Delivery guy hits car and drives off (U.K.)

[bank]

I was just beginning to wonder if I was justified in fitting a camera covering the street, then this happened!


After several months the police "were unable to identify the driver", but did prosecute the registered keeper for failing to identify the driver.
(N.B. Frame is cropped from a larger image, hence no date/time stamp)

 

[c hris527]

Wow, Looks like he hit it twice, almost on purpose backing into it like that. Perhaps he was not happy the rear of the car was parked over the parking line.

 

[alastairstevenson]

After several months the police "were unable to identify the driver", but did prosecute the registered keeper for failing to identify the driver.

Despite the clear images and it being a company vehicle?
That's very poor.

Presumably you've had some dialogue with the company?

 

[IAmATeaf]

I don’t understand why identification wasn’t possible? Did the company repair the damaged car?

 

[Parley]

I don’t understand why identification wasn’t possible? Did the company repair the damaged car?

I was thinking the same thing. I do not think the police wanted to put the effort into it. The name of the company is on the truck and there is a very good picture of the driver.

 

[bank]

The company were of little help, the damage was covered by my insurance, the driver was the registered keeper and was fined £600 plus 6 points on his licence. (12 points = Ban)

 

[fenderman]

The company where of little help, the damage was covered by my insurance, the driver was the registered keeper and was fined £600 plus 6 points on his licence. (12 points = Ban)

In the US making a claim with your carrier jacks up your rates significantly. I would have pursued the business owner.

 

[J Sigmo]

Here, my insurance company would probably have "made me whole", then pursued the business owner and/or driver and gotten their satisfaction from the milk company's insurance carrier.

I had a woman ram me from behind in a fast-food restaurant drive-thru, and when the woman's insurance company dragged its feet, my insurance guy told me that he (my insurance) would pay, and then go after the woman's insurance company to get their money back if need be. Good customer service! He had a name for this process, but I can't remember what he called it.

In the end, her insurance paid off after two things happened. First, I called our state insurance commissioner's office just to ask how long an insurance company can drag its feet before paying up. That got their curiosity up, even though it turns out that they have three months, and it had not been that long. They asked who the woman's insurance carrier was, even though I told them it hadn't been that long. I was impressed by how eager they seemed to dig into this "case".

Second, I talked to my insurance agent, and he made a conference call with me to the other insurance company. There was nobody there when we called, but he left a message. This was at about 4pm on a Friday.

Saturday morning, about 08:00, Fed Ex showed up with an overnight letter containing a certified check for the full amount of the estimate I had gotten.

I wonder if the OP's insurance company did, indeed, go after the milk business's insurance carrier to recover their costs. If so, then, as with my incident, none of this would go against his insurance rating. I hope that's the case.

 

[IAmATeaf]

In the US making a claim with your carrier jacks up your rates significantly. I would have pursued the business owner.

It’s the same here and I hope the insurance went after the milk company to recover their losses. I’m also quite surprised that the police did little as hitting and running is illegal and they normally like to pounce on such cases.

 

[bank]

Fortunately the claim was only for the glass, which doesn't effect my main policy. I think the police (or the CPS) took the approach that failing to declare the driver was a simpler and guaranteed prosecution. The penalty was probably much the same. These days you've got to be a bit hard of thinking to drive off after an accident in a residential street, there's a very good chance you'll be recorded.

 

[fenderman]

Here, my insurance company would probably have "made me whole", then pursued the business owner and/or driver and gotten their satisfaction from the milk company's insurance carrier.

I had a woman ram me from behind in a fast-food restaurant drive-thru, and when the woman's insurance company dragged its feet, my insurance guy told me that he (my insurance) would pay, and then go after the woman's insurance company to get their money back if need be. Good customer service! He had a name for this process, but I can't remember what he called it.

In the end, her insurance paid off after two things happened. First, I called our state insurance commissioner's office just to ask how long an insurance company can drag its feet before paying up. That got their curiosity up, even though it turns out that they have three months, and it had not been that long. They asked who the woman's insurance carrier was, even though I told them it hadn't been that long. I was impressed by how eager they seemed to dig into this "case".

Second, I talked to my insurance agent, and he made a conference call with me to the other insurance company. There was nobody there when we called, but he left a message. This was at about 4pm on a Friday.

Saturday morning, about 08:00, Fed Ex showed up with an overnight letter containing a certified check for the full amount of the estimate I had gotten.

I wonder if the OP's insurance company did, indeed, go after the milk business's insurance carrier to recover their costs. If so, then, as with my incident, none of this would go against his insurance rating. I hope that's the case.

Your rates go up regardless. In fact your rates increase as a result of the accident alone. Try this, go online to buy insurance, first indicated no accidents then indicate a not at fault accident. The insurance companies rate you by claims made.
The name for the process you were referring to is subrogation.

 

[J Sigmo]

I guess it's good that between my insurance guy and the state insurance commission doing some arm twisting, the other driver's insurance coughed up the moola!

The particular vehicle in question has made me money over the years. It's sort of a magnet for errant vehicles. And in every case, I've been paid off by the miscreants' insurance. And being a real beater, I never have had the repairs actually done.

The only downside to driving a real POS like this is that inevitably, when I'm coming home from work in the wee hours, the cops pull me over for any excuse they can dream up. The vehicle "fits the profile", and the hours at which I'm out and about do, too.

My son was a cop for a while, and his wife was a dispatcher for a while, too. They both confirm that the police find any excuse to stop people and "run them" for wants and warrants, etc., especially if they are out at night and they're driving a junker. They say that you'd be surprised at how productive this practice is.

