Hit and Run - What to Do Next? Please Help

Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 22:02
Last edited 22/01/2019 - 23:13 by 1 other user

Hey guys, sorry long post. But I need advice.

So about two months ago my mum was driving me to the station, it was 6.30am and we were going through a roundabout. A car completely smashed into us from the left. The impact was so severe that I was covered in a smattering of glass in the passenger side and my poor mum lost control and the car hit a pole on the other side (damage to both sides to our car). Luckily we were both fine, but the car was badly damaged obviously and eventually became a writeoff. The idiot bro who hit us, stopped to see if we were okay, but did not admit fault and as soon as I started taking pictures of the damage, he ran back to his car and screeched away. I had glass in my shoes and I couldn’t take a picture of the number plate. I called the police and made a report instead. This all happened within 7 minutes. My mum were in shock and didn’t even realised what was happening until he drove away. There was another man and his son who witnessed the entire situation (I have his mobile).

Luckily I realised that the pictures I had taken of MY car, had his car in the background - but I cannot decipher the number plate. I gave the pictures to the local police and a brief statement at the scene (but my mum who was driving had left at this point and it wasn’t a thorough statement, they said they would contact us later). This all happened two months ago. I haven’t heard from them at all until today when I received and email that said:

“At present, all searches using multiple variants and partial inputs have not been succesful in identifying the vehicle. This includes having sorted through 700 potential variants of the number plate which I am sure you can appreciate has taken a considerable amount of time. Unforunately, this means our options in terms of further lines of investigation are limited and may ultimately result in no driver being located.”

I find this to be a bit bizarre because my mum and I were never contacted by the police about making a statement, or asked for a description of the hit and run guy, or asked for the witness details (which I have). My car picture of his number plate isn’t the best but you can deffos see the first two digits of his number plate? (I didn’t know how to attach the pic to this post sorry).

Edit: https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/156244/66041/09c2b76e-…

What do I do next? Some advice would be really helpful! Thank you everyone.

UPDATE: Thanks for everyone’s help and everyone’s support. Especially Tech 5, who cracked the rego for me. So just to be clear, when the accident happened two months ago, I tried calling the police station several times to give the Constable who saw me at the scene, let’s call him X, the two variations of number plate everyone is mentioning on this thread (al00wy and al00vy) because that is also what I deciphered but I kept being fobbed off by different police officers in each call, telling me that they would email the Constable X about my calls. In one call, a much more helpful police officer did punch in both number plates into their official system and he didn’t see anything with al00vy but when he put in al00wy he mentioned that the details of a “white truck” did come up but “please wait for ur Constable X to call you”. Eventually I got through to the Constable X in question after a week and he very rudely said that the police had their procedures to find number plates and he didn’t need to hear what I thought and when the time was right, he would take statements from me and my mother. He said things wouldn’t happen within a week or two. He was very harsh and rude to me (I guess his inbox was bombarded with messages from his colleagues that I had called asking for him). So I left it alone and waited for the police to contact me and they never did - absolutely ridiculous. Last Friday I received the email above saying that they didn’t find a match after trying 700 variants. This just made me mad, because this insane hit and run guy is ON THE LOOSE (see my poor car below - damage also on the other side!!)… so I came to OzB for help. The latest update is that he is back to work on the 28th January so I should call him then.

https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/156244/66166/0844f572-…

Automotive Hit and Run

Comments

    • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 22:16
      +5

      Thanks for the reply. We have paid the excess and I have a new car now. It’s not even about the loss of money, more about how hard can it be for the police to find a car when you have 3 of the digits in the number plate and a description of the car? It doesn’t even sound like they have tried.

      • Islund on 18/01/2019 - 22:45
        +8

        I have an offenders numbers plates on my dash cam. 22 months later I am yet to hear for. The police apart from the initial “these things take time”.

        • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 23:13
          +1

          Good luck to u finding that person!

        • stewy on 19/01/2019 - 22:45
          +8

          If the Police are being lazy and not helping you out with a genuine issue, I'd suggest writing a letter/email to your local state MP.

          I've personally found that suddenly the Police go from fobbing you off to a senior ranking officer wanting a face to face meeting with you lol…

          • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 23:12
            +1

            @stewy: Thanks Stew. Excellent idea.

