If I’m heading east at 10-15miles per hour and a person heading west at a speed of 40 miles per hour hits my car and pushes me back just a bout a whole car length and into a police cruiser that was parked, wouldn’t my tires indicate that? Anyone know of a fair priced, third party car accident reconstructer? I was hit head on and they are trying to say it’s my fault. Problem is…no skid marks. Why? Because I was on my side of the road and didn’t expect to be hit. The other guy admitted to sniffing glue prior to the accident AND was arrested on similar charges the day before. A ready to retire, chauvanist state police officer let the kid off that was sniffing glue and gave me a $20 ticket for not using care when passing. I was driving my BONE Marrow transplant son home from Boston when this occurred. Believe me! I am very careful! I was never on the other side of the road! This is a big joke. So anyways, I need help reconstructing the accident as the state police didn’t bother to take measurements, etc. I really don’t feel like paying for someone else’s negligent driving. Thanks.
You need an attourney. An attourney will be able to find you an accident reconstruction specialist. If you can’t go that route, look for an engineering consulting firm. There are civil engineers who specialize in traffic and might be able to help you.
Most accident reconstruction engineers are members of the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). If you google SAE.org you will likely find a source of info leading you to qualified accident reconstruction engineers.
Stay out of it. Your insurance company has two obligations. One is to defend you and the other is to pay damages up to your policy limits if you are found guilty. You need to keep quiet, not interfere, and deal only with your insurance company. They have lawyers, accident investigators, etc. and are far more proficient at it than you. So just calm down and butt out of it.
The advice to get a lawyer all the time should be saved for when you really need one. If you are being sued, or charged with a crime, you need one. Also, just because you get assigned some of the blame, don’t be disappointed. According to the Safety Council, you can get hit standing still and still be half at fault because you failed to anticipate your risk and take evasive action.
The whole situation is over and done with provided you pay the $20.00 thats it? Just pay and move on IMHO. What’s up in Mass? glue sniffing and hitting a police car here in AZ is big trouble.
You are correct that my insurance company is supposed to defend me, but the driver of the other car and I have the same insurance company. They don’t seem to be interested in who gets the blame. You know what I mean? I have been told by my insurance agent that the insurance company will most likely go with the state police report to save time.
I’ll sit back and wait for now, but if a decision comes in against me, I could be paying thousands of dollars extra for insurance for the next five years. Also, that kid sniffing glue could kill someone. We were very lucky. My son could have bled to death if he had any serious injuries as his blood counts are critically low. I hope it’s a Wake up call for the kid and he never does this again. That’s what I really really want. I don’t want revenge at all. Not that you are insinuating that. I’m just not a sue crazy person. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate your opinion.
It’s just not that simple. I wish it was. Something isn’t right. People keep saying the kid must know somebody, but I really got the impression from the state police officer that he just thinks it’s my fault. He wasn’t there. The kid pushed me into a town police car so the state police had to investigate to make sure the town police were not at any fault. He was extremely sick looking that day when he came to the hospital to get my report. He asked me two questions. Wrote down a bunch of notes and left. The kid who hit us had the nurse come to me three different times to apologize for him. This is ridiculous I know. Usually Mass is not too keen on glue sniffing. AZ is probably worse tho. I used to live in Calif.
I got an autobody mechanics degree at Palomar college. Took me a year. I don’t look like the type, too girly, but it earned me a decent living when I was a single parent. I KNOW that state police didn’t do his job. He should have done some calculations, my car’s weight, how far my car was crunched, how far I was pushed back, same with the other car. They would have been able to establish how fast I was going, how fast he was going, blah blah blah. Thanks for your input.
Thank you. I’ll google that.
Yeah. My husband says I need an attorney, but I’ll wait for the insurance company’s decision. I have already sent back the $20 ticket for an appeal. Thank you.
OK I got it your concern is over your driving record.And the effect is more than just a few points.Here a unsafe passing/right of way ticket has to be 2points and $150.00-$200.00 wonder why you got off so cheap dollar wise.When you said $20.00 didn’t sound like such a big deal
If you were on your side of the road, didn’t your car remain on your side of the road? Who were you supposed to have been passing?
