Police notice- but no idea why!!

[FuckingFabulous]

Dh drives for a living and he has just been sent a requirement to fill out his driver details in regards to a section 170- failing to stop or report an accident last month. The time and date given was while he was at work but he has absolutely no clue what they're talking about. There's no damage to his work vehicle, there was no indication of any collision and he absolutely would have stopped even for a slight scuff because otherwise it could put his job at risk. He's really worried.

If he has no idea of any incident, can he be in trouble for failing to report?

The problem you have is - how would he prove he was unaware of any incident happening?

Was he in that location at the time of the accident?

Just because he doesn't know who or what he hit when he drove off - doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Yes of course he could get in trouble for not contacting them!

He needs to contact them and tell them the truth then. Ask what he’s accused of doing because as far as he’s aware, he was at work at the time of the incident and I’m sure he’ll have evidence to back this up.

He needs to contact them and tell them what he does or doesn't know.

He needs to ask them what they're referring to surely?

Of course you can be in trouble for failing to report an accident, but depending on what he drives, its also possible he didn't know.
Also possible it is some scamming bastard of course but unlikely they will succeed.
It sounds as if he is fairly sure it was him driving at the time of the alleged incident.

As in, he drives and would have been driving at the time of the incident, but he's got no idea what they're talking about. There was literally no indication of any accident of any kind. Nothing at all. He would have fretted and told me if there was something. He's wondering if the massive trailer on his lorry dinged something, but he's sure he would have known. It's obviously a massive issue if you knowingly drive away from the scene of an accident and as his license is our main source of income, so he wouldn't have done it.

What I want to know is whether he's going to be in trouble if he says the truth, which is "I have absolutely no idea what this is in relation to"

If it's a section 172 notice he needs to reply

The law states "owing to the presence"; A driver doesn't have to make contact to contribute to a collision. However if the driver is genuinely unaware of any injury or damage caused then no offence has been comitted - although it's down to the court to decide whether that's believable.

thedrivingsolicitor.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/failing-to-stop-or-report-an-accident-faqs/

Identifying the driver is a routine step and you should just do it, assuming DH knows who was driving at the date/time specified. But if the police follow up with a prosecution, time to get legal advice.

@DynamoKev

Of course you can be in trouble for failing to report an accident, but depending on what he drives, its also possible he didn't know. Also possible it is some scamming bastard of course but unlikely they will succeed. It sounds as if he is fairly sure it was him driving at the time of the alleged incident.

He drives a massive articulated lorry

@safariboot

If it's a section 172 notice he needs to reply

The law states "owing to the presence"; A driver doesn't have to make contact to contribute to a collision. However if the driver is genuinely unaware of any injury or damage caused then no offence has been comitted - although it's down to the court to decide whether that's believable.

thedrivingsolicitor.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/failing-to-stop-or-report-an-accident-faqs/

Identifying the driver is a routine step and you should just do it, assuming DH knows who was driving at the date/time specified. But if the police follow up with a prosecution, time to get legal advice.

It just says "requirement for details of driver" and says the requirements under section 170 weren't complied with, which is failing to stop at the scene of an accident and they refer to it as a collision.

Does he have dashcams on the lorry? May not be able to prove he didn't hit anything, but would prove where he was (or wasn't!) at the time in question?

No, if he was completely unaware of an accident then no he wouldn't get in trouble with the Police. If the damage to the other vehicle is very minor and as your DH drives an articulated lorry it's perfectly plausible. It could even be a case of mistaken identity. The other party will have given the vehicle's registration to the police, but they'll still need to prove the vehicle was actually involved. I really wouldn't worry! .

What I want to know is whether he's going to be in trouble if he says the truth, which is "I have absolutely no idea what this is in relation to"

Whether he ends up in trouble (or not) depends on whether the courts believe him.

Is the lorry registered to the company and is it definitely relating to him driving that? Just surely if the vehicle is registered to the company, they would have been contacted first to pass on his details as the driver at the time (else how would the police know who was driving?) I'd have thought they would have mentioned it!

@MinkeDinkie

Is the lorry registered to the company and is it definitely relating to him driving that? Just surely if the vehicle is registered to the company, they would have been contacted first to pass on his details as the driver at the time (else how would the police know who was driving?) I'd have thought they would have mentioned it!

Yes it is, and no they didn't! He contacted them and they said "yeah, we are aware of that."

Someone might have cloned his number plate etc. He needs to contact the police and inform them

Oh! Well I suppose it's a good thing that his work seem relaxed about it! Unfortunately you won't know until you get in touch - but your husband won't be the first this is happened to. The Police should have a good idea if it was unlikely for him to notice whatever it was. Hope it all works out

Just be honest. Is the vehicle registered to him or the company he works for? If the company, they probably should of told him but they would of been the ones to say who was driving (would of thought they would of apoken to him and wanted to know more info about it as he was driving on their time). If its a case of he was not in the area no where near close, has the number plate been cloned. But if it turns out it was him he just needs to say I didn't realise and there maybe cctv to back him up.

@cupsofcoffee

What I want to know is whether he's going to be in trouble if he says the truth, which is "I have absolutely no idea what this is in relation to"

Whether he ends up in trouble (or not) depends on whether the courts believe him.

Exactly - in any case what is the alternative? I can't think of credible lie - is it possible someone else was driving the vehicle? As its an Artic his tacho card will easy prove if he was driving it at the time. If it was me (and I was sure I was driving) I'd just tell the truth. It's not unknown for an artic to ding something/someone without the driver knowing, seeing as they are so large and so many people (esp cyclists) seem not to realise the driver isn't all seeing.

Presumably they gave a location where the alleged incident occurred so he'll know if he was anywhere near there at that time?

If not, that's the first step - where did the alleged accident happen? If it was Darlington and he was in Torquay that day, problem solved. If he was in that location at that time, then it begins to look more like he dinged something and didn't notice, but his dash- and rear- cams should have the evidence.

My OH was contacted by police years ago about this type of incident, which he had no memory of. We did find out what happened, it turned out that when manoeuvring out of a parking space, OH had lightly dinged someonelse's parked car. There was no damage to our car (can't remember if the other car had any damage to repair, if so the insurance took care of it). Presumably someone saw it happen and took our reg number.

OH gave the necessary details and explained he hadn't stopped because he did realise anything had occurred, the police accepted that and there were no consequences.

So as a previous poster said, I wouldn't worry too much.

We saw a huge lorry back into a boat cradle the other day the boat slowly slid off the cradle while the driver was driving away. Someone stopped him on the marina but he had no idea he’d done it. Bit happens. I’d definitely phone and ask though.

I've had this. I got a notice and it reported i had damaged street furniture, when pressed it came out this incident is in somewhere I had never visited and on that date my car was in a carpark in another county. They were unsure how my number plate had been linked to the incident. They think it was a typo, but sent people round to come look for signs of damage on my car and then agreed it wasn't me. They weren't interested in my cctv proving I wasn't there!

I did some research and its not that rare unfortunately. Sometimes they mis read the numberplates in cctv or witness gives wrong number plates, other times it can be cloned plates. Mine was more complicated because my number plate appeared in a crime log!

My DH once had one of these, he queried the circumstances with the police and was told that he had been reported as writing off a bus.
There was a very long pause and then DH suggested that if an i10 had written off a bus, he might have noticed that happening.

We genuinely have no idea how that happened.... indestructible little buggers them i10s, someone reversed into us in a car park last summer and the whole rear panel had to be replaced but somehow apparently we took out a double decker bus without even noticing and without a mark on the car.

Ah just seen its an artic which probably changes things