Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
You would think that after a car accident, the police arrive quickly on scene to take notes, interview the parties along with any witnesses and prepare an accident report.
When people are injured, the accident needs to be reported to police. But sometimes the injuries at the accident scene are not apparent. They might be tears to tissue which you don’t feel right away. They might be psychological injuries which may not manifest right away. Or, perhaps the accident victim is pumped up with adrenaline (which is very common), and they don’t feel any injury at the scene of the accident; only to return home and the next day feel like terrible pain. So, this notion that the motor vehicle accident needing to be reported to police in the event of injury can be tricky if the injuries are not obvious.
When there is combined damage of $2,000 or more to vehicles or to property, the car accident has to be reported. This is difficult, because the average person is not a certified appraiser. They won’t know the value of the vehicle or property damage because it’s just not something that the average person will know. This is why there are appraisers, because they appraise the value of damage for a living. The expectation that a person know whether or not the damage to the vehicle or to the property exceeds $2,000 is rather far fetched. Nobody is going on the underside of a car at an accident scene with a mechanical light to make sure that the undercarriage of the car is in order. The same can be said when it comes to the alignment of the vehicle. You cannot tell at the accident scene whether or not the vehicle will require a new alignment after an accident. You need a mechanic to check it out. To air on the side of caution, we would recommend that you report the accident rather than not report it.
Where there is damage to any private, municipal, or highway property, the car accident must be reported to police. There is no dollar threshold for damage to private, municipal or highway property. It’s simply damage. That damage can be very small. Or can be very large.
Here’s the thing about car accidents in 2025. Police resources across all regions are spread thin. They have less time, less officers, for more people and more accidents. Officers aren’t as prompt arriving at accident scenes, and if they do and the accident does not appear to be in their eyes that major, they will refer the parties to the Collision Reporting Centre so that they can report the accident on their own.
Self reporting is a great way for police departments to save money. They don’t need officers spending a great deal of time at the accident scene interviewing parties, preparing notes and preparing an accident report. The officers give the parties the contact information for the self reporting collision centre, and they let the parties share their stories with the staff at those centres. The officers at the self collision reporting centres can also take estimates of the damage done to the vehicles in a controlled and less chaotic environment.
Here is the problem with this approach. The best evidence in personal injury cases is collected at the scene of the accident. If we are no longer recording evidence at the accident scene, then personal injury lawyers and accident victims no longer have the best evidence in order to advance their claims. It used to be that every car accident had rather detailed police officer’s notes along with photographs and witness statements. Those days are long behind us. This is not to suggest that it doesn’t happen anymore. It’s only to suggest that the majority of car accident cases don’t have great officer notes, witness statements or photographs (unless it’s a very serious accident). But, even in some very serious accident cases we don’t see the same police file materials as we used to see some 25 years ago. Those police files for a personal injury investigation are thinner because there is simply less file material which the police record, particularly at self reporting collision centres. What you see from those files is a “he said” vs. “she said” report; and that’s pretty much it. It’s more difficult to do witness interviews, or to get statements from parties after the fact. Tracking down witnesses can be a difficult task as well, even for police.
If the police aren’t going to take photographs of the damage to the vehicles at the scene of the car accident, then who will? The answer is you! The parties themselves to the accident need to be more keenly aware that their photos are just as good as the police photos; even better if the police don’t take any photos of the damage at all. This also applies to the accident scene itself, and how the cars are positioned following the accident. Too often, the vehicles are moved before anyone has an opportunity to take photos of the resting position of the vehicles, or the damage done to the vehicles themselves. Shattered windshields, deployed airbags, skid marks left on the road from tires are all great evidence to support a personal injury case.
A few take backs from this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post. The police should arrive at the accident scene. But, the expectation that they will record what happened in the car accident needs to be tempered. In very serious and high damage accidents, the police should take detailed notes in order to generate a report. But, this doesn’t always happen. They can just the same refer the parties to the car accident to a self reporting collision centre. If that happens, it’s very important to take good photos of the damage to your vehicle, and to the other vehicle, along with the resting positions of the vehicles and the accident scene. It’s also very important to get the names and contact information of all of the potential witnesses to the car accident. These people won’t simply magically surface in the future. Getting their statements sooner rather than later is important as well because memories fade. Just because the car accident was meaningful to you, doesn’t mean that it was also meaningful to them as well.
