It sort of restores ones' Faith in Human Nature .........
My car was hit in a local car park this afternoon, by a young man manouvering his truck.
I didn't know of course, until I returned to find him awaiting my return, whereupon he showed me the damaged Port side rear light cluster, and promptly wrote out his name and address and telephone for me.
I drove around to the local Jap. car second-hand parts dealer and purchased a used, and dusty ! unit off the shelf for the vast cost of $45.00 - about 10 quid UK - which I have just spent all of four minutes fitting. ( 4 screws, 30 secs each in and out.)
I've just telephoned the guy, and he has promised to meet me in town again tomorrow, cash in his hot, sticky hand.
I believe him, but I might park around the corner, or go on the motor bike !
siti, that happened to a girl I used to work with. She returned to her car in a multistorey carpark to find a note similar to that under her wiper.
However, there was another note as well which read "I checked the note that bloke left after he had gone. He was driving a [insert colour, make and reg of car]", and the witness' name and address.
The culprit was traced, tried and fined something into four figures.
My friend Eggy was a fine upstanding Dutchman. He bumped a young lady's car when out driving, she assumed it was her fault and was shaken up a bit.
Eggy took her into a neighbouring Bierstübe and bought her a drink or twain to steady her up, following which they retired to the house she shared with her parents to do the insurance paperwork.
As so often, one thing led to another, and somehow they ended up in bed in her room. When her father returned unexpectly, Eggy jumped out her window into the garden, his knees came up when he hit the ground and broke off his splendid new front teeth.
He explained this to us the day later as "I broke my teeth in a car accident".
Years ago I was driving my mother's car in the UK and whilst stationary at a traffic light the car behind gently hit the back of the car. We both got out to inspect and the damage was a broken light cluster and a dent. We were both surprised at amount of damage that the relatively light impact seemed to have caused but he accepted the blame, gave me his details and we went on our separate ways.
When I got back to Mum's place I mentioned it to her and she had a look and said : "Oh no I did that the other day in Waitrose car park when I reversed into a pillar ...." So I rang the chap up and told him, to which he replied that he'd already reported it to his company fleet manager and they were happy to pay anyway.
There are honest folk around. Or at least there were in those days, sadly in the UK today they are fewer, aggression and buck passing has become the culture.
Similar thing happened to me. A guy reversed into my motorcycle and snapped the front mudguard. He got out and apologised. He was in uniform, a member of the Irish Air Corps. He said not to worry he would have a new one made! Which was done and duly delivered.
In complete contrast years later. I was hit from behind while sitting at a red light and pushed into the back of another car by a clown in a Transit with bull bars. My car was a write off although neither of the other two had anything but superficial damage. By the time he reported it to his insurance company. I had apparently hit the other car first and then reversed into his van at a high enough speed to wreck my car. This I found out from the person I was dealing with in his insurance company who from her tone believed none of it but had to toe the company line. I rang him and he accused me of threatening him. Lost any faith in human nature at that point, let me tell you.
My wife and I were sitting in a marked parking zone, at midday, in broad daylight, on a main road, and about 12 metres behind a parked bus that was disembarking passengers. We were looking into a cafe window to determine if the business was open for lunch.
Two young clowns about 20, in a 15 year old Commodore, slammed straight up our ar$e at 60kmh, without even barely hitting the brakes. The Camry got shunted so far forward, we actually hit the rear of the bus.
The interesting thing about the whole deal, was - there was a copper walking along the footpath, right about at the rear of our car. He was walking around the corner from the cop shop to get lunch from the cafe we were parked outside. Unfortunately, he was only a young probationary copper. He DID lay into the clowns about careless driving and lack of care, etc etc ....
Fortunately, he was organised enough to get all the details - rego numbers, drivers names, etc - but he wasn't clued up enough to ask about sighting licences. The Camry was just driveable, despite incurring severe rear subframe damage (thank god for heavy duty towbars). The Commodore was a total write-off. The young copper told us to come back to the cop shop later - whereupon doing so - we found he had filled all the accident forms out for me, and all I had to do was sign.
The car got repaired under our insurance policy - and then - about 3 months later, I got a call from the insurance company. The young bloke on the phone was somewhat subdued. He started asking if I knew anything about the driver of the other car. I told him I knew nothing about him at all, and asked why. He said - "We've just found out that he gave the name of a bloke that was in JAIL that day!!" ....
This is the third time I've been hit in the ar$e - and EVERY time, the driver gave a false name and address. I've figured, that I made a serious mistake, as did the copper. I'm convinced the clowns in the Commonwhore were carrying drugs or contraband of some type - and that they packed themselves when they saw the cop - and their eyes were glued to him - thus running up our ar$e in brilliant sunshine, on a clear day, and on a dry road. I'm also convinced the driver was under licence suspension.
I should have taken the young copper aside, asked him to ensure that he confirmed the existence of a current drivers licence - and I should have also reminded him to search the car. I'm convinced he would have found contraband - and I'm convinced he also would've found, no licence (or a mates licence). Unfortunately for the clown, he gave the false name to a cop. If he had given ME a false name, that's not a chargeable offence - whereas giving a cop a false name, is.
This episode has only reinforced my view, that EVERY time, someone hits you, they are doing something seriously wrong - speeding, drunk, carrying drugs, yapping on a phone - and EVERY time, they are likely to give a false name and address. One bloke was so well organised, one time, he even gave me the address of a vacant block.
