Officers: Hit and run driver’s auto snitched on her to cops

But when the police made the call, Bernstein denied the accident, stating that someone had pulled out in front of her and that she was going home.

As ABC 7 reports, 57-year-old Cathy Bernstein was driving her Ford in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on Friday when she allegedly ran into a Ford truck and then a Dodge people carrier.

Suspicions were raised by the call handler after Ms Bernstien insisted that nothing was wrong. It doesn’t do that for no reason. She was taken to hospital with back injuries.

After she received medical treatment, Ms Bernstien was taken into custody. When asked if she had left the scene of an accident she told the dispatcher “no I would never do that“.

At the same time, police officers were nearby and spotted the connection, and went to investigate why the 911 Assist system had been activated.

While privacy campaigners have raised concern over government use of the technology to permanently track a car’s movements, they have been told that the new measures would only allow for the temporary collection of Global Positioning System information in the event of an emergency – after which it must be erased.

An increasing number of cars have features which let them contact police in case of a collision, detected by monitoring internal systems such as airbags. One of Bernstein’s reported victims, Anna Preston, was treated at the same hospital as Bernstein.

But her auto, a Ford Focus, had other ideas.

Bernstein was arrested and taken to the St. Lucie County Jail.

When police later attended Ms Bernstein’s house, they found a black Ford that was damaged at the front end and had silver paint on it. The airbag had also been deployed.