The officers that arrive at the scene of an accident are human. All the involved drivers are human. As humans, each of them can make a mistake. Any mistake could allow introduction of incorrect information in the police report.
Facts included in a police report
Information on the involved vehicles: the make and year of each vehicle; the color of the vehicle; the number on the vehicle’s license plate.
• The names of the drivers; the contact information for all involved drivers.
• Details on the car insurance coverage for each driver.
• The accident’s location
• The weather conditions at the time of the accident.
• The road conditions at that some point in time.
• Information on any traffic signals or road signage in the area of the collision.
• Witness statements
• The names and contact information for each witness
Actions to take if report contains incorrect information
Obtain document that offers proof of the correct information. Show that document to the law enforcement agency that sent officers to the site of the reported collision. Completion of that action allows the enforcement agency to include the correct information in an addendum, which gets attached to the report.
The agency has a legal right to attach such an addendum. It is not legally bound to arrange for such an attachment. The same rule applies to any correction of statements that have been reported by the officers that came to the scene of the collision.
Actions to take if report contains misquoted statements
• Write your own version of the correct statement. Get a copy of what you have written; save that copy.
• Write an explanation of the changes; call attention to the questionable veracity of the reported statement.
• Take what you have written and give it to the law enforcement agency that sent offices to the collision site.
As per Personal Injury Lawyer in Mississauga, sometimes officers do a decent job of recording the words that they heard, but they might miss a part of a witness’ statement. The method to use for adding the missing parts of a statement is the same as the one used for correct a misquoted statement. Call attention to the fact that the reported statement’s meaning changes, following the addition of the missing words or phrases.
How do insurance companies treat the addition of an addendum to a police report?
Insurance companies are not under any legal obligation to consider the facts and statements that were reported by the officers that came to the site of the collision. Each insurer gives a different amount of attention to that particular source of information. Consequently, no two insurers should be expected to treat an added addendum in the same way.
