LJ02 WHC - Crashed into me and drove off

[Geekman]

I've just been down to the police station to report this guy for failing to stop, so thought I'd post a thread to vent, if nothing else!

At 16:30 yesterday, I was driving down Whitehorse Lane in Thornton Heath, South London, approaching the mini roundabout, and intending to go all the way around it, back up Whitehorse Lane. Here's a streetview link of my appproach: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.397644,-0.092619...

I was aware that people often don't expect you to go all the way around a mini roundabout, so I slowed right down, put my right indicator on, and positioned myself slightly over to the left so I could make the turn and not "cut off" the roundabout. Despite this someone coming from the high street intending to go down Whitehorse Road pulled out in front of me, so I had to brake. At that point, a silver Peugeot 206 (LJ02 WHC) came flying down Whitehorse Lane, didn't see my car stopped on the mini roundabout, and went into my rear quarter.

I looked through the rear window at him and he looked absolutely devestated, so I was fairly sure he was going to stop. He reversed back quite slowly, and then indicated down Whitehorse Road as if he was going to stop, so I followed him, at which point he put his foot down.

At this point, it occurred to me that I hadn't got his reg, so I chased him down the side streets whilst on the phone to the police, and managed to get the reg as well as a description of where he was going. His driving was very poor and indecisive and I was able to keep up with him without too much risk, right up until the point he decided to overtake several cars on a blind bend in a 20 limit, with cars parked on both sides. I obviously had to back off, but saw him up ahead (on Grange Road) slow down and shout at two teenagers playing football in the road. As I approached them, they ran into the road and tried to slow me down, with one of them chucking the ball at me, so he's clearly local as he knew them. Whilst I was busy avoiding them, he entered the same roundabout where the accident occurred and I couldn't see which way he went.

The damage to my car (1998 MR2) doesn't look too bad, but would definitely write it off if I was to go through insurance. The rear quarter panel is pushed in, the rear bumper is damaged, and the lining on the rear quarter panel has come off. This damage also means that the light cluster is now loose, and there is a gap between the panel and light cluster where water would be able to get in. I was initially committed to going through insurance, but I'm leaning towards just seeing if I can get him convicted for failing to stop. If I go through insurance, my premiums will increase (I'm 19), the car will be written off, and I'll have to pay out my excess until it's reclaimed from the third party (if he's even insured to drive the car). Equally, I don't think I'll be able to fix the car myself, although I could probably make it look a good deal better, so I'm not sure what to do.

Either way, I'm very angry! If anyone is in Thornton Heath and sees LJ02 WHC being driven by a young Turkish looking guy with some damage on the front drivers side, let me know Plenty of people witnessed the crash, but as I had to chase after him, I was unable to get anyone's details.

Here's some photos of the damage to my car

[Geekman]

John145 said:

Vehicle Make/Model: PEUGEOT 206 LX
Vehicle Type: PRIVATE CAR

And it's insured.

I reckon he just ran as he knew he'd never be insuring another car at his age with a fault claim. Either that or it's insured under his mum's name and he'd borrowed it.

zarjaz1991 said:

Thanks for posting this, and I'm so sorry to hear this happened.

I really hope you get this sorted....please do keep the forum updated on what happens.

Hate people who run off like this. Snivelling little coward this bloke is.

Thanks - I definitely will, even if the outcome is NFA.

lerd said:

Ok where the kids tried to stop you I would be pretty sure he is local, so have a drive around one evening and set a radius from the point I said , I bet you find it parked up,then park round the corner do what you want
Job done
I done this when 4 guys threatened my missus as four on to me isn't fair

Oh, I've no doubt he's local and I could find him easily, but what would I actually do? Although I'm not "powerfully built", I've got plenty of mates who'd be happy to help, but I can't see it getting me anywhere. If we managed to find the house and get him to open up (unlikely) he'd probably just deny everything and would go running to the police if we threatened him. And as much as I'd like to put a few more dents in his car, I'm not spending hours walking around South London just to do that.

[Geekman]

Terminator X said:

He will say you crashed in to him, 50/50 at best.

TX.

He drove off though - hardly the actions of an innocent man. Also, just been shown this....

[Geekman]

I always find this interesting when people complain about racism.

http://www.motorcarinsuranceuk.co.uk/post-code-rat...

[Geekman]

pork911 said:

Presumably you will include this thread in your disclosure.

I told the woman who took my statement yesterday that I'd be posting the reg online, and she said that although they obviously couldn't recommend me doing so, there was nothing to stop me. Would you not do the same?

[Geekman]

pork911 said:

Posting the reg LJ02 WHC will make it more likely you will be found out if you don't include this thread in your disclosure, but of course you'll be including it, won't you?

I am completely and utterly confused I'm afraid - what exactly do you mean by "disclosure"? In any conversation I have had with regards to this accident, be it insurance, police or whatever, I have mentioned that I was posting the reg online, just as I did at the police station yesterday. Why wouldn't I? I haven't done anything wrong, I'm perfectly within my rights to post the reg.

