So, you’ve got yourself into a car accident. It is not a situation anybody wants to be in, but what do you need to do now? Well, you’ve come to the right place, let’s get straight into it.
What not to do
First things first, let’s clarify what you shouldn’t do in this situation. Here’s a list of that. DO NOT:
- Admit it was your fault
- Play the blame game
- Sign documents from a towing company
- Agree to accept or offer any ‘settlement’
As guilty as you may feel, your judgement may be cloudy in an emergency such as a car accident. In such a scenario, the other party may blame you even when you have done absolutely nothing wrong. So don’t be quick to admit it was your fault in a car accident. Stay calm.
Although you’re not supposed to easily admit the accident was your fault, DO NOT play the blame game as well. While some of us may resort to admitting guilt, there are also times when we are quick to blame the other party. Again, stay calm. Do not escalate the situation as things can get horrible when both parties involved get too emotional.
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Also, do not simply sign documents from towing companies. In the event that your car requires a towing service, your car coverage provider should be able to provide it for you. Verify with your coverage provider first, before agreeing for your car to be towed. Yes, you can get a towing service first and claim later with your coverage provider, but the towing cost claim is limited to RM200, at least for car coverage provided under MotorTakaful.com by Etiqa.
Lastly, do not agree to offer or accept any ‘settlements’ with the other party involved. It is tempting to just leave the accident unreported to not affect your (or the other driver’s) No Claim Discount (NCD), but the right thing to do is to submit a police report. If you’re inexperienced, the other party could overclaim the damage cost in your agreed ‘settlement’.
With things “you should not do” out of the way, here is what you should do instead…
What to do in the event of a car accident
So, here’s what you need to do. Firstly, you should check and ensure the safety of yourself and those involved right after the crash/accident. Mainly, you should:
- Immediately turn on your hazard lights. This simple step will help save you from further collisions.
- Check that you and your passengers are not badly injured. Immediately get help if needed.
- Move all involved vehicles to the side of the road. Get your passengers out and away from the vehicle.
With the safety of everybody and the vehicles ensured, you should make sure to capture the following details:
- Time of accident occurred
- Vehicle number plate
- Driver’s NRIC
- Driver’s driving license
- Contact number
- Visible damage to vehicles
- Physical marks on surroundings (skid marks, knocked down lamp post, potholes)
- Location (road name, landmarks)
- Save the dashboard video recording
Having a dashboard video recording would be extremely helpful but make it a habit to get all the above-listed details. They would be very helpful when submitting your police report… which we shall get into now.
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Submitting a police report
You should be quick to submit your police report in the event of a car accident. For the report to be valid, it must be done within 24 hours of the accident. Both you and the other party involved will have to go to the police station that is nearest to the location of the accident. Usually, this will involve two stages and the second one will have to be done at the traffic police station. Depending on where the accident occurred, this might be quite a distance from the first police station.
If possible, you should take your car to the police station to lodge the police report. Why? Because they will have to take pictures of the cars involved to complete the report and for further investigation. The picture is usually taken at the second stage of the report at the traffic police station.
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And when you are submitting the report, make sure to purchase the printed version of your report. It wouldn’t cost much but it would be necessary to submit to your car coverage provider to proceed with the claims. Sometimes if a report is made during non-office hours, the printed version will be available for collection when office hours resume.
Now that you have completely submitted your report and have the printed version with you, you can proceed to contact your coverage provider to proceed with the claims. Everything else from here onward will be taken care of by them. Need a car coverage provider? Allow us to suggest MotorTakaful.com by Etiqa for you.
