Seriously?

This morning I saw a young man walking his dog, crossing the street as a car approached a stop sign at said corner.  Car slows but deliberately goes through the stop sign, causing the man to push off the hood of the car to avoid being hit.  No one was hurt, including the dog, but as the woman driving the car drove off she laughed.  There were other witnesses to this, who saw the woman driver laughing as she drove off.  Only have first three letters of license plate and only know the color of the car, unsure of the last 4 digits of plate and make/year model of car.  Can give description of woman driving the car.  What is the right thing to do here?

Discuss it with the police, and forget about advice from this forum.

Not sure what good it would do to "discuss" with police -- if you have a full license plate you can file a complaint, but with just a partial plate I doubt the PD would do any legwork to investigate.

Report it to the police and let them decide what to do about it.

detroiter said:

Discuss it with the police, and forget about advice from this forum.

Including your advice?

Student_Council said:

detroiter said:

Discuss it with the police, and forget about advice from this forum.

Including your advice?

Especially. Especially ignore this post, too.

Call the police.  Your information may compliment other information they already have.

It's about right for many people driving in Maplewood. She may not have even noticed, because she was texting or talking on the phone and was probably laughing about a joke she either read or heard while she should have been watching the road she was driving on.

She looked at him laughing, and continued laughing as she drove away.  She was not on the phone laughing at a joke.  She looked at him as she did this.

You wrote there were other witnesses to this.  Your information plus that of other witnesses could equal a full report that police can follow up on.  Call the police (non-emergency number) of the town in which this occurred and report what you know.  Let them take it from there.

I'm all for offenders getting their due, but from a legal perspective this is a trifle -- boils down to not coming to a full stop at a stop sign. No injuries and no damages. 

If the driver did in fact laugh then shame on her. But I highly doubt this will make the police any more interested in following up.  

Student_Council said:

I'm all for offenders getting their due, but from a legal perspective this is a trifle -- boils down to not coming to a full stop at a stop sign. No injuries and no damages. 

  

Not coming to a full stop, not yielding to a pedestrian, and depending on interpretation of this part... 

mitchyb said:

Car slows but deliberately goes through the stop sign, causing the man to push off the hood of the car to avoid being hit.

possibly even striking a pedestrian.

Ok fair enough. 

I'd be very interested to hear what the PD says, if the OP does follow through and bring it to their attention. I'll be quite surprised if they do anything beyond listen and then not do anything. 

max_weisenfeld said:

Call the police.  Your information may compliment other information they already have.

This^^^

krnl said:

max_weisenfeld said:

Call the police.  Your information may compliment other information they already have.

This^^^

Agree !!  Happens to me quite frequently, whereas I am in the crosswalk and people just breeze by and around me....really !  

Too many times I've seen someone stop to allow a pedestrian cross and the driver behind them assumes they are turning or something and zooms around, almost hitting the pedestrian.  Just the other day my husband stopped to allow a couple of people cross Prospect St in Maplewood.  We had to wait a bit, as oncoming traffic just kept going and the women had to wait a bit before they could cross.  The guy behind us starts to sneak around as they were crossing.  My husband honked his horn to get the driver's attention, it would have been close had he kept going.  To be fair, the guy did have a sheepish look on his face once he realized why we were stopped.  And the poor pedestrians probably thought my husband was honking at them to hurry up when he was really just trying to keep them from getting hit.

"You, sir, are an extremely useful bit of information."

"Why, thank you, ma'am. You're not so bad yourself!"

krnl said:

max_weisenfeld said:

Call the police.  Your information may compliment other information they already have.

This^^^

"Why thank you, ma'am."

"I give up. Why thank me?"

Touché. Fixed. 

you don't need full details...the person hit should have called the police..it is still a hit and run.....they may not put much effort into an investigation, but could put in the partial details and see if it matches any car in the area....they could patrol that area around the same time of day and look for the car....maybe there have been similar incidents and the added details will lead to the driver....

i would assume they could put the partial plate in their computer and have it look up to see if any vehicles matching that description are registered in that area.

i would contact the PD and let them know what I have...

spontaneous said:

Too many times I've seen someone stop to allow a pedestrian cross and the driver behind them assumes they are turning or something and zooms around, almost hitting the pedestrian.  Just the other day my husband stopped to allow a couple of people cross Prospect St in Maplewood.  We had to wait a bit, as oncoming traffic just kept going and the women had to wait a bit before they could cross.  The guy behind us starts to sneak around as they were crossing.  My husband honked his horn to get the driver's attention, it would have been close had he kept going.  To be fair, the guy did have a sheepish look on his face once he realized why we were stopped.  And the poor pedestrians probably thought my husband was honking at them to hurry up when he was really just trying to keep them from getting hit.

I've had people behind me do that numerous times....they need to do a study to see if there are more incidents because of the stop for pedestrian law....if they are going around, they are leaning on the horn.

Thanks everyone for the advice.  Proper reporting has been completed.  This all hits very close to home for me because I lost a friend of mine two years ago who was struck by a car as she was out for a jog in PA.  People take so much for granted, I just wish I could have said something to her so she could realize that what she did was not innocent and not a joke.

PeggyC said:

Report it to the police and let them decide what to do about it.

Right

Student_Council said:

Not sure what good it would do to "discuss" with police -- if you have a full license plate you can file a complaint, but with just a partial plate I doubt the PD would do any legwork to investigate.

Wrong

Was this Maplewood or South Orange? If So Orange, reach out to Sgt. Acevedo at 973-763-3000 ext 7802

The police probably can't do anything, but it pays to report it anyway. Nearly hurting someone isn't like actually hurting someone, and if the police don't witness reckless driving, I believe they can't issue a citation.