Advice Please - company employee causing damage to car during working hours, employer taking no responsibility.

[ScottishK]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for advice.

Long story short - On my way to work on Friday, I cut off of a slip road to join the motorway in front of a lorry. The man driving the truck evidently didn't want to let me in, resulting in him tooting his horn at me. I continued to drive, and he pulled out to overtake my car. He then threw something at my car, causing damage to the paint on the front of it.
We noticed the company details on the side of the lorry, so we took note of the phone number & the registration plate. We also got photos. I phoned the company, and they claimed it was that employee's last day working for them. I was advised by the 'manager' to send the photos to their email address & he'd phone me back. He's just replied to my email saying they won't do anything about it, as it wasn't the vehicle that caused the damage and they're not responsible, but it was their employee, so surely they should accept some kind of responsibility? :(

I don't know what to do, I tried to deal with them direct to avoid police involvement, as I doubt it will get anywhere & i'll likely need to pay for repair myself.

Should I phone the police? I just feel like I would be wasting my time by doing so.

Is this something I could take through a claims management company?

Please help me, any advice would be appreciated.

If a lorry had enough speed to pull out and overtake you you must have been going too slowly when you pulled out or you'd have been pulling away?

Also how did the driver throw something at you when they'd pulled out? They must have got their passenger side window open I super fast time?

Yes, of course go to the police! Is that not criminal damage at least, and made even worse by doing it while driving! I can see why dash cams are so popular as you would have the perfect evidence.

Phone the police. Throwing something at a moving vehicle on the motorway could have had far more serious consequences!

The lorry was under no obligation to let you out - you have to give way even if that means stopping.

You have no proof that the employee threw something at your car, so I doubt the police would be interested.

I was in rush hour traffic, no need to be in the middle lane when you're not getting anywhere and are cutting off at the next junction.

No, he doesn't need to let me out, however there was plenty room and I did nothing wrong.

As for saying I have no proof - there was 2 of my colleagues in the car with me, so two witnesses in the car plus i'm sure someone in another vehicle would've saw, as it was in slow-moving rush hour traffic. If whatever he'd thrown was large enough to damage my car I'm certain it would've been big enough for others to see.

I would assume a haulage company would have some kind of public liability insurance, but they're basically not interested as apparently this member of staff no longer works there.

I think i'll contact the police, however I do feel it will be a waste of their time & they'll likely say that it's a matter for insurance, but thank you all.