Wife parked in heath club parking area the other day - staff asked her to move her 6 week old car as a MALE driver was having problems getting out and had damaged his car against a post.
She moved the car and he drove off - in her opinion he could have got a truck out and the staff said that he was not a good driver.
When I washed the car later, I find blue paint and the rear bumper is torn from the car body - nothing too expensive but I do not wish my wife to be arrested for giving this plonker the Glasgow Kiss when they next meet at the gym.
Any thoughts on how to deal with this?
Is it reportable to the Police if we can match the paint? Is it an offence to leave the scene of damage to a car when no physical damage has occurred?
Should I check whether she has bigger muscles than him?
Comments welcome.
Matt35
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you could ask the health club if the parking area has cctv - it may all be on tape if you are lucky.
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IIRC an incident resulting in injury to a person or damage to property must be reported to the police.
I suggest go down to the station and get your version in first.
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Hi Matt,
A cautionary tale
About 6 years ago, our Toytoa parked overnight on public street in North London.
Following morning Toyota pushed onto pavement by force of impact, stuffing rear wing + door. Funnily enough no note.
White paint scrape on body work and a large piece of indicator plastic left under bumper.
Reported to disinterested Met police at station. Issued with a producer! I nominate to show my documents at a City station close to where I work. I do so the following day.
This doesnt stop the Met police then issuing a threatening letter agaist me claiming that docs had not been produced! After they are forced to admit that they have received them (thanks City pol.) get apology but no help.
If you have complete faith in police, endless time and incontrevertible evidence (CCTV a v good idea) then go for it. Otherwise you might be charged with belonging to a health club.
regards
Mark
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Someone start a campaign to have chap easily replaceable rubber REAL bumpers on all cars so we can all get away from the pain in the arse situation where idiots wreck our precious expensive pristine motors. Yeh I know we used to have them but who decided we all wanted these colour coded integrated body parts that cost so much to..... whoa.... back up a little, there you go, as if we didn't know it already...todays "bumpers" are just one more high margin element we keep needing to replace to keep the profits up...
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Shortly after picking up my car (with painted bumpers) I had a little car park incident where I got first and reverse confused and drove into the side of one of my workmates. Damage to the Fiesta - new door. Damage to my painted bumpers - none. See, they don't have to be so bad.
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Rubber!?
No thanks, I'll stick to my steel ones attached firmly to the chassis.
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so when you have a crash you will break most bones in your body as your steel bumpers attached to the chasis have little or no give. I am happy with mine which will crumple to pieces when I have a crash.
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unfortunate use of fatalitic "when I have a crash"
still don't think crashing is as inevitable as picking up a speeding ticket.
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You're right - bad use of words. IF I crash. Touch wood, but so far save from demolishing a wall on the A5 by Llyn Ogwen I have had nowt but little prangs.
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Matt
IMHO you will probably find that this incident occurred other than on a road i.e. private car park so Road Traffic Act in relation to reporting accident/stopping etc. will not apply so Plod will not be interested unless of course you could convince him it was the crime of criminal damage which can be committed anywhere. (Long shot).
So it looks as if any remedy lies in the civil court for which you will have to gather the evidence from witnesses and identification of driver and take statements.
As far as matching and analysing paint samples I doubt Home Office Forensic Dept would help so you would have to look possibly at some University or private firm which I suspect would be expensive but worth investigation.
Having gathered all this consider claim in small claims court.
DVD
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What happened to the idea of putting the bumpers on shock absorbers ? Always seemed quite smart to me.
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Sometimes it IS the police. A few years ago, I was sitting in car parked in service area north of Nottingham, whilst waiting for call from sprog at uni to say he was packed ready for his lift home. I saw a car coming along the row to park, somewhat quickly I thought. He then drove into the space alongside me, but managed to swipe my n/s front wing. Two coppers on a hire car, on their way to some training session (learning to drive, perhaps?). I manfully held back from making any sarcastic remarks, as the driver was clearly quite embarrased.
I was concerned that there were two of them and one of me, with no independent witnesses, but it was all settled OK, so far as I know.
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Check if the club has cctv and if it hasn't next time the bloke is in the club, chuck a brick through his windscreen. It won't solve you rbumper problem but will make you feel better.
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