Driving withour due care and attention

you left the scene of an acident, naughty naughty. im guessing if there was no damage to the cab you could aruge there was no point in stopping.

thats why I didn't stop, sounds stupid but I thought I was doing him a favour by not taking his details and taking further action. I thought I would just be able to fix the dent in my car and just let live...

I've just rang the police accident department and they have said that I'm not being prosecuted for driving without due care/ attention but its failing to stop as its a requirement to stop & pass details after an incident.

I thought I would only need to take details if I were planning on taking further action

Hang on..

So you stopped your car, got out, walked over to his car, and inspected the damage. You then assessed the damage done to his car, and then the damage done to your car, and came to the decision that you should return to your car and drive on?
You did ALL of that, without talking to the taxi driver at all? Without even LOOKING at the taxi driver to see his reaction?
Sure ya did. You hit his car and drove off. Coward. I'm glad you got caught. Hope your fine is huge.

youre supposed to exchange details in the event that someones injured and not present at the time or something like that.

penaltys for leaving the scene of an accident can vary, if youre exceptionaly lucky youll get off, unlikely but you could. often 9 points and a fine ensue. but as this is a slightly different case to say running over a cyclist and leaving im not certain.

youre supposed to exchange details in the event that someones injured and not present at the time or something like that.

penaltys for leaving the scene of an accident can vary, if youre exceptionaly lucky youll get off, unlikely but you could. often 9 points and a fine ensue. but as this is a slightly different case to say running over a cyclist and leaving im not certain.

2. what do you mean by no hassle? Surely if you feel you were not in the wrong you would have made sure that details were exchanged and you wouldn't have to pay for repairs.

Exactly.
Here is how you have described the situation:

1. You overtook the taxi, and the taxi... somehow.. crashed into you. (Except you would have to actually pull in and hit him, therefore showing you didn't check your mirrors - your fault)
2. You got out, and without saying anything to the taxi driver, you made a thorough inspection of his vehicle and yours.
3. You determined that the only damage done when he allegedly crashed into you was done to your vehicle, so you decide to drive off.


Riiiiight, so he magically crashes into you and damages your car, yet you just happen to drive off and let him off with it to "avoid the hassle"? Even though it was allegedly his fault entirely?

Oh and I'm sure he was just speechless when you hit him, and I'm sure he didn't make any signal to talk to you, even though he had time to get out a pen and paper and take down your number plate.

What do you HONESTLY take us for?

you dont have to be intimate with the law to realise its obvious if you hit someone you aught to at least say hi?

I've been involved in a couple of minor low speed shunts. First of which was a woman in a fiesta who rolled into my arse at a T junction whilst she was putting make up on in the rear view mirror.
2nd of which was a ferrari 360c that reversed into my front end.

Neither of which damaged my car as they were both at fault i let them both off. However, I did actually take the trouble to talk to them see if they were ok and talk about what happened.

You'll know for next time though.

p.s it was a taxi... you'll be lucky if you dont get the passengers try and knobble you too!

Hopefully you will get this sorted out ok...and you will know in the future that you really do need to take details etc. Even if there doesn't appear to be *much* or *any* damage. Its often worth taking them at the time to avoid realising you should have done later. Obviously you were a bit shaken at the time, and hindsight is a great thing, but you would have been much better to talk to the taxi driver at the time.

I havn't got a clue about what may happen now. My take on it, which may well be wrong! Is that if the damage was on the side of your car, then you were at least partly past the taxi. So even if you *shouldn't* have pulled out, you were partly past the taxi, so they should have waited for you to pass them. If he had hit the front corner of your car, then it would seem more likely that he was pulling out as you meet him (if that makes sense). Also, whilst you should have swapped details etc (and talked to him), he should have talked to you as well. So that bit seems like partly your fault and partly his. But as I say, havn't got a clue what will happen now.

What it probably is worth you doing, is trying to get it clear in your head what happened and writing it down (and drawing a diagram). Ideally this would have been better being done at the time, but even now its probably worth doing it, as the longer it goes on the more you are likely to not be able to remember what happened fully. Try and write it down clearly now, and it may help later on. Also, did you have any passengers in the car with you who saw what happened?