So my car was parked on a retail park today whilst I had an off site meeting with a colleague. Got back to discover a 6 ” long gash in the front bumper and no trace of a note for the damage. Checked in the 3 shops near my car and no witnesses or cameras.

On my way home I noticed something under the wiper which i hadn’t seen before and someone had witnessed a lorry driver hit my car whilst making a delivery then leave.

I’ve reported it to the firm in question but they have said they cannot do anything until it gets reported at the depot.

The issue is not closed, but I have photos of the damage, a receipt with a message detailing the time, the lorry identification and registration listed on it.

I think the damage is about £1000 as the bumper is beyond repair and a parking sensor is damaged.

Should I wait or get busy on twitter?

Twitter? Think I’d be speaking to the insurance co top of the list.

Jeez , nothing like giving the company a chance !
It’s 20;30 on a Friday night somehow don’t think you’re going to hear anything till Monday now . To be honest the lorry driver may not even realise he’s done the damage untill he gets back to the depot .

Altenatively you could just go slaging them off all over t’internet , seems to be the way people in this imperfect world deal with things these days .

1. catch up with original witness (presume you have their contact details). Check with them again what they saw and get them onside with you in terms of being an official witness.

2. catch up with haulage co on Monday and give them a chance to do the right thing.

3. if not, speak with your own insurers. they’ll want witness details. it may help if you’ve got legal protection if it looks like it is going to get messy.

4. DO NOT do any naming and shaming until you’ve been through the above. you may prejudice your case.

5. £1k is a bit steep for a bumper, with or without parking sensor. You won’t help yourself by being a drama queen about it.

I think I just got whiplash just from reading this.

Ouch

ooooowch

ouch

ow.

name and shame so I can claim 🙂

Jeez , nothing like giving the company a chance !
It’s 20;30 on a Friday night somehow don’t think you’re going to hear anything till Monday now . To be honest the lorry driver may not even realise he’s done the damage untill he gets back to the depot .

This at least give them a chance — I doubt flaming them will make them more likely to help

The problem is how do you know the witnes is legitamate, they may well have just made up a note to blame someone else,accidents do happen, and sometimes drives of lgv,s dont realise they have made a scratch on a vehicle, was your car parked legally and within its allocated space confine.

Twitter? **** me! Grow up.

Twitter? **** me! Grow up.

+1

Exactly, he should be taking this more seriously. I’d suggest a fb petition would get their attention.

£1000 for a bumper!! This is what bumpers are for.

Spoke to their incident handling guys at 4pm and basically got told they’d do jack shit until the driver reported it.

watch this space I guess. Pardon me for being a bit pissed off after someone is irresponsible enough to **** my car and leave.

Always interesting to note how quickly a lot of companies respond when a complaint hits public domain though…

Dunno why folks a re so shocked at £1000 for a bumper, they’ve not really been bumpers for years now, much more part of the bodykit. £1000 for a full repair is not sureprising, sure if it was your own money, you would find a much cheaper fix. But the £1000 is to fix it as though nothin had ever happened, as it should be.

So £1000 is quite normal

failing to stop/failing to report within 24 hours?

http://www.driving-law.co.uk/offences/accident.asp

I watched a truck driver flatten a street sign as he tried to 3-point turn using the entrance of a narrow old lane and drive off without flinching. If he didnt notice that would he have noticed hitting a cyclist or pedestrian? I called the company and got a defensive response that the driver had 24hrs to report it, I agreed and highlighted I worked in the police station 100 metres from the scene of the accident which would have been a convenient place to report it, and they said they’d get on to it…

I wouldnt go “public”, but I would get onto the witness and get back to the company on Monday.

First port of call for me would be the witness – contact them, and have a word.

Second port of call would be the police – failing to stop after an accident. Get it reported.

