NJ Leaving Scene of Accident

[RymanH24]

Greetings,

I was recently involved in a Hit and Run MVA. The other driver decided to drive and I was able to get a tag. One of my police departments Seargents, (I'm a Class 1 Special), went to the registered owners house and found the vehicle with damage however the r.o. is claiming that it was all from a previous incident and denied being on the road at the time. Yet it matches the damage it would do to my car.

So he is going to read up on whether or not the law has changed so that way he can charge the r.o. with Leaving the Scene of an Accident. I just wanted to know if any other officers may know of the law change?

Thank you.


Please Note: NJ Officers or any officers with NJ Title 39 knowledge please.

[JakeLock]

I don't understand the question, maybe I'm just dumb, or maybe I'm not from NJ.

But up here, if you hit something and leave I will charge you with, failure to give immediate notice and leaving the scene of a property damage accident at a minimum.

[phantasm]

Unless you saw the driver, and can ID him, all you have is a plate. We file a report, the detectives follow up, only if injury. If no injury, its just violation, and gets closed out.

[danninator]

Sign a civilian complaint. I'm sure your department can assist you with the process. Its very easy to do.

[DeltaV]

A trained crash investigator can tell the difference between old damage and fresh damage. In addition, there is usually other evidence on the vehicle(s) such as transfer paint that links the vehicles to each other. If the damage is so minor that you can't tell whether or not it's new and there's no transfer paint, the other driver can always make the argument that they didn't realize they had hit another vehicle. I've had hit and run cases involving idiots in large SUVs who were driving with their heads up their @sses and I honestly believe them when they say that they didn't know they were in a crash. They're still responsible for causing the crash, but you can't prove a hit and run in those cases.

If you got a tag number, the vehicle's description and the location of the damage all matches up, I'd tow the car as evidence. Usually the threat of that will make the owner come clean about what happened. Like others have said, in order to actually charge an individual with the offense you would need to be able to identify them. You can't file charges against someone just because a vehicle used in the offense belongs to them.