          • Never Pay RRP on 20/01/2019 - 00:32
            +3

            @stewy: I completely agree with you guys, and sadly am not surprised at the lazy/incompetent police response. My mum had a similar incident that she reported to the police with the other at fault drivers license details and number plate. They gave her the other person's address and told her to sort it out herself! Unbelievable!
            I told her that was completely unacceptable and that she should go back and get a police report, in order for me to escalate to a higher level at the absolute incompetence and laziness of the police. Sadly she did not, but this sort of behaviour from the police sickens me!
            I hope you get justice

            • Gillawarna87 on 20/01/2019 - 00:34

              @Never Pay RRP: Thanks u Andrew. I’m sorry about your mum. If it was up to my mum, I’m sure she would leave the issue alone too but I’m more of a persistent bishhhhh hahaha

      • HighAndDry on 19/01/2019 - 00:25
        -5

        Three unknown characters remaining is 36^3 possibilities.

        • pegaxs on 19/01/2019 - 11:04
          +67

          AL-00-WY is the rego.

          This is easy enough to work out using the make, model, shape, colour and what you can clearly see on the number plate.

          Just go to the NSW rego check site, punch the first numbers in that are clear enough based on how NSW number plates work (LL-NN-LL) and on the last letters, have a guess until you hit something that looks like the vehicle in the description.

          2006 WHITE MIT TRITON UTILITY
          VIN / Chassis: xxxxxxxxxxxxx3991
          Registration expiry: 30 June 2019

          Edit: Just saw that it was posted by @Tech5 down the page further… (I should read the whole thread before I reply :/)

          • rave75 on 22/01/2019 - 12:04

            @pegaxs: This, how come op couldn't find the number plate 2 months ago baffled me.

            • stringbean402 on 22/01/2019 - 20:03
              +2

              @rave75: Better question is why the cops couldn’t figure it out ?? 700 attempts ?? Wtf

            • Gillawarna87 on 22/01/2019 - 21:45

              @rave75: Hey I thought I saw the two variants everyone is talking about on here but I called the department 6 times to ask and no one would help me. One Constable input the details in and told me that “a white truck” came up on their system but to wait for someone to contact me. So I waited and got that email instead.

      • outlander on 19/01/2019 - 00:28

        Evidently it happens more than you'd think. At the end of the day, police operate on limited resources, just like everybody else. If they've tried 700 possible matches, I'd say they've given it a good go. Gotta call it quits sometime

        • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:30

          Thanks guys. I don’t mean to rip on the police and in my area I know resources are tight. I’m just upset at a poorly conducted investigation when I had provided them with ample information.

          • Charity on 21/01/2019 - 17:59
            +1

            @Gillawarna87: The minimum you should do is "rip on them".

            Good police are essential. Bad police devastating to a society. Keep them accountable.

            • Gillawarna87 on 22/01/2019 - 21:46

              @Charity: Thanks charity. I have lodged a complaint with my MP and I will lodge an official police complaint soon.

      • YellowDieselGolf on 20/01/2019 - 12:06
        +1

        Al00wy.
        Apologies if this has already been discovered, but it’s registered as a white 2006 triton.

        Edi: delete this

    • Godric on 21/01/2019 - 15:46

      Everyone negs in hindsight how ever there was no photo at the time and it's easier to assume the photo taken was illegible to gather a rego number out of than the popo just being lazy ;P

  • Richardc on 18/01/2019 - 22:15
    +1

    Smashed into you from the right? You might end up be at fault.

    • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 22:17

      Left! Will edit the post right now.

    • bmerigan on 20/01/2019 - 21:04

      Not at all. If following the law, you must give way to vehicles already in the roundabout. If he was giving way he would not have crashed into a car.

      • rave75 on 22/01/2019 - 12:05

        that's the thing, some overseas driver can legally use their overseas license while they don't actually know the rules (roundabout rules for example).

        • rizza on 23/01/2019 - 11:39

          that's the thing, a survey was conducted that found that 40% of drivers in Brisbane know how to indicate in a roundabout properly. So I think this is more than overseas drivers.

    • lysp on 21/01/2019 - 18:31
      +1

      You might end up be at fault.

      Either way - leaving an accident scene is the other person's fault regardless of who caused the accident.

      The fact that they ran usually indicates - stolen car, drug/alcohol affected or at fault.

  • chumlee on 18/01/2019 - 22:16
    +6

    Claim on your insurance and count your blessings you and your mother are fine.

