Bumped Car in Car Park

FunkMaster

Hello All;

Yup, this is another one of those threads asking what happens due to a bump in the car park, but the conditions are slightly different and curious to thoughts -

Basically, my wife reversed in a train station car park and hit the car behind her. She actually got out the car and checked both her car and the car she tapped and there was no visibile damage at all. She was in shock of course, but nothing seemed to be damaged on either end.

Anyways, she parked her car and went to work etc ... No report to the police was filed and in all honesty she didn't think she would need to, as there was no damage. (Probably something most people do).

Fast forward 4 months and the British Transport Police knock on the door. Basically, the car she hit had one of those Dash Cams (might get one myself now because of this story) ...

Anyhow, the dashcam shows her reversing and hitting the car, also her getting out to check for damange and leaving.

So the driver of the car she hit contacted the police as he has found damange (scuffed number plate and what appears to be a hair line crack).

Long story short, he has basically said he would consider settling out of going through insurance but -

• The quote is from a single repairer, not a lot of money
• Then he's trying to claim for travel to/from the repair place (over 120 miles of travel each way x2 - drop car + fetch car
• Then he's trying to claim for loss of income too based on the time taken to fix the car or something like that

So it's more than just fixing the car ....

So the options are:
Settle outside of insurance
Go through insurance

We have decided to follow the insurance process and I have NCD on the policy and accept that the premium might go up, but that's life ... it just feels like the right thing to do.

But also now the officer will also open a case to state the incident wasn't reported (not sure of the police term of this) ... but basically a case is opened, all the evidence provided and then handed to a case officer.

I am interested to know if anyone has been in a situation like this before and if anyone has an opinion on what the outcome of the police "case" may or may not be.

jimmy_cricket

I'm surprised that the police are interested. Isn't it private land? Most car parks are deemed as such

Billy_Bullocks

She could be charged with failing to report the accident. The penalty being 5 – 10 penalty points, or a driving ban at the discretion of the court and a penalty of up to £5000.

Billy_Bullocks

jimmy_cricket wrote: »

I'm surprised that the police are interested. Isn't it private land? Most car parks are deemed as such

It's a public place not private land.

sazdes

I had a situation where a neighbor accused me of hitting his car and driving off (long story another neighbour was sat "watching his cctv" and said he saw me, I didn't, cctv turned out to be lies (I said I honestly didn't think I did but if he showed me the cctv I'd happily pay up for any damage - it was pitch black so at that point didn't know there wasn't any), guy was crazily aggressive on the doorstep etc)

He reported me to the police for not declaring the accident
police sent letter of prosecution saying I would be charged with "failure to report an accident, failure to stop and driving without due care and attention" simultaneously, which scared the life out of me as a medical student as thought would mean I'd have a criminal record/not qualify as a dr etc when I genuinely didn't touch his car!

I got called into the police dept, questioned on tape (read me all the "you do not have to say anything do you want a solicitor type stuff, so scared the life out of me), progressed me intensely question me on everything (that didn't seem remotely relevant to the situation but hey).

The police listened to me luckily (after managed to stop crying my eyes out!), looked at both the cars and saw there was no damage and dropped all charges and gave the man a verbal warning for threatening me.

However, obviously in your wife's case there is actual evidence that drove away from the scene of an accident without either leaving a note or reporting to the police (one of which is a legal obligation) so I could likely see them at least inviting to interview on the same charges they held me for, not sure of the outcome though, sorry!

macman

There is no requirement to report a collision to the police unless injury results, or unless the incident is causing a traffic hazard.
There is a requirement to give or leave your details to/for the other driver if there is damage to the vehicle. If your wife made a reasonable inspection and found no damage, then she did nothing wrong. Obviously in this case, what matters is the definition of 'reasonable'.

Billy_Bullocks

macman wrote: »

There is no requirement to report a collision to the police unless injury results, or unless the incident is causing a traffic hazard.
There is a requirement to give or leave your details to/for the other driver if there is damage to the vehicle. If your wife made a reasonable inspection and found no damage, then she did nothing wrong. Obviously in this case, what matters is the definition of 'reasonable'.

Yes there is as details were not exchanged at the time. The law makes no mention of leaving a note on the other car. If the owners not there then you must report it.

FunkMaster

Thanks for the insight ... I guess this just one of those things in life.

I will remain optimistic about things ...

I would hate to see it go as far as points on the license; a fine and all of that ...

My wife is distraught of course ...

Not sure which is worse

FunkMaster

Cant post links but came across an article (Failing to stop) on motor lawyers UK site ...


Third section: -
I was involved in an accident but did not stop or provide any details, what offences have I committed? -

The 5 to 10 points extreme applies failing to stop and failing to report in the sense of a true hit and run or an accident where the cars where moving ... that's how I interpret it:

Third last section - I was genuinely unaware of being involved in an incident, but it seems as if I may have caused very slight damage to another vehicle. Can I still be prosecuted? -

However, if you can satisfy the Court that you were genuinely unaware of an incident, or any damage occurring, you have a potential defence and should not be convicted for failing to stop and failing to report if it is accepted that you honestly were unaware of the incident.

The above one is what applies to us I believe

Billy_Bullocks

FunkMaster wrote: »

Cant post links but came across an article (Failing to stop) on motor lawyers UK site ...


Third section: -
I was involved in an accident but did not stop or provide any details, what offences have I committed? -

The 5 to 10 points extreme applies failing to stop and failing to report in the sense of a true hit and run or an accident where the cars where moving ... that's how I interpret it:

Third last section - I was genuinely unaware of being involved in an incident, but it seems as if I may have caused very slight damage to another vehicle. Can I still be prosecuted? -

However, if you can satisfy the Court that you were genuinely unaware of an incident, or any damage occurring, you have a potential defence and should not be convicted for failing to stop and failing to report if it is accepted that you honestly were unaware of the incident.

The above one is what applies to us I believe

Your wife's car was moving, she stop but it actually means stop and exchange details. As that wasn't done she had a duty to report it.

No one can say whether or not she should have been aware of the damage as we don't know how bad it was. I do know that BTP do prosecute for such matters on station car parks.

Aretnap

jimmy_cricket wrote: »

I'm surprised that the police are interested. Isn't it private land? Most car parks are deemed as such

This is not correct.

"Public" in the context of motoring law generally refers to access and useage rather than ownership. A supermarket car park for example may well be privately owned, but it is still a public place because it is open to and used by the general public. An Air Force base on the other hand is public property in the sense that it's owned by the state, but it's not a public place - as you'll quickly discover if you try climbing over the fence to take a look around.

A railway station car park is most definitely a public place for the purposes of the Road Traffic Act, and failure to give details and/or report an accident is an offence, and a police matter.