I had a minor car accident. Was sat in traffic behind a taxi on a red light. Sun was bright and I thought taxi had started moving when light turned green. I moved forward a few meters and very gently bumped into his back bumper/fender. The lightest of bumps.
Pulled over and there were the faintest/lightest of marks where the left and right side of my front number plate touched his plastic bumper. No damage to my car and no injuries.
Called police. They checked our docs, looked at his bumper and left saying ‘leave it to insurance companies.’
Contacted insurance and confirmed it was my fault (100%). They will see what the repair cost claimed by taxi company will be and i can then work out if I pay it to keep next year insurance costs down, or let insurance pay it and my premium go up. I also dropped 3 ‘no claims’ points.
Questions about other implications:
1) I’m on a gold license. Can I expect this incident to lead to points being taken on my license? Drop from gold status? If so, will I be informed by the police?
2) Is there a chance the police will waive this without penalty?
3) Could there be a fine?
4) If points deducted meaning no longer gold, does that start right away ir only after my next renewal?
Never happened to me before and I don’t know the police/license side of it at all. I asked the insurance company and they said they aren’t connected to the police process of dealing with accidents so have no idea.
Thanks for any guidance.
2 comments
AFAIK, it won’t affect your license as an accident that didn’t involve gross negligence, like excessive speed or drunk driving isn’t a criminal offense.
Anytime you committed a moving violation, the cops would cite you and give you the fine right away. If they didn’t do that then you are off the hook. For small accidents, police are only there to make a report which is to be used for evidence to resolve disputes if there is any.
Do the police in Japan even need to be called for a fender bump? Just take a photo of it for insurance against excessive damage claims.