Mini bus with cctv hit my car can i ask for footage

neildd

HI, My first post so please bare with me!. I was parked at work in a public car park when my car got hit on the side. I have partial, very poor, CCTV footage from my work place but it doesn't show the impact. I know who's mini bus it was as they were visiting my place of work (a theatre), i had footage of passengers getting in the mini bus. It doesn't show any numberplates but there are plenty who know it was the mini bus in question, including the college who hired the company. I walked past my car at apx 4.10pm, it was fine. I then left off at 5pm and the damage had been done. CCTV shows the mini bus reversing a long way, stop then drive off. The owner of the company say's he has CCTV fitted in all of his mini busses. He won't let me see the footage because of data protection. My insurance company are next to useless!, the company secretary told them to phone on a certain day when there would be someone to talk to, they (my insurance company) phoned the next day and he had gone on Christmas holidays!. The owner of the company told me before Christmas he is leaving upto our insurance companies, but can i ask him to see the footage as i believe it shows my car. He told me i can't as it will show the people in the mini bus, he told me the mini bus has four camera's. One at the front, one at the back and two inside. Where do i stand, the police saw my CCTV footage and agree with me that it is poor and can't do anything, though they have passed it onto traffic police. The layout of the car park, and where we were both parked the damage height etc leaves no question which vehicle hit my car. Can the owner of the company Really get off because of data protection?. Why else would he not show me the footage, if it shows the mini bus hit my car then he's guilty, if it doesn't then he's innocent!. But why not show me to prove he's innocent, unless he's not.

DUTR

neildd wrote: »

HI, My first post so please bare with me!. I was parked at work in a public car park when my car got hit on the side. I have partial, very poor, CCTV footage from my work place but it doesn't show the impact. I know who's mini bus it was as they were visiting my place of work (a theatre), i had footage of passengers getting in the mini bus. It doesn't show any numberplates but there are plenty who know it was the mini bus in question, including the college who hired the company. I walked past my car at apx 4.10pm, it was fine. I then left off at 5pm and the damage had been done. CCTV shows the mini bus reversing a long way, stop then drive off. The owner of the company say's he has CCTV fitted in all of his mini busses. He won't let me see the footage because of data protection. My insurance company are next to useless!, the company secretary told them to phone on a certain day when there would be someone to talk to, they (my insurance company) phoned the next day and he had gone on Christmas holidays!. The owner of the company told me before Christmas he is leaving upto our insurance companies, but can i ask him to see the footage as i believe it shows my car. He told me i can't as it will show the people in the mini bus, he told me the mini bus has four camera's. One at the front, one at the back and two inside. Where do i stand, the police saw my CCTV footage and agree with me that it is poor and can't do anything, though they have passed it onto traffic police. The layout of the car park, and where we were both parked the damage height etc leaves no question which vehicle hit my car. Can the owner of the company Really get off because of data protection?. Why else would he not show me the footage, if it shows the mini bus hit my car then he's guilty, if it doesn't then he's innocent!. But why not show me to prove he's innocent, unless he's not.

I'm sure if things were that simple , you would have sought a legal career, it is dissapointing that the incident has occured, but the footage does not belong to you and you have no legal authority to it, and as you are probably aware in law the defendant does not have to produce evidence that incriminates themself. You as the plaintiff will have to prove the event occured possibly by way of witness's

Buzby

Agreed - you have no rights to this footage. Your ability to refer to it relies on the firm using it in evidence - in which case under disclosure rules, you can refer to and see all evidence they will use to defend their position.

What you cannot do is use it as the start of a fishing expedition! The DPA is irrelevant to this.

paddedjohn

The owner of the mini-bus is talking cr4p, the footage captured on their cctv isn't protected under the dpa but they don't have to let you see it anyway. Can you travel to their premises and see if theres any damage on any of their bus's that matches up to your vehicle before it gets repaired.

Guest101

So they hit your car and didn't leave details? Go to the police who will seize the footage as evidence.

Hintza

Guest101 wrote: »

So they hit your car and didn't leave details? Go to the police who will seize the footage as evidence.

Will they?

Who says the OP has hit the car?

We don't quite live in a police state yet thank goodness.

Tilt

If you have reason to believe that the mini-bus collided with your car and the driver failed to leave his details, then he has committed the offence of 'failing to stop'. As previously mentioned, you should report the matter to the police.

Rodney_Trotter

Tilt wrote: »

If you have reason to believe that the mini-bus collided with your car and the driver failed to leave his details, then he has committed the offence of 'failing to stop'. As previously mentioned, you should report the matter to the police.

Possibly, but only if he's aware of the collision

shaun_from_Africa

paddedjohn wrote: »

The owner of the mini-bus is talking cr4p, the footage captured on their cctv isn't protected under the dpa.

It most certainly isn't crap.
The majority of CCTV recoedings are covered by the DPA, and this is especially true if there are recordings of people or other information from which people can be identified (such as vehicle registration numbers).

http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/topic_guides/cctv

Images of people are covered by the Data Protection Act, and so is
information about people which is derived from images – for example, vehicle
registration numbers. Most uses of CCTV by organisations or businesses will be covered by the Act, regardless of the number of cameras or how sophisticated the equipment is.

scotsbob

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

It most certainly isn't crap.
The majority of CCTV recoedings are covered by the DPA, and this is especially true if there are recordings of people or other information from which people can be identified (such as vehicle registration numbers).

http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/topic_guides/cctv

On the link that you provide it states
"The Data Protection Act does not apply to individuals’ private or household purposes"
I have a dashcam in my car and I am quite clear that as I am an individual and it is for my private purpose, then I am exempt from the act.

Tilt

Rodney_Trotter wrote: »

Possibly, but only if he's aware of the collision

True but still needs to be reported to the police. It would be up to them to determine whether the TP was aware of the collision or not.