Wife in accident - hit from behind - COPS ACTIONS IMPROPER....???

Hey Fchat Gang....gotta run something by all of you and ask for your opinions on this. Last week my wife was at in intersection (brakes on, turn signal on) waiting to turn left, when she is struck from behind by another car. My wifes new VW Rabbit (8k miles) was hit in the left rear, crushing the rear bumper, breaking the wheel, and buckling the suspension. This car is my wife's pride and joy, has all options, and is immaculate, so you can imagine her disappointment over this. Both my wife and the other driver (young girl) get out of their cars...about this time another car stops and a man and woman get out, the woman walks over to the other driver, without so much as a "are you alright?" to my wife who has just been hit from behind. My wife then says to the other driver..."did you even see me?" But the woman tells the young girl that she doesn't have to answer. My wife asks the same question again...and this woman tells my wife to shut up and step back (my wife was on the other side of the road, not even near them). My wife now asks this woman...."who are you"....and she answers...."none of your business". About this time the man from the same car as this woman is out directing traffic through the intersection. He tells my wife to move her car, she says "no...I have to wait for the police". He responds..."I am the police - move it!" As my wife is getting back to her car...she askes this apparent cop...who is that woman.....he says..."if your car will start, move it!" My wife asks again...."who is this woman"....and he sheepishly replied...."my wife". So my wife moves her car, dragging the rear end on the ground, and then a state police car arrives (woman). She gets out of her squad car and asks for details, my wife explains, but it doesn't make sense considering the current location of the vehicles. The state cop is confused and finally asks..."why did you move your car?" My wife points to the man and says..."cuz he told me to". The state cop says...."oh - okay". Then the state cop says...I'm only here until other officials arrive (the accident was within city limits)...but then moments later she says..."I guess I'm handling it after all". At some point all of the people (man, woman, state cop) are talking to the young girl who hit my wife. At no point during this whole ordeal did they ask if my wife was okay, they just treated her with rude contempt....and she was the victim here! After a while the people just seemed to fizzle away, we saw no traffic citation issued, and we were left with many questions and no answers. Here in Michigan they don't give you an accident report, they give you a business-card thingy with a number on it, and it's your duty to look it up on the internet and pay $10 to see it and print it out. The state's website says it takes....3 to 60 days before the report is posted!

Bottom Line her is: We feel my wife was treated horribly by very unprofessional officials. I didn't go into all the details here...but I hope you get the idea. We feel that my wife is owed an apology from the "man" and the "woman" for yelling at her they way they did. At no time did this "man" show his badge or state his name...he simply said he was a cop. And his wife must have felt like her marriage to a cop gave her authority to yell at, and boss around, other people.

My wife and I are both very upset over how this situation was handled. We have considered talking to a lawyer....if for no other reason than to verify proper procedure was followed.

What do you think of this? Is it just an unfortunate happening? Should we even bother with seeing an attorney? What those people did was wrong, and the whole situation just smells of something rotten. We have the license plate number of the "man & woman"....we would like to run the plate and see who they are if possible....

 

Glad your wife is OK. This is a simple case of cops looking out for their own. Not surprising in today's police state. Make sure that insurance is informed etc. and then you could file a complaint that probably won't go anywhere but, you might as well go through the procedure anyway. You can also try to take it up the ladder if you know anyone. Stuff like this certainly doesn't give you much respect although not surprising in the least.

PS - the person that hit your wife might have been a cop too? How's your wife's whiplash doing?

 

We think the young girl that hit my wife worked at a small restaurant, because she was wearing a t-shirt with the name on it. We do think that they were all acting in cahoots with each other for some reason. But to yell at my wife like they did, and have no concern for her "whiplash" - it was obvious something was going on between the lines. When I showed up at the scene to comfort my wife and survey the situation, it appeared that maybe 3 cars were involved....when I asked my wife this...she than asked the state trooper about it...and the state trooper told me to "shut up - you don't know anything!"

