Certificate of road accident for insurance in Form 154 – a previously issued document that was used to receive insurance payment. With the help of this certificate, the fact of an accident, which is required to receive an insurance payment, was recorded and subsequently confirmed.
Today, this form is not used and the certificate is not issued, so we can say that it is irrelevant. The insurance company will not require such a certificate; other documents are used instead. The information below is for informational purposes only and cannot be used as instructions.
Why do you need a certificate?
The previously issued certificate was a special document that officially recorded the fact of the accident. Since the document was formalized, it was necessarily compiled according to established requirements and rules. The main documents that regulated the drafting procedure were: methodological recommendations, as well as administrative regulations.
Compliance with the established requirements was mandatory, since violations of the rules could become grounds for refusal to provide insurance benefits. The certificate was drawn up right on the spot and was issued after completion to all interested parties.
ATTENTION !!! Previously, the certificate was used to receive insurance payment in the organization. There have always been difficulties in receiving payments, since insurers try their best not to provide compensation. For this reason, there was practically no chance of compensation for harm without a certificate issued in the prescribed manner.
To receive the payment, the driver had to complete the following steps:
- register the accident in the prescribed manner, collect the necessary documents;
- receive from a traffic police officer a certificate drawn up in a special form, which will be the main evidence of the fact that an accident occurred. In this case, it is important to check the consistency of the real data and the completed certificate, since a discrepancy would result in the invalidity of the document. If there were discrepancies, it was necessary to contact the employee with a request to eliminate the inaccuracies;
- After collecting all the required documents, the insurance company was contacted. Further actions are not much different from those that should be performed today. The documents must be submitted to the insurance company of the person at fault.
It is worth noting that there are no special deadlines for contacting an insurance company by law, so general civil deadlines apply. If there are good reasons, you can expect to receive payment within 3 years, and the time of submission of documents does not matter. In certain cases, restoration of the missed deadline is allowed.
IMPORTANT !!! Today, traffic police officers do not draw up certificates of this type; in addition, they are not issued at all. This provision has been repealed and no longer applies. This means that in order to receive payment from the insurance company, you do not need to confirm the fact of an accident by providing such a certificate. The insurance company cannot refuse on the basis of its absence. Any such actions are illegal and can be appealed in court.
Why provide a certificate of an accident to the insurance company?
A certificate of a traffic accident must be included in the main list of documents that the participant in the accident must collect and submit to the insurance company; without this, compensation under compulsory motor liability insurance cannot be received. Exceptions when insurance payment can be received without a certificate of an accident will be the following conditions:
- only 2 cars were involved in the accident, and each has a valid MTPL policy;
- the result of the accident is only mechanical damage to vehicles (there is no damage to the health of the participants in the accident);
- There are no disagreements between the participants in the accident regarding the circumstances of the accident and the identification of the person at fault.
In other cases, the traffic police inspector is obliged to fill out and submit a certificate of an accident based on order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation No. 154.
Attention! If police officers, for biased reasons (for example, they say that there are no forms) refer to the impossibility of issuing a certificate, then such actions are considered illegal. Therefore, a participant in an accident has the right to file a complaint against the official who refused to issue him a document to his superior officer in the traffic police, or to contact the prosecutor’s office.
After filling out all the points on the certificate, one copy remains with the traffic police officer and the other is given to the participant in the accident.
Requirements for the certificate
The certificate was used as an official document, so it must be compiled in accordance with established norms and rules. Even the slightest violation of the order could become grounds for refusing to provide insurance benefits to the driver. It could be very difficult to prove that you were right in the future.
The certificate was drawn up on a special form in the prescribed form. The filling form was always standard and it was enough to just enter the required information.
According to the established rules, the certificate should contain the following information:
- information about the accident that occurred, where, when and under what circumstances it happened. Information should always be detailed so that the insurer receives the maximum picture of what happened;
- information about the accident site. The address is indicated, and, if not possible, terrain features or other landmarks. In some cases, information received from GLONASS may be used;
- information about all drivers who were directly involved in the accident. Information is entered on the basis of documents: driver’s license, compulsory motor liability insurance policy and others;
- information about cars, which are also entered on the basis of existing registration documents;
- qualification of the offense committed due to which the accident occurred;
- the degree of damage caused, harm to human health. Since it can be problematic to assess this on the spot, approximate information is entered, however, it is always necessary to proceed from real objective signs, since obvious discrepancies may lead to the recognition of the document as invalid by the insurance company;
- other information that is relevant to the incident, if it was not possible to include it in the main points.
The recommendation contained instructions that suggested filling out the document in block letters to make it easier to parse in the future. This requirement was not mandatory, but nevertheless it seriously simplified the process in the future.
Road accident certificate form: sample filling
Despite the fact that the duties of a participant in an accident do not include issuing certificate No. 154, because This procedure rests entirely with the police officer who is investigating the car accident. But if you have at least the slightest idea of what it looks like and what should be indicated in it, this will help in the event of an accident to avoid problems related to incorrect or incorrect filling out.
So, the main point is that the certificate must be issued on a special form, form No. 154, where there must be a corner stamp of the traffic police department ( required ). You can familiarize yourself with the form by downloading it from our website using the link below.
The road accident certificate must contain the following information:
- date and time of the traffic accident, as well as the number of participants and circumstances of the accident;
- information about the coordinates of the scene of the incident (filled in based on data obtained using GLONASS or GLONASS/GPS navigation equipment);
- information about the participants in the accident (series and number of driver’s license, as well as compulsory motor liability insurance policies);
- information about cars (registration number, VIN, make and model of the vehicle) involved in an accident (this data is taken from the title or from the vehicle registration certificate);
- if one of the participants was sent for a medical examination, then its result must be indicated;
- information about the presence or absence of an offense in a criminal or administrative case;
- inventory of damage caused to the vehicle as a result of an accident.
