Witnessed an accident

[leigh1050]

Earlier today I saw a silver Mercedes hit another car and then carry on.
I've got a picture of the Merc with his registration stopped at a set of lights further up the road, the car he hit tried to get him to stop but he kept going.
Any suggestions about what to do ? I never got the reg of the car he hit only that it was a black Jaguar F- Pace

[leigh1050]

Picture of the Mercedes.

[InitialDave]

Report to local.plod?

[mybrainhurts]

All you can do is tell the police and ask them to tell the Jag driver to get in touch if he reports the accident.

They might, of course, be too busy breaking down the doors of people, to arrest them for saying hurty words and offending other people.

[KungFuPanda]

Unless the driver of the Jag got the reg number of the Merc, there's nothing you can do. You don't have any contact details for the Jag owner do you?

[leigh1050]

Thanks for the replies. Would I call 101 to report it?

[Gareth79]

leigh1050 said:

Thanks for the replies. Would I call 101 to report it?

Many forces have an online reporting system these days where you can fill it all in, upload a photo (or paste a URL to the photo). It'll probably be much quicker than faffing around on the phone repeating things.

[leigh1050]

Thanks I'll give it a go.

[Cliftonite]

KungFuPanda said:

Unless the driver of the Jag got the reg number of the Merc, there's nothing you can do. You don't have any contact details for the Jag owner do you?

He may have got a partial reg. and a web search could yield the rest: LO59 UCG

[AJL308]

Report to the insurance database or whatever its called. That should nicely fk over the Merc driver when he comes to renew.

[LosingGrip]

Report to local police via 101. Either online or via the website.

[Red9zero]

What did the Jag driver do ? Twice I have had vehicles hit my car and drive off and both times I have given chase and made them pull over. One wouldn't give me his details, but as his tractor was sign written with a name, address and phone number, I just took a photo of it. Saying that, next time it will be a Ronnie Pickering/Kenny Noye type

[Kyodo]

Crop the middle of that picture out so it doesn't look like it's been taken on a phone from the driving seat. The police are as likely to hand you six points as they are to investigate the collision. The Jaguar driver may've also noted the Merc number. You would be a handy witness so it's certainly worth reporting perhaps by statement rather than the picture. (I'm not sure of the best method though).

[Dibble]

Kyodo said:

Crop the middle of that picture out so it doesn't look like it's been taken on a phone from the driving seat. The police are as likely to hand you six points as they are to investigate the collision. The Jaguar driver may've also noted the Merc number. You would be a handy witness so it's certainly worth reporting perhaps by statement rather than the picture. (I'm not sure of the best method though).

Utter rubbish. The OP won’t get points for that

[AJL308]

Dibble said:

Kyodo said:

Crop the middle of that picture out so it doesn't look like it's been taken on a phone from the driving seat. The police are as likely to hand you six points as they are to investigate the collision. The Jaguar driver may've also noted the Merc number. You would be a handy witness so it's certainly worth reporting perhaps by statement rather than the picture. (I'm not sure of the best method though).

Utter rubbish. The OP won’t get points for that

Agreed. There is certainly a specific exemption for "emergencies" and the reasonable detection of crime is probably a good enough reason too.

[leigh1050]

I've reported it on the Met website.
The traffic lights where I took the picture have a fairly long cycle between going red and going green again,nearly got time to do a crossword!
Thanks for all the replies.

[Dibble]

Thanks for submitting the report OP. As cops, we often struggle to get witnesses/information (and I understand the reasons why people often don’t want to get involved). Hopefully the information will be useful, you’ll help the other driver and if not, you’ve lost nothing other than a few minutes submitting the report online.

[2Btoo]

leigh1050 said:

I've reported it on the Met website.

Alas, I fear that this is the point at which things will stop. My experience of the Met and anything road related is that they simply aren't interested.

Keep us updated and well done for what you did but I strongly suspect that the Met won't be as upstanding at their job as you are as a citizen.

[Tony427]

AJL308 said:

Dibble said:

Kyodo said:

Crop the middle of that picture out so it doesn't look like it's been taken on a phone from the driving seat. The police are as likely to hand you six points as they are to investigate the collision. The Jaguar driver may've also noted the Merc number. You would be a handy witness so it's certainly worth reporting perhaps by statement rather than the picture. (I'm not sure of the best method though).

Utter rubbish. The OP won’t get points for that

Agreed. There is certainly a specific exemption for "emergencies" and the reasonable detection of crime is probably a good enough reason too.

I got 3 points and a £80 speeding fine after being done by a speed camera.

The fact that I was a tad distracted after spending over 45 minutes on hand's free waiting to be put through to a call handler to report a crime/ incident ( mental neighbour had gone missing leaving house wide open, doors, windows, heating going full belt etc) cut no ice whatsoever either with the CC or the Safety Scamera Partnership.

I was actually talking to the call handler as the flashes went off.

Just don't get involved , they won't thank you for it.

"No good turn goes unpunished"

[martinbiz]

AJL308 said:

Agreed. There is certainly a specific exemption for "emergencies" and the reasonable detection of crime is probably a good enough reason too.

Does not even need an exemption, taking a photo does not come under the specific offence of using a mobile phone whilst driving, he may however have committed other offences such as not being in proper control etc, unlikely to stick though as it looks like he was stationary at the time. with the handbrake on of course