Accused of Leaving an accident

[jeremyh1]

My business has vans on hire from Enterprise that we normally put on our own insurance
One this month we have on their full protected insurance as its very short term .

Last week I was reversing into a parking space with hazards I saw a campervan in the passenger mirror coming down the road .He then drove into the wall .
He said it was my fault and I told him to bugger off He got aggressive and so I had a bit of watch your lip with him and left

I have a email notification from Enterprise today saying that there is an inquiry for leaving the scene of an accident

I didn't consider myself in an accident and never gave it thought
What are the opinions of The Right Honorable Members on here

Many Advanced Thanks

[Smollet]

Sounds like you left the scene of someone else’s accident.

[jeremyh1]

Smollet said:

Sounds like you left the scene of someone else s accident.

Is that an offence ?

[Super Sonic]

If you didn't hit his vehicle you are in the clear but you should ask the shop if they have video so you can prove you were not involved in his accident.

[jeremyh1]

Super Sonic said:

If you didn't hit his vehicle you are in the clear but you should ask the shop if they have video so you can prove you were not involved in his accident.

Thanks it was not a shop it was a primary school in a small village but thanks I will talk to the school

[Smollet]

jeremyh1 said:

Smollet said:

Sounds like you left the scene of someone else s accident.

Is that an offence ?

Not that I’m aware of as you weren’t involved

[fooman]

Smollet said:

jeremyh1 said:

Smollet said:

Sounds like you left the scene of someone else s accident.

Is that an offence ?

Not that I m aware of as you weren t involved

You don't have to hit a vehicle to be involved, say if the other party swerved to avoid your vars manoeuvre, so it depends exactly what you were doing at the time of the accident.

[paul_c123]

Enterprise don't know what happened, they just have a report from one side of the story. Just reply back and say it wasn't an accident, explaining what happened.

ETA having read your description of the "accident", it doesn't make a lot of sense; or there's areas which need clarification. For example, why have hazard lights on when parking? Were you parallel parking or into a space, or something else? How big was the van? Was it a parallel park on the same side, or the side of opposing traffic? Did you block more than one lane? What wall did he hit? How does the wall relate to the parking space? etc

Maybe a diagram would help.

Edited by paul_c123 on Tuesday 15th September 20:08

[Dog Biscuit]

Super Sonic said:

If you didn't hit his vehicle you are in the clear but you should ask the shop if they have video so you can prove you were not involved in his accident.

If enterprise are informed that your manouvre caused the other driver to swerve and crash then I'd say in tht circumstance you are very much part of the accident and did 'leave the scene of an accident' I reckon.

No contact doesn't necessarily mean no accident. If your reversing manoeuvre caused him to take avoiding action and hit the wall, s.170 can potentially apply.

Equally, him saying it was your fault doesn't make it so. If you were simply reversing into a space, had seen him, weren't entering his path and he drove into a wall himself, causation could be very difficult for him to establish.

The slight problem is that he confronted you at the scene specifically alleging you'd caused the crash, so I'd be careful about saying you knew nothing about an accident. I'd tell Enterprise exactly what happened, factually and without embellishment, and preserve any dashcam/CCTV. If the police contact you about an alleged failure to stop/report, I'd take legal advice before giving a detailed account.

[Monkeylegend]

jeremyh1 said:

Last week I was reversing into a parking space with hazards I saw a campervan in the passenger mirror coming down the road .He then drove into the wall .
He said it was my fault and I told him to bugger off He got aggressive and so I had a bit of watch your lip with him and left

Presumably you were reverse parking facing traffic on the other side of the road if you saw him in your passenger mirror ?

Is he saying as you reversed into the parking space the front of your van swung into his side of the road and he hit the wall as he pulled to the left to avoid colliding with you.

Maybe not as clear cut as you seem to think and not helped by the verbal altercation that followed.

[Super Sonic]

Dog Biscuit said:

Super Sonic said:

If you didn't hit his vehicle you are in the clear but you should ask the shop if they have video so you can prove you were not involved in his accident.

If enterprise are informed that your manouvre caused the other driver to swerve and crash then I'd say in tht circumstance you are very much part of the accident and did 'leave the scene of an accident' I reckon.

No contact doesn't necessarily mean no accident. If your reversing manoeuvre caused him to take avoiding action and hit the wall, s.170 can potentially apply.

Equally, him saying it was your fault doesn't make it so. If you were simply reversing into a space, had seen him, weren't entering his path and he drove into a wall himself, causation could be very difficult for him to establish.

The slight problem is that he confronted you at the scene specifically alleging you'd caused the crash, so I'd be careful about saying you knew nothing about an accident. I'd tell Enterprise exactly what happened, factually and without embellishment, and preserve any dashcam/CCTV. If the police contact you about an alleged failure to stop/report, I'd take legal advice before giving a detailed account.

This would seem to be good advice.

[Mike Legerwood]

Perhaps the aggression of the other driver was caused by your attitude in telling him to bugger off when he spoke to you believing that you had caused the accident.

People don't just crash into walls for fun - why didn't you discuss it calmly at the time?

[HJG]

Mike Legerwood said:

Perhaps the aggression of the other driver was caused by your attitude in telling him to bugger off when he spoke to you believing that you had caused the accident.

People don't just crash into walls for fun - why didn't you discuss it calmly at the time?

Presumably because he was working, maneuvering a business vehicle, and then some (again, presumably, moron) causes unnecessary stress on what may already be a stressful day. Maybe you will realise your comment adds zero useful input to this conversation. So too does mine, apart from calling out your self righteousness.

[Terminator X]

The Police won't care about this so you shouldn't either.

TX.

[hellorent]

Sorry but on a side note, why did you have your hazard lights on when reversing into a car parking space ?
I see loads of people when just pulling over to stop put their HL on when they only need to indicate.

[NDA]

Sounds like the other driver was driving without care and attention. He's lucky he didn't hit anyone else.

[Yellow Lizud]

Mike Legerwood said:

Perhaps the aggression of the other driver was caused by your attitude in telling him to bugger off when he spoke to you believing that you had caused the accident.

People don't just crash into walls for fun - why didn't you discuss it calmly at the time?

People who have just crashed into a wall and, rightly or wrongly, believe it is someone else's fault, aren't usually in the mood to discuss it calmly.
Were you there? Did you see what happened?
No...thought not.

[ATG]

Yellow Lizud said:

Mike Legerwood said:

Perhaps the aggression of the other driver was caused by your attitude in telling him to bugger off when he spoke to you believing that you had caused the accident.

People don't just crash into walls for fun - why didn't you discuss it calmly at the time?

People who have just crashed into a wall and, rightly or wrongly, believe it is someone else's fault, aren't usually in the mood to discuss it calmly.
Were you there? Did you see what happened?
No...thought not.

You should at least try to defuse the situation, because, you know, act like a grown up. It's not only the right thing to do, it's the sensible thing to do. Do we all manage to do this? No. I started a shouting match with a bloke who was acting like a bit of a pillock, bit my escalation was completely childish. I eventually got control of myself, but I shouldn't have exploded in the first place.

[WTDMM]

100% part of the accident, sounds like he was dwdca assuming you werent doing anything stupid. Proving it is another matter. I reckon your insurer will accept part liability unless you have footage

[s p a c e m a n]

Yeah you don't need to contact the other vehicle to be the cause of an accident and if the other driver accused you of such and you left without giving any details then you left the scene.

Police generally won't give a st unless you've run someone over, but you're probably about to be stung by Enterprise/insurance.