- November 6, 2018
- Documentation
- Ekaterina Komisarova
According to Russian law, drivers do not have the right to drive without insurance. But this is good, because if you get into an accident, you can receive monetary compensation. However, for an insured event to be considered as such, you need a certificate from the traffic police about the accident. As practice shows, getting it is quite problematic and most motorists have problems with it. To make life easier for many people, this article will talk in detail about what this document is, why it is needed and how to get it.
general information
As such, there is no certificate from the traffic police about an accident for comprehensive insurance. There is a document numbered 154, officially approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is drawn up at the scene of a car accident, but it has a completely different name. This certificate is required to be provided to insurance companies in order to prove your own non-involvement in a traffic accident. The document is drawn up on site by traffic police officers. It is worth noting that if a European standard protocol is drawn up regarding the incident, then the driver does not need to provide anything additional. But as practice shows, in most cases, in order to receive insurance payment, a certificate from the traffic police about an accident is required. Therefore, you must have a detailed idea of how to arrange it. If you do not have it in your hands, then you will not be able to prove to the Investigative Committee that you were not involved in the accident, and, therefore, you will not be able to receive any compensation.
The insurance company asks for a certificate of an accident in form No. 154 - what is it?
The legislation on compulsory motor liability insurance works quite clearly and logically:
- if you intend to take advantage of your policy (or the culprit), then by law you are required to submit a certain set of documents to the insurer,
- at the same time, some of these documents are issued only by the traffic police - their officially certified copies,
- and if some papers are not in the required set (for example, a certificate of an accident), then the insurance company is obliged to inform you about this (within 3 working days if you sent them by mail, or immediately if submitted in person),
- but in any case, the company has no right to demand from you anything that is not provided for in the Insurance Rules.
Everything here seems to be logical - the insurer needs a certificate of an accident to correctly calculate the insurance payment under compulsory motor liability insurance, as well as to avoid fraudulent schemes. It can be safely called the most important document among others, since it reflects the most basic circumstances before and after the accident, including its conditions and damage to cars. And it is not written by the participants in the incident themselves, but the certificate is issued by a traffic police officer
But let's take a step-by-step look at what the certificate on form No. 154 about an accident has to do with it, and how to get it in 2021!
So, in the legislation there previously existed Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 185, paragraph 214 of which defines the rules for traffic police officers to go to the scene of a traffic accident. In particular, it says here (the last sentence of paragraph 214) that all participants in an accident should be issued a certificate of an accident in the form approved by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 154.
And Order No. 154 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself actually approves such a certificate as such, and also provides its official form.
What does the sample look like?
The sample certificate itself is an appendix to the specified regulatory legal act. You can download it and watch it using this link.
Issue date
Let's look at this in more detail. A certificate from the traffic police about an accident is issued by law enforcement officers at the scene of the accident. The exception is situations in which drawing up a document is impossible.
Among the main ones are the following:
- traffic police officers were urgently called on other matters;
- Vehicles damaged in a collision must be towed to another location for safety reasons.
If any of the above situations arise, filling out the protocol may be canceled, as a result of which the driver will not receive any certificate. Thus, if the culprit of the accident is another person and you want to receive compensation for losses, you will have to run a little around the relevant authorities. It is necessary to understand that a certificate of accident from the traffic police must be issued within 24 hours, otherwise the insured event will not be considered as such. Therefore, in order to avoid problems in the future, it is best to check with the inspector where and when you can receive the document.
If you could not personally attend the registration, for example, due to hospitalization, then in this case you should contact the police department, whose officers were present at the scene of the incident. There you will be given all the necessary papers and you can provide them to the insurance company. In this case, you have 3 years from the date of the traffic accident to obtain a certificate. But despite this, it is better not to delay for too long, but to complete the documents as early as possible.
What document from the traffic police is now needed to pay for CASCO insurance?
In accordance with the laws of the country, CASCO insurance is issued voluntarily. Insurance parameters are selected by the policyholder and can subsequently be changed due to changes in the traffic police regulations. If an accident occurs, the injured participant is recommended to contact the traffic police for a copy of the documentation on opening an administrative case against the initiator of the accident.
If administrative proceedings have not been initiated against the initiator of the collision, then the victim needs to obtain a certificate of refusal. Next, the citizen can go to court.
If the participants in the accident have filled out the Europrotocol, then the further actions of the victim to obtain compensation under CASCO are similar to the procedure for receiving compensation under OSAGO. The victim needs to prepare a complete package of documentation for the insurance company and provide it along with the notification of the accident.
Registration process
So what do you need to know about this? As mentioned earlier, a certificate from the traffic police about an accident for the insurance company (a sample can be seen in the photo below) is filled out by law enforcement officers at the scene of the accident. The document is very simple and does not require much time to fill out, so in most cases there are no special problems with obtaining it. However, if for some reason you need to issue Certificate No. 152, then you should have an idea of how this process occurs. Next, it will be described in detail, so you can safely follow the instructions provided.
○ Who issues, rules of compilation, order of issuance.
The methodological recommendations indicate that the registration of the certificate should be carried out by a traffic police officer, whose responsibilities include processing documents about an accident. For this purpose, he should always have enough certificate forms with a stamp affixed in the upper left corner, without which the document will be considered invalid.
After an accident has occurred, the participants call the traffic police squad and, after their arrival, complete all documents related to the accident on the spot. Filling out the certificate is usually carried out at the nearest traffic police department, or on site. After all the necessary information is entered into the columns, car owners put their signatures.
Further, the certificate is issued to the participants in the accident and to the streets who were affected by the accident, but are not the owners of the car (did not drive the car). This is necessary so that they can receive payments in connection with harm caused to their life and health.
