Hit & Run - Police Investigation Turnaround Time?

LYICKADEE on 12/04/2024 - 10:23
Last edited 13/04/2024 - 01:42 by 1 other user

Hi all, my Car was involved in a Hit & Run in late March, this has inflicted a dent and a few scratches to my car but it is still operatable and roadworthy.

I have reported this event to the police also providing dashcam footage which clearly captures the registration number of the other driver.

I have also gone ahead and lodged a claim with my insurance to have the damages repaired, I will need to pay excess ($2,000) but will be waived once the police report has been finalised and the other driver proven guilty.

Does anyone have experience on how long the police generally takes to investigate these matters? As I would rather live with the damages if it going to take them a few months than pay the excess.

tldr; How long can I expect to wait for NSW police to investigate a Hit & Run event where no one was injured.

Update: FAQ

thank you all for your input I've answered below some questions that were asked

Ask the police how long it'll take?
Yes I have asked, they did not give me a clear answer basically said they're required to investigate any reports within 6 months as that's NSW statute of limitation, when they get around to it depends on how busy they are.

I've been following up each week for an update. The Constable who is handling the incident has not provided any updates to the report and he is never present at the station to speak to me, I've requested to have him contact me as they weren't willing to give me his number. I've only been given his Name and Email Address (yes, i've sent him an email)

Insurance status
My insurance's PDS states in the event of a hit and run excess will be waived only if they can contact the other driver and that they have their Full Name and Address. The cost of excess and car hire may be reimbursed once details of the other driver is provided and proven to be at fault i.e. results from the police investigation.

On the flipside for whatever reason if the police don't convict the other driver I will be out of pocket $2k for damages that probably cost <$1k to repair. In hindsight i should've waited for the police report to be finalised before submitting a claim with my insurance.

Get the other drivers details from the police?
I asked the police for the other drivers details they said they cannot due to privacy reasons and that the information will be in the finalised police report which my insurance can use to retrieve this information.

Automotive

Comments

  • boomramada on 12/04/2024 - 10:26
    +2

    Depends on how busy is the police are.

    • HeWhoKnows on 13/04/2024 - 17:03
      +7

      Low priority case as far as the police are concerned..
      No injuries or deaths.
      They normally tell you to sort it out with your insurnace company.
      Good luck getting anything more from the police.

      • eek on 15/04/2024 - 09:13
        +1

        It would suddenly be higher priority if you said the culprit's car had a modified exhaust and too loud.

  • starspawn on 12/04/2024 - 10:28
    +12

    I would wait until the police case is closed before doing anything.

    Don't pay the excess as you have footage of the incident.

  • 87percent on 12/04/2024 - 10:40
    +2

    Mine was 4 days, done in Jan last year.

    I’d imagine not all cases would be the same. I too had Dashcam footage

    • HeWhoKnows on 13/04/2024 - 17:04

      How lucky where you !

  • Godric on 12/04/2024 - 10:40
    +1

    Ask them

  • Brian McGee on 12/04/2024 - 11:05
    +5

    I had someone change lanes on me and cause similar damage on 8/12/23 and am still waiting for the police to contact the other driver.

    Apparently he is always out or overseas when they call by.

    • netjock on 12/04/2024 - 16:16
      +10

      I would thought the police would be sick of it and filed a criminal case and summon the owner to court to either plead or identify the person driving at the time.

      • doobey1231 on 16/04/2024 - 10:33

        Yeah that requires more paperwork I am guessing, letting it sit in limbo as "still trying to make contact" is probably the best place to sit the case if they don't want to really deal with it.

  • eek on 12/04/2024 - 11:07
    +10

    I thought you just needed the other driver's details from the police to waive your excess? That has been my experience with hit-and-runs. I was able to show police my dashcam footage and they gave me the other vehicle's registered owner's details on the spot. The caveat was they also contacted the other person to tell them my details too. Was constantly hounded by the other person to not claim through insurance, but I did it anyway. They hit and run my parked car and got caught. I let my insurance company deal with everything, didn't have to pay my excess.