In future, any time I'm hit, I will call the cops, and if they refuse to attend, I'll be advising that there are injuries (whiplash) - in which case, they WILL attend - and in which case, I'll be making sure that the cops do their job, and fry the deadbeat who has the hide to disobey road laws, damage my vehicle - and then hand out a false name and address, with the full intention of avoiding any responsibility. That's exactly what these idiots are - irresponsible; lacking responsibility in every area, including attention to road laws, care for other road users, and a desire to avoid any cost to them, associated with the havoc they cause.
Ex-Speedbird, you got lucky - REAL lucky. Go buy yourself a lotto ticket, it won't happen like this again.
A woman a block away from my house backed out of her driveway and got nicked by car that continued on turning into my dead end street. She followed after, loosing sight of the car until she spotted my car in an open garage (I was out walking). Since my car matched the description she called the police who promptly came to place me under arrest for leaving the scene.
I argued that I had not been driving that day and the police examined my car for obvious scratches. Finding some they began to counter my arguments until I pointed out that their own patrol vehicle was full of worse scratches. I also argued that I had witnesses that could place me in a store in another town that I had walked to. Then there was the argument against false arrest since the complainent could not possibly have seen me pull into my driveway and park in the garage but only had noticed my car on my dead end street.
I never heard back about this, but I did notice that one of my neighbors has a similar car to my own
Maybe the rules are different in Florida but here if someone backed out in front of you. It's their fault, legally as well as logically. Equally I can't imagine the police here arresting me even if it was my fault.
I agree with onetrack's assessment. Always call the police, if you've been rear-ended. Quite often there is something more to it. Plus even people who are who they say there are and who admit their fault on the day will go home and concoct a nonsensical version of events.
I actually called the police when I rear-ended someone. He stopped suddenly in the middle of a roundabout and I tapped him for all the usual stupid reasons. I was furious and felt it was a scam. His car was a piece of junk and it was surprising how quickly relatives of his arrived. His excuse was that he thought a car was about to come onto the roundabout ahead of him. So I called the police. Never heard anymore, there was little damage to his car anyway. But I suspect it was a compensation scam and they decided to leave it because of my rather belligerent attitude and the fact that I told him I thought it was suspicious.
I've been hit from behind 3 times. One was as above, with a happy ending.
One time the guy was so drunk he fell out of his car into the road when I opened his door. When the police came, he was clearly a well-known local character: "Yissus, boet, you nog 'n mal ...."
The next time was a chav in a white van in Sutton who gave me false details. I made it my business to track him down, as the police were not prepared to do anything, and have him dealt with by the insurers.
Most people carry a camera within their mobile phones these days, so if you are in the unfortunate situation where you do have an accident, make sure you take plenty of photos of it. The damage to both cars, the road and any signs etc and also the other driver.
My Spitfire Mk3 was severely damaged in a multi-storey car park in Wales, by a driver who tried to get into a parking space that didn't exist, then drove off. It was hit so hard that the rear offside wing and inner wheelarch were embedded right into the tyre, jamming the back wheel solid. I had to borrow a big hammer and a crowbar from a local garage to bash it out before I could drive it again. The police declared no interest in finding the culprit as it was deemed to be a civil matter on private property. It completely ruined our holiday, as well as the car, especially as in those days I could only afford third party fire and theft insurance.
As a point of principle, I would always declare myself as a witness if I saw someone else doing a hit and run like this.
The police declared no interest in finding the culprit as it was deemed to be a civil matter on private property.
I left a nightclub with my pal, the driver, and crossed the road to the car. It was one of very few in a huge open car park. Two coppers observed us, and the rattarsed bloke who staggered behind us toward his own car thirty yards away.
We got in, and before moving, he did a racing reverse arc to head toward the exit. Bashed into pal's Cortina, lots of damage. He slurred his details whilst pal yelled at the coppers to do something, mainly 'cos he was pissed.
They came over, had a look, made sure he gave details and announced that this was private property not the highway, and walked off, watching the drunk drive off down the road.
CG
Last edited by charliegolf; 6th Jan 2010 at 18:57.
siti, that happened to a girl I used to work with. She returned to her car in a multistorey carpark to find a note similar to that under her wiper.
However, there was another note as well which read "I checked the note that bloke left after he had gone. He was driving a [insert colour, make and reg of car]", and the witness' name and address.
The culprit was traced, tried and fined something into four figures.
I did the above once, I witnessed a young woman back into a car in a parking lot. She dead centered the passenger side front door and did quite a bit of damage to the door. The driver got out of her car, looked at the damage and then looked around to see if anybody was watching her. She didn't see me.
I realized that she was going to just drive off and I quickly copied her tag number and wrote down the type and color of her car. As I suspected she quickly left the parking lot and drove away not leaving a note. I put my name and phone number on the note and placed it under the windshield wiper on the driver's side.
The next day the police called me to verify that I did in fact witness the incident. After I affirmed that I did so, they thanked me and I never heard anymore about it, so I really don't know the final outcome.
As a point of principle, I would always declare myself as a witness if I saw someone else doing a hit and run like this.
Ditto for almost exactly the same reasons.
Not related to cars, saw something in Newcastle today that did a little bit to help my faith in human nature. Woman walked away from a cashpoint leaving money behind. Man behind, instead of quietly pocketing money, called and ran after her with the money ... feat made more difficult by snow now very icy. Nods of approval all round.
Had someone bump into me. No real damage, no harm, no foul. Shook hands, parted company.
Several weeks later, I did the same thing, not paying attention, popped into someone else Apologized, exchanged information and then called the insurers. She was a little shook up, even though there was no damage to the car. Just in case I thought. Several days later, get a call from the lass I ran into. She just called to say she was feeling fine and no worries.
