It’s too late for if onlys after the sickening scrunch of metal and aftershock of shattered glass. Forewarned is forewarned. The following are some DOs and DON’Ts for before and after car crashes. Essentially, it comes down to protecting life, limb and property in that order.
First to some pre-accidents DOs. Make sure you always carry a first-aid kit, blanket, fire-extinguisher, two litres of water, torch and pen and paper. If you can afford it a car phone is worthwhile.
Make sure your car is registered with third-party personal-injury insurance. It is an offence not to have it (fine up to $500 and order your car off the road for up to 12 months.) As a minimum have third-party property insurance. You never know when you might run into a Rolls Royce.
This insurance is absolutely essential if you own or are buying your own home. The home of the uninsured person is the first and easiest target to recover property damage.
If you have an old bomb, maybe you can risk losing it, but you can’t afford the risk of wiping out someone else’s expensive car, the government’s expensive street light (which they will chase you for), or someone’s house, plate glass shopfront or whatever.
Do not drive an unregistered car or a car without compulsory third-party insurance. If the car has run out of rego and insurance do not even back it out of the driveway. Get public transport (or another registered and insured car) to Motor Registry and get a cover note so you can drive the car to get repairs and testing done for registration. If you badly injure someone while driving a car without third-party personal injury insurance, your whole life will be changed: you will be sent to penury or bankruptcy, your house and furniture will be sold from under you.
More mundanely, always carry your signed drivers’ licence. Make sure you see the licence of anyone who is to drive your car. (It is an offence not to, punishable by a fine up to $2000).
Carry your registration papers and insurance papers.
Make sure your car is in proper condition all the time (not just at rego time), especially brakes, lights, tyres and suspension. And make sure windows are clean and in winter unfrosted before driving.
Always put your seat belt on übefore you start the engine. Always make sure all your passengers are wearing a seat-belt. The driver commits an offence if an under-14-year-old is not wearing a seat-belt. If over 14, the passenger commits the offence. Children under 8 must be in a child restraint.
They are the preventative measures.
Now for some law and practice üafter the accident.
As driver, you must stop after an accident. You must give your name, address and registration number and name and address of the car owner to police or anyone who is injured or who property is damaged or any witness of the accident acting for someone injured or whose property is damaged. You must report the accident to police as soon as practicable, and in case within 24 hours.
There is no obligation to call police to an accident, though it is a good idea if the accident involves injury or substantial property damage, especially if you think you the other party is at fault.
There is no legal obligation to call an ambulance or give emergency aid, though common decency would suggest it. Ignore all the American litigation mania which suggests that if you help an injured person, the injured person can turn around a sue you if you make the slightest error. Australian law is not like that. It takes far greater account of the circumstances and is far more realistic about what can be expected from those who help.
If there is death or injury in an accident where you are driver or owner you are under an obligation to notify the third-party insurer, the NRMA of the fact of the accident, its time, date, place and circumstances and the name and address of those killed or injured, and names and addresses of any witnesses.
If you are injured in a hit-and-run accident (either as a driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist) see a lawyer as soon as possible. In these circumstances you can claim damages against the Nominal Defendant. But claims have to be put in within three months, unless there are exception circumstances. So do not delay. The same applies if the other car is unregistered or uninsured.
If you are injured in an accident see the NRMA’s legal people if you are a member or see a lawyer, even if you think you are at fault. The law applies apportionment of blame and it could well be that even though you went through a give-way sign, the other driver was going to fast for the conditions, and you might get some damages.
Police rarely if ever give opinions about civil liability for damages for property or injury; they are concerned only with offences. Police will issue an on-the-spot for the obvious offences (negligent driving for the driver who has hit the car in front, fines for going through give-way or stop signs and so on). They can only guestimate speed after the event and have no way of telling after the event if there was dangerous acceleration. Witnesses can tell of these things and they can give a completely different picture from the merely looking at two pranged cars at an intersection controlled by give-way signs. The mere fact one driver has been given a ticket does not stop an action for damages by that driver.
The precise cause of accidents and apportioning the blame is not an easy question. Sleep, booze, speed, tyres, mechanical breakdown, bad brakes or breaking the rules by either side can all be factors .
Passengers can sue the driver of the car they are in. It does not matter if the driver is a parent, close friend, sibling, spouse or whatever; the insurance company is paying. This is especially important for parents of children injured in an accident they caused. Go to a lawyer. Let your children sue you for their injuries; that’s why we have third-party insurance.
Immediately after the accident show your licence and give your name, address, workplace and telephone numbers and, if different, the name and address of the owner of the car. Never admit liability for death or personal injury.
If someone is injured, someone is bound to call an ambulance anyway, so it may as well be you. And inevitably the police will be called. In these circumstances, if you think you might be in the wrong, restrict yourself to licence, name and address and work and home phone numbers. Simply do not say anything else. It won’t help you; it can only make things worse. If police think you have committed an offence these days you will get a ticket anyway and talking will not help you. There are no more favours for the respectable, middle-aged.
Be polite, but firm: “”I have just been in an accident. It is not a proper time for me to make a statement. You have my licence details. And I am happy to make a statement later, perhaps tomorrow.”
If for some reason you cannot hold fast, make sure you make notes of everything you tell police, as you tell them.
If you think you are in the right, it may help your cause to state what happened, but be very careful about speeds, whether you kept a proper look-out and so on. If you do so, make notes of what you tell the police as you tell them.
If the case ever goes to court (criminally or civilly) you want your evidence to be as good as anyone else’s. If you have notes, you will be in a better position in court months or years down the track.
If there are no injuries, you have to make a judgment as to what to do. And in making that judgment you have to acknowledge that the sad fact is that the sad fact is that the law does not promote honesty and openness: it rewards cunning over the decent thing.
For example, if you are hit and your car damaged by someone who appears drunk, instinct would say “”call the cops, I’ve got him”. However, if your drunk is convicted of drink-driving his insurance policy is void. That means you have to extract your money out of him personally, which is not easy. It may well be if you see his insurance policy is valid that you don’t call the police.
If you are in the wrong and there are no injuries, it might be better to admit you are in the wrong and show the other driver you are insured and bargain with him not to call the police. You don’t want a ticket to add to your woes.
It’s not nice to say this, but the way our law now stands, if you have an accident which causes serious property damage while drunk you are probably better off running away and staying away without going home for 23 hours. You will get convicted on leaving the scene of an accident and probably be fined the maximum $2000, but your insurance policy and licence will remain intact.
There have been several running-away cases with heavy suspicion that the driver was drunk, and the driver was better off (morality aside) than hanging around. The law needs attention here. Insurance policies should be valid if the driver is drunk; they are valid if he is reckless. The criminal and civil issues should be separated. The drunk driver should be punished by the criminal court, not by the civil one. Further, higher penalties, including licence suspension should apply for running from an accident, so that the drunk is worse off for fleeing.
Drivers must submit to breath-tests after accident, or blood tests if impracticable because of injury. Generally, magistrates impose higher penalties for refusing a test than for failing it.
Incidentally, nurses and doctors are entitled to get payment from the third-party insurer for giving emergency treatment at an accident of $105 and $125 respectively.
If you are taken to hospital, tell the hospital admission staff that the injuries were from a car accident. The hospital is entitled to higher rate so in effect you get treated like a privately insured person.
And one final piece of advice: always wear clean underwear.