    • eooker on 14/04/2024 - 13:20
      +2

      I would have done the same in using insurance despite their please to not claim through insurance. Not leaving their details lost them any right to have a say on how to resolve this.

      Had someone side swipe my parked car at a 45 degree angle parking and the dash cam couldn't catch the perpetrator. Thankfully it was just the side mirror, so ordering a replacement from the wreckers and watching a YouTube on how to change it video wasn't too expensive.

  • USER DC on 12/04/2024 - 11:19
    -8

    police does jack $h!t

    • coffeeinmyveins on 12/04/2024 - 18:58
      +1

      They do a lot.

      Do you want them to prioritise a scratched car over a woman being beaten by her husband for the fifth time in a month or someone getting cut in half in a car accident?

      Yeah didn't think so

      • Sinnerator on 13/04/2024 - 09:02
        +1

        what about a women smashing her husband, lying to the police and turning everyone against the him?

      • BobLim on 13/04/2024 - 10:40
        +4

        prioritise a scratched car over a woman being beaten

        If they've already visited / dealt with that four times this month, with no impact, then potentially yes. All cases should be dealt with in a reasonable timeframe. If a scratched car case is never high enough priority to be closed out, then the law needs to change to remove that workload.

        I'd recommend that they should probably designate an "office day" to do all the follow up for these things, and change the balance between field and office if they keep getting behind on the follow ups

        • Sxio on 15/04/2024 - 21:54
          -2

          Okay everyone. No murders, assaults or kidnappings. Today we close out the scratched cars. Let's go!

          • BobLim on 15/04/2024 - 22:28
            +1

            @Sxio:

            Okay everyone. No murders, assaults or kidnappings. Today we close out the scratched cars. Let's go!

            Maybe 30% rather than "everyone"? Why not:

            Ok SC Jim, we've got 37 open insurance cases which no one's looked at for 3 weeks. If that gets to 4, we miss our KPI. Follow all those up before you go home on Thursday please

            Police seem perfectly able to resource helicopters, horses, bureaucrats, community outreach, bands, conferences, recruitment, event planning, etc. Clearly not every officer's whole working week is consumed with actively preventing and investigating major crime.

            If there's enough hit and runs, the fines will more than cover the cost of extra headcount needed.

            If formal/legal processes require a police action, then police must perform said action. Pretty simple concept I'd have thought?

        • doobey1231 on 16/04/2024 - 10:39
          +1

          Yeah I strongly agree with this one tbh.. No one is saying police should drop everything to attend a parking bingle, but lets stop using this crap as reasoning to neglect a genuine issue that police should be providing a service for.

      • iminabrons on 13/04/2024 - 12:05

        People don't want to pay more taxes therefore less staff.

        • laisanity2000 on 13/04/2024 - 13:48
          +5

          You say that like we get a choice to pay less taxes

        • BobLim on 14/04/2024 - 12:00

          Not keen for more taxes, but I'm more than happy for them to cut down on the various government marketing departments, or other similarly useless functions though.

          Those funds funds could be redirected to a dedicated team of "administration-only" staff (might not even need to be actual sworn officers), who can deal with these sorts of things exclusively.

        • doobey1231 on 16/04/2024 - 10:42
          +1

          I don't think we need to pay more taxes to fix this issue, we need more scrutiny and transparency on where tax money goes. I reckon theres a pretty significant amount of our money that goes to stuff it shouldn't.

      • CommuterPolluter on 14/04/2024 - 10:12

        If it’s his scratched car…

      • tomfool on 15/04/2024 - 15:51

        I mean maye they could work on this whilst they sit inside the speed camera vans, the person involved in the hit an run has comited a crime.

    • DoctorCalculon on 13/04/2024 - 00:21
      +5

      Hey! That's not true. They keep the donut makers employed.

