Minor roundabout bump - next move?
Discussion
Evening all, one for the PH hive mind, and maybe just a bit of a vent because I'm a bit baffled...
Coming home from work this evening I came to a roundabout, it's a busy one so slowly moving up to the front of the queue. I get to second in the queue, left lane turning left, the car in front goes to pull off onto the roundabout so I start moving forward to get a view past the right lane - you've really got to pick your spot on this roundabout so I see a gap and start to move off looking right all the time. There's a big clunk, at first I thought the gearbox had expired or something but I look round and the car in front is still there! They hadn't gone, just moved further onto the roundabout.
So yeah, totally idiotic on my part and 100% my fault as I should have checked it was clear in front, not just from the right! In fact in 23 years of driving it's probably the silliest thing I've done. But fault is not the issue here, what happened next is what left me bemused.
I assumed the car in front would either stop and get out (not ideal because we'd be blocking the busy roundabout) or at least pull into the minor road to the left about 100 yards don the road (by far the most sensible place to stop). But no they just carried on going. I pulled into said road to inspect for damage (can't see anything but it's very wet and might be some scratches, hard to see until it's light). I looked around to see if they'd pulled over further down the main road but they'd just gone.
I just find that really weird because it's an open and shut case, mea culpa. It must have been about 2-3 mph when I made contact, certainly no more than 5, but even so you can see from my dash cam they got quite a jolt so no way they wouldn't have felt it. And if I was the car that got rear ended I'd certainly want to check if there was any damage in case I needed to go to insurance.
So what do I do now? Should I be telling my insurance (no doubt in their eyes I should)? Try and track them down from their plate (how)? Just chalk it up to experience (but what if they've reported it and it comes back)?
What would you do in this situation? Greatful for any feedback (unless it's to tell me I'm a chump, because I'm already aware of that
)
Sorry - longer post than intended!
Coming home from work this evening I came to a roundabout, it's a busy one so slowly moving up to the front of the queue. I get to second in the queue, left lane turning left, the car in front goes to pull off onto the roundabout so I start moving forward to get a view past the right lane - you've really got to pick your spot on this roundabout so I see a gap and start to move off looking right all the time. There's a big clunk, at first I thought the gearbox had expired or something but I look round and the car in front is still there! They hadn't gone, just moved further onto the roundabout.
So yeah, totally idiotic on my part and 100% my fault as I should have checked it was clear in front, not just from the right! In fact in 23 years of driving it's probably the silliest thing I've done. But fault is not the issue here, what happened next is what left me bemused.
I assumed the car in front would either stop and get out (not ideal because we'd be blocking the busy roundabout) or at least pull into the minor road to the left about 100 yards don the road (by far the most sensible place to stop). But no they just carried on going. I pulled into said road to inspect for damage (can't see anything but it's very wet and might be some scratches, hard to see until it's light). I looked around to see if they'd pulled over further down the main road but they'd just gone.
I just find that really weird because it's an open and shut case, mea culpa. It must have been about 2-3 mph when I made contact, certainly no more than 5, but even so you can see from my dash cam they got quite a jolt so no way they wouldn't have felt it. And if I was the car that got rear ended I'd certainly want to check if there was any damage in case I needed to go to insurance.
So what do I do now? Should I be telling my insurance (no doubt in their eyes I should)? Try and track them down from their plate (how)? Just chalk it up to experience (but what if they've reported it and it comes back)?
What would you do in this situation? Greatful for any feedback (unless it's to tell me I'm a chump, because I'm already aware of that
)Sorry - longer post than intended!
The law says you must either stop at the scene and exchange details, or report to police within 24h. A lot of police forces now have a facility to do this online.
- If there's damage to their car: tell insurance
- If there's damage to your car you want your insurance company to fix: tell insurance.
- If there's no damage: delete your original post and move on with life if you want; or tell insurance anyway.
There could be a number of nefarious reasons why they didn’t stop. They were either uninsured, untaxed or had no MOT. They were using the car whiteout the owners knowledge. They were drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time.
It would be highly unlikely that they would have taken details of your reg through the rear view mirror.
If it were me, I wouldn’t tell the Police or my insurer and carry on with my life. The likelihood of something coming of this incident is close to nil.
Best practice would dictate you advise your insurer for notification purposes only and also tell the Police.
It would be highly unlikely that they would have taken details of your reg through the rear view mirror.
If it were me, I wouldn’t tell the Police or my insurer and carry on with my life. The likelihood of something coming of this incident is close to nil.
Best practice would dictate you advise your insurer for notification purposes only and also tell the Police.
Perhaps the other driver also thought that there was a problem with their gearbox and didn't realise that the clunk was you nudging them.
Or (having seen some of the oblivious old biddies driving in the garden centre car park the other day) maybe just didn't notice anything had happened.
Or (having seen some of the oblivious old biddies driving in the garden centre car park the other day) maybe just didn't notice anything had happened.
My position would be as follows.
You have to report to police so do so now.
Then check for damage, if there is any & you have the reg (which I assume you don't) report to insurance co.
If there is any then you need to talk to your insurance co, as that is what you pay them for.
If there isn't any or it is virtually invisible move on with your life.
As others have said there are reasons (both good & bad) as to why they didn't stop, yours are not to reason why.
You have to report to police so do so now.
Then check for damage, if there is any & you have the reg (which I assume you don't) report to insurance co.
If there is any then you need to talk to your insurance co, as that is what you pay them for.
If there isn't any or it is virtually invisible move on with your life.
As others have said there are reasons (both good & bad) as to why they didn't stop, yours are not to reason why.
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a reason they didn't want to hang about. Plenty of cars without tax, MOT, running cloned plates, or carrying illegal substances.
