It Was Only A Small Bump!

Question:

I was driving to x for the family holiday towing my caravan and called at a service station on the x.

The service station was very busy and cars were parked everywhere , including 1 which was parked on the corner of the garage and diagonally out into the exit road (this was neither a designated parking bay or a considerate place to park) anyway, I maneuvered round and past it with the car but unfortunately I touched it with the back end of my caravan.

My wife , my father (who was following me out in his car and caravan) both checked if there was any damage and found the only damage to the car was a 2 inch white paint mark on the cars bumper and a dark mark on the caravan (which I t cut out).

There was nowhere for me to park without blocking the garage exit and there was no obvious sign of the car owner, so because of the lack of any damage to either car or caravan I left the scene.

1 month later I get a notice from Devon police accusing me of driving without due care and attention ,failing to report an accident and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

This doesn’t seem fair to me the car was parked (abandoned) in such a way as to make it difficult to get round with a caravan the damage was negligible. It was only a very small bump.

Should I have waited till the police came and blocked the exit of the garage for something which a bottle of t-cut would have sorted ?

Dominic says:

I’m afraid this is a standard response to the allegation.

You are now at risk of 5-10 penalty points and you need to handle this matter with care.

I’m afraid that the inconsiderate nature of the available parking will not afford you a defence. If you hit a stationary car then you are always going to be held responsible.

You are also obliged to stop and then report the incident within 24 hours if any damage occurs no matter how trivial.

Now despite that advice we have a very good success rate at persuading the police not to take any further action in relation to these matters and if you would like my help I will be happy to assist. We maybe able to avoid the police issuing a summons to court.

Come back to me if you would like my help.

Out of the last 63 cases that we have taken on at this stage on 5 have ended up in court.