Car hit my bike over - whilst parked in a M/C only bay!

[TamSV]

Originally Posted by Heorot

The Police can release insurance details because that is not personal to an individual. They are not allowed to release personal information (driver name and address) without the drivers permission due to the Data Protection Act. Insurance companies can make a request to the police if there is a claim but individuals can't.

As a claims handler, I never involve the police in these cases. The police are not interested as there is no criminality. It is all sorted between the two insurance companies. From the information provided, they may raise a CAD which is a one or two sentence report that they attended, but once they decide that it is a civil matter, they have no interest and no police report will be written.

Really? It might differ between forces but we get loads more than that if the police have attended. Need to pay for it and wait weeks and you can't decipher most of it when you get it...but it's more than a couple of lines

Anyway, I think it's worth pushing the police a little here.

The car insurers are going to write to their policyholder. He might own up, in which case, all is well. He might ignore the letter and hopes it goes away or he might deny all knowledge. The driver has already proven to be of a ****ish disposition so either of the latter options are a possibility. In that case, his insurers will take a view based on the evidence presented to them. They'll either pay it or they won't.

If the driver's got a decent story, and his insurers don't pay, then is anyone going to litigate for what are pretty minor costs? If they do, will the witness want to get involved at that point? His outrage has already disappeared by now and he's got other things to do in his life.

The OP has got Comp cover so, if it gets too difficult, the accident management guys will recover most of their outlay by banging the repairs through his own insurance and then they'll move onto the next, easier, job.

If the driver is going to try and walk away from this then a suitably motivated police officer may be able to use their skills to persuade him otherwise. As has been stated, this is not just a civil matter - an offence has been committed - so the police should be taking some further interest.

I wouldn't want to worry the OP too much. This is a nailed on dead cert of a claim. It's just that I've seen lots of those be unsuccessful so it's worth using all the means at your disposal to get a fair resolution as quickly as possible.

Red Herring is bang on the money IMO.

[Ch00]

While your there reporting the accident at the station you might as well put a complaint in against the officer.

Originally Posted by Heorot

The Police can release insurance details because that is not personal to an individual. They are not allowed to release personal information (driver name and address) without the drivers permission due to the Data Protection Act. Insurance companies can make a request to the police if there is a claim but individuals can't.

Anyone with a good reason can request the owners details from the DVLA. I think this costs in the region of £5.

https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla

So this morning I went to my local police station and requested that an official entry be logged onto their system detailing the accident and the circumstances surrounding it.

The guy behind the front desk asked me all about the incident and logged a 'collision tracker' on the database and gave me the corresponding number to pass onto my insurance. He reckoned that the owner of the car would be sent a letter asking who was driving at the time of the incident. If the driver is honest and forthcoming that'll be the end of it. If he ignores the letter it may warrant further investigation.

Basically if the driver holds his hands up and co operates with the insurance process honestly, the police won't take any further action. If he decides to play silly games then the police will be involved. Hopefully that will be enough to encourage him to do the right thing.

[PyroUK]

Interesting...

Sounds like they will be sending something similar to what I got when caught speeding to confirm the driver.

If he ignores it I think there is a separate offence for that as well as the failure to report!

The guy at the station (civilian I think) mentioned the possibility of going after him for leaving the scene...

[Heorot]

Dkid,

All the above is all very well, but it shouldn't affect your claim with your insurance company apart from the fact that if your insurers cannot recover their outlay, you will have to pay your excess. The police could prosecute for leaving the scene without reporting it to the police, but that is highly unlikely given the circumstances and shouldn't affect your insurance claim. Your insurance is a civil matter; leaving the scene is a criminal matter.

[PyroUK]

But having all the additional evidence and weight from the police etc would be more in his favour.

So he doesn't have to pay his excess or have his ncd reduced etc.

The two do not appear to be mutually exclusive in this instance.

[Biker Biggles]

Originally Posted by Heorot

Dkid,

All the above is all very well, but it shouldn't affect your claim with your insurance company apart from the fact that if your insurers cannot recover their outlay, you will have to pay your excess. The police could prosecute for leaving the scene without reporting it to the police, but that is highly unlikely given the circumstances and shouldn't affect your insurance claim. Your insurance is a civil matter; leaving the scene is a criminal matter.

I think you are missing the point.Yes the insurance co will cover the damage as he is FComp,but Im sure he does not want to make a claim which will cost him his NCD,cost him his excess,and result in next years premium going up on top of that because he has been involved in a claim that left his insurer out of pocket.What he wants is for the other drivers insurance to cover all of that,and therefore he needs to get the other driver to admit what happened.He might need police assistance to achieve that.

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

I think you are missing the point.Yes the insurance co will cover the damage as he is FComp,but Im sure he does not want to make a claim which will cost him his NCD,cost him his excess,and result in next years premium going up on top of that because he has been involved in a claim that left his insurer out of pocket.What he wants is for the other drivers insurance to cover all of that,and therefore he needs to get the other driver to admit what happened.He might need police assistance to achieve that.

Spot on BB