In case of a Road Accident:
You should try to provide help to the victims i.e. if there are injuries please arrange for medical treatment. You may want to keep the numbers (Ambulance, 24X7 Service, police, insurance) handy.
It is always better to call police and inform them about the accident, especially in the unknown areas. If they give you FIR it is well and good. Generally, do not expect to have FIR, charge-sheet immediately. It might take few days/weeks for them to prepare. You will need these if there are injuries or damges to the other vehicle. You may also want to call insurance company and inform about them about the accident, so that they can provide you the name of the concerned/nearest authorized agent/dealer who will take care of claims process.
Please do not panic, be cool. Lock the car, if possible.
Let police do their own-investigations; after all, they have been trained to do that. Hand-over the copies of DL, insurance policy, RC to them, as per their demand. Please do not argue with police or insurance people. Be very polite and co-operate with police, RTO and insurance. This might help to minimize your involvement later. Also do not promise anything to victim except your vehicle’s insurance photo-copy.
After RTO inspections, police may allow to take your car for repairs. You may want to take some pictures of the damaged vehicles, so that some expert can do the analysis later. Please ask authorized dealer (preferably approved by the insurance company) to collect the vehicle. Visit concerned agent’s office and fill the required claims form with their help/instructions. Generally they will give you a claim ref number after the repairs. Ask for claims number it is important for future ref/communication, if they do not provide. Maruti-Insurance and their dealers provide a good service including cash-less repairs and insurance claims. If you have taken an insurance policy directly from the public sector insurance company, then it could be very lengthy process and bureaucratic.
Police will inform you if there is a case against you. Generally, their investigations/reports are the most reliable document available in any court of law. So please co-operate with police and this would help to minimize the waste of time and money involved in the legal case filed by a state against you.
If there are claims from others, insurance company will call you. Insurance company will help to sort them if your papers (DL, insurance policy) are in order and also they will arrange for separate investigations at any time, if necessary based on the circumstances. They will take-care of these claims or they will fight in the court against claimants, but they will need your co-operation and you need to sign couple of legal papers for objections in the motor accident claims tribunal (vakalatnama, written-statement prepared by panel lawyer and based on investigation carried by insurance company), as in the court only owner is allowed to take certain defenses but insurance company has to pay for the claims. Generally evidences/pleadings/judgements in criminal cases are not valid/acceptable for the civil liability cases. So please follow their instructions, it might help to save some public money and you are always protected by the insurance policy. (If you do not have effective DL or valid insurance policy, insurance company will take statutory defenses against you and then you will have to fight against the claimants and the insurer.) Make a True Copies (by a Public Notary) of the valid insurance policy and effective driving license and keep it in a bank locker, if you want to be really safe after an accident.
It is a terrible experience, but unfortunately on Indian roads you could get into such situations. It is our responsibility to improve the conditions.
NEVER TRY TO DISAPPEAR FROM THE SCENE, IF YOU ARE INVOLVED UNFORTUNATELY. HELP THE VICTIM FIRST & THE REST LEAVE IT TO GOD! Post EDITED since it contained various [FONT], [COLOR] and [SIZE] tags.
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Last edited by Jaggu : 14th December 2008 at 21:46.
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