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will i be prosecuted for a car park scrape?

I went to V Festival in Stafford along with 80,000 other people back in August. Trying to get out of the car park on the monday morning is known to be a nightmare and it was!
we were there for at least an hour queuing to get out of one exit with thousands of other cars. everyone was packed in close together cos noone wants to lose their space. we literally moved only a few meters in an hour and when we did move it was about 1mph.
anyway, i got a letter of claim in the post sayin that a car was claiming damage to their rear right bumper - news to me! I had no idea I had touched anyone. Although in the circumstances I knew a scratch could have been a possibilty so I have agreed to pay the damages.
Since then I have been asked to make a statement to the police who say that I may be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention, failure to report an accident and failure to give my details at an accident.
The guy who is claiming reckons his wife got out the car and asked for our details but me and my passenger are confident she did not approach us. we had no idea. they have an "independent" witness who says he say me scratch the car but he also states that we moved at no more than 1mph. he says that he saw the driver's wife get out of the car but not that she approached us.
I really wasnt aware of anything at the time, it was busy car park with thousands of cars packed in like sardines. if i had known i had hit him I would have stopped cos im not a bad person! I just didnt know! shows how slight the damage must be if I didnt even notice it.
Anyway, do you think the police will take it any further and prosecute? i really hope not and i think it would be extremely unfair in the circumstances. :(

Corinneh2k Wed 17/09/08 17:01

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TWR
Wed 17/09/08
17:10

Someone is taking the P----- tell them you will see them in court, If someone as you say approched you regards an accident you would have stopped. Fight It.

Toureman
Wed 17/09/08
18:25

They have been to the police to report an accident.

The police send out a standard letter informing you of intended action because of this.

If you hear anything else from the police it will be to tell you to forget it, they are not going to take action with a little scrape in a car park.

Don't worry about it.

bednobs
Wed 17/09/08
18:28

what i dont get is if things were moving so slow why didnt the driver also get out if you supposedly ignored the passenger. Did the driver not even get out to inspect the damage?
it seems vv strange

Corinneh2k
Wed 17/09/08
18:49

Question Author

well the driver couldnt get out of his side of the car as we were so tightly packed in together.

staffordshire police sent me a letter sayin an incident had been reported and they had to send the letter out as a matter of procedure. they have then asked my local police force to get a statement from me - which I gave last night. my local police said they would just pas the statement on to staffordshire police and then they will decide whether to prosecute.

im just really worried that I will be prosecuted as there is an independent witness saying he saw me scrape their car as well as the driver and his passenger's statements.

SpikieMikie
Wed 17/09/08
19:50

Well.. you've already made the mistake of taking blame / responsibility for the accident... why would you do such a thing unless you were sure you'd caused the damage in the first place ? Most people won't, and don't, admit to an accident that is their fault, let alone admitting to one they didn't know they'd had !... is there damage on to your vehicle to indicate that it came into contact with theirs ?

Now you've admitted causing the damage, I don't see that you can get out of paying for it.... I wish I met more people like you on a day-to-day basis.. I don't think I could help myself in exploiting such situations...

However, it is extremely unlikely you will be prosecuted for this, given the circumstances. The police would have to demonstrate 'beyond reasonable doubt' that you were aware of an accident taking place and that, in the case of driving without due care and attention, that you were in fact driving without due care and attention. As you describe the situation in the car park, I don't think its likely they could suggest that.

In addition, the question needs to be asked 'if the other driver is claiming to have approached you about the accident, an approach that wasn't witnessed by the 3rd party, then what is the other driver claiming happened during that approach ?'.... that you refused to exchange details, that you ignored them... ?..... by asking this question, you could expose the other driver as a liar, and that would cast doubt on their entire claim...

This might be worth fighting through your own insurance company... particularly if you have protected no claims and/or legal cover...

Corinneh2k
Wed 17/09/08
23:24

Question Author

thanks for you answers everyone.

there is no noticeable damage on our car but it is a bit of an old banger so new scratches would go unnoticed i suppose!

i have accepted im paying the damage which is annoying enough (still to find out the cost but i bet they'll tart it up a lot!) but i dont fancy a fine and points on top of that.

the other driver is saying that i ignored their request for details and then drove off. they are also sayin they heard "a crash and a bang" though which makes me laugh when we were only goin at 1mph when we supposedly touched them! I think the independent witness cant remember much other than the passenger gettin out - so that is all they have said. thats all i rememebr too!

my problem is that i am only a named driver on my brother's insurance policy. he doesnt have legal cover and doesnt want me to claim cos it wud affect his no claims and push his future insurance costs up. I told him there was a slight possibility I may have scratched them unawares due to the circumstances, but i didnt think I had, and he said he thought it would be best to simply pay the damage rather than fight it and for them to then produce witnesses saying they saw me do it, which they have.

I hope you are right anyway and they dont take it any further. just cant help worrying - ive never been in trouble before!! haha! lets just hope its a nice police officer dealing with it!

thanks.

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