My Ongoing Issue With California Law Enforcement

[Jason]

I'm gonna preface this with the two incidents.

12-08-2017: I was sideswiped in a hit and run, lost my passenger side mirror and there are scrapes along the door and some bumper damage. I was able to follow the guy, get his license plate number and call 911

12-15-2017: Exactly one week later, I was pulled over on my way to work that morning. A work truck in front of me was going about 25mph below the speed limit, with its turn signal on and hanging out in the bike lane. I went around it in the center lane, but I was cited for a double yellow violation, meaning I was wrongfully accused of driving on the wrong side of the road. It simply didn't happen. The state of California is asking for a full week of pay from me. I decided to take this to court.




On 12-11-2017 I went into the Highway Patrol office to officially file the hit and run report. They told me that it cannot be filed as a hit and run, because the man said he ran because he feared for his life. Literally a get out of jail free card. Now all they can do is process my account of what happened and report it to my insurance. It's been three months, and to this day, highway patrol plays dumb every time I go in to pick up the report they should have processed three months ago. I need to get my vehicle fixed, I'm driving illegally with a broken passenger mirror, just another thing for me to get cited for, all thanks to the guy who pulled a hit and run and got off completely free.

Today was my court date for the traffic violation where I was accused of driving on the wrong side of the road. There were two people ahead of me. Both their violations were speeding/reckless driving. One guy was nearly going 100 when he passed an officer, and was also on parole. His excuse was that he was trying to pass a car ahead of him, so he sped up. He actually got his ticket reduced, the judge even praised him for conducting himself like one should in a courtroom. The judge was harsh to the officers ahead of me. They presented a great account of what happened that was hardly disputed by either violator, but he told them to come better prepared with more concrete evidence. The second guy ahead of me was speeding on a motorcycle. He owned up to it, and got his sentence reduced because he said his parents made him sell his motorcycle. Here I am next up thinking I have a chance to get completely off. I did not cross double yellow, the vehicle ahead of me that I passed was going dangerously below the speed limit. The officer I had was the least prepared out of them all,. "Umm" and "I don't believe" were used a lot (not to mention he was on his phone THE ENTIRE TIME before we were called up. He couldn't even pinpoint his location when he claims he saw me cross the double yellow. "I would say... umm... maybe I was about 2,000 feet away", he said. I presented my case perfectly without a stutter, and absolute certainty, to which the officer conceded. Not only did I have to pay the fine, it wasn't even fucking reduced. And the judge had the gall to say "Well, since you showed up I'm not going to add any additional punishment to your fine". A whole week of pay, plus the two days I had to take off of work to set up and go through trial.

This is an absolute horse shit situation. I am not happy.

[zombie]

who was the guy running from that he "feared for his life"? was he trying to evade the police or something? if so, i think they should pay for the mirror damages? weird. don't drive? walk instead? sorry to hear about all of that, jason. hope it works out better than seems to be right now.

[Jason]

He said he didn't pull over when I chased him because he feared for his life. That's all the officer told me he said. My response was, "but... he was already running away".

So apparently you can pull a hit and run whenever you want as long as you pretend to fear for your life, even if it's after you commit the act.

[zombie]

it sounds like they are insinuating that the reason for the broken mirror is that you followed him, because he broke your mirror. meh. you need better police officers in your city.

[Jason]

All they told me was they can't charge him with a hit and run because he said he feared for his life, at which point it is on them to provide joint accounts of what happened to give to me, so I can give it to my insurance and they can charge his insurance for the damages. It's been three months, and they've all been jerking off the entire time.

[zombie]

lame. i suspect he has a friend on the force somewhere.

[Jason]

Oh, I forgot to mention, they want to charge me after they finally create the form that I give to my insurance.

Knowing my luck with all this, if they miraculously create the form some day, he'll probably get off of not even having to pay for the damages. Or worse, they'll catastrophically fuck it up and charge me with a hit and run. Lolol. Sounds funny, but I genuinely feel they might just be incompetent enough to do that.

[zombie]

is there any kind of deadline to file insurance damage claims? that may be why the hold up. i don't know anything about this, so just asking.

[Jason]

I am more pissed about the traffic violation. California essentially held a gun to my head and robbed me of a week's worth of pay because I went around an extremely slow vehicle that was going to make me late for work. I trailed him for a quarter of a mile before I went around him.

[Jason]

is there any kind of deadline to file insurance damage claims? that may be why the hold up. i don't know anything about this, so just asking.

I'm not sure. If there is, the police fucked around long enough to screw me over (again) for sure, though.

[zombie]

california hates drivers with alliterative names? all of that bites, for sure.

[Jason]

is there any kind of deadline to file insurance damage claims? that may be why the hold up. i don't know anything about this, so just asking.

I'm not sure. If there is, the police fucked around long enough to screw me over (again) for sure, though.

They lost... The report... No record this incident ever happened.

My deepest applause.

[Jason]

I am about to fucking snap.

[Jason]

On 12-11-2017 I went into the Highway Patrol office to officially file the hit and run report. They told me that it cannot be filed as a hit and run, because the man said he ran because he feared for his life. Literally a get out of jail free card. Now all they can do is process my account of what happened and report it to my insurance. It's been three months, and to this day, highway patrol plays dumb every time I go in to pick up the report they should have processed three months ago. I need to get my vehicle fixed, I'm driving illegally with a broken passenger mirror, just another thing for me to get cited for, all thanks to the guy who pulled a hit and run and got off completely free.

