i hit this guy who walked out in front of me?
So, about two months ago, my friend bob and I drove down our friend randy's street on the way to work to see whats up. We're crusin along, and its pretty snowy out, so we see someone snow blowing their driveway. But he keeps walking out into the street without looking at all, either way, and I'm blaring my horn and slamming on the breaks, but there were cars on both sides of the street that i wasnt just going to plow into. So I hit him at like... less than 10 mph for sure, and we find out its randy's uncle denny.
So of course im freaked out, but i figure nothings really wrong because it was such a slow impact (more like a slide) and his snow blower was still running so that must have been okay. He gets up and goes "wow man you hit me!" (without the swearing) and so Im like "yeah im sorry blah blah are you okay" and all that, and he says "no its my fault its okay i just hope my snowblowers alright im alright" etc etc. So I park and look at my car and go "sorry!" again and take off, because he even told me everythings okay and to go on.
So now I go to drop off Randy today (keep in mind this is 6-8 weeks ago that this happened) and his other uncle comes out and is like "so you ran dennis over with your car and f'd up my snowblower and just drove away eh?" and im like... "yeah... he said everything was okay" and hes like "yeah well that wasnt his snowblower, that was my mothers, and now its broke. your not even gonna do anything about it?" and i was like "uh... well, he said everything was alright and he didnt ask me anything about it so.." and he just goes "alright im not trying to be a dick ill just loan him the cash and contact my attorney" and storms away./
SO my question to you guys is... what do you think about this whole situation? I mean the snowblower was still running (though i know it was broke, but for probably really low repair cost) and he was okay and told me to go on... so im kind of confused why everyone is so angry about such a small misunderstanding. As far as im concerned the ethical thing to do would be for him to accept that he walked into the street without looking, and if he wants me to pay for the snowblower, dont get so angry about it.
but am i legally responsible considering he told me everything was okay and since its been almost 2 months? what should i do?
You have a witness that you applied the breaks and used your horn. I think you should talk to an attorney first and your auto insurance after. If he isn’t in the hospital then he didn’t get too hurt, did he? It may be an afterthought scam
Tell him to get a beer and go back to watching Oprah and leave you alone.
Get Denny in front of the ‘blower owner’ and have Denny tell this ‘blower’ that he sent you on your way and said that everything was alright. You did not ‘just drive away’.
There is no police report so it simply is your word against his. Carry a camera whenever you go over or see him and record him. If he acts stupid, tell him you are going to put him on U-Tube.