can anyone recomend best advice when being alleged to have damaged parked car with lorry while manuvoring and then being reported for allegedly failing to stop and give details and leaving scene of (alleged) collision?
police are (contemplating) prosecuting me for driving with undue care and attention prior to road traffic collision and have sent me letter of intent.
i am claiming there was no collision and didnt give details to anyone because there was no one there and there was no collision!
i wondered if anyone else has been in this situation and what they did next.
I was alledged to have damaged the mirror on a car at Bury St edmunds a few years ago, got a notice off the cops stating the alledged case. in the end the company just supplied their insurance details and the cops dropped the case.
The cops where only really interested in the end, that the 3rd party got the insurance details. leaving the insurance companies to argue the toss.
Whether you did or didnt hit anything, IF you wasnt in the area (or was) just write to the case officer, stating that you where/where not in the area, but are unaware of any incident, as you cannot recall anything 1 day, 1 week etc before. check you tacho, check the time of the inccident vs time/speed trace. You may have been in the area, but if you was doing 80km/hr+ at the time, you was probably going down the bypass nearby
(if on analogue) photocopy it & enlarge it 2x, keep 1 copy for yourself and if the above inccident vs time/speed trace looks like **cough favourable,forward a copy to the case cop
As the onus is on proof of guilt, and witnesse statements so are fickle, so dont admit anything. In the british justice system your suposed to innocent until proven guilty afterall. They no doubt know of numerous cases similar to this, and will be well aware of what can happen with HGVs and parked cars, so just forward the relevent insurance and I figure as it was only damage to property (and not personnel) the cops will probably drop any interest
I had another while working agy for wilkos, seems someone phoned the yard saying I`d hit em in manchester (M60 J11), when they tried squeezing their car into gap in front, while joining the motorway
I had absolutely no knowledge, but filled out a accident report as requested by the office. (taking my time, as I was getting paid O/T after 8hrs afterall)
stating “I have no knowledge of the alleged incident” for most of the questions like…
Where was the accident?
when was the accident?
who in your view was to blame? etc etc
I had this once when I first started driving. Got back to the yard at about 0400 was met by a guy in his pyjamas who claimed I’d hit his car when shuffling about trying to get in our yard. I was willing to consider the possibilty as I was younger and inexperienced. I asked him to show me the damage and he pointed to an area on the wing that had a lovely coat of rust which must have taken weeks to develop! When did this happen I asked? Tuesday that week said he. I told him to go back inside before the ambulance comes…
nicknick:
police are (contemplating) prosecuting me for driving with undue care and attention prior to road traffic collision and have sent me letter of intent.
i am claiming there was no collision and didnt give details to anyone because there was no one there and there was no collision!
i wondered if anyone else has been in this situation and what they did next.
I’d not lose any sleep over it. It is quite reasonable for a lorry to smack a car and not even notice. To prosecute you for driving with undue care and attention they have to have evidence of it or witnessed it themselves. They can’t just use makey uppey “someone told us” evidence. At worst, they could say you failed to leave your details but as I said, you would have a valid argument because of the size of the vehicle and even moreso if it’s an artic and a “rear swing out” type of collision.
They’ve sent you the standard “let’s see if he’ll drop himself in it” letter and you’ve sent the right reply. I doubt you’ll hear anything.
nicknick:
can anyone recomend best advice when being alleged to have damaged parked car with lorry while manuvoring and then being reported for allegedly failing to stop and give details and leaving scene of (alleged) collision?
police are (contemplating) prosecuting me for driving with undue care and attention prior to road traffic collision and have sent me letter of intent.
i am claiming there was no collision and didnt give details to anyone because there was no one there and there was no collision!
i wondered if anyone else has been in this situation and what they did next.
As had been said in previous posts, I would certainly get some more information. As i’m sure you would know even if you had come close to hitting a car, i know i would.
Find out things like
TIME
LOCATION
DAMAGE ALLEGEDLY CAUSED etc etc
HOW/WHERE WAS THE CAR PARKED (DOUBLE YELLOWS ETC)
Analogue tacho would be better than digital as you would have speed traces should you need to prove it.
If you were in the said location at said time but know of no collision it’s a long shot but check to see if any CCTV cover the area…
I know some of this has been mentioned by other posters but those of the question you need to ask.
a guy in our depot was in the same boat , a accident took place in glasgow - he got the blame , the work checked where the unit and driver where that day and he was up aberdeen
ive heard there is a few scams going about aswell - with people hitting lorries on purpose with some old banger of a car looking for a big claim.
I wouldnt worry too much mate. I started a temp to perm contract through my agency & in the first week i pulled upto one of my depots that i deliver to, swung into carpark & reversed upto warehouse. I do this every day & normally because there are other units next to it there is always costomers vans/cars parked all over the place. Anyway on this occasion there was a car parked right on the corner in the entrance which i was well aware of. As i was reversing upto warehouse door a man was walking just infront of the unit & seemed to be watching me, when i stopped he came upto window & told me i had just hit his car.
I replied what car is yours to which he replied that one parked in the entrance. I said no i didnt touch your car & that he shouldnt of parked right in the entrance for a start. He said i did hit it so i asked him if he saw me hit it & he said no, but it must of been me he replied.