    Nothing else you can do if the other driver cannot be identified. Insurance companies don't take boogeyman as other driver

    • Raiden22 on 21/01/2019 - 06:53

      It doesn't matter. Insurance will take up with the owner of the vehicle (unless the car was stolen) but then the owner would have to have police report.
      I had similar situation with a truck ran me off the road and when they came into my lane and didn't stop even though I chase down the truck to stop.
      In the end I took the photo of the rego and found the owner.
      Gave all the information to the police and insurance. The police didn't do anything for months and to date I still haven't heard back from them 2yrs later. Insurance repaired the car and followed up with the owner and charged the excess to the owner of the truck whom later disclosed the driver of the truck.

      • chumlee on 21/01/2019 - 07:34

        Not sure what you are on about. OP doesn't have rego details of the other car. Who should the insurance company follow up with to recover costs?

        • Raiden22 on 21/01/2019 - 08:20
          +2

          Well I thought looking from the pic op had attached it looked like AL-00-WY and from all the comments the license plate number had been identified and year and model of the ute. Anyway, I was just sharing my experience with hit and run a couple of years ago.

          • Gillawarna87 on 21/01/2019 - 08:36
            +1

            @Raiden22: The NSW rego website says that AAMI is the insurer. I will call my insurance company and give them the rego number and tell them to contact AAMI

            • Raiden22 on 21/01/2019 - 11:09

              @Gillawarna87: Good luck with it. It took my insurance (QBE) 4 months to settle the claim and refund the excess we paid upfront but after persistent follow up calls to them they decided it wasn't at fault claim and refunded the excess.

  • loropy9 on 18/01/2019 - 22:16
    -8

    You need to learn how to attach the photo here if you expect l help.

    • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 22:22
      +2

      I know. I’m new to posting in the forums.

    • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:05
      +3

      Added pic.

  • AdosHouse on 18/01/2019 - 22:18
    -2

    If you were hit on the right in a roundabout, either your mum was driving really slowly, or she failed to give way to vehicles already in the roundabout. If the later, she is at fault anyway.

    If the cops can't get the number plate, and you don't have the number plate, what do you expect them to do? When you say you have the drivers details, do you mean name and address, or a description?

    • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 22:19

      Sorry. I meant the left. I have edited the post.

      • AdosHouse on 18/01/2019 - 22:20

        Okay, well than likely the other party is at fault, but without a number plate, or the drivers name and address, police can't do much.

        • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 22:21

          Thanks for replying. I just thought that even though my image doesn’t clearly show the entire number plate, you can see 4 digits and that would be enough?

          • HighAndDry on 19/01/2019 - 00:27
            -1

            @Gillawarna87: Christ man. Is it 2 digits in your OP, 3 digits in your comment further up, or 4 digits that's visible?

            • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:42
              +2

              @HighAndDry: Wow. Harsh. I apologise for not having my story water tight. I could always see 4 digits in my pic but other people I asked couldn’t.

                • resubaehtgnolhcs on 19/01/2019 - 00:49
                  +3

                  @HighAndDry: 4 digits for me … heck, i'll even have a go at the last 2 digits …

                  AL 00 VY

                  Enhance, enhance, enhance…

  • L0zBargain on 18/01/2019 - 22:30
    +3

    Sucky situation, Good luck!

  • mt7mta on 18/01/2019 - 22:41
    +3

    "My car picture of his number plate isn’t the best but you can deffos see the first two digits of his number plate?"

    "how hard can it be for the police to find a car when you have 3 of the digits in the number plate"

    "you can see 4 digits and that would be enough?"

    Which is it? 2, 3 or 4? Even with four digits, depending on the format of the number plate that's still a lot of possible options, let alone if there are less than four.

    There's no benefit to getting a statement from you or a witness at this stage if the vehicle can't be identified.

    Without any evidence to reliably identify the vehicle, the investigation won't be able to progress.

    • Baysew on 18/01/2019 - 22:44
      +6

      Enhance.

    • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 23:07

      Thanks for the reply. I think I can see 4 clear digits.

    • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:06

      See attached pics guys.

      • Ahbal on 22/01/2019 - 09:15

        For the white vehicle it is, imo, AL 00 YY or WY. Not 100%

  • resubaehtgnolhcs on 18/01/2019 - 22:43
    +7

    If the guy was willing to do a runner after an accident, it sounds like he had a lot to run form …. like being unlicensed, driving under the influence, driving a stolen car, or even driving with stolen plates. The later could explain why police haven't come up with anything.

