News0 min ago
Car collision
I was scraping the ice from my car window this morning when I was struck by a passing vehicle's wing mirror. As they were only going about 25mph and the mirror autimatically folded in I was unhurt but, thinking about it later, was a bit surprised that the driver didn't stop as they couldn't have failed to notice what happened. I was wondering, is there a legal requirement for a car to stop after any collision or were they perfectly entitled to just drive on.
I didn't take the registration so am only looking for advise for my own interest really!
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by camille79. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.BenDToy is correct but, had you taken his number then in order to achieve a successful prosecution for failing to stop and/or failing to report within 24 hours it must be proven that the driver was aware the collision had taken place.
You say the driver couldn't have failed to notice but that might have been hard to prove. For example, people often say, "He obviously saw me; he looked right at me." but that is not sufficient proof of your actually having been seen.
Archbishop, it is not an offence to fail to report any accident. If, for example, you hit an animal it must fall into one of the categories of "Road Traffic Act Animals". These are (or were, last I knew) "Horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog" to require a report. An accident involving a motor vehicle and a cat, for example, doesn't need to be reported as long as nothing else was involved - unless it was another cat. Neither does a collision with temporary "roadside property" such as plastic cones or roadworks fencing need reporting.