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?

There is a defence available if a driver was unaware that a collision occurred. It's for prosecution to prove that the offender knew of the collision or that a reasonable person would have known of the collision in the circumstances.

Presumably there is a tachograph in the vehicle, do they record locations as well as driving hours? Would that help?

I saw something like this on one of those scamming type programmes where a bus driver was accused of knocking someone down but when they uncovered CCTV from the bus he was driving it showed someone on the pavement flinging themselves on the ground and the bus hadn’t touched them.

It is possible that he had no idea that an incident had occurred in which case it was a genuine error and I wouldn’t be sure but I can’t think you can be prosecuted for driving away from an accident or it could be a scamming bastard thinking they can make a few quid.

Dd was involved in an accident. She bumped someone else’s car. Both parties agreed there was no damage and drove on. Fortunately Dd took a photo of the car. They then claimed that the car was damaged. Dd sent in her photo showing no damage. We are still waiting for their reply.

There are some real shits out there

I’m sure he’ll be fine OP. These letters look scarier than the reality. I remember when very young getting a speeding document through the post, and was absolutely terrified as the wording was very stern and full of legal jargon. I honestly thought I was going to jail! As long as he is truthful, I would guess that other than a fine (if it’s something which happened without his knowledges) will be all he receives.

We had this at work once. The ANPR camera had misread an O for a D. The driver was very worried for a long time, as it was a local area and they were driving but it was the wrong vehicle after all.

I cam imagine this could have happened with an articulated lorry.

I understand why you are worried but literally his only option is to respond and tell the truth - if he has driven away from an accident, he doesn't know. As long as he co-operates ....he can't just ignore the notice.

Does your hubby's lorry not have cameras? My oh has cameras front back and sides mainly due to the amount of car drivers who think they can jump in and out in front of lorry's and stopping reducing their stopping space then kicking up a shitstorm because the lorry can't stop in time. Anyway. It's normal for the police / dvla / traffic commissioner to contact the company first they then look to see who was in the vehicle and give them the info for them to contact the drivers direct. It could possibly be something as simple as when he's went round a bend / roundabout he's clipped a vehicle and not noticed. Hope everything's ok!

Your DH should definitely follow up with the police - may be his registration plate has been cloned. He should also save any footage he has from the day and find out where they think he was - then see if it matches his or the company's records.

No one can really say whether he'll get in trouble or not, but I would imagine he'd defintely get in more trouble if he doesn't respond or lies.

Argh, definitely, obviously...

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"

What else can he do except tell the truth? The only other alternative is to lie and deny it was him or lie and say yes it was me, the former will have him in trouble if there is compelling evidence it was indeed him, the latter will also have him in trouble as that's admitting that he knowingly left the scene of an accident.

I’ve seen lorries hit parked cars before and just carry on driving. I can imagine how it might happen and he wouldn’t notice.

If he genuinely had no idea, and there is no sign of damage to his vehicle, then he has nothing to worry about as long as he sends his details. It is entirely possible that there was a minor collision that he was not aware of. The police will have seen it before and it is very unlikely to get as far as court if that is the case. He may well be asked to go and be interviewed by the police, and if so he is entitled to free legal advice.

There is a well known scam of people reporting non-existent incidents. Just tell the truth and hopefully the police will recognise this is one of those scammers. Usually their account is flawed and unreliable, or CCTV shows them to be lying.

My friend was on a bike and knocked off by a lorry driver. Lorry driver was completely unaware. There was a witness so that’s how they followed it up.

I think he just to fill in the form and see where this goes. With a very large vehicle, it is possible to see how he may not have noticed a minor collision. Presumably he didn't do anything major as people on the scene would have flagged him down at the time. Probably someone wanting to claim on their insurance.

yeah, just do the form and wait. I saw the back corner of an artic hit a small car once on the M62 and the lorry just carried on blithely not noticing the small car flip over onto its roof and cause a bit of a pile up.

This happened to my friends husband, turned out it was a cloned number plate and it was a white van that was "witnessed", friends husband's van was burgundy.

So might not be his vehicle, might not have left the scene of an accident if he was unaware there had been one, could be a scam where someone is pretending they hit him, could be all sorts.

All he needs to do is contact them and tell the truth.

I think the onus is on the person making the claim to prove that your DH has hit them.
I had a dick head purposely drive into the side of me on a busy dual carriage way. He denied it when contacted by the police and lack of camera footage meant I wasn't able to pursue the claim for damages against him.

My FIL had this, he drives a lorry and there was an incident where a pedestrian was knocked down by a lorry that didn't stop (I think the lorry driver was genuinely unaware he had hit someone as I've seen the CCTV footage and the person crossed the road between moving traffic and out of vision of the lorry driver). The incident was recorded on CCTV, but the angle of the camera meant the number plate couldn't be seen so the police looked at other CCTV to try and track down the lorry. FIL fitted the description of the lorry involved in the accident and was in the area at the time the accident occured, so the police contacted him. Luckily FIL was able to describe his route in detail and they found his lorry on a different CCTV camera at the time the accident happened so they ruled him out pretty quickly, but I know he was very worried for a week or so whilst they checked on his movements as he knew he wasn't the lorry involved, but he was worried there wouldn't be enough evidence to exhonerate him.

This happened to me when I was young. Someone had given a partial number plate to the police having witnessed an accident. The police sent the same rather scary letter to all cars with a similar number plate. My car had been in the garage at the time in a different location. My dad helped me write a rather stern letter to the police and they apologised. Hope it is something along these lines OP.

Thanks everyone. He was definitely in the area at the time and it was definitely him driving the vehicle. He has no knowledge at all of any collision and there was not even a mark on his vehicle, he has to perform daily checks so there's definitely no damage there.

I would respond to it and say he was unaware else he would have definitely stopped. I wonder if someone went into the back of him which he didn’t realise so carried on and someone reported him for not stopping.

Yeah, but if he's driving an artic, his vehicle isn't likely to get much damage unless it was a big impact?

He could probably knock a cyclist over or whatnot without having anything to show for it.

Accidents are called accidents for a reason. If he was even involved, it was accidental and he wouldn't have driven away if he had known.
Try not to worry to much.