messiah

2 weeks ago, some ******** in a battered rover thought he could nip through a gap between me and parked truck on his side of the road, I swerved to avoid, but we still cracked wing mirrors.

I stopped, then reversed back down the road and stopped behind the truck - checked for damage while putting the mirror back to where it should have been, checked that it could still be adjusted from the centre console - and all seemed to be fine apart from a few tiny scratches to the mirror

The other bloke had also stopped further down the road but I didn't go to speak with him - which has narked him because he's filed a report against me for not going to speak to him. I don't know what damage he has and quite frankly I don't care because he was in the wrong, and as I had no damage I decided to drive off rather than launch verbal abuse at him. At the time I thought I was doing the right thing by not letting my emotions get the better of me.

Anyway, the police have just been to see me and asked me to go for an interview tomorrow to check MOT etc and get my side of the story. The bloke had apparently said he was in the wrong but was annoyed that I didnt go to speak to him, which is fair enough, but surely I could get a new mirror out of him and I was doing him a favour by not taking it any further.

any opinions?

ajm

What a weirdo. Oh well, if the other bloke really wants you to speak to the coppers then you may aswell lay it on nice and thick!.... he was speeding wasn't he.... and on the phone....

unclebuck

**** me, haven't the police got anything better to do? Answer - yes they have. Things like catching criminals would be a good start. FFS.

UB

messiah

he's already said he was in the wrong, but if he wants to play at silly buggers then I'll have my mirror replaced on his insurance.

the damage on my car is so minor that when I went to show the copper (who was perfectly reasonable I might add) I couldn't see the scratch to beging with, but the car has had 2 sunday washes since then...

what would scooby do

What a ******** - not as if you failed to stop after an accident - wasting the coppicemens time

BuRR

Technically fail to stop, fail to report.

fatherpierre

Tell them you were too scared to approach him as he seemed violent.

Then get his insurance details from the police and claim against him. He's already admitted liability - milk it.

Pistol_Pete

After the accident has been reported the police will seek to get drivers documents and a short statement as to what has happened.
Im sure no further action will be taken so please dont worry about it.

My ex wife had the same thing a few years back, she clipped somebody and pulled over and stopped but the other driver didnt. I thought we had better talk to the police just to cover ourselves and they advised reporting it to be on the safe side.
So this other driver was sent a producer even though it was my wifes fault. Seems mad but thats the way the system works

fast bloke

Tell them you stopped and he buggered off. You didn't get his reg and there was no damage so you thought nothing more of it. Had a guy claim this against me a couple of years ago even though he buggered off. Fortunately I took witness names and addys and he eventually paid up the £12.00 for new mirror glass when plod threatened him with fail to stop, fail to report and attempting to pervert the course of justice by saying I buggered off. After that nothing came of it.

reas334

lol @ ajm

tell the coppers you had some really expensive carbon fibre mirrors, claim some new-uns on his insurance

i agree m8 milk him for as much as poss

good luck

BexTait

Well why didn't he go and talk to you???

Leslie

According to the law, you should have exchanged details regardless who was at fault. Technically you could get prosecuted for a hit and run accident. Luckily he has admitted it was his fault and he probably reported it to cover himself over the need to report an accident within so many hours of the incident.

Les

DocJock

"if the other bloke really wants you to speak to the coppers then you may aswell lay it on nice and thick!.... "

"Tell them you were too scared to approach him as he seemed violent.

Then get his insurance details from the police and claim against him. He's already admitted liability - milk it."

and

"milk him for as much as poss"

Yeah right, nice advice guys.
So you suggest messiah compounds his failure to report an accident by lying to the police. I am surprised nobody has suggested he claim for whiplash too.

Of course you will still all moan like **** when your next insurance renewal comes up......

The other party only complied witht the law by reporting the accident, he even admitted liability FFS!

Not having a go at you messiah, I may well have seen no real damage and driven off and forgotten about it as well......

messiah

Right then - an update...

I go down to the station on saturday night and I'm required to have a taped interview (which I have a requested of, don't know why but seemed like a good idea at the time). The police interviewer has said that the bloke has a "bee in his bonnet" because I failed to speak to him - which I freely admit, I explained that if I had gone to see him, I was so angry I would just have ended up shouting and so I thought walking away was the most solution. There was minimal damage to my car, it didn't seem the hassle to take it any further when it was obviously not my fault.

The other bloke on the other hand, has said I was going too fast, it's a 30 zone, and I said was doing around 30-35 mph. Basically there's not going to be any charges against me, I said that I should have spoken to him in retrospect and didn't know that the police had to be informed for such a minor incident.

Now it gets interesting - although he has admitted responsibility, he wants to claim on my insurance for a new mirror! I've notified my insurers and said that damage to my car is minimal - a few scratches on the wing mirror and passenger side alloy from where I had to run on to the grass verge to avoid him. Well if he going to try an claim something - so am I - a new alloy and wing mirror from him.

just have to wait and see what reply I get from the police now...

ajm

This is laughable! Has the bloke got mental problems?

messiah

it does sound crackers, but it's playing on my mind that the looney will come out of it better off than me. I am a bit worried about the failed to stop thing but - I slammed by brakes on and stopped in the middle of the road, when I looked in my rear mirror, that's when I saw his brake lights come on - so he was probably gonna take off!

Anyway, the police have said I'm not going to be done for it, but I'm still concerned that it'll make a difference to the insurance.

ajm

On what basis does he think he is entitled to claim from YOUR insurance? Basically you should drum it home to your insurance company that under no circumstances they should pay out as he accepts liablility and there is, presumably, a police report to support this. I assume you have now notified your insurance of what is going on?

Make sure the idiot gets nothing or it could set a ludicrous precedent!

messiah

insurance has been told, and I did explain that he has accepted liability - I'm sure his insurers are overjoyed about that!

spoke to dealer, I've got about £200 of damage apparently - £150 for new alloy and £30-40 to have my wing mirror resprayed.