The content of the article:
- Incident options and driver actions
- Bad weather and falling objects
- Roadbed
- Possible results of the car owner's actions
Every motorist knows how to protect his vehicle from theft, collision, illegal actions. But sometimes absolutely unpredictable events happen, like an icicle falling from a roof, a tree or a billboard during strong gusts of wind, damage from a wheel hitting an unclosed hatch on the road. In such situations, people are often lost, not understanding who to call and what can be done.
Many resign themselves to the accident, mistakenly blaming evil fate and heavenly office and dutifully handing over the car for repair. But there is no need to take all the costs on yourself, because many accidents, even weather ones, occur through the fault of irresponsible utilities, which are obliged to provide compensation to the injured motorist.
Incident options and driver actions
1. Bad weather and falling objects
In whatever place, under whatever conditions an accident occurs, the owner should never leave the scene of the accident. You should not call the traffic police, their task is to disassemble traffic situations, they are not responsible for icicles.
First of all, you should call the police or the local police officer if the car owner has his contacts. Then - to the insurance company, if a CASCO is issued for the car. Communication with the insurance company is necessary in order to find out whether there is a clause in the insurance contract regarding the falling of foreign objects on the vehicle. Whether or not the car owner receives insurance will depend on this.
The district police officer who came to the scene must document the circumstances of the case in the protocol, which is the most significant document in this proceeding. So, the location of the car is important, because in case of violation of the parking rules, it will be quite difficult to get compensation.
If the car owner has a CASCO policy, then the easiest way for him to solve the situation is to refuse to initiate an administrative offense case. Natural disasters are taken into account in any standard insurance contract, therefore, the insurance company is obliged to pay damages according to the corresponding certificate.
Based on the protocol drawn up by the precinct, eyewitness testimony, photographic materials and a statement from the owner of the car, a claim is drawn up. A competent police officer himself designates the organization-culprit. If he did not, the car owner must find out on the balance sheet of which organization is the territory or building where the incident occurred.
Most likely, it will be the management company that serves the house, or the owner / tenant in the case of a commercial building. Cleaning and maintenance of the building is their direct responsibility, so a collapsed snowdrift or icicle will be their absolute fault.
But if a tree fell on the car - this is a question for utilities. Healthy trees will not fall even under gusts of wind, which means that they poorly monitor the local area, provoking accidents.
Before filing a complaint, the owner of the car can help himself with the involvement of an independent technical expert. He will establish the time of occurrence of the damage, the cause and cost of the damage caused. In this case, careless public utilities will not be able to slowly get rid of the evidence or change their location, the whole situation will be strictly documented and assessed.
If there were warning signs near the scene of the accident or the area near the trees was prohibited for parking, the owner of the car can immediately withdraw his claim.
Expert judgment comes in handy when a tree falls, when it is not so easy to find someone to blame.
Falling icicles or blocks of ice are simple enough and the police documents will be enough to file a complaint. But a tree can be called a self-garden, which is not on the balance sheet, and therefore no man's. In addition, communal services monitor and get rid of dead wood, but they are not able to determine the latent disease and fragility of an outwardly healthy tree. What can the car owner do in this case?
On the one hand, to find witnesses to the incident who would confirm that no one contributed to the fall of the tree. You can also ask for a certificate from the city's hydrometeorological service, which will indicate the time and type of bad weather, as well as the strength of the raging wind.
If the victim is a guest in this area and it is difficult for him to find the contacts of the institution-culprit, he can contact Rosreestr for information. If no response is received from there, the car owner will have to file a lawsuit.
Judgment is the most extreme case, because in a particular situation with a falling tree, it is extremely difficult to determine its outcome. The incident can be attributed to force majeure, which is a hurricane.
The following fact is also important: if on the day of the incident, the Emergencies Ministry announced a storm warning, and the victim still parked the car near the trees, the court will definitely end not in his favor.
2. Roadbed
In Russia, roads often become the fault of absolutely everything. Sad statistics state that there are indeed many times more frankly bad roads in the country than good ones. The latest reports from Rosavtodor showed a figure of 58% of highways and roads that do not meet the requirements of highways. It is not surprising that every third accident motorists are responsible for disgusting road surface. What to do if there is no second culprit of the accident, and the damage has been done?
When damage is done to a moving vehicle, it becomes, by definition, a traffic accident. Some car enthusiasts mistake only a head-on collision with another vehicle for an accident. However, even if a tractor driver drove into the driver on a country road, the car crashed into an unlit lamp on a dark road, the tire flattened from hitting a pit - all this is an accident. And, therefore, future compensation.
Here, the first step should be to call the traffic police. This is necessary as evidence of the damage received on this particular section of the road.
Often in the process of describing the incident in the protocol, the traffic cops try to blame the driver who incorrectly assessed the traffic situation or lost control. It is important for the driver not to deviate from his testimony and carefully check the drawn up protocol for the possibility of information distortion. In this case, he is under the protection of the 2007 federal law on highways, which clearly speaks of the right to compensation to the car owner for damage due to violation of technical requirements for the maintenance of highways.
The document prescribes not only the condition of irregularities, but also all road signs, markings and fences. Any discrepancy between the realities of the road and the regulations gives the car owner the full right to receive compensation for damage from the road workers.
In the presence of CASCO, you can not waste energy, nerves and time and completely rely on the actions of the insurance company.
After receiving from a traffic police officer a competently issued certificate of an accident, the victim must send an appeal about the incident to the organization that controls the problem section of the road.
Traffic cops who arrive at the scene, as a rule, know the responsible company and will share information with the driver. After that, an application for payment of compensation is drawn up and sent by the injured party to the company responsible for the accident with a description and assessment of the damage received, as well as a proposal for voluntary compensation for losses.
The specialists in the car service with the issuance of the corresponding certificate, or an independent appraiser, will help to calculate the amount of repairs thoroughly. The collected package of documents attached to the application must contain:
- accident certificate;
- photographic materials (own and made by the police);
- testimony of witnesses (they can be passengers of the injured car, passers-by, other motorists);
- conclusions of an independent examination (if any).
Ideally, a road service employee must be present during the paperwork, which in fact happens very rarely. In this case, the traffic police officer must make a note about the call and non-appearance of the service representative.
Possible results of the car owner's actions
The result of the car owner's actions can be as follows:
- The organization responsible for the maintenance of the roads admits its guilt and pays compensation according to the conclusions of the examination.
- Refuses to admit guilt or ignores the submitted application, without giving any answer. Both options bring the parties to the prosecutor's office or directly to the courtroom.
Many citizens-motorists are accustomed to turning a blind eye to other people's mistakes. By such actions, they themselves give rise to the ever-increasing negligence of city services. Both road workers and public utilities are civilly liable for failure to comply with their immediate duties.
If a motorist has received real damage that does not depend on his own inattention, he can and must defend his rights in all instances. Moreover, you can fight for yourself both with the involvement of a competent lawyer, and independently, using very competent legal Internet services.
