Cyclist Incident and an unreliable witness!

Car_54

Another example of some self-important indiciduals trying to hijack the English language.

Belenus

Car_54 said:

Belenus said:

williamgriffin said:

Belenus said:

Car_54 said:

Belenus said:

Inform the police immediately, perhaps via 101.

101 isn't good enough. OP's wife needs to produce her insurance cerificate to the police ASAP, and in any case within 24 hours of the accident.

What law or rule is that?

As far as I am aware, the police should be informed within 24 hours. It is then presumably up to the police to request insurance details if they wish. 

The driver should inform the police in case this incident gets messy and the cyclist claims injury.

However I doubt if the police will be in the slightest interested in following up this incident.

If they requested insurance details after every minor incident they would be overwhelmed in paper work and checking insurance. Although these days perhaps they can check insurance details online.

All road traffic accidents are to be reported to the police within 24 hours of the incident taking place. You can call 101, the non-emergency police number to do this.

The Road Traffic Act states that as their is an injury and no insurance certificate was produced the accident should be reported to the police as soon as is practicable and any case within 24 hours. 

There is no requirement to provide insurance details to the police unless requested.

I'm afraid there is. Road Traffic Act 1988 section 170. The simplifed version from the HC is:

"Rule 287

If another person is injured and you do not produce your insurance certificate at the time of the crash to a police officer or to anyone having reasonable grounds to request it, you MUST

• report it to the police as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours
• produce your insurance certificate for the police within seven days."

The problem with simplifications is that they can miss things out. That applies where details were not exchanged at the time of the incident. As the cyclist was able to contact the driver afterwards, that is probably sufficient for the law.

Regardless, the fine details of complex road traffic laws are not especially relevant here. The OP's wife was under no obligation to give her insurance details to the police within 24 hours as was claimed and the police will not be interested in such a minor incident.

The important thing now is for the OP's wife to act correctly if the cyclist decides to fake an exaggerated injury claim. That is a civil matter not a police matter.

Sadly I suspect that is where this thing is headed.

Belenus

Car_54 said:

Another example of some self-important indiciduals trying to hijack the English language.

Indeed.  

williamgriffin

Belenus said:

Car_54 said:

Belenus said:

williamgriffin said:

Belenus said:

Car_54 said:

Belenus said:

Inform the police immediately, perhaps via 101.

101 isn't good enough. OP's wife needs to produce her insurance cerificate to the police ASAP, and in any case within 24 hours of the accident.

What law or rule is that?

As far as I am aware, the police should be informed within 24 hours. It is then presumably up to the police to request insurance details if they wish. 

The driver should inform the police in case this incident gets messy and the cyclist claims injury.

However I doubt if the police will be in the slightest interested in following up this incident.

If they requested insurance details after every minor incident they would be overwhelmed in paper work and checking insurance. Although these days perhaps they can check insurance details online.

All road traffic accidents are to be reported to the police within 24 hours of the incident taking place. You can call 101, the non-emergency police number to do this.

The Road Traffic Act states that as their is an injury and no insurance certificate was produced the accident should be reported to the police as soon as is practicable and any case within 24 hours. 

There is no requirement to provide insurance details to the police unless requested.

I'm afraid there is. Road Traffic Act 1988 section 170. The simplifed version from the HC is:

"Rule 287

If another person is injured and you do not produce your insurance certificate at the time of the crash to a police officer or to anyone having reasonable grounds to request it, you MUST

• report it to the police as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours
• produce your insurance certificate for the police within seven days."

The problem with simplifications is that they can miss things out. That applies where details were not exchanged at the time of the incident. As the cyclist was able to contact the driver afterwards, that is probably sufficient for the law.

Regardless, the fine details of complex road traffic laws are not especially relevant here. The OP's wife was under no obligation to give her insurance details to the police within 24 hours as was claimed and the police will not be interested in such a minor incident.

The important thing now is for the OP's wife to act correctly if the cyclist decides to fake an exaggerated injury claim. That is a civil matter not a police matter.

Sadly I suspect that is where this thing is headed.

Read the act for yourself.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/170

When there is an injury simply giving contact details isn't enough. At the minute there are criminal offences so don't dismiss it as civil. 

Belenus

ps124, I suggest that you take no notice of comments about criminal offences. They serve no useful purpose here.

The police and the law will have absolutely no interest in this incident. The only time they might get interested is if the so called victim decides to commit fraud and even then they are very unlikely to get involved.

Sandtree

ps124 said:

with insurance, the incident happened on Sunday, and we switched to the new insurers yesterday, so I assume I would inform the old insurance company? Both policies had legal protection. 

Legal Protection is about getting your uninsured losses back in a non-fault accident... all car insurance covers damage you are alleged to have done to others.

As to which insurers... this is where you have a bit of a sticky wicket to deal with:

Old Insurers - these are the priority to tell because they are the ones that will deal with the incident if anything should happen. Typically an insurer will open up a claim and diary it on for 3-6 months to see if anyone approaches them (law of limitations is 3 years if there are injuries, 6 if not)

New insurers - your old insurers registering the claim is likely to go onto the likes of CUE which your new insurers will see and if they spot that and you havent told them about the claim they may decide to cancel the policy for fraud or best case charge you an increased premium and admin fee. If you tell them then you know they will find out and you will have to answer the difficult question of why when they asked "have you been involved in any incidents, claimed for or nort, in the last 3 years?" that you said no.

Jenni_D

On that last part - at the time of purchasing the new policy the answer No was correct. The incident has occurred between purchase date and inception date.

Sandtree

Car_54 said:

I'm afraid there is. Road Traffic Act 1988 section 170. The simplifed version from the HC is:

"Rule 287

If another person is injured and you do not produce your insurance certificate at the time of the crash to a police officer or to anyone having reasonable grounds to request it, you MUST

• report it to the police as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours
• produce your insurance certificate for the police within seven days."

The interesting bit though is the "OR"

It doesnt say you have to produce it to the police and also anyone else with reasonable grounds to request it, that the requirement can be met by producing it to, for example, the cyclist as they would have grounds to request it.

My understanding, which may be wrong, is if the police or someone else requests and you fail to produce it then the the bullets apply. It also doesnt cover the scenario here where no one was apparently injured at the time and only later were injuries claimed. If your interpretation is correct then the "within 24 hours" is also unclear as to from when.

The whole clause however is generally out of date as these days they will just do a MID check and see that the car is insured and wont ask you for a certificate at all.

Sandtree

Jenni_D said:

On that last part - at the time of purchasing the new policy the answer No was correct. The incident has occurred between purchase date and inception date.

Then the conversations isnt difficult and you just need to inform them as soon as is practically possible but costs still apply

Manxman_in_exile

Sandtree said:

Car_54 said:

I'm afraid there is. Road Traffic Act 1988 section 170. The simplifed version from the HC is:

"Rule 287

If another person is injured and you do not produce your insurance certificate at the time of the crash to a police officer or to anyone having reasonable grounds to request it, you MUST

• report it to the police as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours
• produce your insurance certificate for the police within seven days."

The interesting bit though is the "OR"

It doesnt say you have to produce it to the police and also anyone else with reasonable grounds to request it, that the requirement can be met by producing it to, for example, the cyclist as they would have grounds to request it.
...

But the OP didn't say his wife showed the insurance certificate to the cyclist, did he?  [EDIT:  In fact it's highly unlikely as the question of insurance seems never to have crossed the OP's mind at the time - strangely... ]  So it still needs to be produced to the police?

(Do people carry copies of their insurance certificate in their cars?  We don't.  If the car gets nicked we don't want anyone to know our names or our address).