CHP Touches Base

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) received my supplement to the report on my accident, and the reviewing officer from the Woodland office called to touch base.

I complained that the CHP did not cite the driver of the truck that hit me. CHP concluded unsafe speed was at fault, but not whose unsafe speed.

The officer explained CHP could not cite anyone if they did not directly-observe the infraction, with two exceptions - drunk-driving or hit-and-run - neither of which applied in this case.

The officer explained there were two places on the report where the responding officer indicated the truck driver was at fault. The first place was a numeral "1" placed in a box on the first page. I never saw the numeral because it was at the edge of the first page, and fell entirely off the page in the Xerox copy I had.

The second place was the last paragraph of the report, where the responding officer concluded the truck driver was at fault. I missed that last paragraph because I was busy screaming and repeatedly hurling the report against the wall.

The reviewing officer patiently explained that he understood my point about the confusion about what was exactly meant by "the right lane." I replied I was prepared to file a supplement to the supplement to the accident report if need be, since I now believed I understood where on the freeway the impact point was. The CHP officer patiently explained that knowing the "AOI" as he termed it wouldn't change the conclusion of the report. I agreed.

In the event I held a grudge against the responding officer, the reviewing officer further explained that normally the Woodland office would have responded to the accident but they were having their Christmas party that night, so the South Sacramento office responded instead. The Woodland office returns the favor to South Sacramento on a different night. I replied I never held a grudge against the responding officer, only that I believed he was confused, which was understandable given that everyone else there was confused that night too.

So, we finished the conversation amicably. I won't be filing a supplement to the supplement to the accident report, since it wouldn't do anyone any good; nay, not even me.