My sister and niece got ran off the road and our car got wrecked

Today, my sister and niece were going from our house to a friend's house to do laundry.

My sister is almost 44 and my niece is almost 12.

They were driving through our community, and came upon a Ford truck driving slowly.

My sister tried to pass the Ford, and the driver swerved towards her so that she couldn't pass.

At this point, my sister should not have tried to pass again, but trying to pass someone isn't illegal and hindsight is 20/20.

Also my sister did not make an unsafe pass, and she has never been able to see into the future.

The road is one lane each way, and a little bit later, the Ford started driving on the wrong side of the road.

My sister drove on the correct side of the road and tried to pass them again.

There was a clear and safe path to pass the other driver.

The driver of the Ford swerved towards our car again, hit our car, did a pit maneuver, ran our car off the road, and my sister lost control of the vehicle.

Our car crashed through a chain link fence, and landed on its side.

It's a good thing the fence was there, or else the car would have rolled further.

The car only rolled 90 degrees.

My sister got out of the car, and shortly after, emergency response people got my niece out of the car.

My niece has some scratches, and feels sore, but is apparently okay.

My sister's left hand got crushed, though nothing is broken.

Her left hand is quite swollen, but I think she'll be okay.

The good news is that it was not a hit and run.

The driver of the Ford stuck around.

Also, our dash cam caught the whole thing!

If my family and the authorities think it's okay, I might upload the video to YouTube or someplace similar.

There's quite a bit of cursing in the video, but it's all there.

By the way, the highway patrol didn't believe my sister's story, but they said they will be contacting me about the dashcam video tomorrow.

I saw the video, and it looks like the driver of the Ford is clearly at fault.

Both sides of our car and a quarter panel are messed up, and I think a couple of windows broke, but the car might not be totaled.

We have a 2006 Toyota Corolla which is actually a pretty decent budget car despite being so old.

My sister was taken to the hospital, where they determined that her hand was not broken, and she was released fairly quickly afterwards.

My niece didn't go to the hospital, but might go to the doctor soon to make sure she's okay.

How did your Sunday go?

I would call the incident an "accident", but it's not an accident when you get intentionally ran off the road.

Good to hear they weren’t seriously hurt. Sounds like a road rage incident. Better to not even make eye contact anymore with all the nuts out there. What was the other guy’s story?

I think the other guy lied to the authorities.

My sister just got home.

Her left hand got hurt shortly after the incident.

She was trying to get out of the car, and the car door slammed down really hard on her hand.

EDIT:

In the coming days, more injuries have become apparent.

Both my sister and niece were wearing their seatbelts, but the airbags did not go off.

By the way, we know who the other guy is.

He's friends with someone that we have had problems with in the the past.

So he knew who my sister was when he ran her off the road.

On the phone to a lawyer yet?

RC,
Put it up on YouTube.
That way anybody who has doubts about what happened can see for themselves.
Jerk.
All the Best,
Jeff

Not yet, but my sister might get a restraining order and might sue the driver of the Ford.

The dashcam video is really damning, and the video quality is excellent.

In most States passing on the right is not legal unless the lead vehicle is clearly turning left, like say with a left turn signal on, AND it is safe to do so without leaving the normally traveled portion of the road. I would make multiple copies of that video. Regardless of how erratic the other driver was the police may charge your sister with improper passing and or other violations. I don’t know if I would give them that video unless and until you know what they intend to charge both parties with. They may not want to tell you anything because you are not involved. They may not want to tell your sister anything until they either see or have the video. And the officer that comes to the house may not be the one that will make that decision. If they’ve already told your sister that they don’t believe her then seeing the video is not likely to get them to say we’re sorry for not believing you and you did nothing wrong. As you said she should not have tried to pass. After the first erratic move she should have backed way off and just kept him on camera or turned off the road somewhere and let him be on his way.

Have the !@#$ arrested and sue his insurance company into the ground.

It’s really that simple.

Chris

@Oli:

The other driver was going the wrong way in the opposite lane.

My sister was going the correct way on the one-lane-each-way street.

Both vehicles were going the same direction.

She did not perform an illegal pass.

She didn't do anything illegal at all in the video.

It is not illegal to try to pass someone legally.

It is completely illegal to run someone off the road.

It may even be attempted murder.

Although she should have backed off (hindsight is 20/20), she did not legally have to.

She tried to pass the other driver legally and safely, but she cannot see into the future.

Overtaking and passing.Law section. If the other vehicle is not turning left then legally she cannot pass him on the right. She might want to have a lawyer look at that dash cam.

What a scare…I’m glad they’re both ok! Sorry about the vehicle damage and the whole thing. I know that has to be upsetting and angering and worrisome altogether.

Unless you want to press for some kind of charges against him and unless/until the police ask for your video footage, I’d keep it under wraps and share that with your insurance company instead. Aside from citations it’ll be the insurance companies that hash all of this out, and if they need to subrogate and figure it out in court, then that may be where your video has the most value. From the sound of things it’s plausible that it will not be a 100% fault on one party. I would try to work hard with your insurance company to have them pressure the other guy’s insurance to make you whole, not just dole out a valuation amount. This depends on a lot of things but if things look strongly in your favor then sometimes the other company will pay considerably more just to avoid the expense of court proceedings. It all becomes very businesslike and matter of fact to them, sadly, so you may need to speak up often and perhaps loudly.

Also, unless there’s a really good existing reason to pursue a restraining order, I don’t think I’d recommend that…often has the chance to make things much worse. But if there is good reason then yes, absolutely go do that. And given the circumstances and proximity of your residences, asking for an emergency order might be worthwhile (or whatever California may call that procedure…basically granting the restriction immediately until the normal hearing/judge’s decision can be held).

