Crescent City police are working to determine whether a minor collision involving a local elected official meets the criteria for hit and run.
The collision involved Crescent City Harbor District Vice Chair John Evans and took place in the Jedediah Smith Shopping Center parking lot near Safeway between 1 and 1:15 p.m. Thursday.
Police Chief Richard Griffin said both parties left the scene of the accident. Evans provided the other party, Tara Music, with his insurance card, Music didn’t reciprocate, Griffin told Redwood Voice Community News.
Music, who grew up in Crescent City but lives in Alaska, said Evans left the scene before she could give him her insurance details or any other information. She said she and her 12-year-old son were trying to find a parking space when she encountered Evans driving in the opposite direction in a red truck.
Music said she tried to give him enough room to pass without hitting the parked cars on her right, but Evans’ vehicle struck her rented 2025 Nissan Altima.
“The back of his car almost tore off the back fender of my rental car,” Music told Redwood Voice. “I was already stopped and he started yelling at me, asking why I stopped, and I was just like, ‘I would (have) hit these other cars.’”
Music said Evans threw his insurance card at her and left.
Both parties, including Evans, contacted the police department to make a report following the incident, Griffin said.
“It is being investigated as a hit and run,” he said. “It was a non-injury accident on private property so we’re seeing if the elements fit or not. It’s an active investigation and we’ll forward our findings to the District Attorney.”
Evans could not be reached for comment as of 5 p.m. Friday.
Following the collision, Music parked in a space, took pictures of the damage and went to the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office to file a report. After speaking with dispatch, a Crescent City Police officer showed up, Music said, but didn’t write anything down and told her to contact the car rental agency and its insurance provider.
At her sister’s urging, Music said she tried contacting the officer again, but it took her step mother, who works at the Del Norte County Courthouse, and a reserve sheriff’s deputy to get the officer to return.
“He called me while I was driving and he’s trying to give me information I can’t process because I’m trying to drive,” she said. “I called him back and he’s trying to act like he already wrote a report on it. And then when we started pushing him for the report number so we could get a copy, all of a sudden he starts trying to get my name and my son’s name. He wouldn’t give me a report number until he took all the information all over again. None of it felt right.”
Music said she thinks Evans is the one who should be cited for a hit and run since he didn’t provide his license and didn’t give her a chance to provide her information to him.
“I only had his name because it was on his insurance card,” Music told Redwood Voice. “I was shocked to hear that this guy is an elected person.”
Music also filed a claim with the insurance connected with her rental car. She said she was told that the claim has to be investigated, though she argues that she’s not at fault.
