I've had a person who rear ended me so hard at a red light that she pushed me into the truck in front and destroyed my car. Even left her license plate on my tailpipe. She ended up fleeing for "reasons". Because I didn't have video evidence of her driving, the police and insurance just gave me a unemphatic shrug when I reported it. Thankfully I had uninsured motorist coverage. What a fking racket.
I got her ID/insurance before she bolted, but yea apparently I also needed a photo with her holding a sign that read "IT WAS ME" for absolute proof. Fleeing the scene wasn't enough to get the cops to do anything. Ah well that's last decade's problem.
I was hit by an uninsured motorist who did the right thing and stayed at the scene. He got a ticket and had to go to court where they garnished his wages to pay for the repairs to my car. I kinda felt bad for the guy but the system worked correctly for once. I hope he's doing better now.
Racket is right. I've been screwed by more than one insurance company.
My mother's car was hit by a young lady who ran a red light, ran off the road and flattened a couple of road signs and finally coasted to a stop all the way down the hill a few hundred yards, and was sitting there repeatedly trying to get her car started when a couple of Good Samaritans blocked her in.
The young lady gave the cop a fake proof of insurance. (this was some time ago, presumably they couldn't verify in real time like they can now). Mom's insurance wouldn't cover it, and the cops were absolutely no help. "It's a civil matter".
I have to go to the DMV twice a year because their computer won't accept the fact that I have insurance, and they threaten to revoke the tags on my car if I don't come in person to prove it, but assholes who cant be bothered to stop at red lights and have fake insurance cards already printed up and handy just seem to get away with fucking the rest of us over.
Yea, that was something that crossed my mind too. I clicked the news article that was linked above, the person that trapped her in was just a bystander, not even the person she hit. I'm pretty sure he can't legally restrain her like that. Take the license plate number, call the cops, your duty (and the extent of what you're allowed to do) is done.
Only for felonies, and leaving the scene of an accident would be the potential felony. I personally don't want Joe Schmoe engaging in car chases because of a fender bender.
Legally is kind of irrelevant when you get down to it, you have a video of her face, of her car, of her license plate. What more did you want? His trapping her did NOTHING to help find her, the police ended up tracking her down, which I presume was from the details he already had.
If he had gotten hit, being right isn't going to make it less painful.
Not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure you can’t citizens arrest someone for that.
According to Cornell law school’s website, in California citizens’ arrests can be done “When a felony has been in fact committed, and he possesses reasonable cause for believing the person arrested to have committed it.”
I don’t think a hit and run is a felony and 2. She hasn’t actually committed a crime yet, right? She hasn’t ran yet.
I missed that this was in Cali, and you're definitely more right than I am. I guess in Cali (now I am also not a lawyer so I could be wrong), if there is no one hurt or killed, it would be a misdeamoner. Which citizen's arrests do not apply to a misdeamoner. So, this guy was indeed in the wrong in this situation.
You're right about everything except the very last part. The hit and run happened on the highway. The cameraperson was just a random vigilante that decided to get involved and trap her in when she pulled over. Judging from her saying "I thought you were the person I hit", it sounds like she pulled over because she thought she was being followed by her victim and was going to try to talk her way out of involving the police. When she realized what was going on and that she was trapped, she freaked out because she knew there was no escaping the situation and for whatever reason has the fear of god in her of her grandmother.
Yes she did. He saw her hit several cars in another place and the followed her to the gas station and trapped her with his car. I would have been terrified if someone did that to me!l
"A hit-and-run can be a felony or misdemeanor. It depends on the state laws and what happened during the crash. If the crash only caused minor property damage with no injuries, it is usually a misdemeanor."
Unlikely it was a felony unless somene was injured, which it doesn't sound like it was.
"Generally, a random bystander can attempt to restrain a fleeing driver under citizen's arrest laws, but it carries massive legal and physical risks. If the hit-and-run involves a felony (such as serious injury or death), most jurisdictions permit a private citizen to detain the suspect. For minor property-damage hit-and-runs (which may only be misdemeanors or traffic infractions), local laws often forbid physical detention by bystanders."
So unless she caused serious injury or death in the hit-and-run, it was likely illegal for that rando to block her in like that. And even in the event a "citizen's arrest" was legal, there is a risk of the bystander breaking additional laws in the process. The news article on the situation someone linked above strongly implied the hit and run was not a felony, therefore the "citizen's arrest" was not legal.
Unless you are absolutely 100% sure you're arresting them for a felony it's exceptionally ill-advised to engage in a citizens arrest. *You* may be criminally and civilly liable if you do so incorrectly.
I’m not a lawyer but I feel there’s probably an argument to be made about fleeing due to the other driver trying to trap her in.
It’s almost like he’s trying to play the part of the police here.
Not excusing her actions, just pointing out trying to restrain someone like this probably wasn’t the best idea either. You have her on video with her license plate. Don’t block her and let the police deal with it
Yep. And all the comments seem to support it. Like you got her on video, her plates too. Yeah someone is in the wrong we get it, but what’s wrong with the endless thirst for justice porn.
Guy recording and not moving his car is a total piece of shit.
This is not how adults behave; both are immature. You take the video, get her name and plate and move the fucking car. This woman is hysterical and visibly in distress. Camera guy needs to learn to deescalate. wtf.
Ikr! And dude just stands there like “I almost caught you running me over in the street!” Like he would have just bounced off the pavement uninjured or something… self-righteous can get you killed… lol
We don’t. That’s why you call the cops and report it. “Citizen’s arrest” laws vary greatly, but doing shit like this can open you up to a whole can of liabilities.
This is not a safe way to handle the situation. They were at a gas station. What happens if she puts her car through the store, or worse, a pump while trying to escape? This is quite literally escalating the situation.
Bad news for you: she did get back on the road and in an even more aggravated state than before, presumably.
Really genius decision-making for you and the cammer, eh?
Same stupid logic that goes into cops chasing people through town at 110 MPH. Zero forward-thinking about the *additional* risk you're creating for everyone around you.
Your reasonable assumption being that attempting to stop a person in a visibly manic state from getting back on the road after hitting one car is worse than just letting that visibly manic person back on the road
This is the comment I was looking for. Also, the video is clearly edited and the guy rearranged and pieced together the clips that makes the girl look terrible
Edit: where's the damage in his car?. He made it a point to record, edit the video, but not show the actual damage?. The guy is a piece of shit
That's what I was thinking. Gotta love reddit, the police are apparently useless pigs but simultaneously everyone should rely on the cops for everything.
He wasn’t even the owner of the vehicle involved in her hit and run. Sounds like illegal detainment to me and if this happened today, the guy recording would have been in trouble too.
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u/Mcpr0per Aug 20 '26
why would you trap a crazy person in. just get their license plate number and report it.