I was stopped once for having a burned out license plate light bulb. And another time for having snow blocking the license plate.

I looked up both the state and municipal statutes, and found that there is no mention of license plate illumination. But obscured plates is a "thing".

Ahhhhhh. My '91 Ford Exploder. Hardly a panel on it is without a dent. But it runs great, and the AC, heater, 4WD, etc., all work great. A real eyesore, but she pays off like a slot machine on a regular basis. I don't know what it is about that pile. But people cannot resist crashing into it!

 

[alastairstevenson]

Lol! Good for you.

 

[cyberwolf_uk]

Your rates go up regardless. In fact your rates increase as a result of the accident alone. Try this, go online to buy insurance, first indicated no accidents then indicate a not at fault accident. The insurance companies rate you by claims made.
The name for the process you were referring to is subrogation.

I can vouch for this... Some years ago I was sitting at some traffic lights when somebody rear-ended me. The driver wanted to complete a cash repair (his uncle had a garage) I said no as I wasn't sure what damage had been done to the structure of my car and I wanted it to go through an insurance claim. Both of us were insured through the same company and I had a witness of the rear end smash so was happy this would be 100% their fault. But then the 3rd party claimed that I reversed into them at the lights!! And the insurance company wanted to do a 50/50 claim. I fought it and they deiced it was the 3rd parties fault 100%.... Car repaired all good! 6 months later my renewal letter arrived and I'm not exaggerating it went up by £1000. I asked way and they said because I'd been in an accident! I told them it was the 3rd parties fault and they paid for 100% of the repair.. Not interested!

From that day I have never used this big well known company again or advise anyone too! For the record I went with another company and my premium was about £50 cheaper than before the crash!!

 

[CCTVCam]

I would have sued, never have claimed on my insurance. As others have said, expect your insurance to go up by at least £100-150 per year for the next 3 or 4 years. At the very least, if you go through you insurance you should be pushing them to pursue the driver for recovery and then to not increase your premiums as you were not at fault and full recovery was made. I'd also be having my vehicle inspected at a main dealer. It's very hard to imagine a shunt from a large vehicle like that no damaging brackets and other bumper structures below the bumper. Bumpers regenerate but can hide hundreds of pounds worth of damage beneath. Any kind of impact needs proper inspection at a main dealer.

 

[IAmATeaf]

To me it looked like the van driver hit the vehicle on the side when he arrived and parked up and the shunted it quite hard when he reversed into it.

I also agree with the post above, bumpers are designed to absorb impacts but the results can be that fittings behind get deformed and therefore need to be replaced.

Years ago I stopped at a pedestrian crossing but the car behind me didn’t and ran into me. Checking visually there was no damage but when I went to get a repair quote I mentioned that there appeared to be no damage. The guy inspected the car and then asked me to remove the spare tyre, I couldn’t as the floor space had deformed.

 

[J Sigmo]

Along the lines of being punished as a result of an accident not your fault: Many years ago, a friend was getting ready for work one morning, and while he was in the shower, a lady hit his company truck, which was parked in front of his house.

She rang his doorbell, admitted her fault, and all seemed right. However, because his company vehicle had been involved in an accident, per company policy, he was required to attend mandatory defensive driving school!

We all gave him a lot of grief over that, and said he was an unsafe showerer!

 

[erkme73]

I had a woman ram me from behind in a fast-food restaurant drive-thru, and when the woman's insurance company dragged its feet, my insurance guy told me that he (my insurance) would pay, and then go after the woman's insurance company to get their money back if need be. Good customer service! He had a name for this process, but I can't remember what he called it.

It's called subrogation. Your carrier makes you whole, and then they hash it out with the at-fault party. If they get full restitution, you should receive your deductible back.

ETA: Sorry - after reading the rest of the thread, I see others have correctly chimed in. One thing to note is that all accidents (regardless of fault) are recorded by a credit-rating-like private risk rating company - ChoicePoint by LexisNexis. However, unlike your credit file, as an insured, you're not privy to the seeing the contents of your risk rating report. And ever 'incident' is held against you for years. Even worse, all underwriters, regardless of which insurer you use, refer to the CP database. So you cannot get away from it.

On a past renewal, I was notified that I didn't qualify for the lowest rates due to an incident on my record. After investigating it with a close friend agent, I was provided a copy of my CP record, with a stern warning not to reveal I had it. In the report was an accident my FATHER had at his home - he backed into visiting guests car. Because his address was listed as one of my previous addresses (from 20 years ago!) I got dinged. I had no way to address the error.

It sucks, but as they say, data is $$$... The info they must have on all of us, accurate or not, must be staggering.

 

[CCTVCam]

I had an accident where driving my fathers car, I went down a pothole in the road at night. Couldn't be seen and clearly the hole was of illegal depth - nearly 6 inches deep! Caused £800 worth of damage to the wheels, tyres and suspension. Insurance got full recovery from the Council. My own insurance, in addition to my fathers went up by £200 for around 3 years, and there wasn't even any driving fault, simply a damaged highway and an illegal hole that couldn't be seen at night.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

I had an accident where driving my fathers car, I went down a pothole in the road at night. Couldn't be seen and clearly the hole was of illegal depth - nearly 6 inches deep! Caused £800 worth of damage to the wheels, tyres and suspension. Insurance got full recovery from the Council. My own insurance, in addition to my fathers went up by £200 for around 3 years, and there wasn't even any driving fault, simply a damaged highway and an illegal hole that couldn't be seen at night.

I didnt even know potholes could be illegal. I wonder If that is a thing in the US. I would have to imagine that is a thing here too. When you say it went up £200 is that annually? Just curious.