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What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 8:32 pm
by stevie_d_64
Was going to work yesterday morning, and was on the Sam Houston Speedway/revenue generating circle of death...

Was just coming over the overpass short of the S. Gessner exit off the tollway, and came upon a slowdown caused by one of Pct 7's finest on a traffic stop of some kind in the right hand shoulder about a half mile up ahead of the rear of the slowdown...

I slowed down, and was just about to complete stop for a moment before I noticed in the rear view mirror, someone who WAS going to hit me...Boom, there it was, and got that out of the way...For the most part I'm fine but the Mighty Ford Pickum' up Truck took a smack in the bumper, and some minor scratches to the paint...It was a fairly lowspeed impact and the other car (a Dodge Neon) is just about shy of being totalled...The driver of that vehicle suffered from some lower abdominal blunt force trama, and a sprained right wrist...

I've done enough accident scenes to know he was not too critical, but I advised him to stay calm and still till help arrived...There was nothing more I could do...

He also did not habla too much, and had no DL or other ID on him, nor any insurance...So draw your own conclusions... ;-)

I did find out who the vehicle is registered to, and have failed to track them down to work out the insurance stuff...

I would like to know that if I was told to leave the scene by Law Enforcement before I got all the information I needed from the person who hit me, would they be able to fill in any gaps in the information I need to square up on this insurance issue???

All I want is at best the best ID, and current address of this individual, and any other legitimate contact info the Deputies might have in their report...I do not care, or want treatment information at the hospital they apparently sent him to for treatment, and would I be able to corrolate that ID info with the PD report??? Just to be sure...

I have a call into the Deputies office for him to give me a call, yet they tell me his accident report might take 10 days to get into the system??? Is this a common lag in the timeframe of filing the accident reports for a shift??? :headscratch

Now I know the odds of this being resolved are minimal at best, yet I do not expect or demand anything from anyone...I believe I've done my part, and expect this to not be that big a deal for very long...And this kinda thing happens everyday...

I also understand that this is indicative of a larger issue/problem we hear about everyday it seems...

My intentions are to take care of my house first and let this probably go away without too much pushing...But part of what I've been hearing from some others, maybe I need to hear if I should push it a little harder to see what happens...

If the roles had been reversed, I already know I would have made sure my obligations both to the person I hit, and the state (citations) would be taken care of...But that comes with the territory of being a responsible and accountable citizen of this city, state and nation...

So what does everyone think???

I'm open for anything...

BTW, my official CHL contact with Law Enforcement agents who arrived to take care of us was standard fair...No big deal, and he handed me back the "plastic" without fanfare of comment... :thumbs2: Just the way it should be...

Which will lead me to a separate thread I will post in another section of the forum soon...

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 8:53 pm
by Venus Pax
When I was in my wreck in August, DPS told me it would be ten days before I could get a report, so I'm guessing that's normal. (After Mars' wreck, it wasn't exactly on my mind.)

A few years ago, I was the last one hit in a multi-vehicle accident on I-10 in Vidor. The person that rear-ended me was a Mexican citizen with a license and insurance from Mexico. The responding officers said, "Good luck collecting on that one." Fortunately for me, the officers decided to cite only the 18-wheeler that started the fun, rather than cite each individual driver between the 18-wheeler (back) and me (in the front). Their decision made my life much easier when it came time to repair my car.

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 9:14 pm
by bdickens
No driver's licence? No insurance? No habla?

Good luck!

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 9:47 pm
by flintknapper
stevie_d_64 wrote: He also did not habla too much, and had no DL or other ID on him, nor any insurance...So draw your own conclusions... ;-)
Sorry Stevie....but:
Usted nunca verá un centavo

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 10:10 pm
by sbb
Stevie, sorry to hear about this incident. I agree with Flint, you will not see a cent. I had an uninsured motorist crash into my house and cause over $60,000 in damages. My homeowners paid for the repairs but would not sue the driver because they had no assets. Houston courts fined this person only $250.00 and when she said that she could not pay the fine, they gave her 12 months to pay it off. :banghead: The courts don't care, the police don't care and the politicians are worthless.

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 8:48 am
by stevie_d_64
I've had two restful nights to sleep on this, and I hear everything said so far...

It was a vanity post anyway...I just needed to get it off muh chest...

