WHO TAUGHT YOU TO DRIVE?
A crash course on accidents
The entrance to New York City's Lincoln Tunnel is a driver's nightmare, a delta of unmarked pavement where several lanes hook sharply before funneling into the abyss. It's not the kind of place where you want to get into a fender-bender. Trust me -- I know.
Fighting bumper-to-bumper traffic last July, I was within sight of the tunnel's mouth when I began to hear an ominous crunching sound. The driver of an oversized passenger van had failed to cut his wheel hard enough and was mushing the backside of my car. Only when I slammed on my horn did he realize his mistake.
It had been five years since I'd been in a car accident, so I was a bit rusty as to what to do. The van driver was apparently far more experienced in such matters, however.
"You hit me," he claimed, to my amazement. "You turned into my lane."
Few things can screw up your day worse than a fender-bender. Beyond the crash itself, the immediate aftermath -- exchanging papers, determining the amount of damage, agreeing who hit whom -- can be fraught with complications and confrontation.
For guidance on car accident basics I quizzed Officer Paul Klerowski, motor vehicle crash investigator for the Cambridge Police. We'll cover the more general points today, saving insurance surcharges (groan) and other tricky stuff for later dates.
The law says
Massachusetts state law requires you to report any car accident "in which you are involved, in which someone is killed or hurt, or in which there has been $1,000 or more of property damage." But what if it's not clear how much damage there is?
"It's a guesstimate," Klerowski said. "You could have $1,000 worth of damage on a
"I tell people if something on the vehicles that have crashed needs to be replaced -- the front fender looks like it's obviously more damaged than just a refinish -- there's a good likelihood there's more than $1,000 worth of damage."
Regardless of the amount of damage, Klerowski recommends calling the police. If the other driver tries to back out of paying later on, you'll have a police record of the incident. The police can also verify on the spot whether the other driver has given you his real name and license number.
If the damage is minimal -- say, a few hundred dollars' worth -- you have the option of settling out of pocket with the other driver. If you've caused the accident, you might save hundreds in insurance surcharges by going this route.
Whether you call the police or report the accident to your insurer, you must by law pull over and exchange pertinent information -- names, phone numbers, insurance companies, etc. -- with the other driver.
If you feel your personal safety is at stake -- the other driver is threatening or belligerent -- you can wait down the street until police arrive before sharing your information, Klerowski said.
"I've had women tell me, 'He's calm now that you're here, officer. But five minutes ago he was right in my face and he scared me.' Well, I understand that," Klerowski said. "Just copy down the plate number of the other vehicle in case that person drives off."
Even when police take a report at the accident scene, you as a driver are required to file a separate, written accident report with the local police department (you can skip it only when the accident's on a state highway) within five days of any accident that meets the injured/$1,000 damage threshold. You must also file copies with your insurer and the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
What if you've hit an unattended car? Is just leaving a note on the windshield with your phone number good enough?
Indeed it is, Klerowski said.
"But again, what I suggest to people, the best course of action is to call the police," he said.
"You know a cute one people do? They look around, they see someone is watching, they leave an erroneous note."
The punishment for leaving the scene of an accident, even one where you've just damaged a mailbox, is either a fine or up to two years in a house of correction.
How I wish there were such consequences for lying about hitting someone outside the Lincoln Tunnel. I asked Klerowski what he thought about my encounter with the van driver.
In the majority of instances, he said, it's either clear, or evidence will show, which driver was at fault. If you drive the wrong way down a street, or you fail to yield to oncoming traffic, or you rear-end the car in front of you at the light, you're at fault, he said.
But at the entrance to a tunnel, with no lane markings, no debris field, and no third-party witnesses, it was strictly my word against the van driver's, he said.
"When the insurance companies can't make a decision, they usually find both parties 50 percent responsible," Klerowski said. "You would have been surcharged. The insurance companies aren't going to lose."
It was exactly what the responding officer had told me that day: No matter what I did -- report the accident, or pay for my own damage -- I was out of luck.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
