Garage incident

[Llamara]

Hi

would really appreciate some advice.

About a month ago, I had an incident at a garage petrol pumps. I pulled in to the forecourt and my wing mirror clipped the pump hose, knocking it to the ground. Before I had time to stop , I had run over it. The pump had come apart from the hose at the breakaway point.
I told the attendant in the shop as I figured it may not be safe t leave it there. He asked for contact details and I gave him a phone number.
On Sunday I received a call asking for an email they could send an invoice to. I didn't give this information as I didn't want to say I'd pay until I knew what I should do.
I have been advised to ignore them by several people as they should have business insurance to cover the repair and any time the pump was out of action. I'm not sure about this tactic and am worried I'll just end up in a small claims court over it. The garage had CCTV so I assume they will have my reg and be able to get my information from that to contact me so I'm not convinced ignoring phonecalls is a good idea.
So should I ignore them?
Should I contact my insurance?
Should I accept the invoice?

thanks

[james_law]

You've damaged property through your own carelessness. They therefore want it repairing and your going to have to pay for it.

Either you pay for the damage out your own pocket or you ask your insurance to step in.

[Amethyst]

I'd tend to agree, ignoring it isn't going to make them just go away and possibly just could create bigger issues along the line - court action and the like. I think it is best to engage with the garage, or their insurers, now and possibly involve your own insurers if the amount needed to rectify the damage caused is too large to deal with without them. I'm not sure if your insurers would cover it, however I would expect it's similar to crashing into a wall or another vehicle ( des8 might know better ) . Giving them your details isn't an admission of liability and you need the information as to what they are asking before you can consider your response / what action to take. Remember they will have your vehicle details from their CCTV so you're likely to be quite easy to trace even if they can't locate you via your telephone number.

[des8]

Technically you should inform your insurers of the incident whether or not you make a claim.

I'm a bit surprised that the garage is making any charge at all or that you even managed to catch the hose.
Either the garage pumps are old (modern pumps retract the hose), or you have really sticky out mirrors!