Someone drove into the back of me last night

graeme_s-2

So while I was cycling home from work last night someone drove into the back of me! I was in a queue of traffic waiting to turn left at a t-junction. When I was the 3rd vehicle from the front, the first car pulled out, everyone moved forwards and stopped and I noticed that the nose of the car behind me was now overlapping my rear wheel which immediately set my spidey sense tingling. The car in front of me then pulled out, I moved forwards, looked right to see a car coming and stopped. The car behind me then pulled forwards and bumped my rear wheel and right calf, but not hard enough to knock me off.

I turned to look at the driver who was already shouting and swearing at me "What the F are you doing, why did you F'ing stop" etc. I explained that I stopped because there's a give way line and there's a car coming (which annoyingly at this point was turning left into the road we were coming out of without having indicated).

I then said to the driver that I wanted his details, he told me to F off, I then read aloud his number plate and told him I would report him to the Police to which he replied "Good luck with that you prick, the car's nicked anyway" and drove off.

Phoned the Police this morning, they've logged that I have an incident to report, but took no details about it and said I need to attend a Police station, which I guess I'll do after work. No damage to me or the bike (which I hadn't assessed at the point when I was asking for his details), so I'm not interested in making a claim, but if the car is stolen I thought the Police might be interested to know where it was at 5:50 last night, and if it's not then they should charge the driver with failing to stop to exchange details.

The stupid thing is if he'd just said "sorry mate I just misjudged it" and pulled over while I checked my bike over like any decent human being would then I'd have just left it at that.

kurako

"The cars nicked". Awesome. If there is any contact you are supposed to get driver details. You need to get a 'Failure to Stop' form from the local cop shop. They'll know what you are talking about. It's a pain to fill out so perhaps by that time you can't be bothered but up to you.

graeme_s-2

Yeah, I'll go and fill the form in. Just checked on the DVLA website and the car is neither taxed nor SORNed, so maybe it actually is nicked.

Tigger con carne

You should have taken his picture 8)

graeme_s-2

Tigger con carne wrote:

You should have taken his picture 8)

Would have been good, but didn't have my phone to hand - was buried in my bag.

kurako

You know it's possible to check whether YOUR OWN car has insurance but you would be committing an offence if you checked someone else's car using the below...

http://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

There is a seperate form if you want to check someone else has insurance..

http://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

arthur_scrimshaw

Kurako wrote:

You know it's possible to check whether YOUR OWN car has insurance but you would be committing an offence if you checked someone else's car using the below...

http://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

There is a seperate form if you want to check someone else has insurance..

http://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

Who mentioned insurance?

Mikey23

Wow, what a rissole... This one needs to go all the way

The Rookie

Kurako wrote:

would be committing an offence

May be commiting an offence, or may not, there is no personal data in the reply so hard to see the DPA applying, more likely they just want to squeeze money out of you!

Colinthecop

I doubt it'll be stolen.

However, it's not an accident so there is little point in attending the Police station. Yes he's driven into you, but without any injury or damage it won't be classed as road traffic collision.

You could however try reporting him for driving without due care, the circumstances would make that the most likely offence, however, on the grand scale of things I doubt the Police in most parts of the country would have the resources to follow it up.

chris_bass

i wasnt so lucky, waiting to pull onto a roundabout, i was at the front and had been there before the car behind me arrived, the driver behind was just looking right (i have witnesses backing this up as i couldnt see as they were behind me) pulled into a gap big enough for a car to go for but not for me and went right over me and the bike.

in the process of a claim at the moment but wrote the bike off, only blessing was i got off with just some heavy bruising, could have been a lot worse!

graeme_s-2

Colinthecop wrote:

However, it's not an accident so there is little point in attending the Police station. Yes he's driven into you, but without any injury or damage it won't be classed as road traffic collision.

The rear wheel of my bike is buckled. Took a day for me to notice it rubbing on the brakes.

When I looked the car up the other day on the DVLA website it was showing as not taxed, now it has 6 months tax on it, so presumably it's not nicked.

Colinthecop

In that case report it as a fail-to-stop RTC.

There'll be a self reporting form at the Police station. Before you fill it out, I'd be tempted to ask someone if they get followed up or just filed awaiting a request from an insurance company for a copy of it.

Might save you a bit of time.

graeme_s-2

I have one of the forms already. Picked it up on Friday evening.

Based on the only other time I filled one in they just lose them and deny all knowledge of ever having had them (although to be fair that's based on a sample size of 1).

Colinthecop

Yeah, these things happen.

Although as above, I'd make sure it is actually someones job to follow it up. You'd be surprised how often these reports are nothing more than paper exercises.

Pufftmw

New site launched yesterday to check if the 3rd party is insured - http://www.askmid.com

Only downer is that you have to enter a registered car's reg mark as well as the third party - but you can enter any reg no, doesn't have to be yours.

If its insured, you get told their insurer and the insurer's claim line details. If not, then I would definitely call the Old Bill

markhewitt1978

Pufftmw wrote:

New site launched yesterday l

Been going at least 3 years now; probably more.

Pufftmw

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Pufftmw wrote:

New site launched yesterday l

Been going at least 3 years now; probably more.

Dammit - won't believe what I read in the Sunday Times Motoring section again...

The Rookie

You believe something from the Sunday Times? Wow!

In my experience they will chase up the other driver and you'll get name address and Insurance details, enough to start a claim, the fact he hasn't informed his insurer will count against him unless he lies through his teeth of course!