Reporting hit-and-run

Where do you report a hit-and-run? Collision reporting centre? Nearest police station?

Assface merged into me on the 401 Eastbound today and took off. Followed him long enough to get a plate and driver description, and I saw my paint on his rear left quarter panel. Any other things I should mention in the report? I also have vehicle make, model, and colour.

Dang Squishy! Sorry to hear that! Hope you're okay!

I probably would've called 9-1-1 or *OPP for that arch-dingbat... but now probably would call the nearest OPP detachment and see what they say. Where did the collision occur?

WTF - how did that moron NOT know he'd hit something?!?

I think the more detail you have, the better, including but not limited to all of the stuff you have plus:

- Traffic conditions

- Could he have safely merged at another point (well no kidding)

- Did you make it apparent you wanted him to stop

- Where did you lose sight of him/stop following

- Did he gesture/indicate anything to you

- How was he driving prior to/after the collision

- Were there other occupants of the vehicle, if so, did you observe any reactions

- Damage to your vehicle (do you have photos?)

Things like that. Not saying all of that would be required in the report, and I'm not an expert on this by any stretch, but since the driver caused a collision and took off, chances are they'll find him and you'll probably end up testifying in court.

It was on the 401 Eastbound at 9:40 this morning, merging onto the Express from the Collectors (whichever interchange is the first one after coming off the 400). His lane was ending, I was beside him, my front bumper was around the area of his B-pillar. I did honk and let off the gas, didn't have enough time to brake. I did notice him right behind me weaving about in his lane and slightly tailgating, as I was behind a cargo truck driving about 90 km/h.

Sounds like he might've been drunk, particularly with the weaving in his lane, sideswiping you and continuing along as though nothing had happened. If you haven't got a hold of anyone, try the OPP Downsview detachment at 416-235-4981. If they won't take the call they should direct you to someone who will.

I know the interchange you're speaking of - absolutely no reason why he should've ended up in a situation even close to that. There's plenty of signs, sightlines aren't bad. It was his responsibility to merge safely and he didn't. Hopefully they'll get him at least for careless driving and fail to remain... maybe more.

EDIT: Keep your own notes for this incident to "refresh your memory" when you get called to testify, if you haven't already written them out. (Just trying to think of everything.)

add to your notes > description of driver, include age, facial hair, glasses, type of hat if any, colour shirt, any other occupants, cellphone in hand, blue tooth on ear.....was there a GPS on windshield....all just minor details, but will strengthen the statement.

What do we do if he gets charged then comes here for advice? :S

Bookm wrote:

What do we do if he gets charged then comes here for advice? :S

BookM for JP

hwybear wrote:

BookM for JP

Defendant: Your Worship, I sped up because it's the safest thing to do.

Justice: Not Guilty! Case dismissed!

The rare time I'm "going with the flow" and someone hits me. Boo statistics!

The weaving was more of an impatient weaving than drunken weaving (the drunken stuff tends to be slower and more like "drifting"). He didn't seem drunk with his "evasive maneuvers" after the collision. I guess he thought I wanted to follow him home to kick his dog or something, but all I wanted were his plates and a good look at him. As if I could chase anyone down in the Escort, even with the bastard V-TAK, yo.

I ended up going to the Collision Reporting Centre run by the TPS and OPP in Scarborough, which was the area I was going to and where I made those first two posts. I have the time, vehicle and driver description, and the location written down on an old envelope, which was all I could find at the time. I suppose I should transfer that to proper paper, haha. I didn't write down a shirt description on the report as I wasn't sure if I saw the seat fabric or his shirt. No hat or visible cell phone/Bluetooth/GPS, but do have approximate age, hair colour, and facial hair description and mentioned his one occupant. I wrote down everything I could think of including the vehicle in front of me, and I figure it's more than enough to make an identification. Someone else was at the same centre reporting another hit-and-run on the 401, but didn't have a plate so couldn't start an investigation.

