Damaged Car

smitchy73

My wife's car was parked outside of her work yesterday and got damaged by a passing bus. Nice big scratches, dents, and paint transfer on the car from the drivers door to the front bumper.

There were no details left with the car, and very possibly the driver didn't even know he had hit, although it has even scraped the tyre and hub cap too, so must've felt something.

I've reported the incident to the Police as I believe the driver has left the scene of an accident without reporting it. Now I'm left with the problem of repairing it. I tried to phone the bus depot when I got home but have to wait till Monday morning to speak to someone, and there is another bus depot about 20 miles from us that has buses that use the route and will speak to them too.

Question is what happens if their driver hasn't reported it to their bosses and they dont accept liability?

Any help or advice appreciated.:mad:

spiro

Why do you think it was a bus not a van or lorry?

The best the bus company can do is check the buese that drove the route during the hours concerned for any sign of damage. If they find any damamge or paint on the bus they I would think they will pay up rather than be subject to adverse publicity. If they dont find anything they will just say 'not us'. If it is a large company with modern buses then they may well have CCTV fitted which will show in detail what happened.

Quentin

If you can't identify the guilty party then repairs are down to you - either directly (you pay for them), or indirectly if you have comprehensive insurance via a claim incurring you paying your excess (though this will also be considered a fault claim for NCD purposes)

Hintza

Prove it was a bus (and then prove it was their bus). Which without calling CSI in will be very hard to do. Could it not equally have been a lorry/car etc?

No witnesses? Canvass the area on Monday morning for witnesses?

smitchy73

The paint transfer on the car matches that of the only bus company that uses the route, and is in an identical position to that which is one the bus, ie one colour near the bottom of the car, and another colour further up. There is a bus inspector who is regularly in the area where it happened, and even he said it was more than likely a bus but he didn't see it, plus he's not there all day.
I have to phone the two garages of the bus company on Monday morning to see if anything has been reported in, as there is no office staff to speak to over the weekend, so we'll see what that brings, the police officers that I reported it too are planning on asking for them to review the CCTV from the buses, seemingly the buses also have sensors that pick up any impact too and is stored digitally on them too.

2eZero

The Police probably won't be able to provide the manpower to do such things as ask the bus company.

What I would advise is you take photographs of where the vehicle was parked in the road, as well as photographs of the damage from different angles. Make up a diagram of the area showing such things as how far into the road the car was parked, how much room there was to pass. Basically, an 'accident diagram' and when you write the letter include details of when you parked it to when you found the damage. Make sure you provide measurements as well. This sort of information is vital down the line if the claim was 'rejected' or if you 'forgot' bits later.

Put all this in writing and send it to the bus company's local depot addressed to something like 'Complaints' or 'Managing Director'

After you've written the letter and set everything out you wanted to say reread the document to proof read it and keep a duplicate/photocopy of what you send.

The bus company would know what buses operated on that route on that day and would be able to investigate damage done to those buses and then narrow down the relevant driver that caused it.

Most bus companies self insure anyway but also have their own repairers they use as well.

Good Luck