What services should be called first in case of an accident?

A call to the traffic police - refusal. It is legal?

Most drivers immediately call the traffic police after an accident. This is correct; the obligation to report to the police is spelled out in the Traffic Rules. Since the numbers of local traffic police duty stations are not known to drivers, calls, as a rule, are made to 112, the emergency call service.

The call will then be forwarded to the police, and traffic police inspectors will contact the driver. It is at this moment that drivers most often hear the refusal of inspectors to go to the scene of an accident and the offer to issue a European protocol.

Inspectors have neither the desire nor the ability to deal with small, insignificant accidents. Therefore, the first thing they often do is offer drivers to arrange everything themselves. And this is precisely a proposal, not a requirement. You will find out why in a little more detail below.

How long do you have to wait for traffic police officers?

Many drivers are often nervous at the scene of an accident due to the fact that the traffic police crew does not arrive at the scene of the accident for a long time.

They don’t come to you not out of harm, but because there are certain reasons.

1. This happens, as a rule, in heavy city traffic, when as a result of your accident a huge traffic jam forms, through which it is very difficult to get to the place.
2. Another reason why the traffic police does not appear at the scene of an accident quickly is the lack of personnel. This happens especially often in small towns, when there are many accidents, and there are not enough traffic police workers to deal with all the incidents.

What to do if the circumstances of the incident require the intervention of the competent authorities, but they cannot come for certain reasons? Does the law somehow regulate the time during which traffic police officers must arrive at the scene of an incident?

According to traffic police regulations, a car with competent employees must arrive as soon as possible. As you can see, the wording is very vague. However, if there are victims in the accident, the regulations set the time to 25 minutes.

Traffic police inspectors go to cases of road traffic accidents as calls arrive at the duty station, however, they, like doctors, work according to priorities.

If there are no victims in the accident, however, very serious damage has been caused to the vehicles, which is not covered by the Europrotocol, or drivers have disputes regarding the circumstances, they can fill out an Accident Notice and go to the nearest traffic police department for analysis.

Another option that vehicle drivers can resort to is the help of emergency commissioners. This service is often included in the CASCO insurance policy package, but for owners of a compulsory motor vehicle license it will be paid. Here it is important to understand what you want to save: a little time or more money. One way or another, the choice will be yours.

The emergency commissioner can arrive in up to 30 minutes. Participants in a traffic accident can use the services of a traffic commissioner from an insurance company to examine the circumstances of the accident, and can also contact the company.

It is worth remembering that full-time employees of insurance companies, as a rule, deliberately underestimate the amount of damage, so it is better to overpay a little and contact a private company.

Yes, you can arrange everything yourself!

Article 11.1 of the Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance specifies how to draw up documents about a traffic accident without calling inspectors. The most important point is that the conditions for registering an accident in a simplified manner must be met. Namely:

1. As a result of the accident, only cars were damaged (not other property, animals or people),
2. both drivers have valid MTPL insurance,
3. there are disagreements about the circumstances of what happened or not (the payment limit depends on this).

If all three points are met, then you can safely begin filling out the accident notification (European protocol) and agree with the employees’ refusal to arrive at the scene of the accident.

Procedure for reporting an accident

There are two ways to file a traffic accident:

1. Call the traffic police. This option is the default. Having arrived at the scene of the accident, the inspector draws up a protocol and prepares related documentation.
2. Draw up a European protocol. This document is drawn up by the participants in the traffic accident themselves. In this case, there is no need to call inspectors. You can draw up a European protocol for minor accidents in which no more than two cars were injured.

Regardless of the situation, the motorist is obliged to initiate the procedure for registering an accident. Otherwise, he will be subject to additional liability for leaving the scene of an accident. For such actions, the culprit may be fined or deprived of his driving license for up to two years.

Registration of an accident is important not only for the culprit, but also for the victim. Without the appropriate documents, the victim will not be able to receive compensation from the insurer. In this case, he may demand compensation from the person responsible for the accident.

We handle the accident yourself

Drawing up a European protocol is possible subject to the following conditions:

1. Only vehicles were damaged in the collision. There was no damage to the health of drivers, passengers or pedestrians.
2. The culprit admitted guilt.
3. There are no disagreements between the participants in the accident.
4. The damage from the collision is minimal (does not exceed 50 thousand rubles).
5. Both participants in the accident have valid MTPL policies.

If the culprit or victim has a CASCO policy, then calling traffic police to the scene of the incident is a prerequisite. Otherwise, the injured party will not receive insurance payments.

Calling the traffic police

If at least one of the above requirements cannot be met, then it will not be possible to draw up a European protocol. The traffic police will have to be called to the scene of the incident in the following cases:

• people were injured in the accident;
• the culprit does not admit his guilt;
• the amount of damage caused exceeded 50 thousand rubles;
• the culprit left the scene of the accident;
• the participants in the accident have disagreements;
• Both participants are to blame for the accident;
• the accident occurred for reasons beyond the control of motorists (for example, poor road surface condition, ice, bad weather conditions).

Often, those involved in an accident have to wait for hours for the traffic police to arrive. In such situations, not only the owners of the colliding cars suffer, but also other motorists, because significant traffic jams can form due to road accidents.

What to do if you need to register with the traffic police, but they refuse?

If the conditions listed above are not met for your situation, then you will again have to call the traffic police and persistently demand registration by inspectors. In this case, you need to call 102, the duty station. There, all conversations are recorded, and in the event of a dispute or your complaints in the future, they can be listened to.

Alas, you will most likely have to explain to the police why you insist on having the accident registered by inspectors. Here it is important to know that for this it is enough to refuse to register under the European protocol from one of the drivers. This is directly stated in paragraph 285 of the Administrative Regulations of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate.