The inspector who prepared it must sign the certificate of accident; check whether he indicated his position, full name and rank. If people were injured as a result of the accident, then in addition to the certificate itself, the police officer must fill out an additional application (attached to the certificate), which states the following:
- information about the victims (full name, passport details if available), if the identity has not been established, then there should be a note about this;
- which of the participants was injured (driver, pedestrian or passenger);
- data on calling an ambulance and the degree of damage caused to the health of the participant in the accident.
Getting help
This certificate was always drawn up at the scene of the accident and was issued to the participants in the accident immediately. There was no need to go to the traffic police post and wait for a long time. Before issuing, the certificate was checked to avoid errors that could make it difficult to receive payment in the future.
Despite the ease of obtaining, it was impossible to delay the time of document registration, so in any case, the participants in the accident had to wait until the moment of final registration. Postponement of the time of issue was allowed only if there were good reasons. For example, when people were injured or killed as a result of an accident.
ATTENTION !!! After the certificate was issued, it was valid for 3 years and you could receive an insurance payment at any time.
It was extremely important to check the certificate before receiving it. The presence of inaccuracies was not allowed, so the authorized person was obliged to correct them at the first request of the driver. In practice, situations often occurred when inspectors suggested not paying attention to minor errors. Such actions subsequently created significant troubles primarily for drivers.
When a certificate is not needed
The execution of the document was not mandatory in all cases. Already at that time, there were ways to simplify the registration of an accident. The main one is the European protocol, which is still in force today, but is becoming increasingly widespread. Its key feature is that there is no need to call traffic police officers and wait for registration.
Drivers can independently agree and record the fact of the accident on a special form. Despite the simplified procedure, this method cannot be used in all cases. For example, there should be no casualties in the accident, the collision caused damage only to property, and the amount of damage does not exceed the established maximum amount. Throughout this time, the amount of this amount has changed and increased several times in order to make the procedure accessible to a large number of drivers.
Thus, the certificate did not need to be obtained if the following conditions were met:
- there is no reason to call the traffic police;
- drivers were able to negotiate on their own;
- both parties have an MTPL policy.
IMPORTANT !!! In this case, the registration consists of filling out the form according to a simplified scheme. It is accompanied by photographs from the scene of the incident, as well as a rough diagram of the accident. At the request of the parties, the list of materials from the scene of the incident may be increased. The injured party contacts the culprit's insurance company, which must make compensation.
It is important that the protocol is drawn up in accordance with all the rules, since without this the insurance company has every right to refuse to provide compensation.
When is the certificate issued?
The likelihood of the victim receiving insurance compensation from the insurer directly depends on compliance with all formalities established by law. In any situation, the driver should not be afraid to defend his civil rights, because if he is given an incomplete package of documents or some of the papers are filled out incorrectly, in the future he will have to spend a lot of time re-issuing them.
Situations when a traffic inspector has the right not to issue a certificate of an accident are also provided for by law. However, in accordance with the requirements of the regulations, refusal to issue a certificate of form 154 is possible only if there are compelling reasons:
- The traffic police officer must immediately leave the scene of the traffic accident in order to respond to a new accident.
- If there is a need to provide urgent assistance to injured persons.
- If it is necessary to evacuate emergency vehicles from the scene of a traffic accident.
However, even in these cases, the driver has the right to receive a certificate in form 154 within 24 hours from the date of registration of the accident. By law, a traffic inspector must inform all interested parties of the place and time when they can apply for these documents.
Receive payment today
Since the certificate in question has been cancelled, insurance companies cannot require it as proof of the fact of the accident. However, a new form has been introduced that has a similar purpose. In addition, there are other ways to confirm that an accident has occurred.
Today, when contacting an insurance company, you need to have:
- a notification of an accident, which is also issued on the spot and signed by a traffic police officer. A special feature of this document is the possibility of declaring oneself innocent by indicating this directly in the text;
- a copy of the administrative violation protocol. There are practically no accidents without violation of traffic rules, so a report is always drawn up against the guilty person, or a resolution is issued. Instead of a protocol or resolution, decisions to refuse to initiate a case or other procedural documents may be provided.
IMPORTANT !!! As before, there is a simplified form of registration, when traffic police officers are not called to the scene, and drivers negotiate on their own. In this case, it is enough to provide a correctly drawn up European protocol, on the basis of which the payment will be made.
Despite the abolition of the form in question, the general procedure for receiving payment from the insurance company has remained virtually unchanged. Only a few formal documents have changed, but every driver must be aware of this in order to avoid possible troubles.
What to do next
The driver must submit all documents required for CASCO payments to the insurance company within 5-14 days after the incident. If additional time is required to collect certificates, this point is discussed individually with the insurer.
The submitted package of documentation must have an inventory on which the company’s receipt stamp is placed. One copy of the list remains with the insurer, and the second is given to the driver. After checking all the certificates, the company will decide to pay compensation under CASCO or give a negative answer. In the first case, the car owner will have money credited to his bank card or current account within 20 days. Some insurers transfer funds to the accounts of car repair shops (if this nuance is reflected in the car insurance contract) of cars damaged in accidents.
Attention! If the insurance company refuses an application for CASCO without a certificate from the traffic police, but with a document from the local police officer, then the owner of the car can go to court to resolve the issue with the participation of representatives of Themis.
