Your employee is involved in an at-fault motor vehicle accident. The police are called, make the scene and collect information from all the parties involved. Your employee decides not to obtain any information from the other driver, since the police have already done so. Here is where the problem lies. The average time for a police report to go on file is between 7 to 10 days, and sometimes even longer depending on the jurisdiction. That means that no one has access to the report for that period of time. Then you have to consider mail time, which adds a few more days, unless someone picks up the report from the police station.
During all this time, the other driver is in need of a rental vehicle and medical attention, but no one is calling because their contact information is on the police report. As each day passes, that individual is getting more and more frustrated to the point that he/she decides to seek out and obtain an attorney (and it won’t be difficult to find an attorney considering how much advertisement is on TV and billboards which are now focusing on commercial vehicle accidents). This could have potentially been avoided had your driver gathered some basic information at the scene to include the other driver’s name and contact number(s). Other pertinent information to collect to help expedite the claims process includes a cell phone photo of their driver’s license, insurance card and vehicle damage/license plate. Please share this information with your drivers. Catto & Catto clients, be sure to make use of our Vehicle Accident Kits. If you are in need of kits, contact a member of our risk management team.