Unfortunately this dreadful often happens. Collision with a pedestrian is a dreadful event. In the US annually more 15 percent of all injured in road accidents are pedestrians and 21 percent of these cases are fatalities. What to do if this has happened to you? What is required from you by this terrible situation?
Your Obligations at Real Traffic Accident
You are obliged to stop the car firs of all. Never try to disappear from the place of the accident, remain there for some time. You should provide your name and address when asked. If you are not the owner of the car you should provide also the name and the address of the person to whom the vehicle belongs and the registration number of this vehicle. If in some reason, you didn’t provide this information to any person involved in the accident directly or indirectly, you must inform the police of what has happened within 24 hours.
If the police officer or other person involved into the accident asks you to show your insurance certificate, you must produce it immediately. If in some reason you can’t do this you should produce the document to the police officer within a week. In the event of an accident with a pedestrian as well as in case of any other road accident you should inform you insurance company of what has happened as soon as possible.
Claims for Accident Compensation
The victim of the accident has right to sue a guilty side for compensation. The bill should be covered by the insurance company normally and the claim itself is to be settled out of the court. However, when the situation is not clear enough or there are disputes, the case is sent to the court.
If you consider the pedestrian to be guilty or as the result of the accidents you have to carry out an expensive repair, you also have right to claim for compensation. You should keep in mind that very often pedestrians are not insured for situations of this kind. This means that a pedestrian involved in an accident has to pay himself and it is possible that he or she just does not have enough money to satisfy the claim.
Road Traffic Accident – Thinking Ahead
If you think that the accident that has happened can later cause some disputes you should immediately after the accident collect the names and addressed of the witnesses. Remember that you can’t demand for this information from them. It is up to them to provide you with it or not. This information is necessary in order you can use these people’s testimonies in the event the case will go to the court.
On you returning home, write the account of all the events while you still remember everything well. Keep in mind, that if the other party is guilty this does not mean that it is to pay you the compensation immediately. According to the legislation this can be done within following 3 years.
Hopefully such situation as accident with a pedestrian will never happen to you. If you are an experienced driver you have very small chances to be involved into this nightmare. However, you should always be prepared for an unexpectedness, especially for such a serious one.