Guess who got cited for a missing side mirror?

[Dream]

On 12-11-2017 I went into the Highway Patrol office to officially file the hit and run report. They told me that it cannot be filed as a hit and run, because the man said he ran because he feared for his life. Literally a get out of jail free card. Now all they can do is process my account of what happened and report it to my insurance. It's been three months, and to this day, highway patrol plays dumb every time I go in to pick up the report they should have processed three months ago. I need to get my vehicle fixed, I'm driving illegally with a broken passenger mirror, just another thing for me to get cited for, all thanks to the guy who pulled a hit and run and got off completely free.

Guess who got cited for a missing side mirror?

so in all this time you didn't just order a replacement mirror and put it on yourself?

Guess who's lost three mirrors to hit and runs over the years and replaced them for about 40 bucks each time and didn't get cited for not having a mirror instead of holding out because of pride?

The hit and run was his fault, you getting cited for not having a mirror is yours. You've had ample time to get it replaced and you can still go after the dude for the cost in small claims court if you can't go the insurance way through the police report.

The double yellow violation is shitty though. was it one of those center "for turns" lanes that you passed in? or was it a legit three lane road and you were in the center lane?

[Jason]

On 12-11-2017 I went into the Highway Patrol office to officially file the hit and run report. They told me that it cannot be filed as a hit and run, because the man said he ran because he feared for his life. Literally a get out of jail free card. Now all they can do is process my account of what happened and report it to my insurance. It's been three months, and to this day, highway patrol plays dumb every time I go in to pick up the report they should have processed three months ago. I need to get my vehicle fixed, I'm driving illegally with a broken passenger mirror, just another thing for me to get cited for, all thanks to the guy who pulled a hit and run and got off completely free.

Guess who got cited for a missing side mirror?

so in all this time you didn't just order a replacement mirror and put it on yourself?

Guess who's lost three mirrors to hit and runs over the years and replaced them for about 40 bucks each time and didn't get cited for not having a mirror instead of holding out because of pride?

The hit and run was his fault, you getting cited for not having a mirror is yours. You've had ample time to get it replaced and you can still go after the dude for the cost in small claims court if you can't go the insurance way through the police report.

The double yellow violation is shitty though. was it one of those center "for turns" lanes that you passed in? or was it a legit three lane road and you were in the center lane?

I'm not holding out because of pride, I'm mostly holding out because I work for a living. I am racing every day of my life just to get to sleep early enough to get a full night's worth. 40 bucks is 40 bucks more than I should be paying, couple that with the fact that I'd have to either take a day off work and lose 100 or so bucks just so I can buy a mirror at the junkyard, or take a day off work because I elected to put the car in the shop and now have no transportation to work.

Not only did they apparently find my report, I received the joint reports to give to the insurance. His info lists that he is 6'6, 300 pounds and feared for his life. He claims that while I was stopped in the center lane to turn, that I veered into his lane, hitting him. You don't veer into a lane from a dead stop. Despite that, CHP cannot determine who was at fault because no witnesses bro. So I can either turn it into my insurance and watch them laugh at me, or go to Judge Judy.

Guy should be in prison for a felony hit and run, but I wouldn't even press charges. Just fix my shit, plz. But no, too difficult to determine who was at fault because he used his get out of jail free card by saying he feared for his life.

Oh, but this same justice system can recognize that I was falsely accused of crossing a double yellow line and still rob me (yes, rob me) of a full week's pay.

I really am starting to become a negative person because of this shit.

[Dream]

so how much is the missing mirror citation?

And I'm sure in the past three months you've had a day off here or there where you could have taken care of the missing mirror without missing work for it.

Again, fix the mirror yourself and then take the dude to small claims court for the costs and court fees. Hell, if they have his address in the report, just send the guy a letter saying if he doesn't pay for the repairs you'll file a suit to get the money from him for the damages he caused. It sucks that it's taking extra effort on your part, but choose your fights. This is just a nothing experience that happens from time to time and you deal with it and move on.

I had a partial plate on one of the cars that took off my side mirror because someone saw it happen, cops basically threw up their hands as an "oh well" and went about their business because I didn't have pictures of the car at the scene or the full plate number and a witness that could point out the car type and color (it happened at night, neighbor got part of the plate but nothing else). I ordered a mirror online, had it delivered to my house within a week and put it on the car in about twenty minutes. Once I replaced the broken glass (the only part that broke) with a reflective plastic thingy, and once my mechanic got a mirror from a junkyard for us and reattached it for 50 bucks in about 15 minutes. I could have held out and got cited for not having a mirror because "I shouldn't have to pay to repair something I didn't break" or I can be responsible for my own stuff and make sure it's in working order and legal.

The original situation sucks, but aren't you normally all about personal responsibility and facing the consequences of your choices?


PS. "40 bucks is 40 bucks more than I should be paying" <-- that is pride, and now you have a ticket to pay on top of what it's going to cost to replace the mirror. I agree though, you shouldn't have to pay for it when you didn't do the damage, but that's kinda part of life.