Someone scraped our car and drove off

Legend_DIT

Hi guys, don't have any experience of this so just looking for some opinions. We were stopped in traffic today and an arsehole behind us pulled out around us to drive up a side lane off the main street that was ahead on the right (driving on the wrong side of the road in the process).

He got a nice scrape on the bumper, pics below. He drove off and didn't stop so all we have is the make and colour of the car as well as the year and county of registration. Is it worth while reporting to the Gardaí?

We were thinking of changing cars soon so this is even more annoying

MugMugs

Definitely report it. Doubtful they'll do a lot but still pays to try!

ABajaninCork

Yeah, report it to the Gards. The insurance will want to know anyway.

djimi

Any chance a CCTV camera might have seen it?

Rovi

Definitely report it!
Make, colour, county and year could narrow it down to a very few possibilities, and perhaps even a definitive identification if it's one of the smaller counties.

Miaireland

I would contact local businesses in the area as well as reporting it to the Garda. They might have caught it on CCTV and might allow you to check. Contact them straight away as many businesses record over CCTV within hours. You might want to check with the roads/traffic department of the Council to see if there is a camera on the traffic light.

Legend_DIT

Thanks for the replies guys - reported it to the guards this evening. They're going to run a partial registration check and see if they can track the person down. They're also going to check out CCTV. The guy we were talking to was very friendly, seemed to think given the model of car it may not be too difficult to track down so fingers crossed.

If we don't find out who did it we'll probably just pay ourselves to have it fixed, don't want to get our insurance involved over something so minor

Gumbo

I'd of drove after him.

kceire

kceire wrote: »

I'd of drove after him.

Same here. And cut him off Cops-style!

I'm guessing the OP didn't have that option though for whatever reason.

dollybird2

I would contact my insurance company and advise them of what happened. I know you have said you don't want to go through insurance if the guards have no joy, but if the guards do track down the other driver then your insurance company can claim the cost of repair from his insurance company, but you need to report it to them asap.

MugMugs

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Same here. And cut him off Cops-style!
.

And he'd drive straight into you and take you for thousands in a claim....... Prick style.

Gumbo

MugMugs wrote: »

And he'd drive straight into you and take you for thousands in a claim....... Prick style.

I would of just followed him, like an undercover cop
just enough to get his reg number, then maybe where he lives, and maybe stalk him for a few weeks

biko

kceire wrote: »

I'd of drove after him.

You would have drove after him?

Me too. I would hate to think someone got away with scraping my car.

Legend_DIT

biko wrote: »

You would have drove after him?

Me too. I would hate to think someone got away with scraping my car.

In hindsight we do wish we had done more at the time but the person driving was a learner driver (who hadn't done anything wrong - we were stationary in traffic) so we didn't have many options.

biko

Yeah, sometimes things happens and they are gone before you know it.
Give Gardai details as suggested.

How will you fix the scrapes? DIY? Let a pro have a look anyway and give you some tips and a quote.

BMJD

I'd say you'd be looking at €200-€300 to repair that

MajorMax

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for insurance details, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you pay to repair my car now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

:cool:

Kimbot

Deffo report it, I had a lad crash into the rear of me a few years ago and drove off. Reported it to the guards and I had a partial reg, 6 months later the clown was parked at a set of lights I was crossing so took his proper reg (I had a 4 instead of a 9 or something silly like that in the numbers) rang the guards and got it all sorted eventually. The lads mother was a solicitor and told him not to pay out for damages which were only about 1000 but the guard kept pushing it until he handed it over

Legend_DIT

biko wrote: »

Yeah, sometimes things happens and they are gone before you know it.
Give Gardai details as suggested.

How will you fix the scrapes? DIY? Let a pro have a look anyway and give you some tips and a quote.

Father-in-law has mentioned pen which can fix scrapes, but I don't know much about cars. Will prob get it dealt with professionally, hopefully paid for by the other driver once the Guards track him down!

mloc123

I think a lot of that will buff out, looks like they left white paint behind on your bumper?