My sister in law bumped another car in a carpark without realising it. An independent witness reported it to the police and notified the other car owner. My sister in law then got a notification from the other car owners insurance company. When she queried the summons by the police for failing to report an accident she said she hadn't been aware that she'd been in an accident until she got the third party insurance letter. The police said she should have informed the police as soon as she got the letter.

I've never heard of this. I would have just contacted my insurance company and taken it from there. I'd never have thought of contacting the police - are you supposed to?

If she hadn't noticed, I would question whether she should be on the road at all? On the other hand, maybe she didn't hit anything and somebody is trying to pull a fast one?

It is an offence not to report an accident, but if the car owner didnt know they had hit a car it cant have been that bad!

when i had my first accident, i rang the police and they said there was no need for me to have done so, unless it was causing a blockage on the road.

if she didnt even notice, cant have done any damage so why should someone contact the police and insurance?
sounds very dodgy to me:confused:

Originally posted by Cranberry
My sister in law bumped another car in a carpark without realising it. An independent witness reported it to the police and notified the other car owner. My sister in law then got a notification from the other car owners insurance company. When she queried the summons by the police for failing to report an accident she said she hadn't been aware that she'd been in an accident until she got the third party insurance letter. The police said she should have informed the police as soon as she got the letter.

I've never heard of this. I would have just contacted my insurance company and taken it from there. I'd never have thought of contacting the police - are you supposed to?

the police probably think she realised she did it and just drove off. Contact them and report it to her insurers and she has no problems.

On the subject of damage. You'd be suprised how much damage can be caused by something like that.

I didn't know you had to report a minor 'bump' done in a car park (not on the highway) unless there was anyone injured?

A lorry ran me off the road a couple of years ago near the train station, practically took the side of my car off :rant: He didn't stop, so I managed to get in front of him further along the road and stopped my car so that he had to stop.

He said he didn't realise he'd hit me (he was in a big lorry) but when I showed him all the damage he gave me his insurance details.

Neither of us reported it to the police. Insurance company dealt with it. He then said he'd not been involved in an accident, but eventually 'fessed up. But as no-one was injured, I didn't report it, should I have done?

Simple answer - no.

See Highway Code (http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/24.htm#260)

Thanks for all your replies. She's also been charged with leaving the scene of an accident but as I mentioned she didn't know there'd been one. Apparently the other car got £600 worth of damage.

She's due in court on Monday (not in Sheffield) and will probably plead guilty just so that she can get on with her life. Her solicitor thinks she'll get a fine and points but they are hoping she doesn't get a double whammy of points as it's two offences because this could mean she'll loose her licence for this one incident.

If she was unaware of being in an accident, maybe she wasn't in one.

If she's done £600 of damage to another car, there'll no doubt be some evidential markings on her own car. Tell the insurance you don't think the damage was done by her, and get them to do an examination of both vehicles. If it wasn't her, they may be able to prove it.

Unless of course the other party has had theirs repaired already, which could complicate things...

There was an independent witness so the most likely thing is that she didn't realise that she'd done it.

Otherwise it becomes a conspiracy theory. Picture the scene - she is seen by an independent witness in her car pulling away from the damaged car but what the independent witness doesn't realise is that the car has already been damaged by someone who did it in the same spot earlier and drove off without leaving details.

Bit like the JFK assassination. Was there a second shooter on the grassy knoll?

In this case was there another unknown car that had already caused the damage at the scene earlier?

We will never know.

Has your sister in-laws car got/had any damage? surely if she'd hit someone then she would've noticed the damage on her own car? :?

Like you say tho she could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Having to pay for someone elses mistake tho is bl**dy harsh! :rant:

Absolutely no damage at all and it's a spanking, brand new Mercedes (sympathy vote now lost) 4x4 top of the range one as favoured by Bling wearers and footballers wives.

Still, I saw an accident once in which a mercedes had been involved. It was more or less undamaged and the other car looked like it had collided with a tank.

makes you wonder about who the indepent witness is,something definatly wrong here,ref what saxon has said,

Looking at Saxon's thread it looks like you are supposed to unless I've read The Highway Code bit wrong.

Re the independent witness it seems as though that area is plagued by people wandering round car parks looking for accidents because a similar thing happened to me there.

I'd was leaving a car parking spot and this bloke came up banging on the window saying I'd scraped the car parked alongside. It wasn't even his car. I got out couldn't see any damage to my car or the other car. Told the bloke this but he started ranting saying there was to much of this sort of thing going on and he'd report me. So I stuck a piece of paper with my details on the other car's windscreen.

As I expected I never heard anything more about it.

Perhaps this is an extension of Neighbourhood Watch for some people. It's a bit like those people who follow Kerry Needham around.

hi, can you tell us how your sister in law went on in court yesterday,???

Yeah, I hope things went in her favour, cos I really have my doubts about the validity of this 'independent witness'.