Collision whilst stationary, car drove off

comments_occasionally

Hi,
Hoping for some advice.
I was stationary in local high street when a car backed at high speed about 50+ yards down road and hit the side of my car, denting both the doors and scraping along the side.
They stopped behind me and then sped off back up the road? My daughters and I managed to get the number plate but no pictures. Several people saw or heard and we got one name/number as witness.
999 said to go to local police office today (in same road, open from 2-3!) and fill in report.
What can I expect? We looked up car on tax database and seems none ... My insurance finishes Feb and I want to change companies.
Would appreciate hearing of any similar experiences.

missile

999 is for genuine emergency only. You should phone 101 to report the incident or go to any police station.

Failing to stop / report an incident is an offence and carries a heavy fine. Police will investigate and may prosecute offender.

Report incident to your insurer. They will contact insurer and if other party admit liability, this will be a no fault claim. Some insurers protect your NCB if damage caused by uninsured driver.

Having an accident does not prevent you from changing insurer. However you must declare the incident and most likely your base premium will increase as a result.

comments_occasionally

Thanks, I tried local police office but not even open the one hour it was supposed to be. Phoned 101, told to do it online!
Pretty sure other party not taxed or insured.
Will see what happens. Reading insurance docs again!

Aretnap

If you have the car's registration number you can get its insurance details (if it has any) for a nominal fee here.

http://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

If it's insured then it is worth contacting the insurer and asking to deal with them directly - if they will deal with you directly then it will mean there's no reduction in your no claims bonus, even temporarily, and less hassle when you renew. The lack of tax won't cause a problem dealing with the third party insurer, however if the other driver denies all knowledge or doesn't return his insurer's calls that would complicate matters.

If the other car isn't insured (which is fairly likely, though not certain) then you're left with little option but to go through your own insurer.

Quentin

You can get the info from askmid foc if you use a smartphone to reach the website

comments_occasionally

Thanks, I'll try that. I think I will have to go to my insurers.
A bit of number crunching suggests an increase in premium of about £110 but as I'm taking young driver off it will still be less than last year by about £1000 ! And I may as well get them to pay out, they will probably cover it with my premium! They say I won't have to pay excess if it's an identified uninsured driver so I should be ok.. Apart from known insurers slipperiness..
I will update for info.

comments_occasionally

Update for info.
My insurers (more than smart wheels) have been very good. They found the other party was insured and they will get paid so organised repair with courtesy car. Only problem was repairers lack of sufficient cars to lend so kept putting off collection. I told them insurance running out and I was going away which speeded them up a bit! This is underway now, hope to get car back this week. No payment from me at all. Also no loss of NCD which is great. I have organised new insurance and hope not to test their claims department! NB I asked for claim amount which new insurers want and told they put £1001 as est if not known, so that's what I put.
Meanwhile I eventually received a letter from police saying thanks for reporting incident but they were not going to take it any further. So that was a waste of time..
Thanks for support.