I was involved in a minor, no injuries, collision with a young, male driver in a Birmingham residential street yesterday. I was driving in the left lane, near the middle to avoid parked cars and opening doors (perfectly legal positioning) and the other driver's oncoming car did not drive straight and instead of swerving to miss me he smashed into my wingmirror causing the mirror cap and glass to fly into the road, smashing the glass. He then drove on a few feet until 'deciding' to return when I yelled after him in the street retrieving the debris. He did come back and he then started to be very abusive demanding that I was in the wrong and that I was driving too close to the centre of the road etc. He did not say that I was on the wrong side of the road or even straddling the central path between the two lanes. He was just annoyed I had not driven further to the left (and put myself at risk of doors opening from stationary parked vehicles). I told him to calm down and said we should exchange names and details. He said 'he will in a minute..but I just want to ask you this question' trying to get me to accept full liability. I refused to answer the question and said our insurance companies need to sort it all out. There was some minor scuffs to his own wing cap and a crack in the glass (about the same as my damage, except he didn't have to retrieve and replace it from the roadside). I asked him three times for his details and he failed to give them, claiming that he 'will in a minute.' I then lost patience with him, told him that I would report him to the police for failing to give details - as the law states - and he got very abusive and rude with me with a string of 'oughts and shoulds' about how he wished i had driven, absolving himself from blame entirely. I then got in the car to drive off after replacing my wing cap and glass (luckily I was able to do that and get home). He then banged hard on my car in frustration - screaming more abuse at me). Now I am home, I can see that the cap is not that badly damaged at all and the wing glass needs replacing, which I can get done for about £20 tops. I am now reluctant to tell my insurer at all about this incident in case my premium goes up sky high (although I am duty bound to tell them about all accidents, irrespective of this - but does anyone actually do this? I doubt it - not for minor prangs like this). I would not be making a claim. On the other hand, I do want to report the other driver to the police. It is apparent, from rehearing the tape recording of the conversation, that this driver had a very 'shoulds and oughts' mentality to driving and therefore feels he is never responsible for his actions, instead of just reacting to conditions 'as he finds them' no matter how frustrating it is for him. The facts are these: I was driving legally, I was driving on the correct side of the road, at at the legal limit. If the other driver felt I was too far over to the centre of the road (albeit on the left lane still, as I should be), HE should have reacted, stopped to ensure we could squeeze past without any accident at all. When I saw his car coming toward me I felt that there was room for us both - but clearly I had miscalculated. It seems to me that he is wholly responsible for aggressive, punative driving that was designed to 'scare the **** out of me' but it backfired because his own car got clobbered with the impact. Should I report him? If so, will I have to tell my insurance company and if I don't will that come back to bite me later on? The police are bound to expect us to exchange details on both sides if they are involved and he tells them a pack of porkies to exaggerate my liability. There was no witnesses on either side to corroborate our stories. We were both alone. I do have a tape recording of the interaction and we each have registration plates and I have his make and model of vehicle too (just no personal details). Yours views would be welcomed.
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