EDIT: to add…you probably don’t need to get your own attorney right now. Wait until things play out with insurance to see where things stand. At that point if there’s reason to pursue him civilly then get a couple of free consultations with attorneys. If there is any criminal interest bigger than a citation for him then that won’t be in your hands anyway. If you want to, you could contact a Legal Aid office to see if someone can walk you through the probabilities and flow chart of what’s going on. If you don’t have LA or something similar then call up the state or county bar association and they can likely direct you somewhere that will help and who isn’t necessarily looking to be hired by you.

Hey RC, I'm sorry to hear the bad news. I hope your sister and niece don't face any worse medical complications than what they are already facing.

Does your sister understand the importance of cycling an ice pack on and off her swollen hand? I am not a doctor, so I am not qualified to give medical advice. With that said, the advice that has often been given to me is to apply ice for 15 or 20 minutes, followed by the same amount of off time. Repeat many times, starting as soon as possible following the injury.

I have also heard that applying heat during the off times can be good, so you are cycling heat and ice, but the first and last cycles should be ice. Do the whole process two or three times a day.

You can make an ice pack by filling a plastic freezer bag two-thirds with water and one-third with isopropyl alcohol. Toss it in the freezer, and it won't freeze into a solid block of ice. When I do this, I double-bag the ice-pack, just in case I get a leak.

If your doctor agrees, taking a maximum dosage of Ibuprofen for a couple of days may also be appropriate. That's 600 mg three or four times daily. 2400 mg.is the maximum daily dose.

Ice and Ibuprofen are good ways to reduce inflammation and swelling.

The other thing she should do is keep the arm elevated, at the same height as her heart. This makes it easy for blood to flow in and out of her hand. So lying in bed qualifies.When seated, she should rest her arm on a table if possible. Stack up some pillows, if that helps.

Once again, it is important not to delay. She needs to start elevating her arm now, not tomorrow.

Good luck with this.

DO NOT PUT IT ON YOUTUBE.

You need to adopt a defensive posture here, do nothing their lawyer can use against you (everything you say and do will be used against you), no public statements, no statements to their lawyer and find a lawyer with an excellent reputation and excellent references to represent your family’s interests. Get references and call them.

Make no statements, admit nothing and make multiple copies of the vid and put the original memory card in a very safe place. Don’t let anyone have it unless your lawyer okays it.

Lock down everyone’s facebook account and put up no public updates and if feasible stop using all social media.

Also i’m glad to hear everyone is okay.

Here is some pertinent legal advice regarding dashcams.

The gist of it is that your recording is now evidence. Both the police and the other driver are aware that it exists. Altering it or deleting is a big no-no. Doing so can create an assumption on the part of the court that you are hiding something, and a jury may be so instructed.

I am confused a little bit about the passing-on-the-right thing. You wrote:

The road is one lane each way, and a little bit later, the Ford started driving on the wrong side of the road.

My sister drove on the correct side of the road and tried to pass them again.

The driver of the Ford swerved towards our car again, hit our car, ran our car off the road, and my sister lost control of the vehicle.

When the Ford was in the opposing lane will a court decide that continuing in your lane constitutes "passing on the right?"

Beats me.

This offence was IMO a crime. All that happend was a result from trying to escape from the situation. I’d say no matter what’s been said in the car, things like this lead to reactions where traffic rules are of secondary interest, because the mind is put into an exceptional state. Your relatives felt threatened, therefore acted irrationally.

Edit: Follow Borts advice and keep everything under closure.

Regarding that provision in the law about passing. Yes it looks like your sister may have committed a moving violation by passing on the right.

However, the other driver committed what appears to be me to be a much bigger violation by then crashing into your sister’s car and running her off the road. Her moving violation does not absolve him of responsibility for causing the crash. Even before the crash, he was also committing a moving violation by driving on the wrong side of the road.

I also haven’t heard anything about the other driver having an immediate need to move back into the right lane. There isn’t any mention of a semi-truck coming around the corner the other direction leaving the other driver no choice.

The video is important. Without it, the police do not believe your sister’s story and they might her entirely at fault. If that happens, it could have serious consequences for her insurance. She might even lose her license for reckless driving. Maybe even face criminal charges.

It also sounds like the other driver gave a much different story about what happened to the police than your sister. If the stories matched, the police would not have disbelieved her. It’s probably better to show the video to police to bolster her credibility and destroy the credibility of the other party. The police already know about the video and are expecting it.

If your sister sues the other driver for damages, the court would be in a position of determining who is at fault. Fault in these types of cases isn’t all-or-nothing. The court could decide your sister is 10% at fault for trying to pass, but the other driver is 90% at fault for ramming her and causing a crash. The result would be a win for your sister as she would likely still get a considerable damage award.

A judge or jury could even decide your sister’s passing on the right was not a cause of the crash. After all, the other driver rammed your sister when nothing forced him to do so. If he wanted to return to the correct lane, he could just have pressed the brakes and then moved behind her. In that case, a court would probably find him 100% at fault.

It is good advice for your sister to contact her insurance company immediately. Doing so might be required under the terms of her insurance. They also have their own attorneys and can advise her on what to do next.

Given that your sister may have committed a moving violation at the time of the crash, it is also good advice to consult with a criminal defense attorney immediately. Just in case.

Regarding a restraining order: If your sister wants a restraining order, she can apply for a Civil Harassment Restraining Order in the civil division of the Superior Court. If the police or DA presses charges against the other driver, the criminal court might issue its own restraining order (Emergency Protective Order).

It sounds like your sister was at fault, overtaking on the right is not legal.

In America a lot of people are driving around hopped up on prescription pills which affect their reactions and judgement. This could apply to both parties in your story.

Thankfully nobody was killed.