  • Leanne59 on 12/04/2024 - 11:20
    -1

    You should only have to provide the details of the report to the police and dash cam footage to your insurance for them to proceed with the repairs and chase the other parties insurance. Why would you be paying the excess when you have proof of who is at fault. I’d be chasing the insurance company to do their job. I’ve only had to provide the police incident number for the insurance to go ahead and chase the other parties insurance.

    • dj69 on 13/04/2024 - 15:24

      He has no proof who comitted the offence, only a video of the car.

      • Leanne59 on 13/04/2024 - 21:41

        Yes but if the car hasn’t been reported as stolen then the owner is responsible for the car’s insurance.

        • dj69 on 14/04/2024 - 14:11

          How do they advise who the owner is to the insurance company?

          • Leanne59 on 15/04/2024 - 07:27

            @dj69: We approached the police station (Qld) with the registration number and were given the owners name and address for insurance purposes when lodging the incident.

            • dj69 on 15/04/2024 - 19:59

              @Leanne59: The insurance company requires the drivers information, not the owners information.

    • bobs burgers on 13/04/2024 - 21:32
      +1

      Yeh, unfortunately a car is not a person.
      The insurance is very clear and strict on having the details of the party.

      I know, I was involved with a person who failed to give way at an intersection recently.
      I rolled them over as a result and all of us got taken to hospital (no significant injuries).
      I didn't have a chance to get the details during the incident but police assured me they will supply name and address.
      I tried to lodge a claim with just the police report number and insurance was trying to make me pay excess as I didnt have other party details.
      I finally managed to get the police to call the other party and exchange our details. They wouldn't provide phone number or anything of the sort

  • AustriaBargain on 12/04/2024 - 11:34
    -1

    Our police force isn't the most effective in the world. Or the least corrupt. Far from the most attractive too; you should see the cops in Sweden.

    • Dollar General on 12/04/2024 - 12:31

      Female or male cops?

      • altomic on 12/04/2024 - 14:39
        +7

        Yes

    • SydStrand on 12/04/2024 - 16:23

      Sure, that's a totally normal opinion. You should see these paragon Russian cops. Vote Putin or vote gulag.

      • AustriaBargain on 12/04/2024 - 17:10
        +2

        Well if I was forced to choose between Russia or Australia cops, or anything really except maybe classical theatre, then sure I'd choose Australia. Russia is a pretty low bar to set for ourselves though. I think we can do better than Russia.

  • Ryanek on 12/04/2024 - 11:53
    +1

    Damn that's a big excess.

    • Alexxx on 13/04/2024 - 23:52
      +3

      But think of all the years with a low premium.
      I always max out my excess, only needed it once in 20 years so well worth it.

      • BobLim on 14/04/2024 - 12:04
        +1

        ^ This. Plus the negative impact of a claim on your rating means that I wouldn't even want to pursue a low value claim.

        Might as well set the excess at a small portion of a major repair / write off, about $2k or wherever the good balance of savings lies in that particular contract.

  • sim777 on 12/04/2024 - 12:41
    +2

    Dont put your hopes up. Had a similar case with photo of offenders registration submitted to police immediately after event. Insurance would not waive excess even with police incident report and was told a court date for the offender had to be set first. Police said they would not actively seek out the offender/contact them to pursue either. They essentially told me the offender would have to be stopped for any particular reason (speeding, traffic stop ect) and only then would they have this show up on their system to follow up.. fkin useless

  • jv on 12/04/2024 - 13:13
    +2

    Hit & Run - Police Investigation Turnaround Time?

    16 years…

  • Tee Rex Arms on 12/04/2024 - 13:31
    -1

    If they can’t locate/speak to the driver what do you want them to do.

    • jv on 12/04/2024 - 13:48
      +3

      file a police report.

      • Tee Rex Arms on 12/04/2024 - 18:55

        That will go nowhere with no confirmed driver of unit 1

        • jv on 12/04/2024 - 22:18

          The police will know the registered owner and there is footage of the incident.

