Life Between Denver and Boulder – Traffic Accidents

At least if you get in a traffic accident in Arvada, CO you have some beautiful scenery to gaze at while you wait for the police.

The other day while I was driving home in Arvada, CO someone driving a big pickup truck decided to come into my lane while I was already there. I saw him start to come over, so bore down on the horn as I stomped on the gas pedal, but I didn’t get quite past him in time. He clipped the back of my car, at the tire.

No damage to his truck, of course. About $1,000 damage to my car, but no injuries, thank goodness.

Usually when I get in a fender-bender I don’t have a police officer come to the scene, because I feel they have better things to do. I just go to the station asap to fill out a report.

But my husband always gets on my case, telling me it’s foolish to trust people to do the right thing, and I should have an officer come out.  So far, I’ve been lucky.

On this occasion he was following behind in our other car (we had just picked my car up from the shop – just a little irony there!) so he saw the whole thing. And he pretty much took over as soon as we all got pulled over. He made sure the police were called out.

We had to wait about a half an hour in the freezing weather, but I was glad we had the officer come out. Turns out the guy who hit me had an out of state driver’s license even though he’d lived here for two years, and the officer couldn’t verify his insurance. So this guy had some pretty good motivation to try to get out of any responsibility.

But this made me remember that one of the unusual things a newcomer to Colorado may not know about is ‘Accident Alert’.

Old Towne Arvada CO on a snowy night - no accidents to report!

‘Accident Alert’ is declared when the weather turns nasty and there are so many fender benders the police can’t keep

up. Then, they will only respond to accidents with injuries, or where drug or alcohol use is suspected, where disabled vehicles are blocking traffic, or a few other cases.

‘Accident Alert’ can be declared by one city, and yet the city next to it is not on Accident Alert. It can be hard to keep up with, but if you call the police after an accident they’ll ask you the pertinent questions, and if the area is on Accident Alert, you will be informed to make a ‘counter report’.

That means an officer is not going to come to the scene, and a ticket will not be issued. It’s in your best interest to fill out that report, so your story gets told, should there be any conflict in the future.

When you have a fender-bender like this, with no injuries, no hit-and-run madness, etc. you don’t need to call 911. Keep the non-emergency number for your local Police department programmed into your phone.

Here is a list of information you should gather at the site of the accident, so you can complete the counter report (copied from the City of Arvada’s website):

• Name, address and phone number.
• Driver’s license information (including license number and date of birth).
• License plate number.
• Make and model of car.
• Insurance information.
• And be sure to make note of the time and location of the accident.

Each driver is then required to make an online accident report with Colorado State Patrol at the station or at https://crash.state.co.us within 24 hours.

The following is copied directly from the Colorado State Patrol website:

In an effort to provide better service to the citizens of Colorado, the Colorado State Patrol has created this online accident report for compliance with Colorado law which requires all motor vehicle accidents to be reported immediately.  Each driver involved in the accident must file an accident report to be in compliance with Colorado state law. This online accident report may be used if you have been directed by a law enforcement official to file a “counter report”.

This report should also be used when “Accident Alert” was in effect at the time the accident occurred. “Accident Alert” is defined as those times when weather conditions are so severe that State Troopers and Police Officers are unable to respond to the large volume of motor vehicle crashes.  Accident Alert is initiated on a jurisdictional and geographical basis, in other words some cities may be on accident alert whereas others may not depending on how the weather conditions are affecting each jurisdiction.  To find out if the location of your accident was on “Accident Alert” at the time of your accident, contact the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the location of your accident.

You can read more about Accident Alert on Arvada’s website.

To file a report using the State of Colorado Online Accident Report, the accident must meet each of the following criteria:

·  No fatality or injury requiring medical attention was sustained by any person(s) involved in the accident, and;

·  The accident is not an alleged hit and run or it is an alleged hit and run, and there is no information on the other driver involved in the accident, and;

·  The accident does not involve damage to any public property other than wildlife, and:

·  No drivers involved in the accident are suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or have insurance or driver’s license violations.

(In another part of the Arvada PD website, it said the damage must be under $1,000 – that would be a hard thing to determine on the spot, especially at night!  It also added that the vehicles are drivable and the parties had insurance.)

If the accident does not meet ALL of these above criteria, do not complete this report, click the “Cancel” button, below, and contact the law enforcement agency in whose jurisdiction the accident occurred for additional reporting instructions.

After all that, here’s hoping you never need any of the information in this post!

Homes Between Denver and Boulder

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I write posts on real estate issues and local events in the Denver metro area, especially those *communities between Denver and Boulder, as a public service. My hope is to give people an idea of the ‘flavor’ of our community, in case they’re new or moving to the Denver area.

I am a residential real estate agent, happily helping folks buy a house or sell a house in the beautiful and friendly *suburbs northwest of Denver.

*Arvada, Broomfield, Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, Westminster; also Thornton, Golden, Wheat Ridge, Northglen, Lakewood

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