After a vehicle accident, you have a legal requirement to notify the police immediately about the accident by phoning the police. If it is a minor accident, the police may give you a police file number over the phone or ask you to come into the police office to report. If the accident is more serious, the police attend the accident scene.
Ideally, you are supposed to contact ICBC dial-a-claim center within 24 hours of Vehicle accident in order to report the accident. The representative at ICBC will ask for general insurance information, vehicle information and driver/owner information. The representative will also ask for details of the accident and whether you suffered an injury in the accident.
The representative will ask for the following information:
Your vehicle license plate number;
The driver’s license number of the person driving your vehicle;
The license plate and driver’s license numbers of the other vehicle (s) involved in the accident;
When the accident happened;
Where the accident happened.
To be safe, you need to report to the police and to ICBC within 24 hours of the accident, regardless of the accident type.
With the exception of Hit and Run claims and claims involving an injury, ICBC offers you the convenience of reporting a claim 24 hours a day online. An ICBC adjuster will process the claim within 24 hours and post an online claim report notice, which you must retrieve. You can also make the claim on-line at www.icbc.com.
A word of caution. The dial-a-claim representative you talk to is filling out a CL-75 form with the information you provide so the form can be given to the handling adjuster at ICBC.
ICBC may use the information in the form against you on a liability determination, to find you in breach of your contract of insurance, to claim you sustained no injury, etc…
Therefore, be as complete and accurate as possible.
The contacts for the ICBC’s Dial-a-Claim Centre are:
604-520-8222 in the Lower Mainland
1-800-910-4222 outside the Lower Mainland
1-800-910-4222 from out of province