I did something stupid

@Mrsttcno1 it is quite possible for the penny to drop after the event. It goes something like this:

You hear a noise and think nothing much of it at the time.
Later, you notice your wing mirror is damaged.
This brings back the memory of the noise.
Which you conclude must have been you clipping a wing mirror with your own wing mirror.
You remember where you were when you heard the noise.
You go back and look at the cars there.

Glad you’re feeling a bit calmer about it and hopefully this thread is relieving you if a fear someone is about to knock on your door and say you’re in big trouble. It’s really not going to happen.

The truth is that you don’t exactly know what happened. You went to look to find out and couldn’t see anything. Really there’s nothing to report. As the person working for the Police upthread said, this can’t be progressed because you aren’t able to say exactly what happened or who to. Yes, you can tell the insurer that something might have happened. It will be recorded and you will be penalised your insurance for several years.

In the end, if something has happened and someone knows the details, there could be some come-back, but unless Oenone has the info you’re lacking, nothing further can happen. And if they do have that info and pursue you, you will be totally open to it all and co-operative. In my mind, that’s totally good enough. Anything else is martyring yourself with no benefit to anyone. You don’t have any info to share with Police or insurer that can help them identify the vehicle that you may or may not have damaged. Therefore all you can do is wait to see if someone else has info to suggest you did cause damage. In all likelihood you didn’t and nothing will come if it, but if it does, you will be able to resp8 d positively and co-operative oh and explain exactly what happened and that there wa snot hi g to see when you went back. You could say it with total honesty.

Surely if you damaged your mirror at that point the debris would be on the road within a cars length of whatever you hit.

Given you didn't find it then it's unlikely you actually hit anything and much more likely your cover fell off somewhere else.

Do nothing - and certainly don't report to insurer - in the vanishingly unlikely event of this coming up you just say you'd returned to look for any damage, couldn't find any so chalked it up to a bump in the road - depending on the costs it'd be more likely you settle this without involving the insurer anyway.

(btw - Dashcams don't tend to record everything - just don't have the available storage - are often triggered by a bump/jog - unlikely that a scuff on a wing mirror would trigger anything.)

@TempName247 I did something similar after a JOB INTERVIEW of all things in the workplace car park. I had to do about a 13 point turn out of the space because someone had parked across the way where there wasn’t a space. I think because it was an interview I didn’t want to be the one to cause a fuss so I attempted this awful manoeuvre.

I honestly couldn’t tell whether I had hit another car or just breaker sharply but when I drove off I noticed that one of their alloys was dented although logically there is no way I would have it it hard enough for that.

I drove all the way home when I found the visitor pass they had given me which I took as a sign to return to the scene of the crime. Wrote an embarrassing note on the car saying I honestly wasn’t sure if I had hit them but I noticed their dented alloy. They text me later saying they had curbed their wheel a few weeks ago but I felt better and seeing as I got the job, prevented myself from a potentially awkward situation with a future colleague!

@Moorlandheather
You've had many comments and much advice as to what you should/shouldn't do.
I don't know the answer, but what I do really want to say is well done for wanting to do the right thing and caring about the person whose wing mirror you have clipped.
Wish there were more people like you!

I’ve done similar and did an online police chat thing to report it as was so worried. The thing about clipping and not being sure about if you’ve done it, is I think a fight or flight response where your brain goes into panic mode and the details become muddled.
I thought I had clipped a cars bumper when leaving a parking spot, a lot of cars were waiting so I got panicked to be quick and leave, afterwards I convinced myself that I might have done damage and I felt such an idiot that I hadn’t done the right thing and stopped and checked. I reported it to the car park venue as well in case anyone complained there but nothing ever came of it. I had major anxiety for about two weeks!

OK, I work for the police. This is the kind of job we'd get in and just shut as we can do nothing with it. If you had the VRM of the other car, we could contact the other driver and let them know you'd reported it but with the info you have, there is nothing for the police to progress.

I know you are trying to do the right thing but even if the other driver has footage and reports it, it's unlikely the 2 x incidents would be linked up so there is no benefit to you to reporting it. If the police do come round, just admit liability and offer to pay/go through insurance - they won't be interested in charging you with anything/submitting a crime report.

You’re legally required to so do it.

Absolutely do not report it to your insurance company. If you’ve gone back and seen no damage then i doubt anyone else will notice even if there’s a tiny scratch.
Even if you were to report it and nothing comes over your insurance premiums will change because youve reported an incident that you were at fault for.

Seriously, do nothing. If you didn’t even notice until you drove off then it’s likely you just clipped a mirror shut.