          • DoctorCalculon on 13/04/2024 - 00:26

            @jv: Not if the plates are stolen.

          • Tee Rex Arms on 13/04/2024 - 10:59
            +1

            @jv: Yes and the registered owner doesn’t confirm who was driving at the time of the incident and there’s no legislative power for them to provide details of who was driving it. It’s not an evade offence.

            • jv on 13/04/2024 - 11:46
              +1

              @Tee Rex Arms:

              Yes and the registered owner doesn’t confirm who

              There is video footage of the hit and run.

              The owner is responsible unless they can prove they weren't driving.

              • Tee Rex Arms on 13/04/2024 - 12:24
                -1

                @jv: The footage doesn’t say it shows the identity of the driver.

                Wrong.

                • jv on 13/04/2024 - 13:45

                  @Tee Rex Arms:

                  The footage doesn’t say it shows the identity of the driver.

                  It shows the car, that is enough.

    • Caped Baldy on 12/04/2024 - 16:01

      Police have dashcam footage and a register of car ownership. They can put two and two together and provide the details to the insurer but are probably waiting to confirm the driver for the hit and run charge.

  • apple2016 on 12/04/2024 - 16:22
    +1

    dashcam footage which clearly captures the registration number of the other driver

    Is should not take more than 5 mins for police to look up the address of the registered driver.
    You could ask police for the address as its hit and run and you can say you need to send them the bill for repair. This is what you would do if you did not have insurance and insurance is not mandatory.

  • BeamMeUp on 12/04/2024 - 17:07
    +3

    My daughter had a hit and run. Reported to police, paid her insurance excess to get car fixed as it was not drivable. She just had to consistently chase and badger (nicely) the police officer given as the contact to be able to get the responsible drivers details to her insurance company. It took a year before she got her excess back.

    • TilacVIP on 13/04/2024 - 11:31
      +7

      A whole year to for a job that could have been done in 15 min, any time during the month.

      Just goes to show, that these incidents are extremely low priority to the cops

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 12/04/2024 - 18:33
    +1

    48 to 27860 hours

  • AndyC1 on 12/04/2024 - 18:36
    +1

    Depends on the police KPI and if they are running low then they can use this one to boost the KPI.

  • JimmyF on 12/04/2024 - 18:48

    I have also gone ahead and lodged a claim with my insurance to have the damages repaired, I will need to pay excess ($2,000) but will be waived once the police report has been finalised and the other driver proven guilty.

    Ask your insurance if they'll refund the excess once the report comes through.

    Or you could you know, drop in to the police station and ask them.

    • bobs burgers on 13/04/2024 - 21:39

      They do refund it if you pay it, but it feels so wrong they even suggest to pay it.
      Police will take time, its a wait and see game..
      They ultimately will supply the details of the other party.

      You can get your insurance to proceed with the claim (but won't result in damages fixed until other party details supplied) without paying excess, and they will initiate the conversation with the police. They are really hesitant and off putting. Trying to claim it will take them weeks or months to get it from the police.

      So frustrating

  • billy72 on 12/04/2024 - 23:26

    you have to follow up, call them

  • gyrex on 13/04/2024 - 07:28

    Interested to hear from those who've been a victim of a hit & run - do the police charge these scumbags with failing to exchange particulars and/or any other offences? Hit & runs seem to be commonplace now and I fear that if there's no deterrent/penalty then it will only continue to get worse - there has to be (severe imo) consequences for this crime.

    • superuser on 14/04/2024 - 15:48

      There is a fine and demerits apply if the police knows who was driving.

  • turbochris on 13/04/2024 - 09:00
    +1

    Start showing up at the police station every few days and ask to speak to the sergeant in charge. Soon enough he will get sick of it and prod the constable into action.

  • grr1701 on 13/04/2024 - 11:13
    +2

    I had similar. Took the footage to the police. They rang the person involved immediately who said that they were in “too much of a hurry” to leave their details. Provided police report to insurance. All costs covered by their insurance, including a rental car (which I didn’t need and didn’t accept).

