So on my way home tonight with my 4yr old daughter in the car, in nose to tail traffic with the road narrowing from 2 to 1 lanes I'm in the inside lane of which the outside moves in to. Now I'm not moving as traffic is stationary, but as it does I move up and a white van try's to squeeze in, as he is almost touching my mirror I move up and over to the right to avoid contact.

With this his passenger starts gesticulating and swearing at me. So I move over again and forward to avoid a collision, with this the passenger dilberately and with force smashes the door in to my rear door, leaving a lovely crease. At this point I hold my phone to the window and show myself dialling "999" in the hope he would wind it in, instead he did a U turn, giving me a lovely view of the licence plate.

So do I give the police a call or claim on my own insurance for the repair to me door?

Police.

I'd report it.

Wee Smurf said:

I'd report it.

Click to expand...

Police every time although I doubt they'll do anything.

Gavv8 said:

Police every time although I doubt they'll do anything.

Click to expand...

Oh they'll send out a leaflet about being a victim of a crime!

police, what he did was a criminal act not a traffic accident.

As a HGV driver I see this kind of thing all the time and the Police don't really care, I had a car and caravan cut me up on a roundabout near Weston-Super-Mare in the summer with the caravan taking my wing mirror, the corner of my trucks bumper and indicator off and when I phoned the police to report it with the reg no and description they said I had to go to the station to report it...I asked if I could legally park a 44 ton artic outside the police station in WSM ..they said no.....I said well I can't come to the station then.....they said....not much we can do about it then...

The problem will be in identifying the passenger... -- but this is road rage; and dangerous. Police every time....

I agree with the others, report to the police. As Dave said, this is not a traffic collision, but an assault. Let the police see the damage to your door, don't wipe off any evidence. If there's any paint transfer, that will help. I believe the driver is responsible for the actions of his passenger, so police are likely to speak to driver, who may give up his mate, making it easy. Police will be unable to prosecute, but could give them a warning, or even a fixed penalty public order offence ticket.

Definitely the Police. Give as good a description of the van as possible, reg no. if you got it, time & place. They may not be able to anything now but they may have been reported before, or will be again, if it`s a regular thing by the offender.


It`s not an RTA but assault.

Definitely tell the Police, they'll likely do nothing about it, but it's worth a try.

It's criminal damage, by the way, not an assault as suggested earlier; assault is an offence against the person, not an offence against your property. Well, technically if Dev "apprehended immediate unlawful personal violence" it could be seen an assault, but criminal damage is what the van's passenger would be charged with if the Police were to do anything about it.

Sorry to hear about your incident, some people are such idiots

I'd have done 999 there and then as it was a criminal offence being committed at the time.

Some right :tosser: out there

Well after he slammed his door into the car I held my phone to the window and showed me dialling 999, which made him to a u turn and drive off.

I have reported it now, they are coming to see me tonight however, my step sons dad has advised it will probably come to nothing as the driver will be as thick as his mate and not give him up, even if he did a prosecution is unlikely to yield pay back for the damage which is a small crease in the rear drivers side door, that isn't overly noticeable once you clear the road grime off (didn't get chance to wash it at the weekend)

Ithink the police shouid do something and throw the book at both the driver & the passenger,

They are both scum imho, who in the right mind wouid attack someones car
with a 4 year old child on board,

You did the right thing reporting it to the police, it's just unfortunate that they won't see it that way, just something to crank up their statistics!

I had a case of road rage where a driver of the other car followed me home and assaulted me so badly, I ended up in the back of an ambulance for a night in the local hospital with concussion and I wasn't even driving, the Mrs was!

They arressted him, charged him and released him on bail, to which they later found out all his details were made up and he didn't show up for court!
The police just didn't care about doing anything until the court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Weeks later, the Mrs and son were accosted in our street by the same guy, turns out this guy is local to us.
We reported this, and yes, they weren't that interested about that either.
So we instructed our solicitor to file for an injuction to keep him away from our family.

After threats from our solicitor it took 3 months the police finally gave up what they had on him so he could proceed with the injuction.
Turns out this character is on about four different forces wanted lists for failure to turn up at court for violent crimes, he occasionally turns up with different documents, all seem genuinely issued from various authorities in Guinea-Bissau or Portugal.

Thinking we'd "Cracked" it for the police, we passed on this guys address hoping they would then deal with him for all the outstanding warrants etc and we wouldn't need the injuction.

Nothing happened!

It wasn't until we proceeded with the injuction (to which he didn't turn up) and he eventually broke it 5 months later threatening my son on the way home from school did the police finally re arrest him and bail him again (lord, don't they learn?).

We believe he returned to Guinea-Bissau before appearing in court, though his FaceBook page suggests he has now returned to Britain, and yes, the police aren't interested!

Call from the police to say not coming round to get a statement, instead they are going to try to trace the driver and have a go at him.

Dev100 said:

Call from the police to say not coming round to get a statement, instead they are going to try to trace the driver and have a go at him.

Click to expand...

I don’t read anything positive in that sentence.

It indicates three `negative waves’
“statement” – they don’t want to file an MG11
Are they avoiding/evading recording a crime?
Did you get an `Incident No’?
“going to try” – how difficult is it to identify a vehicle keeper given a Reg No?
“have a go” – where do we find that procedure in their guidance documents?

Don’t play-down your loss – they’ll be a value where they’ll put down their sausage butties & bums will lift-off seats.

162335Z

The police are limited in what they can do. It is the victim's word against two of them. Believing the victim is not proof enough to prosecute. Even with paint evidence on either vehicle from the other, it would need forensic analysis to prove, unlikely to be worth the cost. However, if they turn up on the driver's doorstep, especially at a good time, like when he is about to have dinner with his partner, they may get a result where he admits, or shops his mate. They are sometimes quite good at this. With an admission they can issue a public order fixed penalty ticket. Whilst that seems insufficient, it is the first step to a criminal record and would count against the perpetrator in any future issue. Let's trust the police to do what they can.

Thats why I always wear helmet cam when Im cycling in London! My dad bought car cam and Im looking to get one myself. Its about £100 from your pocket but the peace of mind that it gives you and protection is just priceless!

Our entire fleet of trucks at work are now fitted with forward facing cameras and i'm seriously thinking of getting one too, I've heard rumours that insurance companies might start offering discounts for cars fitted with them like they do in the USA.