OT: Got into an accident today(Car hit kid)

[Guy986]

Anyway i was driving down a somewhat busy street earlier today on my way to lunch. The speedlimit was at 35 and there was one car slightly ahead of me. All of a sudden a small kid on a bike probably around 12yr old came out of nowhere in the middle of the road. He must be crazy because he tried to cross the street between two cars driving at around 30mph.

Because his appearance was so sudden i didn't have enough time to react. I jammed on the brake but i still hit him on the back wheel. His bike spun around and he bounced a little did a flip or something and stood up.(kid was amazing... props) I stopped the car, asked him if he was alright a couple times and he said yes. He had no apparent injuries, no bleeding nothing. Immediately he got on his bike and fled the scene. (he was scared... i was too.)

After the kid left, i continued driving down the road. Then an African American man in his 30s ,whom i assumed to be the boy's father screamed at me, so i stopped to listen to what he had to say. He accused me of being irresponisble, asked me how i can just continued driving after having ran over a little adorable boy on a cutsy bike. Turned out he was not the father but was a friend of the boy's mother.

We called the police, called the ambulance, called the boy's mother and summoned the Avengers. The boy showed up with his mother... fortunately he didn't even have a scratch on him. I apologized to the mother but she told me and the police that her son has a history of being reckless with the road.

So at the end, nothing happened. I wasn't charged, i didn't go to jail and nobody was hurt. But I realized i was fortunate that the kid didn't get hurt. What happened if he sustained a serious head injury or god forbid died? Even if i didn't do anything wrong, i would've gotten into deep ****. If the kid died, what would happen to me in this situation? I mean its scary to think about.

And was i wrong to continue driving? Should i have chased after the kid after he bounced and left?

[tisbee]

Tough call.
I prob would have done the same as you.

[Guy986]

Also keep in mind if i wanted to drive away, i could've easily done that when the man screamed at me. I had no intent to hit and run.


But that's only because i know the kid is ok. If the kid was bleeding from the head down... i don't know what i would've done. I'm being completely honest here....

[zapatasblood]

Yeah you was not in the wrong. Kid was stupid and thus what happened happened due to his stupidity. You stop talk to the kid and see if he was alright. He gave you the thumbs up and so you thought it was good. You stop again when guy came screaming and called the police and a EMS. You did no such running and Kid ran off home.

[rocketsballin]

i took a driving test recently to keep a clean driving record. one of the chapters covered thigns like this. if you had no time to react then you should be free of any charges. pedestrians, bikes, etc cant sue if the driver had no time to react, laws of the road. dont remember a whole lot but that was the basics of it.

maybe you shoulda called ur insurance or something, in case when u run into the mother she gets angry and calls them herself. could get in big trouble for that **** i dunno

[Guy986]

i took a driving test recently to keep a clean driving record. one of the chapters covered thigns like this. if you had no time to react then you should be free of any charges. pedestrians, bikes, etc cant sue if the driver had no time to react, laws of the road. dont remember a whole lot but that was the basics of it.

maybe you shoulda called ur insurance or something, in case when u run into the mother she gets angry and calls them herself. could get in big trouble for that **** i dunno

Say hypothetically if the kid died in this situation. It would've turned into a he said i said situation. If this had gone to court i think the juries would side with the deceased boys mother almost 100% of the time. Right?

So the guy driving the vehicle is screwed almost all the time in this kind of situation. Even if the boy was reckless.

[zapatasblood]

i took a driving test recently to keep a clean driving record. one of the chapters covered thigns like this. if you had no time to react then you should be free of any charges. pedestrians, bikes, etc cant sue if the driver had no time to react, laws of the road. dont remember a whole lot but that was the basics of it.

maybe you shoulda called ur insurance or something, in case when u run into the mother she gets angry and calls them herself. could get in big trouble for that **** i dunno

Say hypothetically if the kid died in this situation. It would've turned into a he said i said situation. If this had gone to court i think the juries would side with the deceased boys mother almost 100% of the time. Right?

I would say you would be doing some hard time and a fairly big civil suit. Then again O.J. got off but I am going to go ahead and say you do not have the money he had to hire a legal dream team

[Guy986]

Yea i think i'm going to start taking more public trans from here on out.

