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[Stuart30]

Fair point Lizzie and it does look like we may end up loosing out on this .I understand your point about the police and also her leaving the scene but I expect most if not all of us would attempt to follow a car if it just glanced of the wing and drove off.

Not really...police attended the scene of my wifes collision and as no one was hurt (at the time) its not something they consider worthy of there time.

[the alarming man]

in Kent the police will not usually attend a damage only incident unless it is on a motorway or you are in a dangerous position..if you are hurt they will always attend

[Lizzie_Zoom]

It is a shame she herself left the scene of the accident and did not call the police immediately. They would have attended, taken down all the details your daughter could provide, and then searched for the offending vehicle and driver. Any evidence at the scene such as car body parts would also have assisted the police in their enquiries.

Instead your daughter also left the scene I of an accident and so now has been left to prove the accident even happened. A real pity as some what's it has got away with an offence of leaving the scene of an accident and maybe others like drink driving along with traffic infringements. Is the owner of the car disputing who was driving, along with apparently not being involved at all?

This makes the job for the police to bring a prosecution very difficult indeed and they need irrefutable proof, like witnesses who you say do not exist, or perhaps CCTV if available (?)

Not a good situation but thank God your daughter and baby is ok.

But in the real world, coppers will only turn out if someone is injured ....... they're not interested in car crashes.

They will if it is a hit n run, in others words an offence has taken place, and especially if it is involving someone considered vulnerable I.e a woman with a baby who is badly shaken. They have to attend (even in Kent), but as I stated the IP must remain at the scene.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

..........and this is Kent Police Road Collision Reporting Policy if anyone is interested:

http://www.kent.police.uk/about_us/policies/operational-partnership/sops/r02b.html

Please note Section 3.2 III & V which I was referring to, and then Section 3.3

 


Section 3.13 may be of some use to you amba

[amba]

Nice find Lizzie and Thanks 

We will be speaking to our solicitor in the morning for their advise on the matter

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Nice find Lizzie and Thanks 

We will be speaking to our solicitor in the morning for their advise on the matter

  best of luck

[YZ250]

It is a shame she herself left the scene of the accident and did not call the police immediately. They would have attended..........

Nice thought but it doesn't happen in reality. My son never left the scene after he was a victim of a hit and run, he couldn't, as a forty ton truck had ripped the side off his car. He phoned the police and they told him to take his documents in to his local police station. They were of no help whatsoever and didn't attend the scene, we had to track the truck down ourselves, which we did, and then Admiral instructed their team to chase up the debt, successfully I might add.  My son was then reimbursed his excess and his No Claims was reinstated. 

As said, nobody was injured so they weren't interested, in fact I'd go so far as to say they were useless to us. 

[Broomies Mate]

Many years ago, I edged out of a junction (from a minor road to a major road) where the view was obscured by a HGV parked immediately before the junction.  It was late, maybe 22:30 and as I was edging out further still.  I still didn't have a view of the oncoming traffic but couldn't see any headlights so I gunned it.  A White (or light coloured) Sierra smashed straight into my front wing.  The force of the impact span the car around so I am now facing in the direction I had travelled from. 

A little dazed, I attempted to open the drivers door, which wouldn't open.  I was just about to climb over to the passenger seat and I hear a wheelspin (lots of).  I look into the rear view mirror and see the Sierra speed off.

My instinct was to restart the stalled car that I was driving, stick it in reverse and give chase!  I tried,, but the impact had destoryed the O/S front suspension.

In this instance, lets pretend the other party DID have their headlights on (which they didn't), I was in the wrong.  I was at fault.  I pulled out of a junction and was hit by someone minding their own business.

The more likely turn of events is the Sierra driver was pissed, or high on drugs, or a car thief and just wanted to distance themselves as far away from the scene of an accident as possible.

Police wanted nothing to do with it, and almost treated me as a criminal. I wasn't a very experienced driver at the time.  As you would suspect, I had to foot the bill for the repairs to a nearly new Mk6 Escort of which I had owned for a matter of weeks.

That car was never the same.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

It is a shame she herself left the scene of the accident and did not call the police immediately. They would have attended..........

Nice thought but it doesn't happen in reality. My son never left the scene after he was a victim of a hit and run, he couldn't, as a forty ton truck had ripped the side off his car. He phoned the police and they told him to take his documents in to his local police station. They were of no help whatsoever and didn't attend the scene, we had to track the truck down ourselves, which we did, and then Admiral instructed their team to chase up the debt, successfully I might add.  My son was then reimbursed his excess and his No Claims was reinstated. 

As said, nobody was injured so they weren't interested, in fact I'd go so far as to say they were useless to us. 

If an offence has been committed, as apparently in this case, the police have a legal duty to attend. If you were dissatisfied with the police response you should have lodged a complaint. I obviously do not know all the facts in this instance, and it is possible an individual officer either misunderstood the circumstances of the collision or failed to react as his Force would expect.