The grounds for refusal of notification may be the following:

1. doubts about the authenticity of the MTPL policy of the second driver (you are not obliged to check its availability after an accident),
2. According to the driver, the damage from the accident may exceed the established compensation limit,
3. there are clearly hidden damages, the cost of which cannot be determined,
4. drivers do not have notice forms to fill out,
5. disagreements between drivers regarding the circumstances of the accident, provided that the damage is more than 100,000 rubles.

Important note!

• This article describes the basic principles of how legislation works. Meanwhile, in judicial practice everything depends on specific circumstances.
• In 96% of all cases there are subtleties that can affect the outcome of the entire case.
• Therefore, we recommend entrusting the matter to professionals who will study your business and select the right winning strategy.

The TonkostiDTP website employs professional road accident lawyers with experience in all major types of disputes (MTPL, guilt, administrative penalties).

Ask a lawyer

or get a free consultation by calling the hotline: 8.

What to do after calling the traffic police

While waiting for the traffic police to arrive, motorists can spend time usefully. We are talking about helping victims, recording the scene of an accident in photos and videos, filling out notices, etc.

Fill out the notice

An accident notification form is issued to the driver when purchasing an MTPL policy. This document consists of two sheets stapled together. Having had an accident, the motorist must fill out the front part of the document with a regular ballpoint pen. In this case, you will get two copies of the document, because the second sheet is self-copying.

It is important to fill out the notice in legible handwriting and include current information. Otherwise, the victim will not receive compensation. You should also fill out all points of the document.

Having arrived at the scene of the accident, the traffic police inspector will not fill out a notification about the accident. Therefore, the participants in the accident need to draw up this document themselves. The inspector's responsibilities include filling out the following papers:

• protocol on the offense;
• certificate of accident;
• decision to prosecute.

Are witnesses required?

Road traffic accidents rarely occur without witnesses. To dot the i's, those involved in the accident must bring witnesses to the case. Testimony from eyewitnesses will provide an overall picture of what happened and speed up the consideration of the case.

In Europe, a witness can call the police themselves to report an accident. In the Russian Federation there are practically no such caring citizens. Therefore, in most cases, witnesses have to be persuaded to testify. Often the decisive argument in such situations is reward.

While searching for witnesses, it would be a good idea to pay attention to the cars parked nearby. Surely one of them has a video recorder that recorded the accident. Such video recordings will be useful if the case goes to court.

Photographing the accident scene

While waiting for the traffic police to arrive, the motorist can take a photograph of the scene of the incident. It is advisable to take detailed photos using different angles. It is also important to take pictures of the damage your vehicle sustained as a result of the accident.

When taking photos, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. In addition to close-ups, there must be general plans, because objects should be photographed in a location-specific manner.
2. It is necessary to take clear photographs in which the relationship of objects will be clear.
3. If a motorist cannot take good photos of the accident, then it is better to abandon this idea. Bad photos can have the opposite effect. If the insurer suspects fraudulent activity, it may refuse to provide insurance payment.
4. When photographing an accident on a smartphone, you must enable geolocation. Then the pictures will indicate the place where the photography was taken.

Help for victims

Having become the culprit of an accident, the driver is obliged to immediately leave the vehicle and make sure that no one was injured in the accident. If there are victims, the following must be done:

• perform a first aid;
• call a medical team.

If one of the victims is in serious condition, the culprit can leave the scene of the accident to take him to the hospital in his own car. This is possible only in emergency cases. Once freed, the motorist must immediately return to the scene of the accident.

If there are victims, the participants in the accident cannot draw up a European protocol.

Should we wait for inspectors or go ourselves?

According to the traffic rules, in 2021 there are 2 scenarios for the development of events, even if the police agree to register the incident:

• traffic police officers will refuse to come to an accident, but will force you to come to the department yourself, having first drawn up an accident diagram (more on this below),
• inspectors will go to the scene of the accident themselves - this is a classic scenario.

A police officer, namely the duty officer, will indicate specific actions to you. It is his responsibility to interview drivers, find out the circumstances of the accident and make decisions on how, where and who to send.

If there are no available inspectors near you, the duty officer will direct you to go to the nearest post or the nearest branch and register there.

However, in order to leave the scene of an accident, you must first record its circumstances:

• the position of the cars relative to each other,
• stationary objects around,
• footprints,
• objects and fragments,
• car damage.

If your goal is to register at the scene of the accident, then pointing out that you do not have any technical means, just as you do not have a blank sheet of paper along with a pen (so that you cannot draw up a diagram of the accident) will help you achieve your goal.

In this case, the duty officer is obliged to decide to send an inspector to you, but no one can say how long it will take for him to arrive. Maybe quickly, or maybe in a few hours. And the last option in practice in 2021, indeed, takes place as a kind of revenge for your refusal to register without the police.

How to speed up the arrival time of the traffic police?

First of all, we need to avoid issuing a European protocol and instructions by phone to come to the department for registration. We indicated one way to do this above.

But there are still ways that will help you not only convince employees to come to the scene of the accident, but also speed up the arrival time. Moreover, they do not depend on whether the case is happening in Moscow or in small towns and on the highway.

• tell the traffic police when you call that it seems to you that the second participant in the accident is intoxicated - this is like the command “Fas” to the employees, and they will rush to come, since they also understand that over time the concentration of alcohol in the blood decreases,
• indicate that there were victims in the accident - your shoulder or knee hurts; At the same time, it is not necessary to call an ambulance, but it is better to indicate that you will now call a medical institution - if there is harm to health in an accident, it will only be processed on the spot.

We also strongly recommend reading our articles on further actions upon arrival of employees:

• How to register an accident according to the new rules: with a European protocol, without the traffic police or with employees?
• And instead of traffic police officers, emergency commissioners may come - this is dangerous