To report myself to 101 even though I'm not sure I did anything?

[anxiousmumy]

I'm a new and very very anxious driver and got close to some parked cars (narrow street) when I heard an unfamiliar noise. I didn't think much of it at first as it wasn't loud,but as I got home five ish minutes later it occurred to me that maybe I could have scraped one of the parked cars or clipped a wing mirror.

I'm now stressing that if I have I can get done for fleeing the scene and losing my license. I still have time to be within the 24 hours if I self report to 101.

Dh thinks I'm being ridiculous and says I'd know if I hit something - I'd have felt it, and no marks on my car (well, new ones. Second hand car.) He says if I report to 101 then they could pin something along that road on me that I had nothing to do with. I'd have to do it behind his back as he made it clear he'd be furious. I do get where he's coming from as I have before thought a sound was something it wasn't, and I automatically jump to worst case scenario.

If I do report, will it have an impact on my insurance does anyone know? Will they know about it if nothing came from it?

Please be gentle ish on me

I've been in a car twice when wing mirrors have clipped (once when both cars were moving, once when one was parked) and it was LOUD both times. A 'bang' that made the occupants jump.

I think you've likely just gone over a piece of rubbish in the road OP. Either that or you tapped a wing mirror so gently it wouldn't have caused noticeable damage anyway.

You don't need to worry. Truly, you'd know if you'd hit something. More likely, you ran over a drinks can or a large twig. Or hit a drain cover a bit odd.
My current car, things moving around in the boot sound really loud!

It's normal to be nervous as a new driver, but it sounds like your anxiety may be getting the better of you.
Lots of driving schools offer confidence-boosting lessons to newly-passed/nervous drivers. Might that be something you'd benefit from?

I'm like this. You would 100% know if you had hit a car, put it out your head. Nothing will happen and if by any chance you had hit a car it would just go through the insurance - police wouldn't be interested. Forget about it.

This is a kind response x

Also @whistleblower99 I'm an anxious driver and I'm incredibly safe. I don't take risks, I drive at speed limit and I respect the rules of the road. If everyone did the same there would be no problem. Over confident drivers are the problem.

I agree, in that scenario I wouldn’t be as worried about notifying my insurance company.

As I’ve just posted, due to the nature of the job I have I think always lean towards being cautious and following procedure. I recognise not everyone approaches things in the same way.

I think I’m also slightly biased due to being on the receiving end of accidents where the other party hasn’t left their details. Only 2 months ago, my car side was side swiped in a carpark and the culprit didn’t bother leaving a note. Plus I was hit from behind and injured by an uninsured driver as a young 21 year old - my claim went through the MIB in the end and took 4 years to be settled. I have a very low opinion of people who get into accidents and knowingly fail to do the right thing. I know that doesn’t seem to be case here with OP.

I work in Risk

So do I, @gillefc82 and I still think you’re massively over-egging this pudding which is not going to help the already-anxious OP, nor is what you’re saying applicable to the situation here.

As I’ve said, just giving my view. 🤷‍♀️ I’m sure the OP will figure out what’s right/needed for her scenario.

You could've easily run over a bottle or can, etc, said kindly - you're overthinking this. I've clipped wing mirrors and they make a loud enough noise for you to know

Sounds like an intrusive thought. It can be really helpful for me when I get this to write a list of evidence for and against the thought. Then I write the most likely explanation of what happened from the evidence, and keeping Occam's Razor in mind, accept that it is more than likely that is what happened. The next part is using grounding techniques to relax my body while I accept the likely explanation and release myself from the need to check whether it is the correct one or not. I was taught this by a psychologist while getting help for generalised anxiety , trauma and OCD and it's kept me in good stead.

I think in this case the most likely explanation is that you didn't hit anyone.

You didn't hit anything. Car paint is fragile, you'd see a mark if you hit something. Plus you'd feel it. The worst you did was ping a wing mirror, clearly not hard enough to damage it or, again, you'd have felt the impact.