If the participants in the accident do not have any documents (for example, a driver’s license, compulsory motor liability insurance policy, etc.), a protocol is drawn up in relation to it, and a certificate is issued later, upon provision of the necessary papers, if available.
If citizens decide to do without calling traffic police officers when committing an accident, but to draw up a European protocol, then they must subsequently arrive at the nearest traffic police department and issue a certificate there.
Please note that emergency commissioners who go to the scene of an accident when their parties cause an accident do not have the authority to fill out Certificate 154.
The certificate is filled out with a ballpoint pen in legible handwriting and must contain information about all participants in the accident, the circumstances of its occurrence and clarification of who exactly was at fault, including information about damage to the cars.
Application design
As mentioned above, a certificate from the traffic police about an accident must be supported by accompanying documents. This is especially true in cases where there are more than two participants in the accident. In this case, the inspector must fill out the attachments on additional sheets and attach them to the main document. In this case, the form indicates the exact number of additional sheets.
Applications must contain information about the affected person and his confidential data. If it is not possible to establish the identity, then this should also be displayed. But, as practice shows, there is no particular point in such actions, since the standard form is designed for four people, so it is quite enough for most cases.
The traffic police did not issue me a certificate after the accident - but should they have?
You noticed that above we wrote about the rules for issuing this document in the past tense. And this is not without reason! The fact is that the above Order No. 185 has lost its force.
How to ultimately get a certificate of an accident in 2021 from a traffic police officer? Thus, no way. In fact, the obligation to issue it to officials of the State Traffic Inspectorate was cancelled.
This obligation was canceled back in 2021 (Appendix No. 2), when a new document came into force, replacing the one under number 185. New Order No. 664 contains amended rules for conducting administrative procedures by traffic police officers, at the same time, for road traffic Nowadays, traffic police do not issue a certificate of accident.
What to do if the certificate is refused?
Such situations arise extremely rarely, since all documents related to car accidents are filled out and issued to drivers immediately on the spot upon recording the incident. But if one of the parties was seriously injured and was hospitalized, then she simply does not have the opportunity to receive a certificate immediately. In this case, you need to contact the traffic police department, where they must issue you a document. Any attempts to prevent this are considered illegal, so if you are denied a certificate, you can contact higher authorities. Inspectors are well aware of all the consequences of such complaints, therefore, as a rule, they provide citizens with all the necessary documents without any problems. In general, try to drive carefully so as not to get into an accident. Not only the condition of the car, but also the lives of the people around you depend on your caution, so do not exceed the speed limit and follow the traffic rules.
Is it possible to get a document if you didn’t call the traffic police?
If traffic police officers did not register the collision, then they will not issue you a certificate about it. In cases provided for by law (when there are no victims and there are disagreements among the participants about the circumstances of the incident), you do not have to call the traffic police, but come to the nearest department yourself, and all the documents will be drawn up for you there.
If the drivers involved in an accident drove away without recording the incident, or filled out the Europrotocol, but then decided to still register the collision with the traffic police, they should come together to the police station and register the accident there, pretending as if it had just happened.
You shouldn’t be cunning and try to get a certificate in an illegal way, for example, by staging an accident with an escaped culprit (this is sometimes done by car owners who have a comprehensive insurance policy, who are trying to get money both from their opponent privately and under a comprehensive insurance policy, for which they need a document from the traffic police).
In such a situation, the sly person not only frames the second driver by slandering him about the cover-up (a criminal article, by the way), but also runs the risk of losing his license for leaving the scene of an accident, because in fact it took place.
What do you need to remember?
So, if you are in a car accident, then, first of all, you need to call the traffic police.
If there are victims, they must be called. If the accident is not serious, then you need to draw up a Europrotocol and document the damage in a photo.
Is notification of an accident required if there is a certificate of accident? Yes, in the presence of two witnesses, the arriving inspector must draw up both an accident inspection report and a certificate of the accident.
The certificate is filled out in two copies, each of which must have a corner wet stamp certified by an authorized traffic police inspector. A copy of the accident certificate is taken by the inspector to the traffic police department.
Is a stamp required on a road accident certificate? A stamp is a mandatory element of a correctly completed certificate, since it confirms its authenticity.
The insurance company has the right to refuse to review documents if the facts are not authentic. As a result, insurance payments will not be made either under MTPL or CASCO.
That is why, when issuing a certificate of an accident, the driver should pay special attention to the presence of all stamps.
It is also worth noting that changes to the form are allowed only until it is certified with a seal.
If after a while it turns out that the inspector made mistakes in the certificate regarding the time, place and circumstances of the accident, or he did not include all the damage, then it is allowed to make changes certified by the traffic police inspector.
Otherwise, you will have to conduct an independent examination, the conclusion of which will be attached to the certificate.
For example, if at night the inspector did not notice all the damage received, and in the morning other damage was discovered during the diagnostics, then in order to receive full rather than partial compensation, all corrections must be made.
Underwater rocks
After the introduction of the new form 154, a clause called “Possible hidden damage” appeared in it; they indicate an early accident rate of your car. According to insurance companies, it does not in any way affect the amount of insurance payment. However, in practice it was noticed that there is still a connection.
There are also problems with clarifying exact coordinates; the old certificate did not require such accuracy, and installing GLONASS is expensive.
The main problem of the new certificate 154 format at first was the lack of wet printing. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, therefore, wanted to make life easier for car owners by saving them from standing in queues. But it turned out that insurance companies refused to accept documents that were not sealed, but this problem practically does not arise now.
