2024-10-25 traffic offence

2024-10-25 when I was walking on pedestrian crossing a car suddenly started driving and bumped into me. I had to smack on bonnet and scream to avoid being run over. I was not able to get license plate before the car drove away and was not sure what to do next. However, then I spent whole night dealing with flashbacks. So, I knew what I have to do. I need to report it.

I hope I will be able to use experience from 2015-03-30 road traffic injury and update guideline for Road traffic injury.

Incident

I was walking with my bike along Broadway street Ultimo NSW around 18:40 on 2024-10-25. I was approaching a pedestrian crossing over Bay street. A car came drove on Bay street and stopped on pedestrian crossing as it could not drive further and it was clear that it can not do that even before approaching pedestrian crossing. There were people waiting to cross the street, but we all waited till the car stopped and it was safe to cross. We started crossing the street. I was crossing the street in front of the car. When I was half way the car suddenly started moving forward. It first hit my bicycle, then me. I smacked on the bonnet of the car few time and screamed at the driver to stop. The car stopped. I walked around to ask the driver what he was doing, why he drive into me. The driver replied that it is illegal to touch his car. I replied that is illegal to driver over pedestrian on pedestrian crossing and I had no other option to make him stop. I suggested calling police to resolve it, but the driver drove away.

Writing down initial information

I managed to see only first 4 digits of car registration, before it drove away. I also noticed DiDi logo on back of the car. I was in shock for about 20 minutes and in some autopilot mode. Then I started thinking a bit and I wrote down the details I have remembered as the first thing. Reasonably soon I started feeling very tired and went back home. I could not do anything much that day anymore.

I still wrote down some important information before going to sleep.

Reporting

At night flashbacks from 2015 injury kicked in big time and I hardly could sleep.

It took me about half of day before I was able to start functioning somehow. Then I looked for a way to report it online, but find out that I need to go to police station. So, I went to police station.

Benefit of reporting at the police station

The main benefit is that policeman has training and experience how to take statements. The can help you to decide what details are important and what information is redundant or not necessary at this point of time. They will also prepare the statement in the form that is accepted for this kind of statements.

Importance of reporting

When I was looking how to contact DiDi to get drivers details I come across this article: Major ride-share provider DiDi  fined more than $97,000 for safety offences in NSW. I am glad to see that government actively are taking steps to improve accountability.

Getting information from DiDi

I tried to find a contact where I can write to DiDi. I found only one page where email was provided Driver Complaint Handling Policy. However, after sending an email to the address provided I got automated reply "This email is no longer monitored". The only option to contact them is by using app. It seems DiDi are making sure that it is hard to report incident:

1. You need to download, install and configure their app.
2. That does not mean that there will be an option how to report road traffic offence by DiDi driver.
3. It may be very difficult to have a record of communication with DiDi.