Good deed of the day done

[Shore]

This afternoon I was parked in a car park and witnessed someone hitting a car and driving away. The woman was reversing out and clipped the car parked beside them. They looked around and never noticed me. The husband jumped into the driver seats and sped off. I got a picture of their car touching the parked car. I waited on the owner who was really grateful and I emailed him the pictures along with giving hi, my name and mobile number as gebwasngoing to report it to the police.

About one hour later he returned to the car park and told me that the police said that if the offender doesn't report it within 24 hours they will be charged with leaving the scene of an accident. The damage is a minor bumper scuff how far are the police likely to take it ? I don't really want anything else to do with it.

I was happy to assist

Edited by Shore on Saturday 8th July 20:23

[caelite]

Watch this space, it'll bite him in the ass.

[Cupramax]

Good on you, too many tossers out there happy to damage other peoples stuff then do a runner. s

[ging84]

The law around this makes me feel a little uneasy.
I don't like that it's basically the same offense if you do some superficial damage to someone's bumper or wing mirror as it is if you do a 'proper' hit and run.

I've scuffed a couple of cars in the past and left a note, and ended up paying for the damage, but it wasn't exactly a no brainier decision, one of the times there was clearly noone around and the damage was minor i was very tempted to just drive off.
But if i had a serious accident, even if i thought i would definitely get away with it, there is no way i would do a runner.

[paintman]

ging84 said:

The law around this makes me feel a little uneasy.
I don't like that it's basically the same offense if you do some superficial damage to someone's bumper or wing mirror as it is if you do a 'proper' hit and run.

I've scuffed a couple of cars in the past and left a note, and ended up paying for the damage, but it wasn't exactly a no brainier decision, one of the times there was clearly noone around and the damage was minor i was very tempted to just drive off.
But if i had a serious accident, even if i thought i would definitely get away with it, there is no way i would do a runner.

I agree.
Son of friends - pedestrian - was killed recently in a hit & run & in the absence of other evidence as to driving & a 'no comment' interview all that could be charged with a realistic hope of a conviction was fail stop/fail report. Max sentence is 6 months & with an early guilty plea the driver got 4 months.

Edited by paintman on Saturday 8th July 21:08

[Integroo]

ging84 said:

The law around this makes me feel a little uneasy.
I don't like that it's basically the same offense if you do some superficial damage to someone's bumper or wing mirror as it is if you do a 'proper' hit and run.

I've scuffed a couple of cars in the past and left a note, and ended up paying for the damage, but it wasn't exactly a no brainier decision, one of the times there was clearly noone around and the damage was minor i was very tempted to just drive off.
But if i had a serious accident, even if i thought i would definitely get away with it, there is no way i would do a runner.

Why? The law is clear, and for a reason.

[mac96]

Integroo said:

ging84 said:

The law around this makes me feel a little uneasy.
I don't like that it's basically the same offense if you do some superficial damage to someone's bumper or wing mirror as it is if you do a 'proper' hit and run.

I've scuffed a couple of cars in the past and left a note, and ended up paying for the damage, but it wasn't exactly a no brainier decision, one of the times there was clearly noone around and the damage was minor i was very tempted to just drive off.
But if i had a serious accident, even if i thought i would definitely get away with it, there is no way i would do a runner.

Why? The law is clear, and for a reason.

I suppose the grey area is 'what constitutes damage'. What if the bumper looks at the car he bumped and can see no mark whereas the owner is as anal as the guys who check Aston Martins emerging from the paint shop at Gaydon?

Does it make a difference if the bumped vehicle is an immaculate presented Ferrari, or a 15 year old Transit covered in dirt rust and prior accident damage? In law it presumably doesn't but in reality it does. I would definitely leave a note on the Ferrari, probably not on the Transit.

[Boosted LS1]

^ You can be pretty sure the transit driver wouldn't leave a note for you.

[SlimJim16v]

But can he be charged for leaving the scene of an accident, if it happened in a car park and not on the road?

[Integroo]

SlimJim16v said:

But can he be charged for leaving the scene of an accident, if it happened in a car park and not on the road?

Yes?