There is a small dent on the passenger fender and paint transfer on the bumper cover (which turns out is metal on the Escort! Jealous, Bookm??). Not too concerned about the damage as the Escort is pretty dinged up from previous unwitnessed hit-and-runs and my grandfather has had encounters with two underground parking pillars. Would it be improper for me to paint the exposed metal before insurance gets to look at it? I might not even get it repaired as bodywork tends to run into the thousands and the car is only worth 3-4k anyways. No sense totalling this car to buy a used car with unknown history.

Even though I love the Escort and have put in lots of maintenance on it, I'm taking this pretty well. Even with that first "heat-of-the-moment" post, the harshest vitriol I could come up with was "assface".

Do drivers usually get charged under the OHTA or the Criminal Code for fail to remain? I think I remember that both address this.

If that is any consolation, the AF will probably see insurance rate hikes of well over the stated value of the Escort you're driving!

I didn't think of it that way. I knew he would be looking at around 10k a year post-conviction, maybe more if he's on the younger end of 20, but didn't really consider that he would be buying a new Escort every four months or so. Bahahaha

At this point I'm actually hoping to be asked to testify in court, for the experience and to see what kind of story he comes up with.

Squishy wrote:

The weaving was more of an impatient weaving than drunken weaving (the drunken stuff tends to be slower and more like "drifting"). He didn't seem drunk with his "evasive maneuvers" after the collision.

So he was a demented kamikaze instead of a drunk, and also knew he'd hit you by trying to run away. I hope they catch him.

Squishy wrote:

At this point I'm actually hoping to be asked to testify in court, for the experience and to see what kind of story he comes up with.

Also hope that he tries to represent himself, although in that case your biggest challenge will be trying to avoid laughing. He'll probably claim that he was driving very cautiously, "suddenly" the lane ended, and he had no choice but to make a lane change, and suddenly some crazy guy in an Escort started chasing him and he feared for his life. He'll say something like that little paint damage was due to a caribou attacking his car... with paint... had nothing to do with hitting an Escort of the same colour.

Chased by an Escort then attacked by Santa, what a day.

Then he'll sue me for mental anguish.

Yeah, probably. And he'll bring about 20 false witnesses to boot.

Uploaded some pictures of the damage. Looks like a repaint of the bumper, and either dent removal and repaint of the fender, or even a completely new one due to the damage to the lip (haven't looked closely to see if the sheet metal is ripped).

I got an e-mail from the insurance company saying "the repairs process has started," which was kind of confusing as I was pretty sure the car was still stored in my garage. I think they mean that the fault determination process has ended, and that page now shows me 0% at fault. I have yet to check with my claims adjuster as it's probably her long weekend and I don't want to bother her.

That's a pretty good dent. Your insurer no doubt found you 0% at fault. Now I'm really hoping that they catch him, because with more hit-and-run claims, insurance premiums increase for everyone in the region where it occurred.

Like we're not already paying high insurance premiums here!!

Heh, well good thing it happened in Toronto then.

Since the bumper had been scratched up before, I'm going to see if the insurance company and the body shop will let me "pitch in" and do the labour on the bumper. The shop will have to do the prep and painting, but I think I can save them the $100 or so in bumper removal labour, which seems fair to compensate for the previous scratches. Now the shop might object to that, so we'll see.

Do insurance statistics treat this as a hit-and-run if they find the guy? Fault determination took just one day so it feels like all the info for the guy checked out. My claim is under direct compensation property damage, like it would be for a normal 0% fault collision. We don't even have collision coverage - our thinking is that if we're found at fault, it's our own damn problem and we can pay for repairs.

Got my estimate today: $701. That's just blending in the paint to the corner of the bumper, which doesn't involve the existing damage, so there's no need for me to pitch in. I might negotiate with the insurance company to have them repaint the entire bumper, and I can cover the prepwork costs in order to have a "perfect" job done.