All I was doing was asking....that's it. Oh....another thing....at one point the "woman" told my wife that the young girl hit her because...." she was avoiding another accident". We do not know what she meant, that another accident occured, or was about to occur and the young girl swerved to avoid it and unfortunately hit my wife somehow. We will probably never know....

 

Did your wife get the name and insurance information on the driver who hit her? Did she get the name and badge number of the state trooper who will be filing the report? Did she have a cell phone that could take pictures of her car before she moved it?

 

As was said earlier, remind your wife, in the future, to take pictures before the cars are moved. It's hard when you're in an accident to keep your composure. What's done is done, and it's time now to just let the insurance company to handle it.

Glad she's okay....

 

As a police officer I find this completely unacceptable. Your wife had a right to know who was telling her to move the car. Also the first thing I ask someone is if they are ok or if an ambulance is needed. Making sure the scene is safe for those involved as well as other passersby and the welfare of those involved are foremost important. Screw the cars and backing up traffic, deal with those later.

I would find out the investigating officers information and get from her the name of the "man and woman" who where there. If he is a police officer file a complaint on his butt. There is no need for that type of behaviour in a tramatic experience like that that and makes all of us look bad....

 

Getting in an accident just generally sucks. You spend a lot of time that is just lost trying to get back to even. It sounds like you might get screwed if at all possible. Just have to see the police report from this point and file claim. Best news is wife is shaken up but not hurt badly. It would be nice to get an apology.

 

Credentials please. I'll move the car as soon as I take pictures with my camera phone.

 

Not in a squad car ,not in uniform?
Until you show me your police ID with picture ,you are just another ******* and you can kiss my butt.
I don't have to obey you in any way (inc.moving the wreck).
Get lost!

 

When he stated he was the police why didn't your wife ask to see his creds ? Get the report, hopefully it will list who he was ans what dept. he works for and call his superiors, you may also want to call the State Police and talk to the Trooper's superior.

 

Thank You All for your repsonses!

To put things into perspective....this VW Rabbit is my wife's dream car. We have worked hard on the car to get it spotless inside, outside, and under, while doing some tasteful personalizing. This has been the nicest and coolest car she has ever had, so her emotions were in full play - not her head. If my Phaeton W12 were hit....I'd have been the same way. I think with all the activity and traffic of a busy afternoon...the scene was overwhelming. Here was her pride and joy trashed, the rear end dragging on the road, strange people staring and walking around it.....you can imagine it I'm sure.

I was not able to get to the scene until about 45 minutes later. By then everything was pretty well done. I did take some cell phone pics of my wife's car, but not the other vehicles. Later on my wife and I sat down and made a written record of all that transpired. We documented everything that was said, and by whom....albiet from memory of course.

All my lovely wife wants is an apology from the "man" and his "wife". We checked again this afternoon....and no accident report has been formally filed. My wife did call the state police post and complained about what happened - they said they would get back with her. Since then several times a day a state police car drives by our house, and we live in town - so that is "odd". We have also had several phone calls, no messeges left...from an unknown source.

All I want is for her to be happy, and to get the car fixed properly and to move on at this point. We had the car taken to a very much trusted body man who did work on my Testarossas in the past - he is a true artist. So I'm sure the car will turn out good as new.

Thank You 285ferrari for your views....that means a lot coming from one of our finest. We will heed your advice and follow up on it.

 

What he said.

I hope your wife is recovering, that the other driver's insurance pays right up, and the thugs who abused her have to face some consequences.

In the US, all citizens have a right to ask a police officer to identify themselves before following their orders. Your wife is obviously a nice person - but probably too nice when it comes to dealing with @$$holes.

Your wife has learned one valuable thing here: You DO NOT have to follow orders only because someone claims to be a police officer; they have to definitively PROVE to you that they are police officers before you're legally required to "obey a lawful order."

And we don't live in anything close to a police state - yet. And I've met about equal numbers of cops who were jerks and cops who were decent people.

