car hit, what would you do?

[johnnyh]

ok, not sure what to do on this one, so throw it open to the masses to give their opinons...

heading down a road with no markings in my car, (no central markings but wide enough and plenty of cars going each way), when towards me comes a little white Clio.... now when I say towards me it is literally in the middle of the road.

I got over to the verge as close as I could and thought "move over fella, move over fella, c'mon move over move..... Ooooooh!"

basically it didnt move to its side of the road and bang!

It didnt stop either but conitnued up the road towards a mini roundabout.

I noticed my wing mirror body was hanging down, so I swung the car around (road width allowed a Vectra to do a quick 3 point turn - almost a 1 and a half point turn, and I went up the road to follow him.

I flashed lights, I beeped the horn, and finally 1/4 of a mile further he pulls over.

I got out the car, saw thankfully it was just a smashed wing mirror and glass - no bodywork damaged - and approached the Clio....

The old fella in there was OLD.... I mean he undid his car door but no way could he have got out in a rush so I told him to stay put. The female in the car with him (daughter or wife?? dunno, she was at least 65) talked for him. Got the address and a telelphone number, I photo'd the car and said "not to worry, it is why we have insurance...."

Now I've reported it to my insurance company, but intend to just go ahead and replace the mirror glass/polish out the mark on the housing (the electric motors still work so I am assuming the heating element is fine too).

OK, so, your starter for 10!

This old boy either decided to leave the scene, or was totally unaware of the collision...

Should I report him to the police and his driving up the middle of the road since I suspect he should give up driving as he is a danger, or should I forget all about it and hope nowt bad happens to him/what he hits next?

I am mindful that if I report it to the police and he doesnt then he can face a charge, and I don't want to give the old boy grief, but then he didnt stop after hitting my car... ???

 

[Panter]

Personally I'd report it.

It will be a real shame if he's traumatised by it etc etc but the bottom line is I don't want drivers like that using the roads that my Daughter has to cross.

 

[marinyork]

The police won't be interested, unless either of you were injured or a significant amount of damage was done. Neither was. Nor can you argue he didn't stop.

 

[johnnyh]

so a trip to my local police station yeah? I presume I had better allow myself a good hour, and also find out when it is staffed!!!

 

[johnnyh]

The police won't be interested, unless either of you were injured or a significant amount of damage was done. Neither was. Nor can you argue he didn't stop.

errrr he didnt stop though, well he did eventually when I followed him for 1/4 mile!

 

[marinyork]

errrr he didnt stop though, well he did eventually when I followed him for 1/4 mile!

It won't work arguing that. This sort of thing happens.

It sucks but I know what you mean. I think the best thing to come out of this is if the passengers put some pressure on the driver do some thinking about scaling back driving/getting some training/whatever after having a collision and not being serious consequences.

 

[nigelnorris]

Report it, maybe it's not the first time. Next time he might do some real damage to someone, or just collide directly with a pedestrian. You're not doing him any favours by allowing him to put himself in that situation again.

 

[TheDoctor]

Report it. Leaving the scene is an offense in itself, isn't it?

 

[Arch]

I thought you had to report it anyway, whether he left the scene or not.

I'd report it, if he's that unaware, he shouldn't be out there.

Even if they don't follow this one up much, if anyone else reports him for anything it'll all start to add up...

 

[marinyork]

You're perfectly entitled to report it. However arguing he did a runner is going to be very tenuous and frowned upon and will make the cops suspicious.

 

[Arch]

You're perfectly entitled to report it. However arguing he did a runner is going to be very tenuous and frowned upon and will make the cops suspicious.

Eh? Surely he just reports what happened - he doesn't have to say "I reckon he was doing a runner", leave it to them to decide.

The next thing he clips might just be a pram, or a toddler, or someone's elderly Mum.

 

[marinyork]

Eh? Surely he just reports what happened - he doesn't have to say "I reckon he was doing a runner", leave it to them to decide.

The next thing he clips might just be a pram, or a toddler, or someone's elderly Mum.

The old man fulfilled exactly what he was required to do. He hasn't committed an offence at all. In that sense I am saying it is entirely upto johnnyh to report it (whether it being a tactic for perhaps a PC to go along and have a quiet word and lobby for some remedial lessons or call it a day or something else). If Johnnyh wants to pursue that avenue I don't think it an unreasonable one at all, just leave out the accusations of doing a runner and make it sound as nice as possible. Make it sound in the context of bad driving, he didn't even notice he'd hit me, not in the context of something else.

The next thing he clips might well be something else but that's an entirely different issue to someone perhaps very upset at a collision suggesting, perhaps being a bit hyped out, that the old man left the scene and didn't provide details. He did. It's an entirely irrelevant avenue.

P.S. I hope it's not one of the motorised mirrors, potentially very expensive .

 

[johnnyh]

My concern isnt for £30 for the mirror glass, it is for a bloke driving who looked like he didnt know the day of the week, let alone look in control of the vehicle.
As for failure to stop at the scene, well let's be honest, unless I am totally missing the boat on this, he did fail to stop at the scene.

Hyped out - nope, upset - a bit knarked but not upset (takes more than a broken bit of glass to get to me fella),concerned this old boy is going to end up really hurting someone - totally!

 

[marinyork]

I'm afraid that however angry you are, and he seriously has extremely serious questions about his driving ability, he has observed the requirements of giving details, so this issue of reporting him and him not going to the police station and getting into trouble/claiming they didn't give details is irrelevant.

Issue 1. Bad driving. I agree completely.
Issue 2. Driving off or whatever you want to call it. This is irrelevant. However you could turn this in your favour by instead of mentioning it directly saying that in respect to issue 1 he hit you and not only didn't notice his positioning, didn't even notice you'd hit each other or you having to steer out of the road.

On issue 1, he did actually hit you, so it's fair enough. I get angry from time to time by things like drunk drivers, but unless they hit me again there's not a lot I can do.

 

[cisamcgu]

I'm not sure what marinyork is meaning; I don't think johnnyh is trying to get a prosecution, but is interested in trying to get the driver to improve his driving or stop. And to that I end I would certainly report it to the police, not as a complaint neccessarily, but just to let them know what has happened. The police may not be interested, but as nigelnorris says .. it may not be the first time, and they may decide to act on it if they have had other reports