MiNoo511

Today, I was parked in front of my girlfriend's house and someone hit my car and ran... The damage is minimum, only scratched paint on the rear bumper and that's about it as far as I can see now, at night. I need some suggestions on what to do...

So here is what happened...

I was parallel parked on the street in front of my girlfriends house and we were just talking. The time was around 9:45 PM. Then a car in the driveway of the house opposite from my girlfriend's house pulls out and hits my car in the rear bumper. I honk at him(or her) twice but the car just drives off. At that time, my car was off and I did not have time to follow the car, because the car sped off pretty fast, and it drove the opposite direction from where my car was facing.
The damage is very little, just a scratch on the rear bumper...

But the thing is, I see the car almost everyday when I go to my girlfriend's house to pick her up in the morning to carpool to school. And the driver is a middle aged white woman. The car is an old Chevy Camaro, not the old-old but 80s 90s?

I mean, if it's someone that I have never seen before or never will see again, I would just curse him(her) and forget about it, but it's just pissing me off that I will have to see her again, almost everyday.

If I don't say anything, she'll probably think I'm a fool not saying anything. And if I do approach her and talk to her about it, I don't even know what to expect. Pay for repair? Probably not. The damage is minimal, there is pretty much no evidence except for the scratch and my girlfriend as a witness, and the lady does not seem abundant with money so I don't want to push it. An apology? I might as well forget about it?

I just don't know what to do and how to do it. If you guys have any suggestions, let me know. Thanks.

Here is a cellphone pic.

pksan123

iTrader: (2)

id sue her ***

nt5k

Just let it go. Karma something something. Life gets very tiring when you try to be hardass about everything.

04RX8man

just for that little scratch i would prob mention somthing to her but tha't sabout it maybe she didnt' even know she did it. I would just say....hey I saw that u accidentially knicked my car when u were backing out the other day just wanted to make sure that ur carful when backing out...or something along those terms...don't b an *** just inform her that u r aware she did it

RX8-Frontier

Should have called the police and filled out a report. Without that, you've got no claim against her. You can usually go down to the police station and file a report without having to have an officer come out to the house. Fill a hit and run report, name the vehicle that did it, with the license plate number and description of the driver, then after that's filed, call your insurance and let them deal with it all. You won't have to be involved after that point, other than to get your car fixed.

I wouldn't even bother talking to her about it...not going to get you anywhere.

Hidef1080

Plus 1.

DarkLord7854

+2

4charlimit

Semiazas

Maybe she hates you. and she intentionally hit your car and didnt realize u did it... or maybe shes even on this forum laughing at your post....Just a thought... i would back into her and call it fair <(' ')>

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

without a police report, there is nothing you can do.

with a police report, this is still little you can do.

ATL-GP

#1, should have said something to her the very next time you saw her. I agree, it's such a small scratch, not even worth getting into some big ordeal with her about it.

#2...comprehensive coverage!!! however you deductable is probably higher than the cost to fix

#3....might want to just say F it....given you're probably at your girl's house quite a bit. No sense in pissing some non driving *** woman off(and I mean no offense to our lady drivers on the site...we all know you can drive ) and giving her that temptation everytime she pulls out of the driveway. I've seen smaller issues wind up turning into a big freaking mess, because the at fault party wants to be an ***.

All in all, i'd probably let it go....

jmc23200

Screw it. The next time you see her, tell her that she bumped you and scratched your bumper then sped off. tell her it is $300 worth of damage and if she does not pay for the repair, you will call the cops, file a report for hit and run(but you know who the driver is), and have your gf say she saw it happen if it comes down to that. A hit and run is a felony. If you explain the two options($300 or I call cops and you get felony for leaving the scene of an accident) most likely you will get the $. Who cares if you **** off the lady across the street. Would you let me get away with breaking your window? Yes it might be more physical damage but repair costs are about the same.

SilverHokie

iTrader: (1)

That's not epic damage, but in Virginia if your a victim of a hit and run...then your insurance deductible is automatically $200 and the rest is covered WITHOUT fault. Awesome!