Thanks for the replies!

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 10:20 am
by Crossfire
Steve - when my daughter had her wreck in Houston, I guess about 6 weeks ago now... she was not able to get the accident report for about 2 weeks. And she didn't get a chance to get the info of the driver who caused it because the police were busy chatting with him. And then he left with them....

And, of course, when she finally did get his info, he had no insurance. Must be a Houston thang.

But, good to hear y'all weren't banged up, just the pickup. Take care!

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 4:42 pm
by stevie_d_64
llwatson wrote:Steve - when my daughter had her wreck in Houston, I guess about 6 weeks ago now... she was not able to get the accident report for about 2 weeks. And she didn't get a chance to get the info of the driver who caused it because the police were busy chatting with him. And then he left with them....

And, of course, when she finally did get his info, he had no insurance. Must be a Houston thang.

But, good to hear y'all weren't banged up, just the pickup. Take care!
Well you know how I feel about all of this...No big secret huh??? It would be different if I had been the hitter, instead of the hittee...Or would it be the pitcher, instead of the catcher...I dunno...

I truely do not wish any ill will to this guy...AlI want is for him to the right thing and take care of this like I, and many others would do...There is a greater life principle at stake here, that dovetails directly to how those of us in this community conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the responsibility and accountability we welcomely extrude in our daily lives...

I'm just a little more sarcastic than most...

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 8:08 pm
by pedalman
[quote="stevie_d_64"I truely do not wish any ill will to this guy...AlI want is for him to the right thing and take care of this like I, and many others would do...There is a greater life principle at stake here, that dovetails directly to how those of us in this community conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the responsibility and accountability we welcomely extrude in our daily lives...[/quote]

I believe the term you are looking for is "karma". :tiphat:

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 11:04 pm
by ELB
When I was stationed in Los Angeles, my car insurance rates were pretty hefty, even with USAA. Partly so much dang traffic and partly uninsured/underinsured motorists. When I came to Texas, I was hoping for some relief, but nope -- USAA told me there are so many uninsured motorists in Texas that the rates here are just as high. Grrr.

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 11:46 pm
by Glock 23
llwatson wrote:
And, of course, when she finally did get his info, he had no insurance. Must be a Houston thang.

!
I think its more of a Texas thang.

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 4:53 pm
by dukesean
When I lived in Japan, they had an interesting way of requiring insurance.

The government requires you to have your car inspected every two years, but instead of the $50 fee we pay to get our cars inspected in Texas, it costs around $2,000 :eek6 That being said, your insurance is included into that fee. And just like in the US, if your inspection is not current you can get a ticket and a fine. You can definitely decrease the number of uninsured motorists out there, but yea that $2,000 bill was not fun.

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 5:05 pm
by arod757
dukesean wrote:When I lived in Japan, they had an interesting way of requiring insurance.

The government requires you to have your car inspected every two years, but instead of the $50 fee we pay to get our cars inspected in Texas, it costs around $2,000 :eek6 That being said, your insurance is included into that fee. And just like in the US, if your inspection is not current you can get a ticket and a fine. You can definitely decrease the number of uninsured motorists out there, but yea that $2,000 bill was not fun.
Jeez, who's ripping you off by charging you $50 to get your car inspected? It was $14.50 when I had it done a couple of months ago.

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 5:14 pm
by Monkey404error
[quote="arod757] Jeez, who's ripping you off by charging you $50 to get your car inspected? It was $14.50 when I had it done a couple of months ago.[/quote]

Houston has a higher inspection fee because they also do an emmisions test. I think, I know when I got my first inspection done in San Antonio, I got a paper saying that I'm not getting the emmisions inspection that had been done in Harris county. So I assume thats what it is.

Edit: Also on that paper was something about me not being able to stay more than overnight in the Harris County area without getting the inspection done again in Harris, or something like that, but that's for another thread.

Re: What an exciting Friday I had...

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 5:21 pm
by Mike1951
I was a victim of an uninsured motorist a few years ago. Damage was very minor, but it inspired me to talk to the state insurance board. I was told there was pending legislation to curtail making an initial payment on insurance to get the card, which they can then show for the six months as needed even though the coverage has long since lapsed for non-payment.

Like so many others, I guess it didn't pass.