The Multi Car Shunt – Middle Vehicle, Three Car Crash

Green light, alright, shift gear sit tight, heading off at a set of traffic lights when all of a sudden the guy in front locks it up, you manage to pull up in time but the person behind you, not so lucky, hits the rear of your car and pushed you forward into the vehicle in front, commonly known in the insurance industry as a “multi car shunt” or “multi vehicle collision” these types of accidents can be quite stressful given the nature of multi car shunt accidents involving several cars the key is to just take it step by step.

First and foremost, before doing anything are you alright? When a collision occurs its not uncommon for the body to get a brief surge of adrenaline, which means, if you were to have suffered any injuries during the process of the crash, you might not actually instantaneously be aware of it, take a moment to check yourself before moving or attempting to exit the vehicle.

If MacGyver Can Do It with String, You Can Do It with a Smartphone

I think its fairly safe to say that this day and age everyone has a smartphone or some sort of smart device with them at any particular given point in time, particularly when driving for either music streaming, GPS or otherwise, when exiting the vehicle, start taking photo’s and collating the relevant information.

As you step out of your driver’s seat, take a short video as an “establishment shot” looking forward and backwards at the multi car shunt, and then straight away, take at least a dozen still frames shot in rapid succession again, looking both ways at the scene of the crash, this kind of evidence is useful because although it obviously does not show the multi car shunt itself because it happened after, what it does show, is exactly where the vehicles concluded with a high level of confidence and accuracy.

Don’t forget the basics of any motor vehicle accident by getting caught up in the moment, make sure that you take all the at fault drivers’ details.

• At Fault Drivers Licence, Front & Back
• At Fault Drivers Address
• At Fault Drivers Vehicle Registration
• At Fault Drivers Insurance Company Name
• At Fault Drivers Policy Number (If They Have It)

How to Determine Liability Without Dashcam or Witnesses

Now with multiple car shunts that only involve three people if you have dashcam, this is the best, if you don’t, your probably going to want to hope some people pull over to be good Samaritans and offer the render assistance so you can take their names as a witness, if you don’t have access to either of these, its very important to make sure that you think about how many impacts you felt in the collision and write that down so that you can be confident of your response when later talking to the not at fault car hire company and the insurance companies involved.

The reason for this, is that because if there are no witnesses, and none of the parties involved in the accident have any dashcam footage, when the insurance companies review the claim, they will take into consideration the verbal and written lodgement that all parties give, and draw a conclusion based on the majority, i.e. if you state you were hit from behind and shunted forward, and so does the driver of the vehicle in front of you, if, hypothetically the last vehicles driver was to dispute the chain of events, in the absence of additional supporting information most of the time, an insurance claims adjuster will reconcile that the version of events that shall taken to be the fact is that which is substantiated by the most written and verbal versions.

When in Doubt, Think it Out – You Can Always Call Back

This is to say, that during the application process, be it over the telephone or via an online platform, at some point someone may ask you how many impacts you felt, do not give a frivolous answer to this question, if you are unsure, don’t say “I don’t know what happened” say something like “I will need to collect my thoughts and come back to you” that way, any future statement does not sound contradictory.

• How many vehicles were there in the accident?
• How many vehicles in front of you? How many behind you?
• How many impacts do you remember feeling? One, or two?
• Were the impacts you felt from the front, or behind?
• Was the at fault driver co-operative at the time of the accident?

The Details Make All the Difference When It’s Time to Claim Car Hire  

If you take the time to gather the appropriate information at the scene of the accident it will make it a lot easier for you to collect your thoughts later when it comes time to begin talking with the insurance companies and not at fault hire car companies respectively.

Having a good grasp on what to do at the scene of an accident is important because in the chaos of the situation, you may find yourself being emotionally and mentally pulled in all sorts of different directions depending on the circumstances of the post-crash scene and realistically depending on the severity of the accident it may only be a short amount of time before police vehicle, tow trucks and ambulances start to arrive to render assistance, so as best as you can, take your photos, record your information and make sure that your prepared for the next steps.

Quite often these types of vehicles will leave your vehicle in a not roadworthy condition, which invariably will mean that your car will need to be towed from the scene of the accident, if you were not aware, when this occurs the vehicle is then taken to the towing operators facility or “yard” where it will remain until either your insurer (if you lodge) or the other parties insurer appoint an assessor, but, there is a daily storage fee for the vehicle incurred for the time it is held there, often, in excess of $250 per day which can accumulate quite quickly, so to avoid incurring these costs its essentially that you obtain the details of all other drivers involved so that all outstanding costs can be directed, either by yourself, or inquiring parties, through to the at fault driver and their insurance company.