quote:
What? Isn’t an accident in public property just that, an accident? Whether it takes place on private land or public land does not matter.Why do you think there is any distinction between disputes in private property v. Public property.

Sure, it's a civil event on either public or private land. The distinction would be that you can't get a traffic citation on private property. If OP's accident happened on a city street, a citation could have been issued for careless op or something similar (laws vary from municipality to municipality or from state to state). Since it didn't occur on a city street, no police response was warranted.

Or maybe we're talking past each other. I might not be understanding what you're asking. Why do YOU think police should have responded to OP's scene? Maybe that'll help me understand.

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Accidents being investigated on public property are not necessarily criminal either. However, LA R.S. 14:99 states that reckless operation is the operation of any motor vehicle, aircraft, vessel or other means of conveyance in a criminally negligent or reckless manner. Because this is a criminal statute, it is applicable everywhere, including private parking lots or private roads.

Insurance laws also apply, even on private property. If the person were found to be without insurance a law is broken. Although the officer cannot issue citations to the drivers for moving violations such as speeding, the officer can still take action against a driver for not having liability insurance.

Police officers just don’t like to investigate private property accidents. They actually have private lot crash reports, which is a different, less detailed report than the Louisiana Uniform Motor Vehicle Crash Report that L.E. prepares when a crash occurs on a public road.

These cops were being lazy or just didn’t want to be of assistance. Simple as that. Even though they know many insurance companies will challenge claims without an accident report.

I think I found the problem. You seem to have some bias and you can't possibly know how each agency in the state (let alone the country) handles private property accidents. As I previously mentioned, I policed for two departments in two separate states. One department's general orders required us to complete an info-only report. The other did not. That's completely up to the department.

I understand that you might not like it, but that's the way it is. We'd tell people to kick rocks if there was a non-injury, non-criminal private property accident at my first department. My second department was really nothing more than a monitored exchange of information.