What do I do now?

[WasabiMonster]

Whilst I was waiting to cross the road recently, I was assaulted by someone who threw water at me from a passing van, hitting me right in the face. As you can imagine I was stunned but managed to see that the person who did this was a passenger in van belonging to a well-known engineering company, I didn't see the reg - but saw the livery. I reported the incident to the company who said they would be able to find out which one of their vehicles was travelling down the road at that time as they are all installed with a tracker system. I also reported the incident to the police who decided (eventually) to investigate and I was advised not to contact the company again. Long story short, police have said there is nothing they can do as no CCTV footage and company are saying they can't identify which one of their vans was in the area as not all are fitted with a tracking system - this is not what the company told me when i initially spoke to them. The police have said that I can take the matter up again with company but I'm not sure how to take it forward. Any ideas?

It must have given you a nasty shock, but what exactly do you want to achieve from pursuing this?

Thanks Optimist, it was a terrible shock. I suppose what I want is for the person who did this to be made aware how dangerous and unacceptable this sort of antisocial behaviour is and receive a shock themselves. The fact that they did this from an easily identifiable company vehicle, makes me suspect that they have done this before without any qualms and I do wonder if the company have had other reports of this sort of behaviour. I'm really disappointed that the store outside of which the incident took place didn't manage to catch it on their CCTV, they have footage of me going to the cashpoint but their cameras don't reach as far as the main road unfortunately. Despite feeling deeply cynical about the whole episode, the best I can hope for given they are unable to identify the vehicle, is a letter of apology from the company and some sort of reassurance that they will re-iterate the expected standards of conduct and behaviour expected from their employees. Crap.

I would write the company a letter setting all this out saying you are going to take legal action against their company unless they inform you of who the individual was as the action was in the course of employment on work time of that person and perhaps claim a specific sum such as the dry cleaning costs of your clothes and £50 for shock. They might well pay up.

You could also get an item about it in your local paper and on line to spite them perhaps

I would definitely keep on at the company, even if not all of the vehicles are not installed with trackers, they should still be able to ascertain to within a handful of employees who was likely to have been in the area at the time. It is completely unacceptable behaviour, and it would seem unlikely to be a completely one off error in judgement (although a possibly). The culprit is likely to have form for bad behaviour!

Yes, I will write to them and thanks for reminding me Greengrow, to add that the incident occurred during the employees work time. funny you should mention making a claim. When the police came to take a statement, they were very blunt and said nothing would come of it if I hadn't managed to get the license plate and if there was no CCTV footage. One of them suggested I make a claim for compensation, which at that time was the furthest thing from my mind. He said 'you might feel better if you get £20 out of them - you could spend it on bottle of wine'. I was so shocked. They then said there was nothing they could do and suggested I take it up with the company and left. I can't tell you how dismissed and let down I felt.

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang and there they were, apologising that it may have appeared they were not taking the matter seriously and that they had decided they will make investigations and take the matter as far as they could. Anyway thats all by the bye now. I'll draft a letter to send tomorrow. Thanks again.

Thanks annaban. I've always felt this sort of behaviour is the thin end of the wedge...it's not acceptable at all.

Agreed, keep us posted. Get the contact details for the CEO / MD etc and ensure the letter is copied to them, and head of HR etc. I would scan a copy and send it by email, 'hard copy to follow' to try and ensure it is seen, and hopefully investigated (properly) as soon as possible!

Was it by accident by the way? I know my children over the years have probably once thrown out of a car window on a motorway various liquids I think always away from other cars.

It might be they did not realise anyone was there.

I'm inclined to think it wasn't an accident. I was waiting to cross a single traffic lane to reach a pedestrian traffic island and the road bends towards the pedestrian at that point - if that makes sense. It's quite a tight squeeze, for example if I'm driving along this road and there is a cyclist ahead of me as we approach this crossing, I would not overtake. As a passenger, it would be impossible not to see someone who was standing where I was, waiting to cross. I got a pretty good look at the culprit who was looking back at me quite clearly through the passenger wing mirror on the van. Thanks for asking Greengrow.

Just to update you all, I sent a letter by email on 22/08 followed up with hard copies in the post to the general manager and CEO of the company. The silence is deafening!

I emailed the GM asking for acknowledgement of letter on Monday and received no reply, I called to speak to GM yesterday however he was unavailable, secretary took my details and said she would get him to call me back but he hasn't. I don't understand the lack of
acknowledgement - this isn't some tinpot operation, they are a large company! (confused)

Have you got a Twitter account? Naming and shaming on Twitter is usually good for getting companies to sit up and pay attention.

I had a look for their Twitter account last night, only 6 posts and last one was in Sept 2013. I'm wondering if they are about to go tits up hence not bothering to respond.

I'm going to ring again in a bit x