To think that's it's wrong to punish the victim!

[whowantstea]

I was involved in a car accident this morning. The other vehicle was over on my side of the road and clipped my wheel arch. There's a bit of damage but nothing major.

Turns out the other vehicle is SORN and so shouldn't be on the road. This also presumably invalidates the insurance (if they have any).

Reported to the police as he was very cagey with details and drove off after being quite aggressive.

Although I have the number plate and a photo of the vehicle they won't do anything because and I quote "they need to catch him in the act" before they will prosecute him for driving a SORN car. And unless I have dash cam footage of the incident itself or an eye witness they are not interested. How is that right?? He left the scene of an accident and failed to provide details!

So I will lose my excess and this prick will get away Scott free.

Sorry obviously wrote the title in a rush!

I had something similar, a uninsured car hit my parked car and drove off, witnesses got the number plate but the police were totally uninterested which is really scary! My car was hit so hard it mounted the pavement so it was very lucky no one was walking by. Who is your insurance with? Some cover for uninsured drivers, make sure you send them any pictures, number plate, police report reference number - as much info as possible! My insurers told me they do take uninsured drivers to court when they can so I wish you luck!

Stopping and being cagey with details is different from leaving the scene without exchanging details. Which was it? Let your insurance deal with it.
You could try and notify DVLA about the SORN aspect.

If he's uninsured you can try to claim through the MIB.
www.mib.org.uk/making-a-claim/what-we-do/

You could also try MIB.

I feel your pain, op - dangerously twatty driver hit me, refused to pull over, so I followed him til he came off the motorway: big smile, "no speak English", no insurance details

Rang 101- "we wouldn't attend for this": turns out leaving the scene of an accident and failing to give insurance details isn't an offence... Phew, I think: lucky I snapped that (illegal) picture so I know his registration and company details. Wrong! Company refuse to engage at all - it's an overseas company - and loss adjuster seems to have gleefully rubbed their hands that they had my grand (rental car- I do have separate insurance for this, but they're not wanting to pay out as Enterprise haven't gone after the guy that caused the accident ) and apparently "can't follow it up as it's not in the UK"

I was able to manoeuvre to avoid an accident that would have been life-changing at best. This cunt has got away with driving dangerously and without due care and attention - at the bare minimum - and could very easily kill someone next time. His cunty company don't give a shit that their drivers are breaking UK law, as there are no consequences.

I also emailed the wrong company initially - one letter difference: their head of transport responded in less than five minutes, with the correct company details. Don't tell me these shits haven't done it before.

It sucks completely, op, and though life isn't fair, it feels very unjust that there's no consequences for these idiots. Your driver could also kill someone next time - and the police could have acted to prevent this.

It's not down to the police, it's down to your insurance company to chase him. You need to ring them, they'll do the leg work from here. That's what you pay them for.

If there were no injuries, and it's damage-only, they don't want to come out. Being SORN does mean it's probably not insured, but yes they do need to catch him in the act of driving to deal with that.

They can't win - their numbers are so badly cut they haven't got the people to send out to things like this these days.

Phone your insurance company.

I was in a stationary vehicle when another can drove into mine at 8pm on a Friday night. Shunted my car into the middle of a junction, that was the force he hit my car with.

The driver got out of his car, came over to me stinking of drink, saw that I was injured and drove off. I memorised the make, model, reg number and description of the driver. When the police ran the details it turns out he was driving a company car. The police then had to right to the company and get them to say who the driver was. Eventually, we did get the details and he was prosecuted for dangerous driving and leaving the scene of the accident, but obviously not for being a drunk driver because it took so long for the company to admit who was driving.

Moral of the story is if you drive a company car you will get away with drink driving as long as you don't stop if you have an accident.

@Finfintytint he refused to give me details. Said he only needed mine. Obviously I pressed him for his and he gave me (I believe) false details and then drove off.

It's not through my personal insurance. Ironically it's a courtesy car from an incident with my car whereby a car hit my parked car and my partner (who was getting DC out of the car seat). So it is through the courtesy car companies insurance.

Obviously you got your phone out to take a picture? Couldn't you have recorded a video of him, the car, him driving off and the damage etc? That would be evidence.

Oh and from past experience you should always tell police he was acting like he was drunk, could smell alcohol etc. That way they have to investigate him.

@Walkingdeadfangirl yes I got a photo but even if I'd have got a video the police wouldn't have classes it as evidence as they said they needed dash cam footage of the actual incident happening and that would show him doing it. Anything else is irrelevant apparently.

How could the police determine who caused the accident without something like dash cam or an independent eye witness?

Surely without any proof their is actually nothing they can do and it is up to the insurance company to deal with?