It was in a retail park. Private property , so forget the “get the police involved”

I would suggest that you allow the courier company to respond – and don’t dis them on the internet TBH …

They may just be honourable …

I watched a truck driver flatten a street sign as he tried to 3-point turn using the entrance of a narrow old lane and drive off without flinching.

two weeks ago i was reversing on a gravel car park outside of Davos, Switzerland, and drove smack bang into a bus stop sign. i did flinch. there was a nice big dent in the van and the post was sat at a 45° angle. i drove off. Switzerland can be expensive and having just paid over 5€ for a coffee i figured i had already done my bit towards rectifying my mistake.

It was in a retail park. Private property , so forget the “get the police involved”

No need to stop and exchange details or report an accident if it occurs at a retail park ?

It was in a retail park. Private property , so forget the “get the police involved”

I think you’ll find anywhere the public has legitimate access, private or not, is covered as per the Queens Highway.

CharlieMungus – Member

Dunno why folks a re so shocked at £1000 for a bumper, they’ve not really been bumpers for years now, much more part of the bodykit. £1000 for a full repair is not sureprising, sure if it was your own money, you would find a much cheaper fix. But the £1000 is to fix it as though nothin had ever happened, as it should be.

So £1000 is quite normal

Exactly.
I had a head on with a campervan on my mtb in November, just got the bill and it was £1200! Im sure a lorry, even at slow speed could do a lost more damage than me.

I think you’ll find anywhere the public has legitimate access, private or not, is covered as per the Queens Highway.

Any chance of a link to that – or has the law changed ?

I’m only going on the basis of what the police told me when some drunk woman drove into the back of my car is a car park.

She was too pissed to be rational – I offered to hold her in the car park until they arrived. They were not interested – so she drove home pissed

You can get fined for not wearing a seatbelt in a privately owned car park used by the public, so I doubt that it’s legal to be drunk driving in a car park.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/usually-i-defend-the-police-and-the-job-they-do-but/page/2#post-4860787

You can get fined for not wearing a seatbelt in a privately owned car park used by the public, so I doubt that it’s legal to be drunk driving in a car park.

Feel free to phone somerset and avon police and tell them that … I don’t think it had anything to do with legality, probably they could be arsed .

But if you car is banged into in a private car park, then plod will not be interested

But if you car is banged into in a private car park, then plod will not be interested

I don’t think they would be interested wherever it happened. They would only be interested if an alleged offence has occurred.

Feel free to phone somerset and avon police and tell them that … I don’t think it had anything to do with legality, probably they could be arsed .

Avon & Somerset Police don’t seem to have much of a clue about anything. They were whining on TV tonight about wanting to re-instate traffic cameras, which the council doesn’t want to do.
Last week I had an email from Avon & Somerset Traffic Camera Partnership detailing where their cameras would be situated over the next month.
Arses and elbows, etc… 🙄

Spoke to their incident handling guys at 4pm and basically got told they’d do jack shit until the driver reported it.

watch this space I guess. Pardon me for being a bit pissed off after someone is irresponsible enough to **** my car and leave.

Always interesting to note how quickly a lot of companies respond when a complaint hits public domain though…
It was 4pm on Friday, he would probably have gone home before the driver got back. He can’t really do/admit/claim anything until he speaks to the driver, checks the delivery logs, inspects the truck etc. At this point you have alleged that one of their vehicles damaged yours. Any responsible person would like to check their side before getting too involved and probably talk to their insurers/legal people.
What did you expect him to do?

Being pissed off is fine and normal just don’t try and make rational decisions while being pissed off. It’s only a bit of metal.

If you fling it round them on twitter/facebook what do you expect to happen? The same guy who is not back in the office till Monday will deal with it then?

First up, pull your bottom lip in and act like a grown up.
The fact that you can post something on Twitter in 30 seconds hasn’t made it possible for everything else to be sorted in seconds.
Insurance claims usually take months and are generally dealt with during office hours.
You need to follow the process methodically and allow the wheels to turn at the normal pace before making a tw** of yourself on the internet.
Sorry if the above doesn’t sound very sympathetic. I’m sure you are usually a really normal bloke but today you are a bit upset by the damage to your car and not being your rational self.