If you're trying to make a point, you need to be much clearer: not all of us are crash investigation experts :P

[Geekman]

pork911 said:

I'm no such expert

Start here http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/c...

So, as far as I can make out, if the case goes to court, I will need to submit a copy of this thread. If that's the case then I have no problem doing so: this thread is pretty much an exact replication of my witness statement.

[Geekman]

pork911 said:

Bold claim that he's only put facts in ....or would only do so.

Even if he has, still not a good idea.

His choice, he now knows sober reflection by the Defendant and Court of his posts may occur.

Someone crashed into my car and drove off - I see no reason why I would make anything up. If it was my fault I somehow doubt the first thing I'd so is post on the internet about it.

For arguments sake, if I didn't declare the thread and it was produced by the defence, it would be rather embarrassing for them as they'd just be reciting my witness statement. The vast majority of what I've said can be directly proved by the (recorded) phone call to the police as well.

[Geekman]

dacouch said:

What has Aviva's rating areas for motorbike Insurance from eight years ago got to do with racism or car insurance?

If you were trying to show a link between certain post codes and ethnic groups that link could not be any more incorrect

Edited by dacouch on Saturday 19th April 22:53

That'll be why car insurance is so cheap in Bradford then No-one, least of all me, is saying that all Asians/Africans are bad drivers: I'm saying that areas with high numbers of immigrants tend to attract high insurance prices - I should know, I live in such an area. But who knows, maybe the companies are racist and it's easy to get cheap quotes in Ilford and Bradford: I am genuinely happy to be proved wrong.

A friend of mine lives in Ilford and recently paid just under £5000 to insure his first car - a Nissan Micra. He's only just got his licence, but he's 26. He happens to be Asian himself, and was very, very disparaging about the Asian community in his part of London - far more disparaging than I would be, and I suspect the majority of people would refer to him as racist.

pork911 said:

Another poster claimed you'd only put facts - assume he wasn't there, you have included speculation and even if only facts it's still not a good idea, but that's up to you, though you misunderstand the importance, and the idea that someone at fault has never posted on the internet is laughable.

Even if your statement wholly matched, it would be more than just embarrassing for you if you didn't declare the thread, because of the failure to declare rather than the content.

Well, rest assured I will be declaring it, although I'll be pleasantly surprised if it goes to court. I've got hope from some people in this thread saying action has been taken in similar situations, but I'm not massively optimistic.

[Geekman]

dacouch said:

Car Insurance may or may not be expensive in Bradford, it may well be expensive in other areas.

The link you gave was for a motor cycle insurers post code ratings from eight years ago. Motorcycle Insurance bears absolutely no resemblance to car insurance as the premiums generally reflect the potential of theft claims and damage to the bike. Very little of the premium relates to damage to third parties (whether of not the are fraudulent injury claims) as motorbikes generally don't have passengers and generally don't do a lot of damage to things / people they hit. In addition you have problems trying to cause a motorcycle to have a fault claim against you so you could claim for non existent injuries.

Even when your link was in date (At least eight years ago) it was not an accurate representation of car insurance rating areas due to the big differences in how the two policies are rated.

To use such a link to try and demonstrate a link between certain ethnic groups and their ability to drive and / or commit insurance crime is a long way from the mark.

I'll have to respectfully disagree with you there I'm afraid. I tried a few dummy quotes with several of the "refer" postcodes in that link, and they all were, at a minimum, double what I pay now, and I've got a south east london postcode. I would suggest that areas with high motorcycle claims, be it theft, accidents, or injury claims would tend to be areas with high rates of car claims, even if such claims were for different reasons. Your logic makes sense, but doesn't seem to work in practice.

JagXJR said:

Bit late now but would a dash cam not have helped?

Just ordered one myself due to the excess on my insurance on the new car being £700

If you report a crime (failure to stop) the police have to investigate. You have no way of getting the other parties insurance details but they can. They may try to talk you out of it when you report it if it is your word against theirs (happened to me when a van tried to ram me off the road), but any damage to the other party's car would corroborate your version, so always worth doing. Especially if as in this case, it seems something is amiss like an unlicensed vehicle?

I've often considered going down that route, but I've got two cars, so would need front and rear cams on both, plus I tend to change my cars quite frequently so overall I just can't be bothered. I have reported the incident though, so hopefully I'll hear back.

HerrSchnell said:

Similar experience myself a few years ago, except I had a touch more damage which made the pursuit even more fun:

At the time I was absolutley raging and was determined to catch the guy, when the police eventually got around to taking a statment (3 days later) I was quite glad I didn't.

A few hours after I left the station I got a call from a C.I.D officer asking me to come back and look at some photos to ID the driver as it turns out the van had markers for heroin dealing and firearms.

When I was able to spot the driver in the photos they showed me the officer agreed with me that it was a great shame the 999 operator dismissed the initial call I made at the time as they were very keen to make his acquaintance.

Bloody hell! I almost feel lucky now!