My young lad took some paint off a brand new BMW M4 in a Tesco car park not long after passing his test. He gave the guy his insurance details, and reported it to his insurers. A claim was never made. I suspect that'll be a similar story, driving uninsured, or something else dodgy. Otherwise why would they not claim, it would have been probably £1k or more to get the paint corrected properly on two panels. Annoying as he now has a claim on his insurance record for £0.
My young lad took some paint off a brand new BMW M4 in a Tesco car park not long after passing his test. He gave the guy his insurance details, and reported it to his insurers. A claim was never made. I suspect that'll be a similar story, driving uninsured, or something else dodgy. Otherwise why would they not claim, it would have been probably £1k or more to get the paint corrected properly on two panels. Annoying as he now has a claim on his insurance record for £0.
Happened to me once (from the car in front perspective) I was sitting at traffic lights late for work and some dozy bint just decided to set off and bump into the back of me when the lights were still on red. I was having a really bad day as it was, late for work, I knew the damage would've been minimal, jut couldn't be bothered with the hassle of getting out and wasting half an hour of my day arguing the toss with a moron. So I thought f
k this and just drove on.
I had all my particulars and was sober and compos mentis. Car was fine when I got to my destination and I got out to have a look, bit of a mark on my paint that I managed to polish out in 10 mins.
You got lucky, pass it forward, but not literally into the car in front next time.
k this and just drove on.I had all my particulars and was sober and compos mentis. Car was fine when I got to my destination and I got out to have a look, bit of a mark on my paint that I managed to polish out in 10 mins.
You got lucky, pass it forward, but not literally into the car in front next time.
Maybe frightened/scared of you having a road rage with baseball bat or a hammer.
It happened to me in the 80s coming out of a multi storey carpark in Manchester, going a bit to fast and bumpet the car in front, and they just carried on driving, I new straight away they wer'ent going to stop, mind you we were 4 of us in the car at the time.
It happened to me in the 80s coming out of a multi storey carpark in Manchester, going a bit to fast and bumpet the car in front, and they just carried on driving, I new straight away they wer'ent going to stop, mind you we were 4 of us in the car at the time.
Gary29 said:
Happened to me once (from the car in front perspective) I was sitting at traffic lights late for work and some dozy bint just decided to set off and bump into the back of me when the lights were still on red. I was having a really bad day as it was, late for work, I knew the damage would've been minimal, jut couldn't be bothered with the hassle of getting out and wasting half an hour of my day arguing the toss with a moron. So I thought fk this and just drove on.
I had all my particulars and was sober and compos mentis. Car was fine when I got to my destination and I got out to have a look, bit of a mark on my paint that I managed to polish out in 10 mins.
You got lucky, pass it forward, but not literally into the car in front next time.
I did exactly the same at traffic lights with someone running into me a few weeks back, car in front stopped at a red light so did I but the car behind bumped into me.k this and just drove on.I had all my particulars and was sober and compos mentis. Car was fine when I got to my destination and I got out to have a look, bit of a mark on my paint that I managed to polish out in 10 mins.
You got lucky, pass it forward, but not literally into the car in front next time.
Had a bad day, couldn't be bothered with the hassle and was in my daily, old, cheap, run about so just carried on my journey.
Did half expect them to follow up and stop in the super market I was going to about half a mile away but they went a different direction! They knew they had hit me as I saw the arms go up to acknowledge it.
Few marks on the bumper, along with some of their red paint. Polished it out and 90% not visible now.
Fully taxed, MOT, insured and don't drink or take any drugs!
They got lucky, who knows if they were! Hopefully they will take it as a result and be a bit more careful in the future.
just looked this up on https://www.police.uk/advice/advice-and-informatio...
The law defines a reportable road traffic collision as a collision involving a mechanically-propelled vehicle on a road or other public area which causes:
injury or damage to anybody - other than the driver of that vehicle
injury or damage to an animal - other than one being carried on that vehicle (an animal is classed as a horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog)*
damage to a vehicle - other than the vehicle which caused the collision
damage to property built on, attached to, growing in, or otherwise forming part of the land where the road is.
Seems you do not need to report it, but is a risk if the other driver you bumped into reports to police.
Not sure about your insurance
The law defines a reportable road traffic collision as a collision involving a mechanically-propelled vehicle on a road or other public area which causes:
injury or damage to anybody - other than the driver of that vehicle
injury or damage to an animal - other than one being carried on that vehicle (an animal is classed as a horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog)*
damage to a vehicle - other than the vehicle which caused the collision
damage to property built on, attached to, growing in, or otherwise forming part of the land where the road is.
Seems you do not need to report it, but is a risk if the other driver you bumped into reports to police.
Not sure about your insurance
TimeforTea said:
just looked this up on https://www.police.uk/advice/advice-and-informatio...
The law defines a reportable road traffic collision as a collision involving a mechanically-propelled vehicle on a road or other public area which causes:
injury or damage to anybody - other than the driver of that vehicle
injury or damage to an animal - other than one being carried on that vehicle (an animal is classed as a horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog)*
damage to a vehicle - other than the vehicle which caused the collision
damage to property built on, attached to, growing in, or otherwise forming part of the land where the road is.
Seems you do not need to report it, but is a risk if the other driver you bumped into reports to police.
Not sure about your insurance
I don't think we established whether the other car was damaged or not?The law defines a reportable road traffic collision as a collision involving a mechanically-propelled vehicle on a road or other public area which causes:
injury or damage to anybody - other than the driver of that vehicle
injury or damage to an animal - other than one being carried on that vehicle (an animal is classed as a horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog)*
damage to a vehicle - other than the vehicle which caused the collision
damage to property built on, attached to, growing in, or otherwise forming part of the land where the road is.
Seems you do not need to report it, but is a risk if the other driver you bumped into reports to police.
Not sure about your insurance
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