A Lakewood Yungerman was issued a summons for leaving the scene of an accident after he called for a tow truck but did not report the accident to police, the Asbury Park Press is reporting. The Lakewood PD told the APP, that an officer issued him the summons after she discovered the accident by chance.
The driver was reportedly driving on North Lake Drive, near Lakewood Avenue, when a wet roadway caused him to lose control of his vehicle and slammed into a tree. Besides for serious damage to the vehicle, the driver was Boruch Hashem uninjured.
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28 Responses
Well leaving the scene of an accident is illegal.
But he didn’t have a phone and calling a tow truck is not good to do before calling police
since when does one have to call the police if he didnt cause any damage to any other vehicle just a tree?
This incident presents quite a shaila. Do you leave the scene to get help and call a tow truck or stay and hope the medics come for the tree? Can’tne wait till the judge gets hold of this one.
It’s the point that he was in a accident not that he hurt a tree.
dwkl1 – I do not know the area, however, he may have caused property damage in which case he would be liable.
Just because he crashed, does not mean he has to call the police. If 2 people crash and they agree to resolve it themselves, they don’t have to report it to the police. Only for insurance purposes or to protect yourself legally, would you call the police.
The cop had a right to give him a ticket, since he left the seen of an accident. he should have contacted PD instead of calling the local jewish tower…. its no mitzvah calling a jewish tower. If he would have contacted PD he could of told the cop he went to call headquarters. instead…. he got in trouble!
Thank you mdlevine.
If you call the police first thay will call “their own” towing company, & won’t let you select your own choice of a towing company which will be cheaper.
it seems that baruch hashem there is no crime in lakewood so the overpaid cops (70 grand a year one of the top paying forces) have some extra time on their hands, and no there was no property damage just a bored officer
is there no common sense left, this is one of the many reasons people are loosing faith in the supposedly finest
The cop went verboard. She could have shown some common courtesy.
That being said, by law any accident that causes any property damage in excess of about $1000, must be reported to the police.
Genug Shoin:
Lakewood PD do not get 70k a year (they may get with over time when they work construction zones – which is paid by the construction company and NOT the tax payers).
Also while the story does make the cop sound mean does anyone here know all the facts ? Who’s property was it ? Who called the cops ? I personally have been in MVA before, the police came, we told them we would work it out on our own and they left. Give them common courtesy and you will receive. I dare you to try me.
i think he should be brought in handcuffs to citi hall, his car towed by the most expensive tow operator in, say, essex county (and the cop gets his 25% commission), he should be required to pick up his car in essex county, the car should be pushed around by fork lift back and forth (i saw this done several times — my old office is near the tow pound) till his transmission is shot (so that he has to hire the same tow operator to tow him back to lakewood)
and the cop should get a raise for increasing city revenue.
i have a kasha. if he didn’t have a phone to call the tow truck, then he also didn’t have a phone to call the police. so what did he do wrong?
REGARDING #15 THE ANSWER TO YOUR KASHA IS THAT IN CASE OF EMERGENCY THERE ARE MANY EMERGENCY PHONES ON MOST HIGHWAYS AND TUNELS ETC, AND IN CASE NOT YOU WOULD MOST LIKELY NOT FIND ONE PASING CAR THAT PASSES YOU WITH OUT A CELL PHONE,AND IN CASE HE WAS NOT ON A HIGHWAY ETC THERE ARE PUBLIC PAY PHONES ALL OVER THE PLACE THAT YOU CAN CALL FOR FREE!!! HE ALSO COULD HAVE WAITED BY THE SCENCE TILL HE COULD ASK A PASSING CAR FOR HIS PHONE TO REPORT THE INCIDENT TO 911 AND THEN CALL POLICE!!!NOW THE TRUTH IS THAT MOST OF THE TIME WHEN YOU GET IN TO A CRASH THAT DOES NOT HAVE TO DO WITH ANOTHER CAR LIKE CRASHING IN TO A TREE, YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO REPORT IT TO THE POLICE, BUT THAT IS NOT CASE WHEN YOU HAVE TO CALL A TOW-TRUCK, WHEN YOU HAVE TO CALL A TOW TRUCK YOU MUST CALL AND REPORT TO THE POLICE!!!
FROM YECHIEL GOLDBERG OF BORO PARK!!!
I think we need some yungerleit to become cops. Sounds well-paying & has great benefits.
This will help with our relationship with the PD.
nudge –
Le’maaseh (kefi the reported story) he was moideh that his kavanah was to only call the towing company (implicitely admitting that he would’ve been outa there as soon as his car was towed).
