Behind the Wheel - March 9, 2005

[skidmark]

Reporting Collisions

The dust has settled and your vehicle sits crumpled at the side of the road. After taking stock of yourself, rendered aid to anyone else involved as required and properly notified everyone involved of your personal, insurance and vehicle details, what now? Does the collision need to be reported?

Any collision that results in death or personal injury must be reported. In addition, if the damage to all involved is more than $1000 in the case of another vehicle, $600 in the case of a motorcycle or $100 in the case of a cycle, the collision must be reported. Failing to do so is an offence.

Having said that, who do you report to? In years past it was always a requirement to report to the police. Today, you may choose to report to the police or to a person designated by ICBC. The person designated by ICBC is one of their claims personnel.

This has interesting implications. You may be able to avoid prosecution for the error that caused the collision by not involving the police. By the same token, the police have been trained to investigate collisions and gather the evidence you need to establish how the collision occurred and protect your personal interests. Which do you choose?

Third party reports of a collision to police often cause the dispatch of emergency services that could include rescue crews and paramedics. Choosing not to report to police yourself can take these emergency services away from others that might need them.

The are both positives and negatives involved in how you choose to report. Please balance your personal interests with the needs of others.

[Tyler883]

I hope this is close enough to your original topic, but what kind of guidelines can you give us on the question of whether or not we should move our vehicles off the road before the police officer arrives?

I've seen collisions in Calgary where the front car was at a red light and was rear ended by another car.

Both cars are left on the road. Traffic is extremely congested, meanwhile they are standing around waiting for a police officer. Are they doing the right thing?

[DayGlow]

unless there is an injury it's safe to move the cars. By injury not talking about bumps and bruises, but something that EMS should take a look at. Any head, neck or back should have EMS attend as it's very hard to determine how severe they are by how you feel. There have been a few collisions I've been to where someone has banged their head and think they are fine, walking around, talking, only to collapse 15 minutes later.

[D'z Nutz]

Good topic to bring up. I often wonder what I'm supposed to be doing if I ever get involved in a vehicular collision. A couple related questions that come to mind:

1) If you're involved in a major accident at a busy intersection, for example, is it okay to move the vehicles before the authorities arrive and give you the okay? I believe this topic was brought up before, it since we're on the topic of accidents, it may be worthwhile to bring it up again.

2) If you witness an accident, are you required to stay back and give a statement? Can you get in trouble if you do not?

Hopefully somebody with a knowledgeable background can answer these (ie: traffic enforcement, someone who was directly experienced this, etc...), rather than the "I heard on the schoolyard from somebody who knows this guy who read on the internet..." knowledge that 90% of our forum members seem to share :rolleyes:

Edit: I guess I type too slow :)

[skidmark]

You are not required by anything other than a good conscience to stick around and fill police in after a crash if you are a witness.

I like to say that if you were in a collision and appreciate a witness hanging around to tell the story to help you out, you need to be that witness for someone else if the opportunity arrives.

[Tyler883]

I guess one of those disposable cameras in the glove box, next to a pad and pencil is a good idea.

[skidmark]

That is excellent advice!

[ninspeed]

In Alberta, you can only report an accident over 1000$ to local authorities (CPS, RCMP... ect).. they will issue you a damaged vehicle sticker. it is aginst the law for a body shop, or body man to work on a car with more than 1000$ damage, and can be fined, and possibly loose the licence.

Many fleet cars i see come through the shop have a disposbal camera along with a little note pad/pencil with everything you need to get at the sceen.

One more tip... you dont need an estimate 10 min after an accident... go home and relax a bit, it can be very fustrating to your self when an appraiser can write an estimate for 1000$ up to 30 000k in damage when you have just been in an accident. Many questions about money ect will arise and it makes your day even worse.