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 23/01/2019 - 17:33
        +1

        Thanks mate. Lodged a complaint today.

  • Kamsi on 22/01/2019 - 15:34

    I don't know about now but back then I just took a car plate to the police station and tell them that I have hit n run car plate. The cops straight away give me the details of the owner of the car plate. A phone call to the owner sort out all issues.

    • John Kimble on 22/01/2019 - 15:42

      You physically took the number plate off their car? How did you manage to do that without them stopping you or before they drove away?

      These days I doubt they would give you owner information directly, breach of privacy and all that…

      • Kamsi on 22/01/2019 - 15:51

        nah I just remember the plate number, back then there was no mobile phone so I went to a shop to ask if they could call the cop while I was doing that the guy just drove off.

        • gimme on 22/01/2019 - 22:16

          No mobile phone - Yea back then cops may have given a crap. Too bogged down in politics to care these days.

  • snook on 22/01/2019 - 17:45
    +1

    The MP is a waste of time. Go direct to the Ombudsman and complain about their service. The guy that hit you is a danger to everyone.

  • kronicmacstigator on 22/01/2019 - 23:42

    As others have said, the plates are AL00WY. Just sounds like a lazy bunch of prick cops!

    That is a borderline write-off. I dare say it'd be financial vs stat.

    Contact a personal injury lawyer to get them to chase up the CTP insurer and contact your car insurance company. Give them the plates and they can handle the damage.

    (QLD trained here so I realise this is NSW, terminology would be different)

    Sounds like the cops have put it in the too hard basket i.e. Don't want to deal with it/lazy

    • Kamsi on 23/01/2019 - 16:30

      If the OP have Comprehensive Insurance all these will probably not required.

      • Maxxjet on 23/01/2019 - 16:34
        +3

        So he needs to pay the excess, have his prenium raised next year, a claim record on his profile ?

        • Kamsi on 23/01/2019 - 17:26

          Well, that what having a Comprehensive insurance for, besides the OP is not at fault so doesn't have to pay excess. As for premium raise next year that always possible even if you don't have a claim.

  • Gillawarna87 on 23/01/2019 - 17:05
    +2

    Hi guys. I’m a woman actually. Yes my poor little car was a writeoff. I had comprehensive insurance and got a payout and bought a new car. I am pursuing this because obviously I want my excess back and I want this lunatic bro off the road.

    • Kamsi on 23/01/2019 - 17:45

      You should able to because it is NOT your fault. Good luck.

    • ozbjunkie on 25/01/2019 - 08:48
      +1

      Let us know how you go with the police complaint and the insurance ombudsman.

      Sounds like complete BS that the hit and run needs to lodge a claim with their insurer. Your insurer can simply take the hit and run to court and recover costs directly. Otherwise, whenever I'm at fault I could just never claim and the other party would be up the proverbial creek, right?

  • cdaddy on 23/01/2019 - 19:48

    I don't think it's laziness from the cops, it's a cover up.

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