OP IVE DONE THIS.

dont tell insurer! This will backfire.

Do write an online police report saying you cannot be certain but may have.

I was told to do this by 101 who laughed at me when I explained I don’t know if I hit a car or which one. She said I was mad and to just log online to prevent the hit and run thing.

It’s been well over a year and nothing.

Fgs don't bother 101. You clipped a mirror , broke your own mirror but couldn't even see damage to another car so drove away.

If you admit liability without having seen the damage or taken photos of it, you'll get some chancer sending you photos of his huge dent in his door and you'll have to stump up as you have admitted you crashed into him you and where's the evidence that you only clipped his mirror?

I clipped a wing mirror about 18 months ago. Totally destroyed mine but the car it hit had no damage at all so it is entirely possible, as you say, that no one will be able to tell.

I am like you though so i would be telling my insurer, self reporting one 101 online and maybe post in a community Facebook group.

At that point you can forget about it - you have made very reasonable attempts to confess!

Maybe your car bore the brunt of it, and that's why you couldn't see any debris? When I'd just passed my test I scraped a neighbour's van (parking was extremely tight in our road!). I was mortified. Both the paintwork on my car and his van looked badly scuffed, but he came out with a cloth, wiped the paint of my car off his and his didn't have a mark on it! My car on the other hand...

Come on now, read the OP. They have said they “didn’t realise what had happened until later on”, however knew which road to go back and check, and knew enough to say that the car they hit was stationary. OP quite obviously knows they hit a car, that’s not up for discussion, she noticed at the time as she knew the car was stationary and where the car was to go back and look.

But that’s a nice story to try and tell, in fact the driver who hit mine tried to tell a very similar one. He supposedly wasn’t entirely sure he’d even hit anything, couldn’t be sure he had- and after he spun that lovely little tale to police and insurance he was presented with dash cam footage which showed him very clearly hitting and damaging my car and driving off. Which was enough to have him not only held responsible for the damages, but also left him with invalidated insurance AND charged with leaving the scene of an accident as well.

OP you know you have hit someone’s car just not who’s, let police and your insurance know- today, within 24 hours. Then if nothing ever comes of it that’s fine, you’ve covered your back.

If you can’t see damage on any one else’s car, just sort your own damage. You did the right thing by going back to check.

If you do report it, it's actually 'intact' one word.

Good luck! Hopefully nothing will come of it.

Oh I'd be leaving that and if it gets back somehow act all grateful that finally the mystery of your wing mirror is resolved.

But what if someone damaged her car while it was parked and she didn't notice for a while? What if she didn't hit anyone at all, but someone else hit her? Having clipped a mirror before whilst going about 10 miles an hour, that is still V noisy, hard not to notice!

@autumn1610 said:
Well you statement doesnt make sense as you say you don’t know which car it was but also there was no damage in other car.

If none of the cars OP looked at was damaged, and no cars had driven off between the incidents and her checking them, then logic suggests that no car had been damaged, and so there was no damage to the other car.

So OP could know there was no damage to the other car, without having to know which car it was

Well you statement doesnt make sense as you say you don’t know which car it was but also there was no damage in other car. I’ve had my wing mirror knocked on my street where casing came off but mirror intact. No one stopped and was around £300 to fix as they had to replace all of it due to the part which came off. Luckily it was a work car and they covered the cost. I did an online report just incase they needed a crime number. Genuinely don’t even think they read them!

Yes I would think say something, not sure who to the insurers I guess? As a friend of mine didn’t realise she’d scraped a car, was caught on CCTV and although all fine in the end it was stressful being ‘caught out’ rather than fess up at the time.

Legally you must report to police if you haven’t been able to provide insurance details to the other owner.

Also, as you weren’t aware of doing it until later on you can’t possibly be certain that you only clipped their wing mirror- just because its only your mirror damaged doesn’t mean only theirs is. You going back to check later and not seeing any obvious damage is also not important because the car could have left before then.

If there was dash cam or a witness who got you, and you haven’t reported, you can also be charged with leaving the scene of an accident- as the driver who hit my stationary car and drove off was :)

‘The casing of my wing mirror has come off, however the mirror is still in tact, but I didn’t notice any marks on the other car……but I wasn’t sure which car it was or whether it had already driven away by this point’.

you didn’t notice any marks on the other car but when you returned you weren’t sure which car it was? Sounds dodgy.

You sound worried so just tell your insurance and see what they say. They may advise to tell the police, they may not. Tell them yourself if you are that worried but maybe decide whether you saw that it had no marks or whether you wasn’t sure on which one it was first.