Hit and Run.....

If you are taken out by someone else and they flee the scene (like mangoat's situation), does it automatically follow that your insurance company assumes the driver was uninsured and does this fall under uninsured motorist coverage? Also, how long does a description of the fleeing vehicle remain on your "things to check" list?

He says he got a decent description of the car and now it's going to have damage on it. How often are fleeing drivers caught?

Unless there is some specific information on the vehicle or a partial plate, or someone who has seen the vehicle in a certain area, it’s hard to locate it. Especially in a large city.
As for insurance companies, it depends on what company you have. (Good luck if you have AAA). There is a little know section in the insurance code that says if you don’t get a license plate number of a hit and run vehicle, the insurance company does not have to pay. This was of course to cut down on the false claims when some idiot stacked his vehicle and then claimed someone ran him off the road. However, some insurances companies (Like AAA) will use it not to pay a claim. I took a report one on a collision like that with 2 independent witnesses that saw hit and run car and gave the same description of it, but not one got a plate and it was never located (There was no damage as it was a non- contact vehicle that caused the collision) AAA would not pay the claim and the victim had to take his own insurance company to small claims court where they finally settled.

I am alarmed at the frequency of hit and runs in the bay area.

They seem to be on the rise and like JPM said, unless you get a plate #, it is hard to get the person who fled the scene.

More and more, it is a necessity to drive/ride defensively, as you can no longer count on people to stop after an accident.

So what you're saying is unless you get a plate number, you're fucked.

ALANRIDER7 said:

So what you're saying is unless you get a plate number, you're fucked.

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Typically yes. But, most drivers are creatures of habit. They drive the same roads at about the same times day after day. I have had good success in finding hit and run suspect vehicles by looking in the same area as the collsion a few days after the fact.

Obviously in Mangoat's case it was on the freeway and it is highly likely that driver will never be caught.

thats is so true in getting as much information as you can about the fleeing vehicle.

i got hit and run 3 weeks ago after my Reserves, this you punk ass wetback tried to cut in my lane and squeezed in but when he saw me not going for it, he moves his car forward more, as soon as the light turn green and i moved forward, his bumper rubbed my front rim. as soon as my buddy got out and yelled "WTF", the kid backed up and drove off.

as soon as he backed up, i took a mental pic of his car and plate# right away and wrote it down as soon as i got a chance so i wont forget. i called SJPD and filed a report, in all honesty, i thought i wouldn't hear from them anymore since the cop told me that the kid will probably just get a slap on the hands but two days ago they followed up on the plate# address and found the kid, it turned out that kid has no DL. he was cited for it and will be settling it to court.

thank you to SJPD for the follow-up and good job!

Yeah I am relying on my insurance company not to give my the shaft with no vasaline.

Sucks because witnesses took off after they figured I was okay. They said they saw what the vehicle did. I was in and out of consciousnes so I was not able to get any witness info.

Now I am relying on the traffic camera posted on the WB 80/Fremont St. exit. I can't hope for much as in catching the person but at least I can show my insurance company what happened.

My real question is CHP determined that I was going 50mph on that bypass. Which may be true. On any true commute day that area would be packed at 0930. But this being the holiday weekend only a handful of vehicles were in the area and none in front of my path. So what do you professionals with the CVC think, will I be recieving a ticket in the mail for causing an accident.

ALANRIDER7[/i][b] So what you're saying is unless you get a plate number said:

Typically yes.

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Do you guys (police) ticket drivers without front plates??? So many vehicles, especially luxury, custom, and sports cars don't have front plates, which makes it harder to ID them in hit and run incidents.

Good point.

Hey Alan, insurance adjuster may want to have the bike fixed. You want the business. I need someone to do crash estimates and I heard that Sportbike Dynamics does crash estimates