Am I subjected to "hit & run"? Would appreciate if someone takes time to read the details given below & answer

Question

I had a strange experience yesterday. I rolled onto a parked car while back-parking on street. Just to make sure things are OK, I went to check the front bumper of that car as well as the rear bumper of my car, and found no damage to both the cars – not even a scratch. I wasn’t leaving any note on the other car assuming “no damage, no accident”. However a weird guy sitting on the side-walk with an unleashed big dog came to me and threatened to report me, and we ran into some arguments. For some strange unknown reason, the guy was trying to intimidate me and backed off when I threatened to report him for keeping his dog unleashed which is illegal here. Another guy who witnessed the car incident told me it was nothing and he was surprised too about the behavior of that guy. Finally, I left without leaving any note because if I had left a note and some other car (or that guy intentionally) hit that parked car later, I would be responsible. Have I done the right thing?

Answer 1

I'm willing to wager that you're not a body repair expert and therefore are not qualified to determine if any damage was done to either vehicle or not.

You are legally bound to make a reasonable effort to contact the owner of the vehicle so that he can have his vehicle assessed for damages.  Failure to do so constitutes Hit-and-Run even if it turns out that no damage was actually done.

So, no, you did NOT do the right thing.  Hopefully the guy with the big dog got your number and either contacted the owner or left it on the windshield.  Or maybe someone else got your number and did so.  In any event, YOU were 100% in the wrong here.  PERIOD.

Answer 2

In the UK, you would more than likely be charged with failure to report an incident, even though there may not be any damage to your vehicle, it is still a legal requirement to attempt to exchange details so the other party may be allowed to see the damage to their vehicle rectified.

Essentially, you are definitely in the wrong I am afraid.

Answer 3

No harm, no foul.

I got rear-ended by a guy right next to a policeman, who witnessed the whole thing.  I got thumped pretty good, but since we were both driving large vans, that was all it was.  Big sturdy bumpers made a large noise.  His was pushed in a bit, but mine was fine.

The cop asked the other driver and me whether we wanted to report it, we both looked at our vehicles and said No.  So the cop just said to have a nice day and waved us on down the road.

You're in the clear.  As for Nutjob with the unleashed dog, you were right - leaving a note could've exposed you to deliberate sabotage from that guy.  As it stands, you have plausible deniability - you could've parked after any damage was done, and of course you didn't DO any damage, so that's the end of that.

Answer 4

No damage to you might be different to someone else.

The persons car you hit has the right to have their car exactly the way it was when before you hit it.

Some care even if it was just a scratch or some paint transfer. I have seen some not care about a dent.

Have you done the right thing? I have no idea. You make your world. Seeing as how you just posted asking others it seems you may feel you did not make the right decison. If you really were free and clear in your mind you would have already moved on and forgot about it.

Answer 5

Of course you may have not seen any damage but it doesn't mean you didn't cause any.  I think it would have been right to allow the owner of the vehicle to have the vehicle looked at by a mechanic prior to determining if there was no damage.  Yes, if there's no damage there's no claim however you're not a trained expert.  I understand being concerned about leaving the note with the aggressive guy standing there however I think you could have called the police and filed a report instead, they would have documented the damage... or the lack there of and contacted the owner.  So that way you have a reliable witness as to what you may or may not have caused.  Not to say that this doesn't happen everyday, so I wouldn't feel too bad.