Rang my company up & told them & they just said swap details but if i did hit the said car then its their fault for parking in such a stupid place. I had taken pics to prove where he was parked & of alleged damage. Dont know what happened about this.
i clipped a car a few months ago.it was parked on double yellows making it tricky for me to get in and out of a factory entrance.as it was a dumb place to park a nearly new bmw,i merrily carried on my way somebody rang my boss saying i`d hit their car and they wanted his insurance details.i dont think anybody actually saw me do it,just saw the truck leaving the scene.my boss asked them to ring back with the truck registration so he could verify it was one of his trucks before exchanging details.we never heard another word
Theres the ones with no insurance either, and the obviously bad mistake of being foreign with an english name on a licence.
I hit, and smashed, quite spectacularly, a mirror in London. I drove up the road and stopped. I went back to the car and the guy was looking at his mirror in various bits, and then went into a shop. I followed him in and asked if it was his car.
He didnt understand, but the guy behind the counter translated and he said it was. I apologised and offered my details. He asked me for £30.
i said I couldnt do that but was quite happy to exchange details and our company would sort it through the insurance.
Imagine my suprise - or not, thinking back on it - when he had to copy his own name and address from his licence,
I had a similar incident last week, driving down a country lane to do a drop, approx 1.5 miles anyway gt to drop phone rang it was the office, woman had phoned to say that I had run her off the road about a mile back, I could,nt even remember seing any other vehicles ect so asked for more details, office phoned the woman back who said she had been run off the road and had ended up in a hedge, I was on the worng side of the road and she swerved to miss me? this was witnessed by a third party who was apparently behind me?
well I drive wit a mate and neither of us saw any other vehilces, at no time was I on the wrong side of road as being an ex farm worker I a more then aware of farm kit moving around the lanes,the number they reported me on was the depot number though tel no on the truck is a national one and it is not easy to find out what depot your from, especially as the report was made within the time it took me to drive the 1.5 miles, and on the original call I went back to find the woman of which there was no sign of any car or damage to any hedges ect,
anyway manager has said its a load of crap as far as he is concerned, but I was thinking of maybe speaking to the police as I feel this could be a bit of a scam,
I was driving through walton in liverpool one evening, stop at some lights and an asian fella came walking upto the cab and said I’d pulled out and the back end had hit his car. Pulled over down the road and looked at the alledged damage. A large scratch on the passenger side. I pointed out to him that I didn’t think I hit him and if I had there would have been more damage than a scratch. But, as i came back from the cab with some paper and the camera I heard his missus say " can he not pay for the damage now, in cash?". His mood changed when I started to take pictures and ask for his insurance ( let them sort it out ). he gave me some details then did one. nothing was ever heard about it. Chancer.
I did Ealing Broadway the other week with the agency. You have to go underground. There was a Tesco artic behind me, and I was chatting to the driver before going into the underground service area.
I drive down and find M&S loading area. You have to go past loading bays, turn left 90’ go down to bottom, then turn left 180’ and come back to the outside of M&S (bit like a square). There was a set of steps that are right in front of your unit when you take the first left. It’s VERY tight and I was leaning out of the window to make sure I didn’t hit them. They were already smashed to hell. I gets past the steps with an inch to spare and proceed to the store. As I get out, this Asian security guard comes over and says that I’ve hit the steps. I said No I bloody well didn’t. He said that the camera guy saw me do it!!
So I showed him the front of the truck (a 57 plate AXOR) and said look at the O/S front corner. Does that look like I’ve smashed your metal steps in? Lucky for me there was no previous damage to the truck. Then the Tesco driver comes over (who was watching me go round) and told this guy I didn’t hit a thing. He then goes off sulking.
I tell you, you really have to cover your arse in these tight places as the centre management will try every trick in the book to get previous damage repaired by claiming you caused it. Luckily most of them aren’t very bright and it only takes a few seconds to blow their claims out of the water.
I told this guy he needs to be very careful about accusing people of damaging things as it could cost them their jobs. He picked on the wrong guy though.
Kneal:
I was driving through walton in liverpool one evening, stop at some lights and an asian fella came walking upto the cab and said I’d pulled out and the back end had hit his car. Pulled over down the road and looked at the alledged damage. A large scratch on the passenger side. I pointed out to him that I didn’t think I hit him and if I had there would have been more damage than a scratch. But, as i came back from the cab with some paper and the camera I heard his missus say " can he not pay for the damage now, in cash?". His mood changed when I started to take pictures and ask for his insurance ( let them sort it out ). he gave me some details then did one. nothing was ever heard about it. Chancer.
This is an ever increasing scam, the other one involves 2 cars. The 1st car overtakes an HGV then brakes causing the HGV to ram the back of the car, this is witnessed by the 2nd car that just ‘happens’ to be passing. The occupants of the 1st car then proceed to claim ‘whiplash’ injury compensation. A similar scam was done with a bus, 20 or so students (in on the scam) boarded a bus, got someone with a car to brake sharply in front of the bus then claimed whiplash injuries.
somebody rang my boss saying i`d hit their car and they wanted his insurance details.i dont think anybody actually saw me do it,just saw the truck leaving the scene.my boss asked them to ring back with the truck registration so he could verify it was one of his trucks before exchanging details.we never heard another word