Taking someone’s contact details following a collision

A snowHead

I was involved in a collision this morning. Apart from self inflicted tumbles, it’s the first time I’ve been involved in a collision and the first time something has happened that could’ve ended with a serious injury. Anyway, I didn’t take the other parties details and they didn’t take mine - but in hindsight I probably should’ve done. I was completely the innocent party in this btw!

I’m sure most of us have injury stories, so I’m going to indulge you with mine and let you guys decide whether I should’ve swapped details. It might help someone else. Apologies if this is long.

It was about 9.30am this morning and after New Year’s Eve it was pretty much deserted. My OH and I had done a couple of runs - nicely groomed relatively hard, but quite grippy pistes. I was ahead of my OH and I was stood to the side of the piste at a junction of two pistes. Where I was stood was pretty flat (about 50m of flat looking uphill). I was watching my OH ski down and noticed someone coming down pretty fast. They skied quite close to her which wasn’t necessary considering they were the only ones coming down a nice wide blue run. I carried on watching my OH when I noticed this person heading in my direction. At first, I thought that they’d stick a turn in to move away from me. The next thing, they hit the deck and they’re sliding rapidly towards me. I didn’t have much time to think and certainly no time to get out of the way. My only thought was to try and jump over them. I might’ve got lucky and they slid right under me, or at worse they’d hit me while I’m in the air rather than my feet/skis planted on the ground. Very Happy

He did exactly the latter and hit me as I was mid jump. He took me straight off my feet and took one of my skis with him. I came out of it quite lucky. I think I must’ve spun in the air and landed on my backside/lower back. It definitely hurt quite a bit, so much that I let out quite a yell. After laying there for a few seconds trying to work out whether there was any serious damage, I treated the guy to some fairly agricultural language (he may have learnt some new English vocabulary). Once I’d had my say, I did ask him if he was ok (he was rolling around the floor making noises!) - he said he was in pain, but thought he was ok. I told him he should take it steady and not ski so fast and out of control. It was then he came out with this pearler, “It’s this rubbish snow. It’s too icy. I’ve just come from Norway where the snow is soft and fluffy.” Very Happy

To which I replied, “Maybe you need to have a few runs steady, so you can get used to the conditions.” We dusted ourselves down and went our separate ways.

I knew I’d end up with a decent bruise and probably be a bit sore on my backside (I don’t think a back protector would’ve helped me here). Since I’ve got home I also have a sore neck and I’m getting some pain in my lower arm (opposite side to the impact). It’s probably nothing, but a good few hours after the collision I am wondering whether it was as a result. I’m thinking I was probably quite lucky as it could’ve been a lot worse, but I’m also thinking we should’ve swapped details just in case.

A snowHead

I would say to take details, you might not notice all of your injuries until later.

From experience, if you need physio to recover fully it may not be covered either by your insurance or the NHS.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

If in doubt, swap details.

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@rjs, nhs physio would be covered. Getting an appointment would be the issue

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@holidayloverxx, Same thing in practice.

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I don’t live in the U.K. at the moment. Social security covers 75% of any treatment and I’d have to cover the remaining 25%. Probably a greater reason to swap details. Although, I don’t actually know if treatment here is expensive or not - I’ve had no need to test it out yet!

Getting an appointment is easy.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Your language was far more polite than mine would have been.

After all it is free

@hammerite, What country was this in? I read that some countries were requiring 3rd party insurance now for skiing.

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@hammerite, That's a big accident - condolences.

You ask whether you should have taken his details and the answer is yes you should have, especially since you are exposed to 25% of what could (but hopefully won't) be some major medical bills.

Fingers crossed for you. snowHead

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@red 27, thanks. I think overall I’ll be fine. It’s just got me thinking.

Sorry to hear about your accident hammerite, pleased you seem ok, and hopefully just bruises.

Regards the details, had you asked for the gents, how would you confirm they are correct ? Just asking as neither SWMBO or myself ever carry any offical paperwork. reckless skiers potentially could give false details, and ski off for eternity.

You know it makes sense.

