To think it was not an overreaction to call the police?

[hottubwhocares]

We were out today at a family event. We were parked up in the car park of the venue and were getting in our cars to travel home. There was a man parked next to us in the (relatively narrow) bays, window down, chatting to his girlfriend. He was there when we came out and approached our car.

DD age 8 was getting into the back passenger side of our car, so on the same side as his car. I was on the other/driver’s side. As I was getting in, I heard DD start to scream. Basically the man next to us had started to move his car forward and his back wheel had run over the back of her ankle/foot.

I immediately ran round the back of the car, picked her up, helped her into the back seat and took her shoe and sock off to have a look. The top layer of skin had come off and it looked bruised so I went round to his car, said sorry, I think you have hurt her so I am going to need your details.

He and his girlfriend then said ‘Why? I haven’t done anything wrong’. I asked if he was refusing and he said he ‘didn’t even know what happened’ and started mouthing off.

So, I called 999 and of course the second he heard I was on the phone to the police, he started offering his details.

Two police cars then attended. DH is furious with me and says I completely overreacted as DD’s injury was minor (scrapes and bruises) and I ‘see the worst in everyone’. I am very upset about his lack of support when our child was hurt and upset.

FWIW I would never move my own car when a child was down the side and if I had ever done anything like this I certainly wouldn’t be mouthing off at the parent of the injured child!

So, was it an overreaction to call the police?

I worked in insurance sorting out RTA issue for years so I’m probably more up to speed on these issues than the average person. When it says ‘police should be notified’ it doesn’t mean ring 999, the non emergency line once you get home is fine. All you need in future is the licence place number, just snap a pic of it and all their details can be retrieved via the online systems. You don’t need someone to give you their details as all details are held online and insurance companies have access.

999 is for life at risk and VERY serious incidents only. Imagine another person hiding from an armed intruder in their home scared for their life having to listen to hold music because your 8 year old has a scraped foot and you rang 999! Jeez

Personally if the cars were close not sure why an adult wasn't next to her helping and double checking safety, second for a foot to be run over she couldn't have been getting into the car as wrong way around, plus if car door was open he would have hit door first surely and if door wasn't open then he would have hit more than a foot...I dunno way over reacting and not what I would have done tbh

Er, thanks.

Calling police was the right thing to do

This thread is winning the current batshit insanity award. It's like: "You were lucky. Five people in a row ran over my foot and both of my kids, then hurled abuse at us but you didn't catch me calling 999 like a time wasting namby pamby"

I'd have called 999. It's for a situation which is happening immediately. I hope your daughter is ok, OP.

Bloody hell, no wonder police resources are on their knees!

101 not 999. I deal with this all the time. You don't call 999 for the driver not giving details. Take a picture report online or front office. You didn't call 999 for the emergency of the injury

How do you run over the ‘back of a foot’ - please explain?

It would have broken her ankle.

He has grazed the back of her heel with his tyre. He’s an idiot and OP has the right to be upset. She should not have called 999, but reported it when she was home. She already had his number plate.

Still not an emergency.

So, you'd call 999 because you don't like someone's attitude. .

Why was it only your DH’s responsibility and not yours to get your daughter safely into your car? Also it’s highly possible that the driver didn’t realise what he’d done and may have just thought it was a bump in the ground, if indeed he felt anything at all. I hope your daughter is ok but I think you have to take some responsibility too. If the police were able to give you the cctv recording then they would also have given you an update on the matter.

I would say not an emergency, however if you say a child had been runover by a car then automatically I can see the dispatcher grading it as an emergency to get someone there to get it downgraded. No dispatcher is going with non-emergency because if they did grade it as that and it then turned out to be v serious then they would be accountable.

To teach him a lesson I would get DD into physio and bill it to his insurance company so he losses his no-claims at the very least.

You missed the callous guilt-trippers seeing somebody who’s had something distressing happen and thinking ‘I know! I’ll make them feel shitter!’

Oh! There’s another one! Haha!

Riiight.

According to a large number of responding posters, it's okay to run a child over if you have a penis and only run the kid over a little bit. A licence plate is enough because nobody ever drives someone else's car/is under the influence of toxic substances/is driving illegally either. Plus it's OP's fault anyway because OP didn't bodyguard the child into the car. Got it. All wrong in any situation is done by the women present. I take it the police call handler was also in the wrong because she has boobs too.

Either there's a lot of men on here or a lot of women really hate other women.

Yes, was he driving in a stupid or dangerous way or should adults been keeping a better eye on the child?

And no i would not have called the police unless the person was driving illegally

It's absolutely mad how many parents on Mumsnet of all places are so lackadaisical about their own children that they would be absolutely fine with some random bloke hitting their child and driving off without giving his details or taking any accountability.

The op doesn't need to place an 8 year old into the car. The child and the op aren't at fault. The only person at fault is the one who drove off without making sure it was safe to do so and then tried to leave the scene of an accident without giving his details.

If you have an accident, NEVER just take the registration number. You need the name, address, phone number of the driver and the reg at a minimum. What if the driver then denies any knowledge and refuses to give the details of who was driving. Or its cloned plates. Or the insurance is invalid or the car isn't insured. If it's safe to do so, it's a very good idea to take photos of the other car and the driver.

So all the people saying "just get his reg and move on". You don't know what you're talking about and you'll come a cropper if you follow your own terrible advice in the event of an accident.

Also - a fracture isn't the only permissable injury. People are allowed to have soft tissue injuries.

What age is a child thought to be capable of getting into a car by themselves on Mumsnet?

Leaving the scene of an incident without giving your details is a crime though.

It's actually quite hilarious that you're giving your years of experience sorting out RTA issues as some kind of badge of honour, yet you don't appear to know that to issue proceedings in the event of a claim, you need the name and address of the defendant driver.

You can't get that from the registration number. You can get the details of insurance policyholders, named drivers and the registered keeper, but how do you know which, if any of those people were driving? You need to get the details of the defendant driver from the defendant driver. If he's fucked off, what then?

Well, he's committed a crime for a start. So while the crime is happening, calling 999 is perfectly acceptable.

Good grief. Victim blaming now?

If you had called non emergency they would have called it in as an emergency anyway. He was being abusive, not giving details and had hit a child. I think it was a very upsetting experience and you responded with emotion but that’s no bad thing. Main thing is DD is ok.

Considering what happened here it’s not 8 is it? OP should take some responsibility for the fact she wasn’t watching her child.

Presumably you’re the sort who leaves them to it and lets them fling the door open with no care for the car parked next to it.

What a crazy world we live in
He scraped her pulling out of a space when she wasn't being supervised by her own parents. Yes he should have waited but it was an accident.
What was the point of getting details? What were you going to do with them?
What were the police supposed to do?
Get his details?? Again for what purpose?

Id have put it down to him being a twat and seen to my kid not caused a ridiculous scene and wasted police time.

So you wouldn't care if your child got hit by a car?
I've heard about parents like that but never actually come across one.