The din against self-incrimination (ain adam maysim atzmo..) only applies to criminal liability and not stam civil infractions. [ayin, State v. Fisher, 395 N.J. Super. 533]
The emes is, that there was just such a maaseh in 1965 where the NJ Judge paskened that a driver who had been involved in a one-car collision with a tree, (where damage to the tree was minimal but substantial damage was sustained by driver’s own vehicle), and left the scene without contacting police could NOT be convicted under the hit and run statute, NJSA § 39:4-129; he reasoned that the statute did not cover accidents where the only damage was to a driver’s own vehicle and legislative intent was determined to exclude those hit and run drivers who accidentally grazed or struck, but did not do substantial damage to highway abutments, street curbs, utility poles, and trees along the curbs. (ayin, State v. Patterson, 47 N.J. 450, (1966). Unfortunately, the following year the NJ Legislature amended this Statute to “include damage to the driver’s own vehicle”. Le’maaseh, duchtzach that some other States still exclude a matzav where there’s only damage to ones own vehicle. [ve’ayin oid, State v. Graney, 174 N.J. Super. 455]
.. Medarf epes a eitzh geben, because the oinesh is 6-month license suspension besides the two-to-four hundred dollar fine for a first offense.
In NY, you are not required to file a police report if there is less than $1000 in damage, and no one has been injured. In other states, you are required to report any damage (i.e. any new scratch or dent!). If you don’t, you can be charged with leaving the scene of an accident. It pays to know the laws where you live and drive.
15 comments and no one thought of saying that the cop was an anti-semite? What’s happening to us?
It’s probably one of the new rookie cops they have floating around Lakewood that is so excited to write a ticket. How about the cop that got into an MVA on Motzo’ey Shabbos on 1st and Madison. He is 25 years old. A rookie, no?
Rookies should be on foot patrol for a few years until they get the hang of the people and/or culture of the town. (So I heard from a 20 year veteran of the LPD.)
I hope he fights the ticket. Even if he loses, he wins for wasting the court’s time.
R’ Yechiel of Boro Park: please tone it down a bit. CAPS = yelling (impolite). Thank you.
13..lkwd finest out of school start at 40k in 4 yrs.they’re at 80k add overtime which is always they’re at 6 figures annual. Then add in all those off duty road jobs and bal games at 45hr. Either way the tree is considered city property since its on city land maybe the fine officer saw it that way.I’m sure it wasn’t out of spite. I feel it was a bit extreme to ticket him. You would think possibly careless driving maybe that would seem more logical????
The problem is that we keep voting in the same politicians all over again. we have problems with the illegals and the police yet the same politicians are reelected with an overwhelming majority again and again. commen sense dictates that if one fails at doing what he was hired for than he should be fired. why is the lakewood vaad sayind to vote bob singer again if he didnt attempt to take care of these problems his previous tenures? I love bob singer as a person but he at least must make an attempt to clean up lakewood from corruption in the police department and the illegals!!
ploiderer1:
Why must we always run to the anti Semite defense. If it is the cop that I am thinking of you may be right, how ever I worked with the Lakewood PD many years. I would like you to sit on ANY street corner in Lakewood and see how many people jump stop signs and do not follow laws let alone know how to drive. True this is not the majority but I have seen enough. Bottom line is if you break the law you may get a ticket.
One of the reasons for requiring a police report, may be that any time one in is a collision with anything, it is usually with something that does not belong to you.
This other “thing” that does not belong to you may be another car, or a tree, or a city structure holding up a sign, etc., The driver in a one-car accident who does damage to city/county/state property is usually liable for those damages.
Now, that being said, they usually do not want you to stop and wait for police if all you did is brush up against a guardrail, as that damage will not be sued for, and you are causing traffic problems. But I have seen people who had to pay to damage to overpass abutments, traffic lights, etc…. and yes, even trees.
But, all this aside, it probably happened because the police officer was a Nazi antisemite Jew Hater, who steals Jewish children and cooks them.
I just had to put that in, since I notice no one had screamed antisemitism as yet.
And, NO, I am not serious.
Oh, by the way, for those who complain about the salaries of the Police Officers, and are jealous over what they earn, have YOU thought of joining the Police Department yourselves. If the job is so great, try it yourself.
Jut don’t do it in a Jewish neighborhood, or you may constantly be accused of antisemitism.
(smile)
I think some points need to be mentioned. Number one: this fellow obviously did not have a cell phone. Being that this area is quite residential he probably went to one of the nearby houses to make a call. Now whether he should have called the tow company first or not is debatable; however the ticket was for leaving the scene of an accident. I would hope that the law would allow for a person in an accident to walk to a nearby house to call for help. what if he was hurt? Would he have to stay with his car until help happened to pass by? Common sense says this is not the case. That being said, I think that if the fellow comes back to his car then he is not leaving the scene. That charge should be applied when the perpetrator abandons the car for fear of reprisal or similar concerns.