Your Triumph and the Law.

Mike,
Can you advise on whether a minor bump in a car park has to be notified to the police.
I bumped bumpers with another car in a car park. I believe the car park is owned by Sainsbury. His front bumper hit my rear bumper. We were both moving. He was moving forward I was in reverse. If we had been racing it would have been considered as just one of those things. But we werent racing in fact we were only doing 1 or 2 mph!.
No damage to me and only minor damage to his bumper. It was an oldish Honda that had painted bumpers and the paint cracked. Needless to say no one was injured. He spoke no English although he did appear to have a international driving licence. We exchanged names and addresses but not insurance details. I think it was his fault he will think it was mine and the truth is that if we had both acted differently it wouldnt have happened.
Clearly I am not going to claim as I have no damage so I dont plan to contact my insurance company.
I have documented the incident but dont quite know what to do with the document!
How does this get resolved?
Cheers
Ian

You should notify your insurers, what happens if tha other party puts in a claim for injury and damage - if you have not informed your insurers you could be on your own in dealing with it - they are better placed to handle such things than you. Be sure to tell them that you may elect to deal with any claim yourself in order to protect your policy - even if you don't have a "no claims discount" you still don't want claims on your poilcy if you can help it.
As for notifying the police, why not ask them? Just don't use the 999 freefone number

Seriously though, I very much doubt whether the police will be at all interested, doesn't sound like any crime has been committed and no-one was injured so I very much doubt they will want to know.

I also suspect that the Police will not be the slightest bit interested but I thought i would ask.
They cant contact my insurance company as they dont know who it is as we did not swop companies. I would rather not tell the insurance company if I dont have to as if its not on file they cant possibly consider it in setting any future premium. The last thing I need is for it to go on record as a 'knock for knock' which means that his insurer pays his costs and mine covers mine (zero) so I end up with a claim losing my no claims without an actual claim!!!

I believe that the only circumstance in which the Police must be informed is if someone is injured.
John

The formal industry Knock for Knock agreement was cancelled about 7 years ago and no longer exists.
It's a policy condition on all motor insurance policies that you report all incidents. Failure to do so does give an insurer the right to avoid any subsequent claim - you are taking a risk, albeit small, in not reporting it - just don't go thinking that you can just tell your insurers a year later and they'll welcome you with a "never mind, we'll pay up".
Having said all that, if it were me, I would just send in a notification, point out that I was not at fault and state that you are notifying the claim to protect your position.
If you are insured with a nice cheap insurer you would be surprised how eager they will be to avoid any claim - late notice is a gift to them. If the policy states "you must notify any incident within 7 days" the insurer could attempt to avoid the claim if you notified in 8 days.
I know all this sounds like doom and gloom but for the sake of a phone call persoanlly I think you're risking a lot - but hey! It's your risk, do what you feel comfortable with

Ian

The law only requires you to exchange names and addresses of the owners and drivers of the vehicles, plus the vehicle details, provided there was no injury. It appears that you have done this and therefore complied with the law. Police will not be interested in any reporting of the incident.

As to civil liability, I cannot assist, but Jason's advice makes sense.

Regards
Mike Crewes
copshop@tssc.org.uk

PS Also see Members Handbook about accidents.

Feedback - Thanks for all your advice! I contacted the insurance company who didnt really seem very interested as i wasnt making a claim. They said there was no time limit to make a claim.
As it happens I havent heard anymore from the other party so I guess after 3 weeks I am not going to.

Section : Road Traffic Accidents

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