@Bones, true, but at the moment people are having to carry all manner of details, on their phones if nowhere else. And it's wise on the continent, where it's mostly compulsory to carry proof of identity, to carry at least a copy of the passport page with your photo etc on it.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Hope you'll be OK, @hammerite. You raise an important question, to which I've given scarcely no thought. When I was knocked down in a collision and turned out to have broken my pelvis, we didn't exchange details, and though it was near a lift, and the lift attendant called the pisteurs, she didn't suggest it either. The other person was a French man, who twisted his knee as he went down, but seemed OK. He was very concerned about me and wanted to help me up, as did my brother in law who I was skiing with, but I couldn't stand, and just told them I need to continue to sit on the snow (when absolutely nothing hurt - it only hurt when I needed to weight bear on that leg, in a way which made it 100% clear it wasn't going to happen). He was persuaded to go off, as we waited a while for the rescuers, but went up the lift and came back down again to see how I was. The collision was caused by his suddenly swerving to avoid another skier - because of the odd lie of the land, I was "carrying my way" up the slope to the lift, to avoid having to herringbone the last bit, and he was coming down to the lift from the other direction, then suddenly was in front of me. I, arguably, should have been going slower towards the lift - and he probably should have been going slower too. I was not at all clear whose "fault" it was, but as he was twice my size, and half my age, and a nice guy, he felt badly about it. But exchange details? Never occurred to us, it seems, nor to anyone else around. My brother in law, who speaks no French, had alerted the liftie and she probably didn't realise, when she was telling the office that an elderly Englishwoman was injured, that I did!

A snowHead

A snowHead

@Bones, that thought did occur to me too. Also what do you do if the guy just refuses to give his details (short of threatening violence - which isn’t really my thing!)?

@pam w, yes, it sounds like your collision was less clear cut. I hope you’ve recovered well. Interesting point about language. The guy who hit me (I think he was Spanish) spoke excellent English, but that isn’t often the case here. I’ve not lived here long and my Catalan/Spanish are both pretty poor. I rely on Google Translate a lot!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Bones,

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I suppose if they refuse to give details you can speak to a liftie especially as it was as quiet as it was. He would be easy to find. We encountered him quite a few times during the day and annoyingly he was a good skier.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Ah the old blame/victim culture we live in. If you’re both fine just dust yourself and get on with it. Mistakes happen, if someone was at fault they should apologise but that’s about it.

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@Ionizingskin, how do you determine there and then that you are 100% ok? I know of people who have needed reconstructive surgery following (non skiing) incidents where they initially thought they were ok.

After all it is free

When my husband had a collision with another skier (hit from behind) and broke his neck, there was no exchange of details, as the third party got up and skied off. Hubby then managed to get himself to the bottom of the piste and to the docs. There was no problem with his insurance claim.

@Hells Bells, ditto my brother-in-law. The perpetrator, who left him unconscious, was never found.

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Always a good idea to take a photo of them … don’t expect authorities to be interested but you never know

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@pam w, when I contacted them to start the claim, I was asked if I had the details of the other person, but there was no issue with me being unable to tell them.

My experience was in Italy, where the piste patrol are police. The local chief was with us when the accident happened so there was no problem with detaining the perp. The main decision was on whether to press charges, the piste patrol suggested not doing as it would have required returning to Italy for any trial, I should still have got contact details though.

You know it makes sense.

@hammerite oh well in that case rolling eyes

welcome to the real world internet ppl. If you’re on the slopes you’re taking a certain amount of risk of disaster scenarios happening. Again, just get on with it

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@pam w, it's a principle of insurance that you have to mitigate your loss. But if you can't eg with a hit and run, you can't.

A snowHead

I should have said "if you BOTH feel comfortable to judge it so"

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Is it legally required for collision parties to exchange contact details?

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I think the only reliable, traceable info might be a photo of the other party's lift pass and his/her face.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Ionizingskin, you clearly didn’t read my post, because that’s exactly what I did! And that is my usual reaction to most things. I’m just questioning whether it was the right choice.

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@blueski2, I had that thought earlier, but you can buy a lift pass for cash, so it's still a potential dead end.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

I've seen a number of relatively minor collisions which could have caused significant ongoing problems (though not been involved in many, thankfully) and sometimes stopped to help pick up gear scattered round a slope, etc etc. Never been aware of anybody "exchanging details" and although my collision was near a lift, and the liftie was involved, neither she nor the pisteurs showed any interest in details (and as I said, the guy was kind of hanging around, certainly not a hit and run). So in France, at any rate, it doesn't by any means seem the usual thing to do, though where car accidents are involved, there is a special form which must be completed, with all relevant details. "Constat Amiable d'Accident". I had one in my car for years but fortunately never had to use it.

@pam w, I was about to ask what, for insurance purposes, would be the difference between a collision on the slopes and in a car. As to what the 'law of the land' is, in terms of criminal liability, that's a different matter, and probably differs from country to country.

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About 15 years ago in Mayrhofen we were skiing down a blue at the end of the day, families and kids everywhere. A bloke comes tanking through in a straightline and totally skittles a kid. He teied to ski off and a few of us intercepted him. Russian pissed as a fart, could hardly stand. A tiny Austrian woman took charge and basically twatted him with her skipole into handing over his passport. I left not knowing Russian or German and fearful of his prospects of escaping a (well deserved) beating.

Help!!

Taking someone’s contact details following a collision

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