ATL-GP

Uhhhhhh....I don't think it would be a felony. Monetary threshold amounts would be a factor, intent and knowledge of the incident(lady may have not even realized she did it), and no injuries sustained.......at most this is a property issue.

jmc23200

Leaving the scene of an accident without going through the proper procedures(or attempting to) is a felony, although it can be rectified by a traffic ticket. Ignorance is not an excuse to let someone get away with something. If you are doing 55 in a 45 and you tell the cop that you didnt know you were speeding, does he let you go?

http://public.findlaw.com/traffic-ti...t-and-run.html

04RX8man

I don't think u willl see anything from a hit and run considering it was just a small scratch a couple coats of touch up will take care of!

jmc23200

Wow, you guys dont know how to take care of business. Everything that you say to her is a scare tactic. Most people do not know anything about anything. Whats the worst thing that can happen, you don't get any money or a sorry from the lady. Best case scenario she says sorry and pays for the repair. If God gives you lemons, find a new god.

Aseras

You can usually file a hit and run claim under uninsured underinsured motorist coverage. Then there's no claim against your policy and it won't affect your premiums. You are going to need to have a police report though.

ATL-GP

Dude....it ain't a felony....and secondly, suppose he calls the cops. First thing the cop is going to say, why didn't you report it when it happened. Second thing he's going to do is look at the lady's car, if there is no blue paint or any type of evidence that she hit the car...do you really think he's going to give her a FELONY hit and run ticket. Third, an element of a felony is a year or MORE in jail....think this lady is going to get a year for that scratch...umm NO. The purpose and intent of the hit and run/felony laws are to go after butt heads that get drunk or fd up on something..or simply driving with their head up their ***, crash into cars and property, hit and kill people and then speed off.....KNOWING FULL WELL WHAT THEY DID. And I know...what about the person that hits somebody and was so wasted they didn't realize it....well, they know that when they wake up, they were wasted last night. Then they know there is this huge dent in their car...that they were driving drunk last night...they know(and here's the kicker) OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN...they were in an accident. In your scenario about the speeding ticket, yeah, you can say I didn't know....but the driver sure as hell knows now that he's been pulled over, AND there is a thing called proof.....i.e. the radar gun...so your analogy is not applicable to the above situation. Dont' get me wrong JM...I totally see where you're coming from, but i think you're painting the picture and everything involved a little simpler than it's really going to be.

jmc23200

Also, you can file a police report whenever you want. My 8 was hit and I reported it 2 weeks after since my insurance at first told me I didnt need it, then asked me to produce one.

The Drunk IT Guy

There's always revenge...

jamesc

Same thing happened to me a few years back except it was an elderly lady driving an early '70s gun boat. I politely told her about it and she insisted that she didn't do it. I ended up being pissed at my girlfriends host family (she was here as a nanny) because they proceeded to tell me that this was the 4th time the lady hit someone visiting their house. Fn dumb assess could have told me that when they'd seen me parking in that spot during the 5 months before she hit my car.

I say tell the lady about and forget it. park somewhere else.

636

shoot her haha...

jmc23200

Either grow some ***** and go talk to the lady, grow some ***** and pour brake fluid all over her car at night, or buy some touch up paint and fix it yourself out of pocket. A combination of these will work as well.

Honestly, with the whole hit and run thing, the intention is not to call the cops but to use it as your bargaining tool when speaking to her. Explain that she CAN receive a ticket and possibly(not likely) get a felony for it. I think you can easly get people to give you $200 - $300 for scratch repair if they are afraid to get another moving violation. Here in MA, if you backed into someone and sped off, they will arrest you, assuming they know who you are or get your plate number. Whatever the court desides is another matter. So again, its a bargaining tool not what you are really going to do. It's kind of like when you buy a car from a dealership and it has an obvious problem and the service dept refuses or "cannot reproduce" the issue. Once you bring up the BBB or any kind of legal matter, they instantly need to talk to the manager and fix the issue.

dynamho

Monetary compensation isn't worth it.

Two options I can think of:

* Put public safety announcement flyers around the neighborhood with the photo of said Camaro.

* Send her a note saying that you're extremely disappointed by her because you always thought of her as a decent neighbor, that you thought you'd at least get an apology. This may keep her awake at night.

Bigbacon

iTrader: (4)

If you both saw it happen and you had other witnesses, just file a report against the other driver.

Your insurance probably won't do anything about it without you doing something first.

Not like it was a random person, it is a person that lives across the street from someone you know and you can locate them easily.

If your car was a POS i'd say forget it, but come on.... car doesn't deserve that scratch.