Taking daughter No1 to school yesterday I made my usual right turn onto a narrow town road with parked cars on my right and double yellow lines on my left, so nothing parked on my side.
It's about 100m before I need to turn left so proceeding slowly down this road I see a car coming through the junction I want to take, at a reasonably fast speed. The normal etiquette is for the oncoming car to pull in between the parked cars to allow cars in my direction to proceed. This is all normally done at walking speed. Anyway, this guy is going for it and whacks my wing mirror on the way past. I was practically stationary at this point but it was a fair old thump.
The mirror bends back and he has disappeared into the distance. I make my left turn and push the button to pop my mirror back in but it starts flailing around. I thought right - I'm going to get you at the main road so another left turn and up to the main road - he is not to be seen. Back around to the scene of the crime and he has done a U-turn and is facing the way he came with his car parked on the right.
I pulled up behind him and jumped out of the car. He was retrieving his mirror from the road. I wasn't going to get into a discussion with him about fault so simply said. "Hello. We just clipped mirrors there and we need to swap insurance details as that looks quite expensive there", pointing to my floppy mirror. His response was "I never hit anything", with his mirror in his hand!! So I repeated what I said and he said "OK, you've got my number". I leant into my car to get my diary and pen and he jumped into his car, wound up his window and took off like a scalded cat, just as I was about to knock his window. He very nearly caused another accident in his hurry to get away.
Bearing in mind this was near both a Secondary and a Primary School just after 08.30, so I decided not to get involved. It's only a mirror after all.
Dropped my daughter at school, pulled up in a car park and phoned the police to report a RTA and minor Hit & Run (technically probably not, but certainly got their attention). They took the details and discussed the probability of him not being insured and left it at that. I drove to work with my floppy mirror and then was able to figure out how to pop it back in place, however the lens was cracked. I ordered a new one from ebay £20 and thought that was the end of it.
Two phone calls within a few hours, from the police and it turns out the guy was insured. They went round to see him, so I asked them why he left in such a hurry and they didn't really know but did admit he was a bit strange. They gave me his details but I figured it's not really worth it.
However, I later noticed a dent in my wing where his mirror must have bounced off it. It has marked the paint but I think it will polish out - the dent won't though. It's on the crease of the wing so shows the extent of the forces involved.
Bit peeved about it but it's just more battle damage. The thing is that road has just been resurfaced within the last month and the speed bumps have been removed. If they had been there it wouldn't have happened. I never though I would bemoan the lack of speed bumps.
I still don't understand why he legged it. It wasn't as if I threatened to pull his head off or anything like that. Very strange.
Must look up a You-Tube clip to figure out how to replace the lens. Isn't technology wonderful.
It's about 100m before I need to turn left so proceeding slowly down this road I see a car coming through the junction I want to take, at a reasonably fast speed. The normal etiquette is for the oncoming car to pull in between the parked cars to allow cars in my direction to proceed. This is all normally done at walking speed. Anyway, this guy is going for it and whacks my wing mirror on the way past. I was practically stationary at this point but it was a fair old thump.
The mirror bends back and he has disappeared into the distance. I make my left turn and push the button to pop my mirror back in but it starts flailing around. I thought right - I'm going to get you at the main road so another left turn and up to the main road - he is not to be seen. Back around to the scene of the crime and he has done a U-turn and is facing the way he came with his car parked on the right.
I pulled up behind him and jumped out of the car. He was retrieving his mirror from the road. I wasn't going to get into a discussion with him about fault so simply said. "Hello. We just clipped mirrors there and we need to swap insurance details as that looks quite expensive there", pointing to my floppy mirror. His response was "I never hit anything", with his mirror in his hand!! So I repeated what I said and he said "OK, you've got my number". I leant into my car to get my diary and pen and he jumped into his car, wound up his window and took off like a scalded cat, just as I was about to knock his window. He very nearly caused another accident in his hurry to get away.
Bearing in mind this was near both a Secondary and a Primary School just after 08.30, so I decided not to get involved. It's only a mirror after all.
Dropped my daughter at school, pulled up in a car park and phoned the police to report a RTA and minor Hit & Run (technically probably not, but certainly got their attention). They took the details and discussed the probability of him not being insured and left it at that. I drove to work with my floppy mirror and then was able to figure out how to pop it back in place, however the lens was cracked. I ordered a new one from ebay £20 and thought that was the end of it.
Two phone calls within a few hours, from the police and it turns out the guy was insured. They went round to see him, so I asked them why he left in such a hurry and they didn't really know but did admit he was a bit strange. They gave me his details but I figured it's not really worth it.
However, I later noticed a dent in my wing where his mirror must have bounced off it. It has marked the paint but I think it will polish out - the dent won't though. It's on the crease of the wing so shows the extent of the forces involved.
Bit peeved about it but it's just more battle damage. The thing is that road has just been resurfaced within the last month and the speed bumps have been removed. If they had been there it wouldn't have happened. I never though I would bemoan the lack of speed bumps.
I still don't understand why he legged it. It wasn't as if I threatened to pull his head off or anything like that. Very strange.
Must look up a You-Tube clip to figure out how to replace the lens. Isn't technology wonderful.