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Keep it polite and constructive please. Jamie in particular, please avoid personal comments: always bear in mind in a thread like this whether or not you're being helpful to the person who is asking for advice.
I agree with the helpful views of the majority, even if they're not what the OP's friend will want to hear.
It must be 40 years ago or so - I 'hit and ran' and am still ashamed of it, even though it was largely the other driver's fault. With no other traffic about, he stopped suddenly for no apparent reason: I swerved to avoid him but caught his rear offside wing a glancing blow. I was young and foolish and drove on: fortunately he can't have got my number and I heard no more.
Edited by Avant on 24/06/2011 at 01:26
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Theres a difference between imparting information the OP's friend wont want to hear and personally baiting them saying they really hope she gets into trouble, which is uncalled for and unhelpful.
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saying they really hope she gets into trouble, which is uncalled for and unhelpful.
At the end of the day, f they don't want a fine, then they shouldn't do the crime.
In short, take responsibility for your actions. If you accidentally damage someone else's property, own up to it - don't run away and hope for the best.
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You're acting as if she went out on the rampage looking for things to damage. When in reality she scratched a car on her way out of a space.
Hardly crime of the century is it?
And anyway, they came here for advice, not for your moral opinion of how they should or should not live their lives.
Edited by jamie745 on 24/06/2011 at 01:42
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Hardly crime of the century is it?
And anyway, they came here for advice, not for your moral opinion of how they should or should not live their lives.
As I said early on in this thread, damage is damage, no matter how small or severe.
WTF are you on about? They got some advice, that being to take responsibility for their actions and not to drive off from the scene of an accident. It might not have been the advice they were looking for, but they got it nevertheless.
Talking of moral opinions, pot and kettle mate. I'm equally entitled to my opinion as you are.
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Telling someone to not drive off the day after they've driven off isnt really advice, its more..telling them what they've probably worked out by now. What did you expect her to do? Jump in the DeLorean and go back in time? She wanted advice on what to do in the here and now after its happened, my advice was to do nothing, and seeing as she's not heard anything (if there was serious damage to a vehicle my guess is the owner wouldve seen it by now) then i would dare to suggest all is well. And if that is the case, advising her to go back there and put herself in a situation which will cost her money is not good advice, thats the sort of advice which would get me sacked within a day in what i do for a living.
You can have your opinion all day long mate, my opinion is that its not our job to be judge and jury for people or to judge them, nor is it our job to report peoples crimes or go hunting for untaxed cars just to be the DVLA's teachers pet like some people do, there but for the grace of god and all that, thats the police's job, leave them to it.
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Whatever Jamie.
You obviously want the last word, so I'll let you have it.
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Jamie is right on a couple of issues: it's too late for the OP's friend to do anything. He's right, too, in pointing out that the thread drifted pretty quickly into an area that he took exception to - the rights and wrongs of the situation.
To be pedantic and focus on the original posting: "She is now worried as to what will happen as she is not sure whether there were witnesses or cctv? will she get charged by police? points on her licence? court?"
Answer: if there were witnesses then someone who cares about morals may have given her details to the victim of the accident. If there was cctv coverage probably no-one will have been monitoring the screens at the time and probably any footage will never be reviewed unless the police are heavily involved, which they probably won't be, and the issue will probably never come to court and so the offending driver won't get any points.
As for Jamie's last point, that "...its not our job to be judge and jury for people...", that is exactly what he IS advocating. He claims higher up the thread "...if she'd ripped a bumper off or something like that i'd like to think she wouldve stopped." And who decides whether an incident is serious enough?
He also says, "...nor is it our job to report peoples crimes..." We could argue a long time over that one, but when it comes to our own actions, I believe we should take responsibility and step up to the mark.
Edited by FocalPoint on 24/06/2011 at 10:35
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See, now THAT was advice, informative with clarification, not "i hope you get found out".
Anybody see the difference?
All i was saying with the ripped the bumper off comment was i felt if she could see she'd done damage then she shouldve stopped, she obviously didnt see any damage so whats the point in stopping for nothing? Is the only point i was trying to make.
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Did anyone actually say they hoped she'd get found out?
Be fair. No-one was being aggressive, insulting or vindictive towards the person in question.
Other posters were interested in the moral principles and when it was suggested she might not have handled the situation properly that touched a nerve and Jamie was very keen to defend a morally bankrupt attitude.
Here's my story: I scraped the door of a BMW with my front bumper in a multi-storey car park a while back. Certainly the paint was damaged; without cleaning the area I couldn't be sure if the metal was dented. I like to think I'm a careful driver and I was pretty fed-up with myself. I wrote my contact details on a bit of paper and left it on the car. I never heard anything about it, but at least the owner of the BMW was in a position to decide whether to take things further.
Edited by FocalPoint on 24/06/2011 at 13:42
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Again, it was probably a case of it wasnt worth claiming on insurance for something so minor. Im afriad i dont have a similar story as ive never hit anything, except for my own tree, long story. So i dont know what i'd do if i was in that situation, im sure with most people it crosses their mind whether to stop or not.
And if you read the thread then yes you'll people did say they hope she gets found out.
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she obviously didnt see any damage .
She didn't look to see if there was any. She didnt think there would be much damage and just drove off. The fact that she knew there might be some damage should have woken her conscience up and stopped to take a look.
Chances are, if like her friend, she's a student, coupled with being a driver of less than a year, then the car may well be a shed, and probably already has battle scars anyway.
Yes, I'm surmising, but as the OP hasn't got back with an update or answered any of the questions put to them, what else are we supposed to think?
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 24/06/2011 at 13:49
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Edited by Dwight Van Driver on 26/06/2011 at 16:10
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In answer to 1 litrgolf eater ^^^^^ 0440 this date
Public place, now specifically mentioned regarding certain offences under Road Traffic Act (No Insurance, due care, fail to stop etc etc).....Prosecution must show that public at large, not special groups only ( members of a Golf Club etc) have unfettered access to that area and used by public as such and are so admitted with the permission, expressed or implied of the owner of the land in question.
Thus Supermarket Car Parks are brought in under the Act. In May v DPP [2005] it was held a Car Park attached to commercial premises intended only for use by customers and accessible from a public place (road) with NO restrictions placed on people entering the car park was held to be a 'public place'
Likewise the farmers field on the occasion when it was used as a showground for agricultural show. - Paterson v Ogilvy [1957]
The car park of a pub has been held to be a public place - R(on the application of Lewis)v DPP [2004].
dvd
(Avant please note fourth time I have tried to post this...)
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...The car park of a pub has been held to be a public place - R(on the application of Lewis)v DPP [2004]...
I know of a drink driver who failed to get a conviction overturned because the pub car park was held to be a public place.
Put simply, if the public have access, it's a public place.
If you are in the fortunate position of owning land, but want to get around this, for example to teach a youngster to drive, the answer is to fit a gate with a lock, and use both.
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This problem may be confined to people who write their posts in Word and copy on to here.
Jamie745 has posted this hint on the general section which I'll pass on:
The way round is to when you get to the reply page to type your reply, press enter before anything else and it'll drop a line as it were, then type, then send.
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