The real cost of a crash

No one wants to have a collision with another vehicle, yet still people continue to make mistakes while driving and this can lead to a crash.

It’s not until there is an incident that we realise the full cost of having a crash. We all take out insurance to cover such events as we know it could literally happen to anyone. If we could be assured, we would never be involved in any kind of incident then we simply wouldn’t need insurance.

When we consider the cost of a crash we need to break it down into two categories, 1) an at fault crash or 2) a not at fault crash. Nearly everyone knows that category one is going to be costly to deal with. Obviously, you have the excess you will need to pay to the insurance company to cover the damage to not only your vehicle, but also the vehicle you damaged as well.

But there are hidden costs too, things like the inconvenience of having to repair or replace your vehicle, the need to possibly hire a vehicle to get around while your vehicle is repaired. Then if you have a specialised or modified work vehicle there will be delays in the accessories that are fitted.

Sometimes work vehicles are kitted out specially for the work they do, and this can result in a time delay to make the modifications. Some vehicles even require certification under the VSCCS modified vehicle scheme and that can delay the process even further.

Back on June 8th this year our enclosed box trailer was parked in the street when out of the blue a work Ute ploughed into it, this caused significant damage to the chassis and bent the axle slightly. The young driver going home from work was blinded by the sun directly in his eyes and instead of slowing down he drove on and into our trailer. Luckily the driver wasn’t injured and after we rendered assistance and swapped details, we were left to clean up the mess.

Their insurer took some 5 weeks to process the claim, and eventually around July 23rd nearly 2 months later they assessed the trailer and declared it a write off. But not before I had to take it across town to a trailer specialist to look at it and declared it unrepairable.

Their assessor viewed the trailer and agreed, they then gave a payout figure and paid us out, but the trailer was now a statutory write-off. Meaning it can never be repaired and driven on the road again. They had a scrapper offer a measly $300 for the trailer and even though it wasn’t driveable it was still useful to us. So, we opted to keep it and had it flatbed towed to Sydney Dragway where we facilitate our Defensive Driving Program each month.

The old trailer is now and on-site storage unit that we can still utilise, and we are thankful to our friends at the Dragway for agreeing to this.

This meant we needed a replacement trailer for the work we do at Tafe Quakers hill, including vehicle testing for engineers and our Advanced Driving Program.

Working with the trailer builder we managed to order and customise a new box trailer that has racking for our cones, chairs and pop-up tents. This cost an additional $3000 above what the payout of the old trailer was. We also had to wait for it to be built and this took around 8 weeks, with the new trailer arriving on the 10th of September, literally 3 months to the day after the initial crash. Not an insignificant amount of time.

Then we had to fit out a whole new trailer with traffic cones, tents, whiteboard, fire extinguishers, signage and other items we use for training. This added to the outlay of around another $2000.

When you add up the overall cost of something as simple as a trailer involved in a crash that wasn’t our fault, including time lost, it really hits home the true cost of an incident. If we reflect on this, we really must evaluate not just the potential for injury in a crash but the true cost and loss of productivity when any crash occurs.

The sad part is we often overlook the insurance part of this discussion too, because even if you are not at fault, your premium will go up the next year should you make a claim. I know this sounds unfair, and I agree, but if we consider that insurance companies are in it to make money, not to be charitable then it does make sense they will want to try and recoup their outlay somehow.

Also, if you make a claim, even if not at fault, they do consider you as a higher risk, because as a prudent driver we should be always trying to avoid a crash even if we aren’t the instigator. So, any claim makes your personal risk profile increase! Something to ponder on.

Given these factors it is always better to try and avoid a collision and Steer Safely to avoid any costly mistakes.

Stay Safe.

Stewart Nicholls
Managing Director
SteerSafely.com.au