  • Willy Beamish on 13/04/2024 - 11:20
    +2

    Police are not as useful as you think they are.

  • p4e81 on 13/04/2024 - 11:58
    +5

    I've been a victim of a hit and run a couple years back. My car was parked at the time and I had dashcam footage. Took the footage on a USB stick to my local cop shop, the officer at the counter reviewed it and made a phone call within 5 minutes.

    Other driver told the officer that he 'wasn't aware and didn't feel an impact at the time' (yeah, sure mate).

    The officer exchanged our details on our behalf and off I went to update my claim with NRMA. Excess waived. All done within 30 minutes including my walk to my local station. OP appears to be unlucky with whoever took his report. I'd follow up.

  • Talonparty on 13/04/2024 - 12:28
    +4

    lol i reported a hit and run to WA police and never ever heard back once, gave them the licence plate and everything

    one of many unsatisfying and poor interactions with police over a lifetime that influence your general view of the organisation as a whole…

    • Wayne7497 on 14/04/2024 - 00:05
      +2

      Thats because there are almost no traffic police left in WA, my crash guys had 500 files on hand each.

  • mrvaluepack on 13/04/2024 - 19:53
    +2

    Looking at the news just coming out of bondi junction nsw, I'm going to say the police will be very busy with other stuff and your hit n run case relegated to very low priority…

  • tempestswitch on 13/04/2024 - 22:20

    I've had multiple events where my car was hit and caught on dash cam.
    Every.. and I mean EVERY single time, they take the rego and footage, and instantly call the mobile number associated with the rego number.

    Person at fault all three times claimed they didn't know but willingly gave the police their details for insurance.

    Easy peasy on my end tbh.

  • Kamsi on 14/04/2024 - 10:57

    My insurance's PDS states in the event of a hit and run excess will be waived only if they can contact the other driver and that they have their Full Name and Address.

    that's sux.

  • aekt on 14/04/2024 - 14:57

    My experience, also in NSW, was that it took more than 6 months. Got a hit and run while the car was parked in about May with the case closed just before Christmas.
    I had clear dash cam footage of both the rego, driver and passenger faces. The police ended up giving me the driver's and the registered owner names and address. I was told that the other party disputed the event, was taken to court and subsequently charged, which was probably dragged the case on a bit.
    I waited for the whole thing to be resolved before submitting insurance claim as the damage was really minor.

    • nwa on 14/04/2024 - 18:57

      Was it on dashcam Australia YT?

      • aekt on 15/04/2024 - 20:39

        Nope, hasn't posted it anywhere.

  • whatthepho on 14/04/2024 - 17:41
    +5

    Yep NRMA require full name and address. Got hit and run, went to police with dashcam footage they did jack all. Useless.

  • DASHCAM NOW DUDE on 14/04/2024 - 17:47

    5 days for the police to get back to me BUT I had dashcam footage AND it was a company car that hit me. Huge logo on the side of the ute.

  • anhtarus on 14/04/2024 - 20:07
    +1

    Slightly unrelated, but if your excess is $2000 but the official repair done is less <$1000, see if the insurance will refund the difference.

    A relative made an insurance claim for other driver (relative's fault) and hit with an excess of $2500( P plater under 25).

    Somehow, they received the repair bill for the other driver from the approved workshop. Cost was only $1600.

    They then contacted their insurance provider arguing it wasn't fair their excess was higher than the actual repair bill. Insurance people agreed it wasn't right, so returned them the difference.

  • 911r on 15/04/2024 - 00:23

    Sorry to hijack but is it normal that the police also want to provide my details to the hit and run person? Seems odd to me but I guess you'd exchange in an ideal circumstance.

  • LukeS on 15/04/2024 - 07:52

    Can you just give the Insurance Company the Police Report Number?

