Scraped a parked car - and panicked

[VikingLady]

Today has been a very bad day. I scraped someone's car reversing out of a tiny parking space, leaving a smear of my paint on their bumper. The driver wasn't around, I didn't have pen and paper to leave a note, and I frankly panicked a bit and drove off. I am aware I shouldn't, but I couldn't wait - my son had a medical appointment.

I've looked it up now I'm home and found out driving off was illegal, which I should have realised (I only passed my test this year), and have no idea what to do.

I don't have their details to contact them. Do I wait and see if I hear from police? There may have been CCTV, I'm not sure.

So stupid. Im definitely never driving there again. The spaces are tiny.

I can't trace them myself, the cctv company doesn't hand out info other than to official bodies. So I've left my details at the venue and at the cctv company. I don't have a problem paying and they're entitled to me doing that - I certainly won't quibble about whether it's worth worrying about paintwork, since it's their paintwork that I damaged.

I've put pen and paper in the car now in case anything like that happens again. I never thought about photos on my phone, thank you for the suggestion. Not that I plan to ever do it again!

If its a company car this person would be out of pocket for 100s. If not more!

You've never thought about using your phone to take a photo? What do you have, a Nokia 3210?

This happened to me - it looked like an easy-to-fix paintwork scrape but is actually a deep scratch that I've been quoted £1800 to repair. Really pissed off that the person who did it drove off as they'd definitely know what they'd done.

At least you're trying to find the other car owner, @VikingLady

@washingmachineslivelongerwithcalgon no, I said I didn't think of it, not that my phone wasn't capable of photos.

What I was thinking of was mainly that my son finally had a last minute medical appointment opened up for him and I needed to race home to get him ready for it. I'm pretty sure I've made it clear I accept I fucked up, and I've done what I can to make up for that. If you have helpful suggestions rather than sarcasm then perhaps share those? Given I've already accepted I was wrong?

Thank you to everyone who was helpful. My boy is chilling out after his appointment and I'm looking for a facebook page for the attraction.

This has happened numerous times to DH and I. We've never bothered trying to track people down and don't get them repaired, its annoying but we view it as wear and tear, we keep our cars till they are at least 10 years old so it doesn't really affect the value much.

I've returned to my car before to find a minor scrape and bit of paint on it and just shrugged it off as one of those things.

The right thing would have been to leave your details at the time but if it was as minor as you say it was I wouldn't be stressing about it now or tieing myself in knots to track them down.

Photos are a must. Of their car and yours (even if to prove yours is undamaged(

Lots of people claim for far more damage than you’ve actually caused- this has happened to me.
Fortunately I had photos to prove I didn’t cause their parking sensors to break, and a set of golf clubs and a laptop to be smashed in their boot (when I hit the front light of their car)

Agree with others. This sounds so minor I wouldn’t worry. Most people will not want to go through an insurance company for a scratch on paintwork!

This is part of the reason why I'm so glad my old car passed its MOT for another year.

I've got a few of these "little marks" from people driving off but I don't give a shit as my car is 15 years old. I'd be raging if it was a lease or similar and I had to repair every small thing.

Take the lesson op and just be more careful from now on.

The correct thing to do is inform the police, which is your legal duty in such circumstances under section 170 of the road traffic act 1988.

If there was some paint on my bumper, and I actually noticed it, I would carry on my day without giving it a second thought.

You’d likely be way more out of pocket claiming on your insurance than dealing with a bit of transferred paint yourself or paying a garage.

As well as insurance companies charging you excess, your premiums go up with all non fault claims. You’re deemed higher risk after any claims- regardless of whether it’s your fault.

This is why minor dings aren’t usually reported- often drivers come to an agreement without involving insurance.

Surely that's what bumpers are for. It's in the name! If it was just a tiny bit of paint I would probably have left it too, and if it was the other way round wouldn't be bothered.

scraped someone's car reversing out of a tiny parking space, leaving a smear of my paint on their bumper.

If this is what happened, then it's more than a bit of paint.

It's really frustrating when someone doesn't leave a note. I don't regard it as minor. I've had some experiences which looked quite minor but were more costly than anticipated to repair. All these posters saying it doesn't matter, surprise me.

I know you're doing your best now, and that it was stressful for you too. I hope you manage to find the owner.

How new/nice was it?

Someone once left a note on mine in Tesco's explaining that the wind had caught their door and swung it into mine, and left their number

My car was a piece of shit, well over 10 years old and although much loved it wasn't my pride and joy, it was already covered in marks and little scratches, many from before it was mine!

I did text them and say thanks for the note but not to worry (and had they not noticed the state of my car?), I couldn't even tell what damage they had done 😂