OHTA.ca

Last Thursday a transport truck wrote off my car on the 403 at the highway 6 merge Toronto bound (clipped back left of my car, causing a spin out and subsequent t-bone)

-OPP arrived, took our statements as well as a witness statement who saw the truck cut into my lane essentially cutting me off (witness just happens to be a lawyer)

-officer told me he was charging truck driver with improper lane change and said I was free to go

-today, insurance tells me that he said I cut into his lane, and made no mention of being charged..thus starting the insurance deductible headache

-this is my first accident...am I being naive to think that the driver would tell insurance he was charged? Or could the officer have changed his mind about charging him after I left? I'm waiting for the police report which could take up to 6 weeks. Please ease my mind and tell me that an officer wouldn't say he was charging someone then not do it..please. He is just prolonging the inevitable if he didn't disclose the charge, but if he wasn't charged and said I cut into his lane (one that was ending as it was a merge lane...) then I may have a hassle on my hands. Thanks in advance

From your explanation, there is no reason the officer would not charge the other driver.

However whether they are charged or not is really irrelevent to insurance. So you will want to get police reports and witness statements to insurance as soon as possible.

You don't need to get any police report or witness statements to your insurance company. That's their job. If you do it, you'll have to pay for the report and statements.

I gave my insurance authorization to obtain the report...the police told me to save my money and let them do it. But how can a charge to the driver be irrelevant to the insurance claim? If the truck driver was charged with an improper lane change...and I received no charge, one could deduce that he was at fault. Especially with a witness saying the same thing. I'm prepared to battle this out if I have to but I figured a police report with that shows the truck driver was charged would be sufficient.

Insurance has different rules for determining who is at fault. So even if other driver is not charged, that driver can still be found to be 100% at fault by insurance.

Well that's terrible news. Don't see it happening in this case but we'll see. Thanks