[meehaja]

Someone did this for me recently, photos of the driver, reg the lot. Ended up not going through insurance as, much as I'd like to "get" the other driver, for £150 damage it's likely my insurance would go up by by a similar amount over a few years anyway.

[SEE YA]

Shore said:

This afternoon I was parked in a car park and witnessed someone hitting a car and driving away. The woman was reversing out and clipped the car parked beside them. They looked around and never noticed me. The husband jumped into the driver seats and sped off. I got a picture of their car touching the parked car. I waited on the owner who was really grateful and I emailed him the pictures along with giving hi, my name and mobile number as gebwasngoing to report it to the police.

About one hour later he returned to the car park and told me that the police said that if the offender doesn't report it within 24 hours they will be charged with leaving the scene of an accident. The damage is a minor bumper scuff how far are the police likely to take it ? I don't really want anything else to do with it.

I was happy to assist

Edited by Shore on Saturday 8th July 20:23

Well done.

[loskie]

same scenario several years ago for me in a car park in Girvan. Reported it to the Police who came the 50 miles to my house for a witness statement. I was nervous about being called as a witness and thought WTF have I done?
It WAS the right thing to do however, if it was my car that had been hit I would have been chuffed that it was reported.
Luckily I wasn't called as a witness as the driver pled guilty.

Like you the driver and passenger switched seats after, from what the police said it may have been that he was banned or over the limit as they were very interested in this.

So yes you may feel uneasy BUT what you did was the right thing. There are too many that don't give a toss about others or their property.

[vikingaero]

Integroo said:

SlimJim16v said:

But can he be charged for leaving the scene of an accident, if it happened in a car park and not on the road?

Yes?

I think this is one of the things that people think that they can get off a charge for - not being a road/highway. The key often is a place where the public have access, which would include supermarket car parks etc. There's lots of PH Freeman of the Land type stuff on whether zebra crossings are legal in supermarket car parks and you don't have to give way to pedestrians on them.

[cjs racing.]

Shore said:

This afternoon I was parked in a car park and witnessed someone hitting a car and driving away. The woman was reversing out and clipped the car parked beside them. They looked around and never noticed me. The husband jumped into the driver seats and sped off. I got a picture of their car touching the parked car. I waited on the owner who was really grateful and I emailed him the pictures along with giving hi, my name and mobile number as gebwasngoing to report it to the police.

About one hour later he returned to the car park and told me that the police said that if the offender doesn't report it within 24 hours they will be charged with leaving the scene of an accident. The damage is a minor bumper scuff how far are the police likely to take it ? I don't really want anything else to do with it.

I was happy to assist

Edited by Shore on Saturday 8th July 20:23

So you were happy to assist.

But now you have started another thread complaining that the police want to talk to you about it, and you want no involvement.

So which is it? Do you want to help or not?

[Shore]

I was happy to give him the reg and pictures but that's all I wanted to do. I don't want anything more to do with it. I've done my bit.

[cjs racing.]

Shore said:

I was happy to give him the reg and pictures but that's all I wanted to do. I don't want anything more to do with it. I've done my bit.

Did you not think that maybe as the only witness, the police would want to talk to you?

I find it strange that you did the right thing, then came on here telling us all about it, and now you want to walk away.

Very mixed messages you are sending out here.

Talk to the police, it's an hour of your time, just think how you would feel if someone saw your car get hit, but couldn't be bothered.

[Shore]

cjs racing. said:

Did you not think that maybe as the only witness, the police would want to talk to you?

I find it strange that you did the right thing, then came on here telling us all about it, and now you want to walk away.

Very mixed messages you are sending out here.

Talk to the police, it's an hour of your time, just think how you would feel if someone saw your car get hit, but couldn't be bothered.

Hmm ive never done anything like it before. I just don't want involved in a court case if it even comes to that.

[V8Chris]

A kind gentleman witnessed someone reversing into me and left a note saying what he saw. No need for court or anything I just got a cheque through from his insurance via legal assist.

[MuscleSaloon]

Shore said:

Hmm ive never done anything like it before. I just don't want involved in a court case if it even comes to that.

Giving a statement is no big deal and you're unlikely to get involved any further than that.

If the police can approach the offender able to announce that they have a written statement plus photographic evidence from a reliable witness they would be very silly not to come clean at that point.