[rocketsballin]

i dont remember that part, but good no one died. dont they have pple who can determine whose fault it was? like in law and order they got those forensics or w/e. they can have pple to check both stories, to the accident scene, replay the events, etc.

i know the us justice system sucks but its not absolutely terrible (maybe it is tho), i mean, i didnt take my driving test all by myself . they gotta have something in place in case someone dies in these accidents.

[rocketsballin]

o well then n/m that sucks, driving in socal must be a very safe place to drive then , i'm pretty daam good at driving tho so that helps

[moofs]

There's an outside chance that the mother would have recognized that it wasn't your fault, much like she did here.

Much more likely, she's ruled by her emotions on it over her knowledge of the boy's prior behavior, files charges, and you get .. I think involuntary manslaughter or something stupid like that.

Call me cynical, but life's a bitch then you die.
(I'm not in favor of our "guilty by accusation" judicial system, nor think you were in the wrong, fyi)

On a side note, if you see one of those big white mobile copboxes that tells you your speed, slow down. I just realized the other day that those things VERY LIKELY track traffic throughput and speed data by time for use in setting up the most "effective" (read: "lucrative") speed traps. More speeders past being detected by one of those probably means more likelihood of a speed trap being set up there sometime soon.

Side note 2: If you ever think you're about to get hosed by a jury, watch The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, Paul Newman). The judge can eat his gavel in a jury trial, it's all about convincing those guys, and when you take the stand, evidence doesn't have to matter for jack - guilty or innocent.

[Guy986]

o well then n/m that sucks, driving in socal must be a very safe place to drive then , i'm pretty daam good at driving tho so that helps

It doesn't matter how good you're at driving. If kids decide to be stupid and reckless there is nothing you can do.

[College Boy]

I knew someone who killed a pedestrian while driving, and they came to the conclusion it was not her fault somehow and cleared her of all charges. Now if you're under the influence, I can't imagine how you would get off whether it's your fault or not.

[hayden]

if the kid died, you probably still wouldn't have been charged with anything. i'm not a lawyer or anything but, pedestrians don't always have the right of way, and it seemed like he didn't in this case. i'm sure his family could have still tried to sue you for something, however...

[Ribalding]

You don't go to jail for that unless you were breaking another law when you hit the kid/pedestrian/Jazz fan. Not even a ticket. Granted, anybody could (and probably would) sue you in civil court. But at least it ain't jail.

So unless you're speeding/drunk/etc., feel free to discreetly turn a blind eye the instant that Jazz fan takes the first foot off that curb. (Triple points if you flop when getting out of the car "to render aid".)

[College Boy]

You don't go to jail for that unless you were breaking another law when you hit the kid/pedestrian/Jazz fan. Not even a ticket. Granted, anybody could (and probably would) sue you in civil court. But at least it ain't jail.

So unless you're speeding/drunk/etc., feel free to discreetly turn a blind eye the instant that Jazz fan takes the first foot off that curb. (Triple points if you flop when getting out of the car "to render aid".)

[MaxRider]

need to be very careful when driving
not against any gender or race
but i find women often either they don't pay attention or they just wont allow you to go in front of them
usually have signal on to change lane they just wont let you do it
(missed freeway entrance/exit because of that)
black need to be aware that their skin is dark and very hard to spot them at night (especially when they are wearing dark as well)
don't try to cross the street on red light
in austin you need to be very careful (especially summer)
too many people riding bikes (they ride on the side of the freeway too)

[red96]

Sorry that you had to go through that drama Guy. A similar thing happend to my father when I was a kid, but the differece was that the little kid died. My dad tried to avoid him but it still happend. He was about to be in it deep. Luckily there was a driver in back of my dad that witnessed it all and said my father did all he could to prevent the accident. I guess even if your a competent driver **** just happens sometimes.

[shanedude]

Holy crap I was in that exact same situation five years ago. I was that kid. Wow it's crazy it's like I was reading my own history. I didn't just walk it off though, I almost died.

[College Boy]

That's freakin weird dude.