Got hit by a shady kid in a BMW

You have his license plate, call the police to say he left the scene of an accident without providing his insurance

 

Option 2:

Call your own insurance and have them take care of everything. Just provide the license plate # to them and they will do all the leg work.

You will have to pay the deductible which will be reimbursed after they chase down the perp.

 

I'm with sipnfuel. You should at least file a police report. If you would have called 911 at the time of the accident, the operator would have told you that cops don't respond unless there is an injury (been there, done that). So, file the report to cover yourself. Sounds like he is trying to pull a fast one, especialy with that exchanging numbers on the phone business. If you do find his number and he doesn't respond to you, you could just text/leave a message with him to say you've filed a report.

You didn't mention that there were any witnesses, but it would have been very helpful if you would have gotten at least one witness

 

Do not call 911 except for emergencies. You will get your ear chewed off if you call 911 about this.

Secondly, check your phone provider for call logs to see if it recorded his phone number.

I kinda doubt he will contact you before you contact him (he's probably waiting) but you can give it a few more hours.

If you are unsure, just wait a little longer as you will still have all your options given the situation.

 

Agreed with sipnfuel on the 911 thing. Look up your local county station and call them directly. If they aren't the correct place, they will be able to tell you who is.

At the least, you can talk to your insurance agent, and see what he says. You don't HAVE to file a report at that time, but his insight and experience may come into play on this one.

And the police would have shown up if you were insistent on having an officer there. You may have waited all day to have one show up, though. When I was hit in the parking lot several years ago (my car ended up totalled due to age/mileage/value/location), both of us insisted that a report get filed. We knew each other from college classes (accident was in the college parking lot), but still was better to have the report in hand.

 

I would advise you file the police report immediately. You can go to your local police department to file it. This isn't an emergency, so you should not be calling 911.

When I was rear-ended and the other driver just took off, I called my local PD about filing a report. The officer on the phone warned me that it was busy I would have to wait a long time. I inquired when would be a good time to come in (both so I wouldn't have to wait nor unnecessarily overburden the police desk when they are busy), and I was told the next morning. When I came in the next morning, the officer asked me why I waited to file the report! That is why I suggest filing it immediately, b/c I think the police will have some negative bias if you delay in filing the report.

I'm not sure what ramifications you are worried about. You are suppose to file a police report. The fact that the other driver didn't provide his insurance is his problem.

 

Gotta love the Bay Area. Shady people everywhere.... except Blackhawk. lol

 

Having your insurance take care of this will make it seem a little more routine and benign on your part than filing a police report (since you already mention he is a bit shady). It really is your option to pay the deductible or not, so financially you are not worse off than not doing anything at all.

 

Regardless of whether you decide to file an insurance claim, the right thing to do is to file the police report. Not providing insurance and/or not having insurance is wrong and illegal.

Perhaps he's been in one or more accidents before and gotten away with it b/c no one filed a police report on him before. If this were the case, you would probably wish that someone filed a police report.

By filing a police report, it reduces the chances he will hit someone else in the future and still be uninsured.

 

The way it works is you get a quote for the repair. Then you decide if you want to get it repaired. If and only if you decide to get it repaired, you pay up to your deductible and the insurance pays the rest. In no way do you lose anything by filing the insurance claim b/c you weren't at fault.

In my case I filed the claim and the repair quote was close to my deductible. It wasn't worth the hassle/cost of getting it repaired so I simply didn't.

 

You really should have gotten a look at his registration, that would have the VIN number on it, as well as his name and address, assuming he is the owner.

There's no excuse to not have a registration card (valid or expired) inside the vehicle.

Unless the police is there, I would get the following if available

Driver's License Number, Address, Phone Number
Insurance Policy No., Insurance Phone Number, Insurance effective dates
License Plate Number, note registration tags
Registration Card with dates, VIN Number
Take a picture of both cars
Take a picture of the other driver if possible
Note time and date, location and particular parking stalls if possible

Yes, a moot point now.

I personally would not let him off the hook. No one should disrespect me and/or my property and get away with it.

 

Many years ago my car was stolen, and then used in a robbery. My car was recovered, but with a major ding in the driver's door. The guy was caught, and I was called to a court hearing. He plead guilty to stealing some tires, and that was the end of the court proceedings.

I asked why I was called to the hearing, and the explanation was rather like "God doesn't always work in ways that we understand". I took a day off work, paid for parking downtown, they never even mentioned my car.

It gets worse, but I'll spare those details.

My call is to chalk it up to experience. If you involve anyone else they'll just cost you more in time and money.

 

I'm voting with RobH on this one. The police aren't going to be interested in doing anything since there is almost no damage. The collision happened on private property, not a public road, so the Motor Vehicle Code doesn't apply.

 

Sorry this happened to you mm05.