Leaving the scene of an accident

extra-ordinary_

My car was recently involved in a collision with another vehicle where both cars were passing each other in opposite directions, but the other car was over my side of the road. I tried to take as much evasive action as I could, but as they went by, they smashed my mirror with their mirror. I immediately stopped and looked around and saw they weren't stopping so started to sound my horn to alert them but they just kept going. I turned around and went after them and came alongside them yelling that they'd broken my mirror to which they replied, "no!…you hit me!!". I fell in behind the car and started taking photos of the reg and kept following the car not really knowing what I was doing or going to do, but as it turned out, the car pulled into a supermarket carpark, so I was going to pull alongside and confront the driver, but out of the corner of my eye I see a squad car on the far side of the carpark, so I drive directly over to them and tell them what has happened. The other driver comes out of the shop and approaches their car, which by this time has three Garda circled around. The driver is an elderly woman. She starts by saying "he was speeding guard, he was flying it, he hit me an awful bang". I couldn't believe what I was hearing and was trying to make her and the guards know that where the collision happened, nobody could be speeding as it was outside a school, and there were speed ramps every 20m or so, I was trying to get her to realise that her story didn't make sense. I told her I had dashcam footage hoping she'd change her story, but she didn't care (my dashcam had been having a semi-permanent 'format card' message on the screen for days that I hadn't gotten around to addressing so I was fairly sure I actually had nothing). I was arguing with the woman trying to convince her her story was totally made-up, where at this point one of the Garda started getting an attitude towards me as he said "ffs like, nobody has been killed like" and "the more important thing here is you don't have a valid insurance disc on the windscreen of your car". I showed them the email from the insurance company which they were satisfied with, and they took both driver's details and swapped insurance particulars with each driver and then they just drove off. I

When two cars are involved in a collision, is it not an offence to not stop? was so worked-up at the time I couldn't think straight, but after I would've thought surely the Garda/s job here would've been to question the other driver and inquire as to why they hadn't stopped if it was such "an awful bang" I'd given them?

3DataModem

Once you had the registration, that was pretty much enough. Why keep following her? You can report her for leaving the scene, and hitting your car, but to the guards it seems like you were looking to confront her. And you proved them right by confronting her! Just get the reg, call the guards, and let your insurance company do the rest.

Eggs For Dinner

If you have no dashcam footage and no independent witness, forget it and put it behind

Calahonda52

IIRC from my own experience in this area is that mirrors are not covered by insurance and Guards not really interested.

Kaybaykwah

I’m surprised the guards didn’t separate both parties to avoid a confrontation. That sounds very unprofessional and/or unlikely to me.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058353346/leaving-the-scene-of-an-accident

sounds like you were lucky not to be charged with road rage. Following/chasing driver, yelling etc

insurance for a mirror isn’t a good choice that’ll drive up the premiums beyond the cost of the mirror

Oscar_Madison

Happened me years ago- bad weather poor visibility, dark, narrow country road - our mirrors bashed together - mine was fine except it just pushed in like it’s designed to do- I checked my rear view mirror and the other car just kept driving - I shrugged my shoulders and kept driving too -you couldn’t possibly determine who was at fault - certainly not worth the hassle of having it on your insurance record for the next number of years

extra-ordinary_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122188474#Comment_122188474

That's a slightly different scenario on what I'm presuming was a narrow road. My situation is that there was ample room for cars to pass each other only that in this case she was over the centre-line of the road on my side. It was outside a school so I could only take slight evasive action as there were those pencil bollard things all alongside me. If only my dashcam had been working correctly it would have clearly shown the other driver to be in the wrong.

It's not about the cost of the mirror, the point I'm asking about is if two cars collide are the drivers not obliged to stop? According to the 'awful bang' I gave the other car, if it was the case as she describes it, surely someone might have been injured or anything. Surely the drivers are meant to stop their vehicles and inquire and offer assistance no?

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190040#Comment_122190040

I imagine the answer is yes- but if one didn’t and if you were able to get the licence plate then you could decide to report it or not - wing mirrors can be expensive to fix so certainly if you have proof the other person was at fault then pursue it if you so wish - leaving the scene would not look good for the other person and maybe that’s all the proof you need - but if no damage I personally wouldn’t