A friend was in an accident...the police report did not represent his version accurately verbally or by diagram; therefore making the culpability his. Does anyone have any experience appealing this to an Insurance carrier? The all mighty police refused to add or change anything.
Any input?
Thanks

 

Not an expert but perhaps the police found your friends version to be incorrect. We all have different perceptions of how things happen, particularly something as dramatic as an accident. Maybe the police found other witnesses who contradicted your friend as to exactly what happened. Other than that, I suspect getting a police report changed will be difficult. Ultimately it could end up in court and your friend will have to prove his/her version of the accident. Either way, good luck to your friend, hope everyone was physically OK after the accident...

 

A proper police report should contain the emperical facts (observeable by the officer) and statements from the parties involved. If the police failed to take the complete statements from your friend even though the explanations were not apparently logical at the time, he/she is not doing his/her job correctly unless your friend was DUI or not in some form of mental stability whether it's due to the accident or not.

In any case, the report cannot be changed once submitted and processed. You can try to explan it in court and/or present your statements and evidents to the insurance company. If your friend is adamant that he is in the right, he can contact his insurance/agent and stop the other party's claim.

 

Bimmer32 is correct. The report should have an accurate statement from your friend as well as any other witnesses etc. The original post is a bit vague, is his statement not accurate or is it simply that the conclusion of the report disagrees with your friend? Either way, getting it amended is likely not going to happen now...

 

The witness Is the passenger in his car; and their statement is not in the report( it should be there).
There was no DUI issues.
The diagram is inaccurate and seems to only coincide with the other driver's(the person who hit my friend) account; its all wrong.
Its just annoying because the cops who write these things and didn't see it, refuse to admit they left some important details out.
Thanks for the help.
For what its worth...I think he's gonna send his version to the Insurance company on his own.

 

Under those circumstances this will have to be litigated in court. Your friend has an option to bring this to the attention of a supervisor and if no action is taken then court will be the next course. I do believe that in NY there is no fault so it will probably be split 50-50 on the insurance claim and both parties will have a their car fixed but will have one strike against their policy. If your friend is stating that he is 100% not at fault then he has to NOT except the findings and take the other party to court.

Good luck...

 

Yep.

I had an accident once in Tampa Bay.
My cellphone felt to the ground, so I was looking down and noticed the stop sign too late.

Interestingly, allthough I never stopped at the sign, I had a whole family as my witness for stopping at the stop sign.


The officer was LOL when I told him what happened and that I never stopped.
The good thing about beeing so honest was nothing happened... Just an insurance claim...



People do see things different... And sometimes they don't see things or see things that don't exist...

 

NJ is the same way, No fault state.
Court would be just he said she said, imo not worth it.

 

Get a copy of the NJTR-1 form the police completed (it's a public record). Take a look at it. See if your friend was quoted. See if others were quoted. The form is pretty specific. Did your friend file a report with his/her insurance company? All of this goes into the mix.

There are always more than two sides to any story which involves witnesses. Your friend, his/her passenger, bystanders, passersby, etc.

PS - Just a suggestion, for what it's worth: Police are not "all mighty." They're doing a job which is important, and keeps us safe. Remember that, OK?

 

Not familiar with the NJTR-1, if thats the accident report, he has it and the passenger's statement was ommitted. I am objective enough to know no one is the "almighty" However the police do act very often that they above questioning and get indignant when they are called on something; in fact I would say that if the person who got hit was a cop or family of a cop, the report would read much differently.
Thanks for your help.