My buddy was involved in a 3 car hit and run, and he is trying to identify what kind of vehicle was involved. They left a tail light at the scene. Anyone able to identify year make and model of what vehicle it would belong to?
Thanks!
I should have included the only information that we have is that it was a Sedan.
2014 - 2016 KIA Forte is my guess, right hand side
Rotated upside down view like your picture.
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Is there any kind of numbers/letters on the broken lens?
@It_s-Me appears to have offered up a spot-on tail-light ID. Question for @It_s-Me: How did you figure it out so quickly? Do you own a version of that car?
OP, if you want to parlay this problem into a little computer fun, you could use this as an opportunity to try Google’s “image search”. Google will happily search throughout the entire world-wide web for similar-looking photos appearing on web pages. Google “Google image search”, takes you to Google-Images, then click on the icon in the search bar that looks like a camera.
You got it, Google image search
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OMG! I finally made a correct guess … lol …
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But the law enforcement people could not figure it our?
Fun little exercise but unless someone was killed, just deal with your insurance company to cover damages. The police are not going to be interested in tail light matches, or paint chips for fender benders. Been there and I saw the car.
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Very true and a great point… Besides unless it is a very rare Exotic car that only a hand full or less are in your neck of the woods, there are probably millions of that vehicle out on the road and the chances of finding said vehicle, even with a busted tail lamp lens (lots of bad drivers out there backing into stuff), you are not going to find it… Better luck winning the Lottery…
I don’t agree with that. The car rear ended someone going 30 and got rear ended. So now we’re looking for a white Kia forte 17-18 with a smashed front and back end. That trims the pool down a whole lot.
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And what are you going to do if you find it ?
Citizens Arrest, 
Probably just make phone call that will be mostly ignored.
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Odds are unless they are just really really stupid people (quite possible lol) they were one of three things… 1) Drunk… 2) NO insurance… 3) a kid that didn’t want parents to find out not realizing they will ask what happened to the car anyway… (maybe 4) Stolen)
If they are smart after being involved in a hit and run (which rules out being smart lol) they will abandon the vehicle and say it was stolen and or hide it in a garage/barn somewhere…
But then again there are a lot of not so smart people out there driving around and maybe they will be seen driving the vehicle in question…
And then that leads you to the next question (as already asked) what then???
From 2014 to 2018 there was 471,670 Fortas made, or an average 94,334 per 5 year span, divided by the lower 48 states = an average of 1,965.29 fortas sold per state, don’t know how many are white but being white is probably (didn’t look it up) the most common color due to most commercial vehicles are white, you still have hundreds on the road…
year / sold
2014 / 69,336
2015 / 78,919
2016 / 103,292
2017 / 117,596
2018 / 101,890
But only the best of luck to you and I hope the driver will be caught and brought to justice…
Reminds me years ago we were having problems with guys coming in the office and stealing purses. We’d set up a first alert system so I got the call and matched the suspect heading out the door. I gave chase down the drive, across the street, and lost him in the parking ramp. Then it dawned on me what I would have done if he stopped? Unless you have a pi license like mannix just let insurance handle it.
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Maybe the OP’s insurer will use it to mitigate the repair costs.
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Wouldn’t you want to sue the car owner or the driver if known?
Someone around here in a not red pickup truck with a red door threw something at an abortion place and set it on fire. It was recorded on camera at fairly low quality. It was aired on the TV news. The FBI got involved and the person was caught rather quickly.
Here is the original creator of this image search concept: https://www.imageidentify.com/
It’s too vague to identify the exact model. It’ll just tell you something like light. But sometimes even that helps! In this case it identifies it as a “tail light”. Not bad for a computer.
One inconvenient question if you find the car… How do you prove who was driving it?
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Usually insurance follows the vehicle. It doesn’t matter who was driving it. The only way out is if the insurance can show that the vehicle was stolen (operated without permission of the owner). Then they don’t have to cover it.
This situation happened to me. The police man said "If you find the vehicle, you have a very valid lawsuit against the owner of the vehicle.
If the car is in an impound lot it will be difficult to prove who was driving. If it is still in the possession of the owner it won’t be hard. The Kia owner’s insurance should be a disinterested party and will be truthful about circumstances surrounding repairs if they are involved.