As I have stated many times, this life is not perfect and even police officers make mistakes which I am sometimes able to review during my duties for Kent Police and the CPS. One thing is for sure we need more police officers if the public are going to enjoy a full service, and that is for ALL of us to raise with our politicians!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Many years ago, I edged out of a junction (from a minor road to a major road) where the view was obscured by a HGV parked immediately before the junction.  It was late, maybe 22:30 and as I was edging out further still.  I still didn't have a view of the oncoming traffic but couldn't see any headlights so I gunned it.  A White (or light coloured) Sierra smashed straight into my front wing.  The force of the impact span the car around so I am now facing in the direction I had travelled from. 

A little dazed, I attempted to open the drivers door, which wouldn't open.  I was just about to climb over to the passenger seat and I hear a wheelspin (lots of).  I look into the rear view mirror and see the Sierra speed off.

My instinct was to restart the stalled car that I was driving, stick it in reverse and give chase!  I tried,, but the impact had destoryed the O/S front suspension.

In this instance, lets pretend the other party DID have their headlights on (which they didn't), I was in the wrong.  I was at fault.  I pulled out of a junction and was hit by someone minding their own business.

The more likely turn of events is the Sierra driver was pissed, or high on drugs, or a car thief and just wanted to distance themselves as far away from the scene of an accident as possible.

Police wanted nothing to do with it, and almost treated me as a criminal. I wasn't a very experienced driver at the time.  As you would suspect, I had to foot the bill for the repairs to a nearly new Mk6 Escort of which I had owned for a matter of weeks.



That car was never the same.

Did you report the incident to the police whilst still at the scene BM?

We're there any witnesses?

[jonathanh]

pretty sure you can get vehicle owners details from DVLA somehow, with those, issue small claims proceedings.

Then the owner has to fight back or you win by default - quite an easy process and you are better off not using a solicitor because you then look the poor downtrodden victim you really are

[amba]

Any ideas how I can get the drivers details then as we have the car registration/make/model/colour and vague address area..road and possibly number spread of 10/12 houses

[jonathanh]

write to DVLA and request it

https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla


trust me, when the court papers land on their mat they'll panic!

sorry just read the thread again - don't bother with the solicitor for the failing to stop bit - that is a criminal matter that police should follow up on.  whether or not there is a conviction there will not change your case.  Best to complain to the police that a crime was committed ( failing to stop after an accident) and they did not follow up.

The issue you need to pursue is the costs of repairing the car.  so

get the keepers details - send the a quote for the repair and 30 day payment terms.

then if they do not pay, send them a demand

then if they do not pay, go to small claims - you need to be seen to act reasonably here in pursuing the debt but you should persist - it may take 6 months but either this will go to court or it will get said person back to the table to settle via their insurers

also have you tried speaking to anyone near where the incident occurred to see if they have any CCTV covering the area - would be fantastic if you could prove the vehicle was in the area at the time

[YZ250]

It is a shame she herself left the scene of the accident and did not call the police immediately. They would have attended..........

Nice thought but it doesn't happen in reality. My son never left the scene after he was a victim of a hit and run, he couldn't, as a forty ton truck had ripped the side off his car. He phoned the police and they told him to take his documents in to his local police station. They were of no help whatsoever and didn't attend the scene, we had to track the truck down ourselves, which we did, and then Admiral instructed their team to chase up the debt, successfully I might add.  My son was then reimbursed his excess and his No Claims was reinstated. 

As said, nobody was injured so they weren't interested, in fact I'd go so far as to say they were useless to us. 

If an offence has been committed, as apparently in this case, the police have a legal duty to attend. If you were dissatisfied with the police response you should have lodged a complaint. I obviously do not know all the facts in this instance, and it is possible an individual officer either misunderstood the circumstances of the collision or failed to react as his Force would expect.

As I have stated many times, this life is not perfect and even police officers make mistakes which I am sometimes able to review during my duties for Kent Police and the CPS. One thing is for sure we need more police officers if the public are going to enjoy a full service, and that is for ALL of us to raise with our politicians!

My son was sat in stationery traffic waiting to enter a roundabout when a juggernaut came up the inside of him and took a wide sweep to its exit road, taking the side of his car out.
He phoned the police from the scene, told them that the truck had failed to stop and which direction it had gone. The response was "bring your documents to your local police station".
They did not attend.

I contacted our nearest main station and complained and followed it up with a letter of complaint. I still have copies of both of these letters. Their response to my letter was "We have exhausted all avenues of enquiry but have failed to locate the truck".
My response to them was " I am amazed that with all of the resources available to you that you have failed to find the offending truck, as even with our limited resources we managed to track it down within a few hours. After all, we did supply you with the company name, partial reg number and information relating to his local deliveries. I can only conclude that if this truck went through a speed camera, or worse still injured or killed someone, you would not be able to track it down then either".
No response to that one. 

As said, I still have all correspondence relating to this. It certainly opened my eyes regarding the lack of assistance, and these views have only been strengthened by others confirming that they were treated similarly.

I fully understand why they can't give out names and addresses, otherwise people might pay them a visit so to speak, but they showed no interest whatsoever.
   

[amba]

Cheers for info Jonathanh.

Very usefull advise and I will get things moving early next week