    • aekt on 15/04/2024 - 20:46

      From my experience, there are two types of report number in NSW. Case number and event number . One is created initially and another when it's coming to a completion (I don't remember which is which).
      The latter number was all that NRMA needed, but they wouldn't put in a not at fault claim with the initial number.

  • 91rs on 15/04/2024 - 09:42
    +1

    Don't hold your breath.

    Hit and run with clear dashcam footage in Melbourne in August last year, was a motorbike in to the back of our car. Did the oh lets go to the side street as it was at a set of lights, then faked a pull over and just took off, tried to follow for a while but the guy was in and out of traffic then running stop signs \ red light to get away.

    Cops were totally useless to begin with, ended up having to escalate to duty Sgt at the same station about the lack of response after 2-3 weeks from the initial in person visit to the police station (it was very nearby the accident site).
    I had insurance repair the vehicle, supplied the rego but as no other details were available I had to cop the excess.

    Months went by and there was no real update, it then came back in the report (via my insurance co) that the dashcam footage was not clear enough … it was perfectly clear, we also told them the rego and provided a PDF of the rego matching the make model colour and year of the bike as per the vic roads website. (its unregistered)

    Insurance were ready to end the chase and called to let me know the same, so for about the 6th time I contacted the station again and cracked it a bit more as I was out of pocket quite a lot, the details were obvious, the plate could easily be read, its just typical VIC police inaction on everything.
    Its been given to someone else who has already said the plate and video footage is easy to see, they've found the last known owner, they've requested a local station to make a visit to them and go from there.

    In future if its a bike that does the hit and run, before they get to run I'd suggest that in a panic maybe you drive over them or at least down the bike, say you don't know how it happened.
    I'm sick to death of how useless VICPOL is, the absolute death traps driving around on the roads, so many without rego/insurance or licenses, the increase in break-ins and other crime with nothing being done about it. I know a dozen people who've had similar issues with hit and run, unreg or unlicensed drivers, house break-ins, having cars stolen etc.

    OP Good luck with your attempts with police, my repair was still more than the high excess, it was also on a 1 year old vehicle so didn't want to leave it damaged, police won't hand out the other persons details to you.

  • lonewolf on 15/04/2024 - 10:34
    +1

    I got hit and run, I chased the people through the streets while they tried to get away for like 10 minutes before managing to catch them. Cops werent interested at all, They are only interested in getting revenue out of you. The scary thing was it was a kid driving with his parents in the car? The dad i think told him to drive off who was in the front passenger seat. Middle aged asian parents, I was surprised, I was expecting some rowdy young guys or something.

  • joelmuzz on 15/04/2024 - 11:50

    Usually what they will do is show up at the address because people crack under the pressure of cops standing there claiming to have footage and threatening hit and run charges.
    Most people crack and admit liability on the spot, which is the best outcome for everyone since it is a simple admission of guilt, cops let them off letting them get away with "I didnt think it touched", your insurance is happy with police statement saying they admitted liability.

    Beware some of the budget insurers dont even work on admission of liability anymore, they charge excess until they have recovered all money from the other party.

    • tomfool on 15/04/2024 - 15:56

      Iwould have thought that if they claimed it was not them, then they would need to supply name and adress of the person that was in control of the vehicle at them time. If this was not the case then anyone with a speed camera ticket from behind would just clain they were not in control of hte vehicle at the time of the offfence.

      • joelmuzz on 16/04/2024 - 06:52

        NSW and probably others closed the speed camera loophole ages ago by making the registered owner responsible unless they identify the driver.

        • tomfool on 16/04/2024 - 10:14

          Yea thats my point unless you name who was responsible you are by default.

  • Fysh on 15/04/2024 - 22:43

    The insurance company can approach the records department of the police via the police report to get the owner. But they have to pay and they don't like doing any footwork.

    File an afca complaint if they don't want to chase the police and car owner. I would also be asking if the owner of the car is on that insurance companies books . Took me 6 months to fight my insurance company before they paid me anything

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