DAYTON — A new policy change regarding how police respond to crashes went into effect today and the change has already caused some confusion for drivers.
Dayton Police Major Jason Hall stressed in a previously issued news release that officers will still respond to all crashes. However, if the crash is a minor collision, they will not do a crash report.
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Police will do reports on any crash that involves death or an injury, which they defined as crews taking someone to the hospital. Any crash that involves a hit-and-run or an OVI will also get a report, as does a crash where a vehicle is damaged badly enough that it needs to be towed.
The department will not do reports on minor collisions so that officers are freed up for higher priority calls and responding to violent crimes.
Most everyone wants police to focus on more violent crimes, but car crashes happen to everyone. News Center 7′s Mike Campbell spoke with those who often represent drivers involved in crashes. They told us there are several things drivers may hear from their insurance companies.
“Tell us what happened, but understand if you are at fault for this, your rates may go up. So they may twist the facts or misremember some specific items,” Matthew Bruder, attorney at Dyer, Garafalo, Mann & Schultz, said.
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Bruder said this policy could unintentionally send more people to civil court if no one admits who is at fault in minor crashes. He also talked about what could happen if your injuries don’t show up until the day after a crash.
“Next thing they know, they have thousands of dollars of medical bills and they don’t have a police report to verify an accident occurred or [they’re] relying on their insurance company to try to track down that defendant.
Police said they believe once officers and drivers get used to the new policy, they believe they will serve the community in a better way by focusing their resources.
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