Mark J. Ginsberg
To echo others, when in doubt call 911, they may decline to sent an officer, but then the decision was theirs not yours.
Also there are many different things which we all casually call "police report", and different agencies call them different things too!
At the scene an officer can do a traffic crash exchange form (Portland Police form even says "police report" on it), these are sometimes called swap forms.
Officers can do a report on the scene, they can do one later, you can do a citizen submitted police report (portland even let's you do one online).
Then of course, there is a DMV accident report form, you know that form, right? It is required for any car v. car crash with $1500 in property damage, or ANY injury. But if it is bike v car with less than $1500 and no injury, Oregon DMV says you don't need to do one. I encourage people to fill them out, DMV will accept them, even if it doesn't meet the mandatory reporting level.
As for insurance "requiring" a police report, well, sure, but what they mean is you try to report, and now that you can self report some stuff, you can give the ins co a police report to let them check the box they think they need to check.
Mark J. Ginsberg
Berkshire Ginsberg, LLC
Attorneys At Law
1216 SE Belmont St.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 542-3000
Fax (503) 233-6874
markjginsberg@yahoo.com
www.bikesafetylaw.com
________________________________
From: "joec@aracnet.com"
To: Gregg Magnus ; obra-bounces@list.obra.org; Dan H
Cc: ""
Sent: Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] When should the police be called to abicycle-carcollision?
To re-enforce Gregg's comment:
My insurance agent/company requires cyclists to fill out an accident report.
Joe
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
-----Original Message-----
From: Gregg Magnus
Sender: obra-bounces@list.obra.org
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2011 15:54:31
To: Dan H
Cc:
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] When should the police be called to a
bicycle-carcollision?
This goes for any crashes whether bike/car or car/car. It's totally dependent on the agency. Some agencies will respond to any crash to assist in the info exchange, some only if there are injuries, some will actually investigate and if fault can be determined issue a citation.
My advise, any injuries call. Other driver is aggressive, confrontational or otherwise makes you uncomfortable with the situation call. If it's minor just bike or car dmg and you can facilitate an info exchange btwn driver(s)and/or cyclist safely out of the flow of traffic handle it yourselves. If you handled it w/out police sometimes insurance companies may want a police incident #, you can call non emergency later for those purposes just for a # to give the insurance company it won't create any investigation.
Hope that helps some.
Gregg
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 6, 2011, at 15:06, "Dan H" wrote:
> I guess the only reason police would be there would be to issue a citation if one was called for.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jen"
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2011 2:17 PM
> Subject: [OBRA Chat] When should the police be called to a bicycle-carcollision?
>
>
>> On a group ride this morning in Salem, one of our riders was struck by a left turning vehicle. He was able to get up. His bike is demolished.
>>
>> We called the police to the scene. The officer said...there are no serious injuries and no road obstruction - why am I here?
>>
>> How should we have handled this? Should we have not called the police to the scene but simply requested the driver's insurance information? How is a case # established without the police arriving at the scene?
>>
>> Jen
>> _______________________________________________
>> OBRA mailing list
>> obra@list.obra.org
>> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
>> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA mailing list
> obra@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org
>
_______________________________________________
OBRA mailing list
obra@list.obra.org
http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org
_______________________________________________
OBRA mailing list
obra@list.obra.org
http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org