Time to lawyer up. I would be outraged in this situation, quite frankly.
Best of luck to you AND your son. Let us know how it turns out.
If you think you have a real complaint, take it to a higher level. At this point, just plan what you might do. If you are somehow found at fault, get all the information from you insurer. Demand to know why you are at fault given the circumstances. If the person you talk to can’t give you the information you need, then ask to speak to someone who can, like a supervisor or the investigator assigned to the case. There should be a different investigator assigned to the other driver. You might then want to talk to the state police if the story from your insurer leads you to think that they misreported something. You do not want to discuss the issue with the state trooper who investigated the accident. You want to talk to his boss. After you have the information, consider whether you want to discuss this with an attorney. If you got a ticket, you may also get points. This was a moving violation. You will get your day in court if you want it. Just make sure that you are ready if it makes sense to make your case to a judge.
One more thing: My neighbor’s car was hit in a gas station. As he got out of the car, another car passed by and hit his door, jamming it into the fromt fender. It did not look like there was room for a car to pass by, but one did anyway. He was found completely at fault because he did not look for a car before opening his door, even though it never occured to him that anyone could or would try to fit through that narrow passage.
I was passing a Town police car that had pulled over a suv. There was no need for me to pass by going into opposite traffic (which the State police officer said I did) I didn’t even have my tire on the yellow line. The other car suddenly veered over in my lane,hitting at least half of the front end of my car. There are no witnesses. The Town police officer didn’t see the collision and barely escaped being bodily smashed into his car by the back end of my car being plowed into his. I talked to a lawyer who is a friend of the family, he is a constitutional, administrative and criminal lawyer. He said the State polices’ job is to make sure the Town police were cleared of any wrong doing (which the Town police did nothing wrong, there was plenty of room for me to pass without any danger) So the State police did the easiest thing and pinned it on me because 9 times out of 10 people aren’t careful passing and they figure I wouldn’t fight it. They are wrong. My son could have been killed and the other driver needs to get off the street. I have now hired that lawyer and you know what is going to hit the fan. My inside source told me on the sly that I need to have the TOWN police report because it has some very good detailed info and refers to the glue sniffing etc. etc. Thanks for all your input. Very good advice from all.
At this point I don’t think a Accident reconstructionist is going to help. They will need to examine the evidence like skid marks or tire marks…which are now completely gone.
Your best bet is to try to cross the state police who investigated the accident. This is NOT going to be easy.
As for corruption…MA state police are about as corrupt as you can get. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he knew the kid or was paid off to lie.
Here’s a picture. I blocked out my license and the police car name. Don’t know if my atty. would like me doing this, but since this is not my fault, I have nothing to hide. I was in the silver CRV. I was pushed back and sideways because the other car was going faster and no breaks were used by either of us.
the back end of the police car was shoved out further than he had parked due to my car getting pushed into the front end of his car. I was approx one car length past the police car when I was hit. The other driver’s car slid sideways from the impact.
I hate to tell you this…but from this pic…it sure looks like you were over the yellow line.
The kid was going faster than I. He hit me, and my car was pushed back and sideways.His car plowed into my car which is bigger than his car and his car slid sideways. His car is smaller so that’s why it ended up in that position. So looks can be deceiving. I was nowhere on the other side of the road before I was hit. Also, the road curves slightly. Many pictures were taken. This is just one angle.
The photo is enough for an accident reconstructionist to be able to testify.
From what I see, you were on your side of the road, your vehicle was twisted sideways and back, and the position of his vehicle to yours indicates that most of his car’s front end is over the yellow line and none of your is. He had to have been over the line to wind up where he did.
I would say your best bet is to call a local engineering college and talk to the head of the department of mechanical or automotive engineering and explain your story. I am sure you’ll get someone to do this for free.
Thanks. Phew! MikeInNH is the only one so far to say it looks like my fault (Besides the State Police!!) Everyone else encluding my ins. agent seems to have your opinion…which is the correct one. I think MikeInNH just needed more info. It can look a little odd if you don’t know the exact events that led up to this. I thought I explained it previously, but he may not have read all the blah blah blah above. 