www.jec.org.uk

...a witness?

I was walking through the high street yesterday when a car was reversing into a space and hit the car parked behind. Not a smash but enough to push it backwards, there was nobody in it. The elderley driver of the reversing car continued his parking manouvre.

I walked on but a way up the road I started to feel a bit guilty in case the car had been damaged and the parking pensioner had said nothing.

A moral problem really, if someone had hit my car I would be pleased to have an independant witness but is it really worth the hastle of getting involved.

I just wondered what would your instinct be?

I completely empathise with this dilema.

A good few years ago I witnessed a nasty smash on the M1. A lorry side-swiped a Ford Fiesta and sent it into the crash barrier as well as colliding with another car. Everyone involved stopped and I agreed to be witness...

Boy - that was a mistake! I had no problem talking with the Police and filling in their accident witness form. I even completed a report for the very grateful Ford Fiesta driver's insurance company. However, I then had 3 further requests from other interested insurance companies and then started getting calls at all hours from what can only be described as "Ambulance Chasers" insisting that I hold a telephone interview and threatening that, somehow, I had a legal responsibility to fill in all their forms!!

What do I conclude from this experience?

Well, if you are a witness then usually the drivers involved and the Police are grateful. But do be prepared to waste hours of your time with duplicate report forms for insurance companies and (worst of all) 6 or 7 calls a week from the Ambulance Chasers...

Pop,

I sympathise with Rich's experience, particularly with the litigious society within which we increasingly find ourselves. And getting involved can sometimes expose us to some very unpleasant people

However, I do feel that we have a responsibility to help others, particularly if the guilty party shows no remorse, or perhaps is genuinely ignorant of having caused the accident.

With modern car construction, the design of crumple zones and big plastic bumpers, an impact sufficient to make a car move backwards (and which presumably is in Park / Gear with handbrake applied) could easily have rippled the floorpan, with no obvious external damage. Even the repair of the paint damage should not fall to the innocent owner.

I had an incident some years ago, when my wife was driving my company car and got "just bumped" from behind by another car. No apparent damage but my wife got the other drivers details and a witness. When she got home, I opened the tailgate, there was a groan, and now the tailgate wouldn't shut. A quick look under the boot carpet and the ripple was obvious. In short, £1200 of insurance work required!

So, I have to say, I think I'd have to get involved. I wouldn't want it to be my car one day!

Paul