  • SnoozeAndLose on 18/01/2019 - 22:53

    Where are the pictures?

    • Gillawarna87 on 18/01/2019 - 23:19

      I don’t know how to attach them to this post. Happy to share if someone can tell me how to attach.

  • Gandalf the Thrifty on 18/01/2019 - 23:16
    -2

    You weren't injured and insurance paid out, for a crap interaction with random idiot, I'd say move on with your life.

    Police sound like they gave it a go with info available to them but many factors listed in other people's posts why they may not find them.

    • cloudy on 19/01/2019 - 23:10
      +8

      Sounds like they could have a better go catching this idiot, give Ozbargain has done a better job and we’re not even professional investigators.

      My issue is I wouldn’t want to see this guy back on the road, someone could have seriously been hurt and driver has no decency.

      • Gandalf the Thrifty on 20/01/2019 - 00:25

        My comment was pre-picture with OP saying knew 2-3 letters of plate which is a lot different to the clear photo provided.

        Everyone would want this person off road but if plate was cloned or stolen then tracking driver down is still going to be tricky.

  • Tech5 on 18/01/2019 - 23:51
    +9

    Is the ute the one that did the damage? I don't get it, the number plate looks very clear

    • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:03
      +2

      Exactly my thoughts

      • Tech5 on 19/01/2019 - 00:08
        +80

        Well it says AL-00-WY… in fact a NSW rego check just pulled up a 2006 white mitsubishi triton utility… which is that exact car …

        Edit 2: The rego check website was off by a year. It is a 2005 white mitsubishi triton utility. The back matches up exactly. Give it to the cops and you got your guy

        https://www.google.com/search?biw=2560&bih=1308&tbm=isch&sa=…

        • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:20
          +3

          Thank u Tech. Those are exactly the number plates I gave the police. Hmmmmm

          • Tech5 on 19/01/2019 - 00:22
            +19

            @Gillawarna87: Well maybe show the cops:

            The rego check: https://imgur.com/a/h82M2FD
            The pic of the ute in question
            The pic of the 2005 triton I linked.

            I don't know why they are dragging their feet. If not, just give it to your insurance company

            • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:27
              +12

              @Tech5: Thank u for being so helpful Tech. I appreciate it immensely. I will call my insurance peeps tomorrow.

              • ozbjunkie on 19/01/2019 - 09:36
                +37

                @Gillawarna87: Please update. I love when forums solve crimes. Eat your heart out Reddit. Ozbargain OP.

                • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 10:37
                  +2

                  @ozbjunkie: I will deffos update the thread next week! I have sent an to the constable with these details so let’s see what he says. What’s so funny/tragic is that I had called right after the accident and spoke to another constable and he kindly input AL00WY into their database and told me it matched to a white vehicle
                  but “ please wait for comstable X to call u” - and he never did. If he had just called me and spoken to me months I ago I would have told him that number plate combination?! Why drag this out for two months?!!!

            • Ahbal on 22/01/2019 - 09:18
              +1

              @Tech5: Dragging their feet because its not as easy as a speeding ticket fine, which is what theyre used to.

          • [Deactivated] on 20/01/2019 - 06:55
            +3

            @Gillawarna87: You said in another comment that you gave to police 'exactly' AL-00-VY. Now you are saying that you gave to police 'exactly' AL-00-WY. So, which one exactly?

        • HighAndDry on 19/01/2019 - 00:29
          +15

          Nice. The police are idiots.

        • blitz on 19/01/2019 - 09:34
          +30

          Well it says AL-00-WY… in fact a NSW rego check just pulled up a 2006 white mitsubishi triton utility… which is that exact car …

          The OzBargain Professionals

        • Charity on 21/01/2019 - 18:02

          Great job.

  • DarkOz on 18/01/2019 - 23:53
    -4

    If you can only see 2 numbers/digits there are 10's of thousands remaining combinations if it is a normal 6 digit plate. Also the number plate could be stolen/replicated which doesn't match the car that they are on.

  • RichardL on 19/01/2019 - 00:18
    +6

    Won't help your current situation, but I recommend installing a dashcam for future incident.

    • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 00:20
      +2

      Thank u Richard.

