Investigation After an Accident

**Pacepaperboy** · 10-28-2007, 02:02 PM

I was part of a single car accident in Central Florida. The car was not mine, it was a friends and I was taking responsibility of it while she was gone. I was unfit to drive and had another friend drive who slid it into a curb while it was wet. My friend ran after the car would not move after the accident and the Police were called by a passing motorist. The cop came, listened to our story and found a beer in the car, we were both under 21. He took down my name and my birthdate and the same info from my other friend who did not run off. After asking us a few more times whether I was sure I wasn't the one driving he told us to walk home and that the car was going to be towed to a certain bodyshop. I asked if AAA could come pick it up but he said they could not and it might be needed for further investigation. My question is, what are the chances of there being an investigation? Would the officer of taken down only our name and birthday then told us to go without asking any other questions if there was to be an investigation. Any comments, thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

**aaron** · 10-29-2007, 06:36 AM

This was a drunk driving accident, so you can expect that the police will investigate this crime. If other witnesses bear out your claim of the driver running from the scene, the investigation will likely include interviewing the driver about what happened, then deciding whether charges are possible against the person they conclude to have been the driver. If witnesses saw nobody running away and decide you were the driver, they may seek to have charges authorized against you. The police may also be attemting to get fingerprint evidence from the steering wheel, although that would be above and beyond what would normally occur.

You'll need to contact your friend who owns the car, so that the car can be retrieved from impound at the earliest possible date. Impound fees can accumulate very quickly.

**Pacepaperboy** · 10-29-2007, 04:08 PM

Thanks for the reply.

I went to the Police Department today and asked to see if my name was in any public records or on any citations etc. The lady was nice, took my ID, and performed a scan and found that I had been part of an officer's narrative about a complaint call regarding a stolen dryer on the same day as my accident. I was not the one responsible for the dryer, simply on the list of people with no other comments. She did not have any other records for me. I did not have anything to do with the dryer and was quite surprised when she told me my name was there. I can meet with the officer on Wed. but I don't know whether this is a mix-up of some sort and meeting with him might make him realize his mistake, or this is just completely random. How long does an officer have to put a citation into the computer? What should my next move be? My other friend who was there when the police were is going to check his name in the Police Records tomorrow. Please help!!!

**just4steven** · 10-30-2007, 06:47 PM

I am not sure about your second set of questions, but I had almost an exact same situation in central Florida as your main topic.

A friend of mine and I were driving home in someone else's car. Neither of us should have drove. He spun off the road and we couldn't move it. We both got out of the car and starting walking, only about a couple hundred feet when the police showed up. My friend who was driving just started blurting out all this stuff how we left the bar with this guy we did not know and we said we would give him a ride home if he could drive because we were both too drunk, and then when he spun off the road he took off running. The officers asked us his name and we both said we didn't know because we just met him at the bar........

Well, guess what, they couldn't do a thing. There were no tickets or anything for us, but the officers were highly upset because they knew what really happened, but yet they had to believe our story.

**Pacepaperboy** · 10-31-2007, 07:28 AM

Thank You for your reply to my "Investigation after accident" thread. I checked with police and they said there was no citations issued. They did not even ask for the friend who was driving and fled's name. What did you do about fixing the car? This is my friends car who let me borrow it and I want to make it right because there was lots of damage. Did you have insurance fix it? I told her I was driving because she told me not to let anyone else drive. Her insurance will fix it, (I will be paying the deductible) but will they ask who specifically was driving and get a story? Let me know what you think...