 

I don't want you to think too much, and you probably already have had this thought - but - the girl driver/wrecker was possibly daughter of a fellow Officer. If you want add more to the conspiracy thoughts, the wife/thing of the off-duty Officer probably has the girl driver/wrecker's Mother on speed dial. In fact, it was probably her Niece, who was also the flower girl at their wedding. What the wife/thing doesn't know is, the Niece/girl driver/wrecker is her off-duty Officer/Husband's own Daughter, from when he boffed her older, better looking Sister at the Secret Policeman's Ball!


Why am I telling you this? Laughter is the best medicine.

PS - it's only a car.

 

The cop was being a jerk because he knew he could get away with it. Same for his wife. What's new?

Your wife can want an apology all she likes, she won't get it.

You can love your Phaeton and she can love her Rabbit all you like. Nobody else will. It's just a car to the rest of the world, and to the insurance company.

As for the police report, if it's not available in a reasonable period of time, say, 2-3 weeks, start asking questions.

Put up a covert camera and record the plate numbers of the cop cars that cruise by. As for the crank phone calls, start by hitting *69 after they hang up. If that doesn't work, contact your phone company, there are measures that can be taken.

Finally, make a police report about the harassment and keep adding to the documentation. If the situation gets worse, it will be important to have it all on record.

Hopefully, once their insurance co. has paid out, you can move on and they will let it go. Right now, they are being jerks because they think it will somehow help prevent them from getting reamed either by you or by the insurance company.

 

I kid you not, I had the exact same thought. He's one of those incestuous control freaks, and that's why he follows his daughter-wife around in a separate car when she's out driving. And his wife has skeletons in the closet too. Check the basement.

 

Don't worry about having moved the car. What's done is done. The statements you give to the insurance co. are on record, and hopefully the police won't change things from the way you described them. The accident damage, too, is pretty incontrovertible (her front, your wife's rear) when you consider it happened at a traffic light. Can there be another explanation besides the other car rear-ending her? No? Ok, you are fine then, no matter where the cars were moved to.

 

Hey Jeff what area did this accident occur?

 

What your wife did wrong, was not stay in the driver's seat and await an ambulance to take here to the emergency room for a full checkout. Bad things become apparent too only after the adrenaline passes.

 

Here's a service to identify those blocked calls: http://www.trapcall.com/ No affiliation...

 

While we can all play armchair quarterbacks, the bottom line is ALWAYS have a video recording device with you AT ALL TIMES. Use it in cases like this and ANYTIME you interact with law officers or government officials.

 

Isn't it a requirement, by law, that a cop is required to show his credentials in a instance like this. Sounds like this is one of those cops that give all the good cops a bad name.

Young girl? I put 100:1 odds that she was texting or talking on the cell phone. At least your wife wasn't seriously injured. I hope things work out in your favor.

 

Unless the Officer directing traffic showed a badge and ID, she should have stayed in the car and advised the man directing traffic that she was waiting for the Police to arrive. If he could not produce creds. then don't move the car. The fact of the matter is citations and such are not regulated and there are no guidelines for issuing them, just a matter of Officer discretion. A ticket does not change whether or not the other driver was at fault. She hit you from behind, she is at fault, case closed.

The fact that your wife asked who they were in the beginning is fine, but remember, they don't have to answer her and give her any information and there is no crime against that. As common decency, they should have spoke to her, but it is not required by law.

What it all boils down to is that the other girl is at fault, your wife is fine, and It doesn't sound like the police broke any laws or even violated any department policies. Most departments require Police to provide their names if asked while on duty, but not off duty. So I would call the girls insurance company and file a claim and as far as making waves with your local PD, it probably won't get you anywhere and doesn't sound like anything was violated, just people being rude.

 

But if he was a cop than wouldn't he be required by law to say he is Officer such and such and provide his badge when she asked who he was?

 

Just an update:

We finally talked to the state police, and they say no further contact will be allowed regarding this accident situation and the "off duty officer and his wife". Despite the fact that this off duty officer screwed everything up by having both cars moved before the offical investigating officer arrived on the scene. We will go and get the accident report this afternoon. I will be interest to see what it says...

Thank You to all who have responded to this thread, we have read through them all and appreciate you taking the time to post your replies. If anything further develops I will be sure to let all of you know. Thank You Again....Sincerely; Jeff & Karen