Car Accident - False Details Given?

lola234

Hi Everyone,

I was involved in an accident today where a car ran into the back of our van whilst we were sitting stationary at traffic lights. My partner (driver) exchanged details with a male passenger from the car that hit us (a woman was driving the car when it hit us but the man was driving when they left the scene) and as both vehicles were driveable we did not contact the police.

It transpires that the registration number my partner wrote down was either wrong or false as the number corresponds to a Scania bus not a Ford Focus.

The telephone number we were given is answered by a woman who speaks very little English and claims not to know of anyone by the name we were given.

The address he gave us does not tie in with the phone number - I know this because I called round there on my lunch break and dialled the number which didn't ring inside the house.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do next (other than ring the police which will be our next port of call)?

Is there any way of getting a phone number for the address we were given or an address for the phone number we were given?

We can claim from our own insurance but this will involve a large excess .

Cheers, Lola

k2tog

You need to log this with the police. Take your driving licence (both parts) insurance docs and MOT if applicable. Give them all the information that you can. They will follow this up and will have access to vehicle data that you won't. If someone has false plates on their vehicle, chances are they are doing other things which may be of interest to the police.
Good luck
Forgot to say, you probably won't be able to do the police thing over the phone as they will want to verify that whoever was driving your vehicle is insured etc.

Quote

lola234 wrote: »

We can claim from our own insurance but this will involve a large excess.

That might be the case, whatever happens.

Treadway1

I know its only a requirement to report car accidents to Police if there is an injury, but this is why I would always contact them even if it was a minor shunt where only damage to the car had been done.

As a previous poster has siad though, get yourself and your driving docs. to the local cop shop as they have quite a few indices they can check to try and identify the driver.

Best of luck though.

lola234

Thanks k2tog, quote and treadway1,

We don't live in the city where the accident happened so we'll be off to the police station there in the morning. My inclination is to wait at the same place tomorrow and see if they're taking the same route to work but I'm not really a vigilante so don't know what that'd achieve...

In retrospect we should have taken more details and maybe photographs but I've always thought people would be as honest as me in the event of an accident which is probably my downfall.

Hey ho, have a good evening,

Lola

k2tog

Don't lose heart Lola. There may be CCTV at the lights which the police could view. I wouldn't encourage trying to follow up too much yourselves - you really don't know who they are or what they may be prepared to do.

BlameTheGame

There will definitely be CCTV.

Big brother is always watching.