About two weeks ago, dh called me to tell me about his morning commute. It seems that someone decided to go "road rage" on him on the way to work. Dh says that he didn't do anything to this young man, but the kid wouldn't let him around and actually tried to run dh off the road at one point. Dh stayed calm and let him be a jerk and finally managed to get away from him. Fast forward to today...dh got a letter in the mail from our county police. This person reported that dh caused an accident and then left the scene of said accident. He gave the police dh's tag number, the date of the "accident", the exact time it occurred, and the location. When dh read the letter he immediately called his boss and had him pull the time sheet and dh clocked in 5 minutes after the supposed accident, but the location of the "accident" is a 15 minute drive from dh's work. Dh didn't have an accident. His truck shows no signs of being in an accident. Dh is going to call the investigator on Monday as the letter requests and tell him the whole story, but I am worried that this thing might snowball because as far as I can tell it will be one person's word against another's and we have no idea what this kid is saying. Can someone file a false accident report and actually get away with it? I have never heard of anything like this happening. It is unbelievable the kid is trying to pull something like this!

By Rayelle on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 09:11 pm:

Oh my!!! That is outrageous! When my brother was in a car accident at the fault of someone else's she tried to lie and say it wasn't her fault. Things didn't add up at all so she finally admitted it. Hopefully that is what happens for you. That's so stupid. Even if it works out it's still something to worry about.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 09:17 pm:

Yikes! At least his work record says that there is no way he could have been at the accident site!

By Debbie on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 10:07 pm:

I would try not to worry too much, I know it is hard. Once all the facts come out, I'm sure everything will work out.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, March 1, 2008 - 07:30 am:

Yes, someone can make a false accident report and it has to be investigated. Your husband should talk to the investigator, and provide a copy of the time-sheet with a "certification" from his boss that it accurately reflects the time your husband clocked in. This is a potentially serious matter, not so much the "causing an accident", but the "leaving the scene".

Your husband should ask the officer for the official number of the accident report and how he can get a copy. He should think carefully over the weekend about the events of that morning, so that he has them clear in his mind, and he can tell the investigating officer what happened from your husband's perspective.

There are penalties for making false reports to the police, although it is up to the police to decide whether or not to charge someone with making a false report.

Your husband should also call his insurance company on Monday, after he talks to the police officer, and tell them about this, give them the number of the police report, the name and phone number of the investigating officer, and contact information for his boss. You are required by the terms of your auto insurance policy to notify your insurance company within a certain time frame if you have notice of an accident. And, if dh was driving a company truck, he should suggest to his boss that the company's insurance company be notified. You should also take pictures of the truck - front, back, sides - preferably with a camera that puts a date and time on the photo, so that you have proof that as of this weekend there are no markings on the truck that could have been caused by an accident. It is possible that one or the other insurance company will also send out an investigator to take pictures.

After that, assuming the police don't give your dh a citation, you can pretty safely leave it in the hands of the insurance company. It will vigorously defend against having to pay out any money when the facts are so clear that your dh simply could NOT have been involved in the accident.

My guess is that after your husband got away from this jerk kid, the kid picked out someone else to harass or just kept on driving badly and had an accident - and decided to blame your dh so that he wouldn't be in trouble with his insurance company and the police. It may well be that he already has gotten some tickets for bad driving that put points on his record and he is trying to cover his butt.

Me, I'm a chicken on the road. If I find myself in a situation where someone seems to want to harass me (and I have, a couple of times), I pull off the road as soon as possible and just sit for a few minutes to give that driver time to get some distance from me. I'd rather be chicken than have an accident.

By Tunnia on Saturday, March 1, 2008 - 08:21 am:

Thanks for the advice! We'll go out and take pictures today and call the insurance on Monday.

I am worried about this because this has the potential to be really bad for dh even though he is completely innocent. I am thankful that dh has a clean driving record and he is honest to a fault and is well liked and known in our area. Dh said that he didn't make any aggressive driving moves towards this kid, he tried to stay back from him and after that didn't work he tried to get away from him and was finally successful. Dh said that he watched his rear view mirror the whole way to work because he was worried that the guy would follow him there and try something. Dh was driving our personal truck. Our truck is only a couple of years old so it is very easy to see that there are no signs of an accident on it. We are also thinking that the kid got into some kind of one car accident or dented his car in some way and blamed it on dh so he wouldn't get in trouble at home, but if that's what happened then it was well thought out because he wrote down the tag number, location, and time of the supposed accident as a way to cover himself.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, March 1, 2008 - 04:03 pm:

Stacy, it could have been a charge of "causing an accident", which is when one driver swerves in front of another, causing the second driver to swerve and have an accident trying to avoid the first driver. This is a difficult one for the second driver to prove unless there are independent witnesses, and I wouldn't worry too much about it, especially given your dh's timesheet.

The other charge is more like a hit-and-run - in which case there would be marks of damage on dh's truck, so again, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Note that I'm not saying don't worry about it at all. Your dh will still have to talk with and maybe meet with the investigating officer, and you will have to report it to your insurance company. I personally think it would be a good idea for your dh to get the police report number and for one of you to pick up a copy of the actual police report. Your insurance company will want the police report number anyhow because they will want a copy of it. If you get a copy yourself, you will have the complainant's name and other information, which won't hurt, and you'll know more about the facts of the accident as they were reported to the police and recorded on the report. For me, I always want to have "all the facts, ma'am" for something like this.

And I do urge your dh to think carefully about the sequence of events, and do an actual written outline he can refer to for when he talks to the investigating officer and to your insurance company. You can go over it together, because he told you about it when he got to work that day, and make sure everything is there. You have no idea how helpful it is to have stuff written down until you actually have to answer questions about it.

By Wandilu on Monday, March 3, 2008 - 12:28 am:

Very good advice given ! Not to try and make you feel any worse, but I would keep my eyes open on a daily basis. If this kid took the time to get your DH's license number, description of the truck, and whatever else, he sounds like a real piece of work.In this day and age, you never know what someone like him will do .I will keep you and your family in my prayers!

By Tunnia on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - 09:53 pm:

Update...Dh called the investigating officer Monday morning and told his side of the story and found out that the guy is claiming that dh swerved at him and hit his car on purpose because he (the guy) accidentally cut dh off. Dh also faxed a copy of his written statement of events to the officer and to the insurance company. The officer asked dh to meet him so that dh's truck could be examined for any damage or signs of an accident. The officer came to the house last night, inspected the truck, and said he saw no sign of damage and admitted that he had doubts about the guy's story. The officer then said that he would next inspect the guy's car and if there is any sign of major damage then he will know for sure the guy is lying because after examining dh's truck there is no way the truck was in any type of accident. The investigating officer has not yet seen the other car. The officer also told dh that he will probably file it as a no fault and it will be over and done with. So now we wait to hear back from the officer as to the condition of the other vehicle.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - 10:01 pm:

That other guy sounds like a piece of work! I hope his car is damaged, so they will know the truth!

By Kaye on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 08:22 am:

Have you kept your insurance abreast of this? Ultimatly if the police says no fault, to me this means that you were both in a wreck and each invidually affected and at fault. I would really do what I could to make sure this stays off your insurance.

By Tayjar on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 09:37 am:

Call you insurance agent immediately. In today's insurance market, you want to keep blemishes off of your record. I would not allow this to be brushed off as no fault.

By Tunnia on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 04:36 pm:

Our insurance agent knows about it (dh called Monday morning) and said that unless dh is found at fault or there is a claim, they are not concerned.