I saw it happen in a service station car park, the guy driving was old and a bit of a what to do when he saw I saw him. I suggested he left his details for the owner while the service station staff suggested he drove off as everyone else does.

Said staff got very rude when I said I thought it was awful they said that.

As it happens the owner came out, saw the damage and said "don't worry it was already damaged and is booked in for a repair, but thanks for leaving your details". Turned out ok in the end, but just driving off is plain wrong.

Nice to hear one end well I was waiting to emerge from a T junction once to turn left when a car that had stopped just after junction decided to reverse straight back on his phone and despite me seeing him and more or less holding horn in he hit me at about 1mph. I was in my main dealers overalls still and he was so genuinely sorry and got out his insurance documents (guy on holiday from Europe) I said don't worry as I was throwing car into auction that night and it was worth £100 max. The right attitude goes a long way I hate the claims direct culture these days.

Glad the OP got their car sorted.

Er. Were you born yesterday.

No need to be rude

You may find that the 'minor infraction' is in fact just a valid reason to pull over an otherwise suspect vehicle.

Indeed it often is - there's just something that appears "off" to the officer and they want to investigate further, or certain patterns of behaviour tend to go together (although they can stop a vehicle "on gut"). I happen to know a police officer, who did say they were surprised by the number of times the talk to someone about one thing, and find a bunch of other things too. They reckon that most hit-and-run-type accidents they are called to are because the driver is uninsured, or (mainly) they don't want a claim against them and an increase in their premiums and think they can get away with it ...

Edited 20 October, 201114 yr by martinch

Great you got a result in the end

One thing to consider - car parks can be a 'grey area' as far as the law and Police are concerned as these areas can be considered private property (a supermarket car park for instance) even though the public has right of access. In other words the Police may have very limited or no power to investigate or prosecute.

Mac

One thing to consider - car parks can be a 'grey area' as far as the law and Police are concerned as these areas can be considered private property (a supermarket car park for instance) even though the public has right of access. In other words the Police may have very limited or no power to investigate or prosecute.

Mac

Not quite, if the public have or are permitted to have access to the private property, whether on payment or otherwise, then it shall be a public place.

One thing to consider - car parks can be a 'grey area' as far as the law and Police are concerned as these areas can be considered private property (a supermarket car park for instance) even though the public has right of access. In other words the Police may have very limited or no power to investigate or prosecute.

Mac

Murder, for example, is usually carried out on private property......

As far as I'm aware, the police powers are only restricted when on crown property or involving members of the crown. (e.g. The Queen cannot be served summons to a court of law)

Murder, for example, is usually carried out on private property......

As far as I'm aware, the police powers are only restricted when on crown property or involving members of the crown. (e.g. The Queen cannot be served summons to a court of law)

The Road Traffic Act only applies to roads generally and sometimes public places... If your private driveway was long enough you could drive whilst stoned up to your eyeballs, drunk as a skunk and crash into a tree at 100mph...and not commit any offences. Police powers are almost always restricted in some way according to the purpose for which they were granted.

Edited 20 October, 201114 yr by bouff34

When I posted my comment I obviously meant in relation to motoring offences only - these are usually non-indictable offences, but with one or two exceptions, It all depends on the definition of 'road' in relation to the incident. For instance, the definition is different under the Road Traffic Acts as opposed to the Vehicle (Excise) Acts, etc. and that is only a simple example. The information is out there on the internet for anyone to see! But please don't get into a legal wrangle because the law is too complicated for a forum like this.

Mac

The Road Traffic Act only applies to roads generally and sometimes public places... If your private driveway was long enough you could drive whilst stoned up to your eyeballs, drunk as a skunk and crash into a tree at 100mph...and not commit any offences. Police powers are almost always restricted in some way according to the purpose for which they were granted.

Er no. If the postman or coalman (remember those? )has to cross that land in pursuance of his job, then it is public access and they can nick you on it. My next-door neighbour got a 12-month ban for drink driving. He wanted to keep the car and just turn it over weekly and run it ready for when his ban expired. He was told categorically that just by starting the car on his driveway he would be comitting an offence, regardless of whether he set a wheel on the public highway or not.

Also bear in mind that such roads as the Midlands Expressway (Birmingham by-pass) is a private road, and so "in theory" the speed limit in not enforcable. (The public don't have free and unfettered access....it's a toll-road) Not that I'd be willing to test that one out though - mind you, have yet to see a police car on there either.

Er no. If the postman or coalman (remember those? )has to cross that land in pursuance of his job, then it is public access and they can nick you on it. My next-door neighbour got a 12-month ban for drink driving. He wanted to keep the car and just turn it over weekly and run it ready for when his ban expired. He was told categorically that just by starting the car on his driveway he would be comitting an offence, regardless of whether he set a wheel on the public highway or not.

Also bear in mind that such roads as the Midlands Expressway (Birmingham by-pass) is a private road, and so "in theory" the speed limit in not enforcable. (The public don't have free and unfettered access....it's a toll-road) Not that I'd be willing to test that one out though - mind you, have yet to see a police car on there either.

Your driveway is private, various people like the postman might have implied consent to cross it but it is still private. If you ran the postman over yes he would sue you but you wouldn't have contavened the Road Traffic Act. But as Mac says this is getting well off topic...

Hi All

Just an update.

Local feds called the other night to see if the feds from the other station had contacted me.

They hadn't so the update to me was they had been to the womans house (that ran into the wife's parked car and fecked off) but she wasn't in and the car wasn't there. They had left a note for her to call them be she hadn't called them yet.

Bear in mind that this is now about 4 weeks since the crime and they still haven't seen the car (it could be repaired and sold by now).

Funnily enough I am not tremendously impressed so far. Anyway, I told the PC that the insurance had told us that she had admitted liability the other day.

He was happy that their job was now easier - how easy does it need to be - my wife called them within 2 hours of the crime, with the registration number and gave them 2 separate pieces of paper from 2 different witnesses with the car make and model, stating it was a woman, the time it happened and the registration number and one even said, she new she had done it but just drove off.

How difficult can it be?

Now for the good news - got the car back this evening and so far it looks like a good repair - will check in proper daylight. While it was in, they also rubbed down and colour coded the front grille for 50 quid as they were making the paint up anyway. It looks really good.

Cheers

Dave