Dealing with minor vehicle collisions
A number of years ago I was involved in a minor rear-ender where I was the one at fault. It was one of those awful, winter snow storms on that bad stretch of Highway 401 in the Port Hope area.
I was cresting a hill and saw that traffic ahead of me had come to a sudden stop. I slammed on my brakes, but to no avail. So I tried to pull off to the shoulder and almost made it, but not quite, just nicking the vehicle in front of me and breaking their tail light. My car had suffered no visible damage.
I was just shaking when I got out of my car. Vehicles were littering the ditches and there were several accidents up ahead. According to one of the motorists who had been involved in one of the other accidents, the police were tied up at a fatality in which a vehicle had slid through a stop sign. There was little chance that they would be able to come and attend to the many minor accidents on this particular stretch of highway anytime soon.
Having never been in a situation like this before, I didn’t know what to do. Now; however, I am much more prepared.
The first thing to do in a situation like this is, if possible and if safe to do so, is to get your vehicle off the road.
Next, call the police. The main police services number is 416-808-2222. They will be able to tell you if a police presence is required. There are other criteria besides simple vehicular damage (for example, if there is an injury or if there is damage to private, municipal or highway property) that warrants a police presence.
If it is determined that a police presence is not required, but the total damage to the vehicles involved is over $1,000, then police services can also direct you to the nearest collision reporting centre (CRC). You then have 24 hours to report to a CRC so your vehicle can be inspected by either an OPP or Metro officer, and a police report can then be filed.
It is also really important that you exchange information with the drivers of all vehicles involved. Get their names, addresses, phone numbers, insurance companies, etc. If this information is not forthcoming, then make sure that no matter what, you at least get the vehicle license plate number.
Just a note here: if you are planning to go to a CRC and your vehicle needs to be towed you have to, by law, have it towed directly to a CRC first so the police can inspect it and write the report, before you take it to a garage to have it fixed.
When you do show up at a CRC, don’t forget to have all your documentation with you: your driver’s licence, ownership, insurance, etc.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:54 am
A suggestion for speeding up the exchange of information at accidents (suggested to me by a police officer when I was involved in a rear-ender): *you* write down your own information (once for each of the others involved) and give that to the other drivers. It’s a lot faster for you to write down your name, address, etc. than trying to dictate the information to others (especially if you don’t share a common mother tongue.)