    • ajr5k on 19/01/2019 - 20:30
      +10

      Totally this. I had a clown reverse into me, admit fault and then call his insurance to let them know I tail ended him. The dashcam footage stopped it being my word vs his, and now his insurance company know he is a liar as well. He was found fully at fault after I uploaded the dashcam footage to them which clearly showed him reversing into my stationary car.

      Honestly, a dashcam is the cheapest insurance policy you will ever take out.

      • Never Pay RRP on 20/01/2019 - 00:37
        +3

        I hope he gets done for fraud as well. Can't believe there are people like this willing to lie and screw others over.
        Good on you for catching him

      • Ridiculous Panda on 20/01/2019 - 00:56
        +2

        Should’ve only showed it in court. That would be much more satisfying for me.

        • ajr5k on 20/01/2019 - 01:07
          +1

          I've now heard this 4 times. Live and learn! :D

        • abb on 21/01/2019 - 10:22
          +1

          Don't you have to give the other side fair warning of any evidence you're bringing to court?

          • Meconium on 22/01/2019 - 23:56

            @abb: Absolutely not, heard an excellent case tonight of a solicitor who asked for evidence of signature (official approval) more two years after it had expired, and presented it to win the case because more than two year old information is invalid in this particular example.

    • butwhy on 20/01/2019 - 18:24
      +1

      I have front and rear dashcams in my cars. However unless I go all out and get side camera's, a T bone may get missed :(

  • sparkles on 19/01/2019 - 06:50
    +50

    Police (weeks later):
    “At present, all searches using multiple variants and partial inputs have not been successful in identifying the vehicle. This includes having sorted through 700 potential variants of the number plate which I am sure you can appreciate has taken a considerable amount of time. Unfortunately, this means our options in terms of further lines of investigation are limited and may ultimately result in no driver being located.”

    OzBargain (within hour):
    It's AL-00-WY. Here are the car details. They match. The insurer is AAMI.

    Damn, the police in this situation are either lazy as hell, or completely inept. Or both.

    • daiwai on 19/01/2019 - 10:36
      +28

      No wonder everyone come to ozbargain first for whatever their problem is, can't blame them tbh.

    • Franc-T on 19/01/2019 - 20:46

      Lazy, or viewing it on a small screen or something.

      • SlappersOnly on 28/01/2019 - 17:00
        +1

        Someone needs to link the police station to some ozbargained computer monitors

    • idonotknowwhy on 19/01/2019 - 23:59
      +4

      Someone needs to send this to the media. Sounds like a good news article lol.

      I'll be sure to rely on OzBargain and Bikies from now on!

    • Never Pay RRP on 20/01/2019 - 00:40
      +1

      I'd say both lazy and inept. Have had multiple similar experiences with the police, they just aren't interested in solving crime at all

    • Meconium on 22/01/2019 - 23:58

      Lazinept. I have only ever dealt with lazinept police. I found my stolen car myself for example.

  • DarkOz on 19/01/2019 - 09:54
    +1

    Now that I have seen the photo. I thought it was AL 00 VY or AL 00 WY due to the angle the shot was taken. NSW rego check indicates AL 00 WY.

    No reason why the police is dragging their feet unless there is a conspiracy theory behind this. Lazy? Incompetent? Don't care? Cover up?

    OP, have you supplied this new detail to your insurance company? I think you can at least get your excess refunded now that they have the driver/insurer to claim against.

    • JayM on 20/01/2019 - 15:07
      +1

      Cops could be covering for one of their own

      • devnull73 on 22/01/2019 - 18:14

        exactly my thoughts. The cops know the guy.

  • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 09:57
    +11

    Thank u everyone, especially Tech! For your help. I will
    Call the insurance company tomorrow. I love Ozbargain!!!!!!

    • Hirolol on 19/01/2019 - 10:01
      +1

      Gotta love a happy ending.

      • Gillawarna87 on 19/01/2019 - 10:32
        +2

        Hopefully I will get my excess back ($850) which is the ultimate ozabargain! Yayyyyyy

        • resubaehtgnolhcs on 19/01/2019 - 15:41

          you need to nominate a driver at fault (otherwise it's you and you pay the excess). Hopefully, now that you have the rego details of the car, the police will follow this up with the registered owner and hey will come clean!

          • liquid metal on 19/01/2019 - 21:57

            @resubaehtgnolhcs: The police will hopefully fine them for doing a runner. Without consequences they'll do it again.

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