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May Have Accidentally Done a Hit and Run
plshelpme
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
I was turning left out of a store and I thought the road was clear to turn, but when I turned I accidentally cut off someone. They honked at me and then when we were next to each other at a light they were bumping their fists together and appeared to be very angry. I turned right at the light when it turned green because I thought they simply had road rage since I cut them off. However, after it occurred to me that they might have been trying to say that our cars had brushed against each other. When I got home I looked at my car. There is a scrape on the car from a prior incident, but within that scrape there appeared to be a smaller scrape that could be newer, as in from the incident today(I am not sure if it is new or old though). I had no idea that our cars could have bumped/scraped against each other because I did not hear or feel ANYTHING when I cut them off. I am only 16 and in drivers ed they told us never to interact with drivers who have road rage so that is why I ignored the person when we were next to each other at the light. I have no idea how much potential damage the other car experienced, but I would assume it would be very minor as the potentail damage on my car was very minor. I still don't know if we even collided. Can this be qualified as a hit and run, and can I be punished for this?
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Now, it comes to some specifics. Collisions are fairly semetric, the damage on your car is going to be comparable to theirs most of the time, unless you hit a light or some sensitive points like where the door and quarter panel meet. So describe the damage if you would - where exactly it is, how large, any denting or displacement, and is a different color paint left in the mark?
If the damage is as minor as it sounds to me, the most likely outcome is they make an insurance claim and your insurance gets the bill, and aside from some sticker shock when it comes time to renew you deal with very little.
if you are really concerned about it the correct thing would be to call police nonemergency and explain what happened, and if the other party filed a police report take it from there.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
So I told my mom about what happened and we were looking on the back right side of the car where I think the damage could have occurred(if the collision even happened) and so there's a decent sized scrape there, but my mom told me that was from when she backed into a car. Within that scrape there's a smaller scrape that's maybe one or two inches long and 1/4 of an inch deep(if that), but my mom said that could also be from when she backed into the car, we aren't sure. There's no denting or displacement and no different colored paint in the mark.
Uh do not call the police and talk about the case without seeking legal advice, especially given OP's latest update that there isn't really any evidence of new damage from the incident today.
oh I'm really bad with knowing like how many inches something is and 1/4 inches was just a guess. From what you said it wasn't nearly that deep then. The scratch was pretty superficial, but had just a little bit of depth to it.
I backed out next to another car in my family driveway when I was a teenager, and the side view mirror scraped their car. It made a sound, and it physically moved my car. It was a minor thing, at about 5 miles per hour, but I still KNEW that I did it.
I had a friend back into my car at slow speeds, scraping along the driver's side door. Put a scrape only a half inch into the car. I felt it and heard it. Unmistakable, really.
I'm not a lawyer or insurance adjuster, but I expect they were gesticulating more at the close call rather than a real thing.
no sound, no one followed you home, no police involved, no damage
chalk it up to being a fairly new driver, and pay closer attention!