plus if you had audio on you could hear her car start up nearby and see it enter the frame in a very short time. So it was obvious this was someone living or parked at someone's house nearby and not some stranger cruising around in their car that happened to just drive down this street.

 

[jebinc]

Plus if you had audio on you could hear her car start up nearby and see it enter the frame in a very short time. So it was obvious this was someone living or parked at someone's house nearby and not some stranger cruising around in their car that happened to just drive down this street.

Great detective work!

 

[Nocturnal]

She came back, so why would anyone want to press the issue? It's not crazy to understand that somebody might panic and drive off, then think better of it and do the right thing. We should reward that sort of behavior.

 

[Runt8]

She came back, so why would anyone want to press the issue? It's not crazy to understand that somebody might panic and drive off, then think better of it and do the right thing. We should reward that sort of behavior.

I was under the impression she went back to her house (which happened to be on the same street), not that she came back to take responsibility.

 

[KenC]

"She is aware what she did was wrong, but more/less justified it with excuses and what she thought/wanted/was going to do (but never did until I approached her). Her BF, that she was talking to was, from what I could tell, feeding her terrible information... seemed like he was telling her not to worry about it... would be hard to track her down."

The OP is a very nice human, clearly. But, the concern is that the woman and her bf are clearly not, and wanted to take advantage of the OP. That's not in dispute. Her driving was totally reckless. Going easier on her, may seem like the nice thing to do, but is it? Will it stop her from being just as reckless and causing something worse in the future? Dunno.

 

[molder101]

Plus if you had audio on you could hear her car start up nearby and see it enter the frame in a very short time. So it was obvious this was someone living or parked at someone's house nearby and not some stranger cruising around in their car that happened to just drive down this street.

You can see where she lives (and parks) in the video... so you were hearing someone else.

 

[molder101]

She came back, so why would anyone want to press the issue? It's not crazy to understand that somebody might panic and drive off, then think better of it and do the right thing. We should reward that sort of behavior.

Technically she never confessed.

I confronted her and she said she did it. If I hadn't confronted her, outcome would probably have been different.

As previously mentioned, the camera made the difference because I knew the make/model/color of the vehicle that did the damage.

 

[gilscales]

Definitely the new neighbor with the sonata in the street did it. (for those who like Clue)

I would have guessed it was the butler with a candlestick in the study