A GUIDE: WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT

[Sadie]

Right, you ugly lot, the season is upon us for minor weather/season related prangs caused by wet roads and early dark nights.

I had a small incident with a car yesterday morning where someone pulled out on me and damaged my exhaust, and several weeks ago I was knocked off by a car in the bus lane of the Finchley Road causing some damage to my gear lever and footpeg.

So here is a guide as to what you should do after an accident:

If you are ever unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident on the road there are a number of things you are obliged to do by law and which you ought to know for your own benefit.

Most importantly, you are legally obliged to:
· Stop at the scene of any accident where anybody other than you as the driver or any animal, is injured or where damage is caused to somebody else's vehicle or any property including anything which is situated on or near land on which the road is situated
· Report an accident to the police within 24 hours where somebody is injured.
· Give your name & address, the name & address of the vehicle owner and the registration number of the vehicle to anybody affected by the accident
· Call the police if the other driver refuses to give you his details.
· Make reasonable enquiries to find out who a vehicle belongs to if you collide with it whilst it is unattended. Otherwise you must report the accident to a police officer or at a police station within 24 hours
· Where you are responsible for reporting an accident you must do this in person, not by telephone, in writing or by getting somebody else to do it on your behalf

In complying with these legal requirements you will protect yourself against being prosecuted for failing to stop after an accident, failing to give details or failing to report an accident.

If found guilty of such offences you could be fined, have your license endorsed with penalty points, disqualified from driving or even imprisoned!

You may experience shock, pain or even anger if you are involved in or even witness to an accident.

It is extremely important to stay calm because there are a number of things you must do for legal and insurance purposes.

Witnesses - After the initial excitement of an accident people tend to disappear quickly.

You will need to make a note of their names, addresses and vehicle registration numbers where appropriate.

Take a note of the other driver's details and of the vehicle owner if different.

Take details of the other vehicle make, model, colour and condition. Try to note whether it had any lights on and if they were appropriate for the conditions and particularly if it was indicating.

Obtain the other driver's insurance details if at all possible but don't worry if you can't get them; its not a legal requirement to give them and your insurer can obtain them if you can't.

Try to obtain the details of anybody who was injured in the accident and call the police - and any other emergency service that may be required.

Note the badge number of any attending police officers.

Your insurer will tell you that you must not admit fault or liability in an accident or your insurance may be invalid.

You don't have to worry about making a statement at the scene of an accident. You may prefer to do so later when your mind is clearer but when you do, make sure you keep a copy for future reference.

With all this information to obtain, it would be useful if you could keep a pencil and a small note pad in the glove box of your car and a cheap camera could also be useful.

Draw a Plan- It may be easier to draw a plan of the accident scene rather than to try and write down everything at the scene - photographs would be even better; a picture paints a thousand words!.

Note the date, time and location of the accident and the prevailing road and weather conditions.

Your plan does not need to be elaborate; a simple line diagram will do.

Mark on it the positions of the vehicles before and after the collision, show their direction of travel with arrows and their positions and distances from each other and from junctions and other fixed road furniture, trees etc.

What you can claim for and from whom can you claim?

Some people believe an accident where somebody else is at fault is a license to print money, inflating a claim and, inevitably, putting all our insurance premiums up.

There are certain things you can claim from your insurer and then there are your uninsured losses.

The things you are entitled to claim from your insurance company include repairs to the damage suffered by your own car, if you have comprehensive cover, and a proportion of the value of things carried in the car which become damaged in the accident.

Your uninsured losses form a far longer list and include:
· Your policy excess
· Any contents damaged in the accident above the value of your insurance policy limit which is sometimes limited to £50
· The value of your radio above the policy limit which, again, may not be enough to enable you replace it with a similar one
· Loss of no claims bonus unless you have it protected for a certain number of claims in a time period
· The loss, or diminution, in value of your bike or car - this may arise if yours is a late model with a relatively high residual value which has been extensively or structurally damaged in an accident even if it has been repaired to a proper standard
· Compensation for loss of earnings
· Compensation for inconvenience
· Compensation for alternative transport. This may be public transport or the hire of a like for like vehicle whilst yours is off the road
· Compensation for personal injury if you were injured in the accident

· The full cost of any partly worn item for which your insurer will ask you to contribute where betterment arises even though they, and therefore you, should be able to recover from the person who was at fault in the accident

You have a Common Law duty to mitigate your losses. That is to say, you should take all reasonable steps to keep your losses to a minimum.

Clearly, there are some areas that are beyond your control but if your bike or car was unroadworthy for the want of, say, half an hours' work pulling a panel out so it clears a tyre or for a £50 lamp, for example, it is unreasonable to expect to be able to claim £1000's in replacement car hire charges whilst yours is off the road.

In the past you would have needed to instruct a solicitor of your own to advise you on what you are entitled to claim and to pursue your claim on your behalf against the other driver.

These days, a lot of insurers pro-actively take on your claim as a Third Party and deal with it without delay if liability, of fault, is not in dispute.
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With experience comes age.

[CBRPETER]

VERY helpgul, great stuff, i shall carry it around with me.
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Shes my life, shes so rad and shes the best ride i ever had!!

[Ste]

Link to another thread covering stuff like this.

[CBRPETER]

Also very helpful .
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Shes my life, shes so rad and shes the best ride i ever had!!

[steveh]

good advice,
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Current : 06 Zx10r, 07 Wr450f SM, 74 850 norton commando, 63 bsa b40, 1962 Triton 650, 67 Triumph Tr6r, 1955 Triton 750, 1978 TY250E.

[paulodd]

very interesting and helful, shame i had the crash before reading this tho owell.

[Wave2k]

good stuff
it is Very important to walk away and maybe calm down and have a breether
then go back nice a calm or u may go in steeming and regret something
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Ducati 1299 Panigale
2009 Corvette C6 z51
RS125->CBR400->RXS100->GSXR750K2->Ducati749S->CBR600RR5->TL1000R->DRz400->RSVR1000->Honda VTR SP1->CBR400->GSXR1000K6->Honda H100->CBR600RR3->Ducati1299

[california_rookie]

And to think the only information I was giving was my middle finger.

I'm kidding, of course. I've been in two car accidents, both of which were resolved immediately, to the satisfaction of all concerned and in an entirely legal fashion.
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https://www.bikepics.com/members/californiarookie/04gsxr600/
https://www.myspace.com/spapadillion
https://steamcommunity.com/id/spapadillion

[dibbster]

I had a read of this thread the other day, only to get knocked off my bike on wednesday, don't read the topic it's cursed!

(I guess though if you've read this far it is already too late.....)
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Suzuki RF 600 - The two wheeled Testarossa (Deceased)
Suzuki GSXR - Now stops on a sixpence; SBK3's
www.bikepics.com/members/dibbster

[NickD]

[Flip]

I would like to add to Sadies post...

Chain smoke and stare at f*cked bike on the floor whilst ignoring all people asking 'are you OK ?'

Or is this just me?

[NickD]

[synaptyx]

Excellent stuff Sadie, wish I could rate your post: Is there somewhere, incredibly useful stuff like this could be collected. A reference forum perhaps, that only the mods/admins could copy good stuff like this into. Just a thought.