Last night we had a presumably drunk hit and run driver smash into two of our cars parked in front of the house. Did a TON of damage.
We know the following: It’s a dark green, probably smaller SUV. It left behind some chunks of green fiberglass wheel well and a hubcap.
Is there anyway to search for these parameters? A database of hupcap serial numbers? Simple google searching brought up nothing. The police haven’t found anything, so I thought I’d reach out to you all for ideas. Thanks!
Call your insurance company.
It sounds like someone has been watching too much CSI.
Ditto.
Let the police and the insurance company do their job.
Hub caps aren’t serial numbered to the very vehicle they came from,
but PART numbered as to the brand and type they are made to fit.
That will get you close to the vehicle. What brand logo is on the front ? What names and numbers are on the back ?
Visit the dealer for the brand you see and they’ll cross the stamp number to the part number and know which vehicles it was made for.
The ‘‘green’’ fiberglass…is that the outer body color or just generic structural color ?
Is it actually fiberglass ? plastic, bakelite, carbon fiber, or other composite ? THAT can be a clue too.
If it’s the outer body color, those are sometimes unique.
Take it to an auto paint wholesaler for a color match and it might just be brand or even model unique.
Those paint shops are not well marked for the general consumer and some body shops mix their own paints.
Ask any body shop, dealer or indy, for guidance on the paint color.
Are you close to the bar they were coming from or perhaps closer to their destination ?
In the daytime check around the neighborhoods.
at night cuise the area bars and look for vehicles with related damage.
Post some pictures or all the numbers and words you can see, even partials.
It seems that you have what you need to identify the vehicle. I’d ask the police if they searched motor vehicle records for possible matches. Will they alert body shops in the area to watch for that vehicle with appropriate damage? Can dealers and scrapyards be alerted to watch for a customer who needs the appropriate repair parts for that brand?
If a death was involved, they would catch the perpetrator if he/she lived in the area.
The police will almost certainly put out an APB in your area to look for a damaged green SUV that is missing a hub cap. I’m sure that they can identify the make and model from the hub cap and narrow down the year range. They also probably alerted the body shops to look for this SUV, too. If you happen to see it, get the tag # and report it to the police. If you confront the driver, you may just get yourself in trouble. There is no sense in allowing this scofflaw to get the better of you.
Hmmm, Actually unless there was a personal injury involved, I really don’t think the police will invest much time and resources in it. Its just damage that will be covered by insurance and the most the person did was hit and run and failure to report. I don’t believe they will put out an AFB for body damage and even if they did, its not like the squads will be scouring the city for it. You don’t know they were drunk either.
Years ago I went through the same thing as I watched a car back into my car at about 5 a.m. I saw the car even thought it was the same car a few weeks later come into the parking lot. I traced the owner, called the police, called the owner, etc. and got nowhere. Insurance paid for the damage, fixed it myself and made money on it. So my advice is to get over it and just have it fixed. The police have more pressing work to do.
I don’t know about your local authorities, but around my neck of the woods, they just don’t have the time to worry about such an event unless it involved a personal injury.
“Hmmm”
It depends where you live and what police priorities are.
Take some pictures and post them here, we might be able to identify the car.
Were the cars on your lot or in the street? Your property on your lot can be a homeowners policy issue check your policy.
You are better off parking your car on your lawn than the street…
Around here they cite you for parking on the lawn. Except we don’t generally have lawns to park on (I live in San Francisco.) Out near the ocean most people poured concrete over their tiny patches of lawn for a car pad. Companies come around and offer to paint. Whole blocks have the front areas painted in green and red bands. Brick red on the driveway to the garage and the walkway to the front door, with the car pads painted as green as the lawns they had been. A few years back the city blocked anyone else from paving their lawn, but it’s too late for the blocks out there. The green and red paint may be a cultural thing, as that area is almost entirely Chinese American families with immigrant parents and grannies.
I was a victim of a hit and run this afternoon, the car behind me got hit by the car behind it. My car and the car that hit me sustained a lot of damage and the third car that one that caused it all ran away, never seen anyone take off that fast. I am in California and only have liability, a police report was created and I called my insurance to report it but my insurance won’t pay for my car repairs because I do not have full coverage, my car is almost 11 years old it was in great shape 95,000 miles and I have yet to speak to my insurance adjuster but the guilty person won’t pay because she ran but I wonder if the person who hit me will have to pay for my repairs. Does anyone know is she liable? This could not have come at a worst time, I’m thankful no one got hurt, my nephews were in the seat back, but man I am looking for work and I need this car to be fixed. Does anyone know if the other person who hit me is liable? Just trying to find some answers.
Does anyone know is she liable?
Nope …not one bit. There is no way you can go after her…nor should you. Just because YOU need the car fix doesn’t mean that you should go after a person who clearly wasn’t at fault.
In a chain reaction crash, it is normal procedure to file suit against the person whose car actually hit you.
That person can go after the one who hit him/her, and so on, and so forth.
In your case, I would contact an attorney in order to recover damages from the person who hit you, simply because that is the way that it is done in accident cases. A chain-reaction crash usually results in chain law suits, with each person going after the one who actually hit him.
In a chain reaction crash, it is normal procedure to file suit against the person whose car actually hit you.That person can go after the one who hit him/her, and so on, and so forth.
NOT in this case. That would work if the car in front stopped and then the second car hit the first and the third hit the second.
But in this case where the car in the rear caused the accident then the ONLY person you can go after is the person in the rear.
I’ve been in BOTH types of accidents.
#1 - Traveling down the highway doing about 70 when about 4-deer decided to cross the road right in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes to NOT hit the deer. The car behind me was traveling too close and hit me…and the car behind him was also traveling too close and hit him…This continued for about 6 cars. My insurance company went after the car who hit me.
#2 I was the 3rd car of 5 waiting at a stop-light. #6 comes along (drunk) doing about 40. He hits #5 who hits #4 who hits me and I hit #2 who hit the first car. We ALL went after driver #6…who was driving an unregistered vehicle and didn’t have a license or insurance. I also didn’t have collision at the time (6yo 73 Vega). I was able to patch it together and drive it for a few more months.
I bow to Mike’s experience with accidents.
Since I have not been involved in an accident for 41 years, I can’t speak from his type of experience.
Unfortunately not everyone carries collision insurance on their vehicles. This may or may not be the case with the OP, J Sug. It can get to the point where it’s not economically feasible to have it on an older vehicle. Around here LIABILITY coverage is all that is required by law. This is probably true in most states. Collision coverage is what would pay for this sort of hit and run damage.
While the paint transferred to the OP’s cars may point to the hitter having a green car, it is probably not the exact green. What can be seen is the “backside” of the green paint. Most cars these days are painted with a base coat covered by a clear coat. The base coat may well be green, but that clear coat significantly changes the color that we see on the front side.
I’ve had accident investigators tell me that the two biggest reasons for hit and run accidents are drunken driving, and drivers with a person of the opposite sex in the in the passenger seat who is someone else’s spouse.