Certificate of road accident form No. 154: sample and terms of issue

Certificate of road accident for insurance in Form 154 – a previously issued document that was used to receive insurance payment. With the help of this certificate, the fact of an accident, which is required to receive an insurance payment, was recorded and subsequently confirmed.

Today, this form is not used and the certificate is not issued, so we can say that it is irrelevant. The insurance company will not require such a certificate; other documents are used instead. The information below is for informational purposes only and cannot be used as instructions.

Why do you need a certificate?

The previously issued certificate was a special document that officially recorded the fact of the accident. Since the document was formalized, it was necessarily compiled according to established requirements and rules. The main documents that regulated the drafting procedure were: methodological recommendations, as well as administrative regulations.

Compliance with the established requirements was mandatory, since violations of the rules could become grounds for refusal to provide insurance benefits. The certificate was drawn up right on the spot and was issued after completion to all interested parties.

ATTENTION !!! Previously, the certificate was used to receive insurance payment in the organization. There have always been difficulties in receiving payments, since insurers try their best not to provide compensation. For this reason, there was practically no chance of compensation for harm without a certificate issued in the prescribed manner.

To receive the payment, the driver had to complete the following steps:

register the accident in the prescribed manner, collect the necessary documents;
receive from a traffic police officer a certificate drawn up in a special form, which will be the main evidence of the fact that an accident occurred. In this case, it is important to check the consistency of the real data and the completed certificate, since a discrepancy would result in the invalidity of the document. If there were discrepancies, it was necessary to contact the employee with a request to eliminate the inaccuracies;
After collecting all the required documents, the insurance company was contacted. Further actions are not much different from those that should be performed today. The documents must be submitted to the insurance company of the person at fault.

It is worth noting that there are no special deadlines for contacting an insurance company by law, so general civil deadlines apply. If there are good reasons, you can expect to receive payment within 3 years, and the time of submission of documents does not matter. In certain cases, restoration of the missed deadline is allowed.

IMPORTANT !!! Today, traffic police officers do not draw up certificates of this type; in addition, they are not issued at all. This provision has been repealed and no longer applies. This means that in order to receive payment from the insurance company, you do not need to confirm the fact of an accident by providing such a certificate. The insurance company cannot refuse on the basis of its absence. Any such actions are illegal and can be appealed in court.

What to do with the completed certificate 154?

A completed road accident certificate form 154 is an integral part of the required package of documents for contacting the organization that issued the insurance policy to the culprit of the accident, where he will be able to apply for compensation for damage caused with its help.

It is also possible to apply for compensation without it, but for this the following conditions must be met:

If an accident occurred with two participants, and both of them had a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, which continues to be valid;
None of the participants in the incident should complain about their health status as a result of the accident;
If all participants in the accident have no claims against each other and independently figure out who is at fault for the accident.

If at least one of these conditions is not met, then the traffic police inspector is obliged to provide Form 154 upon the first request of any of the parties to the conflict.

It is important to know! Sometimes the traffic police inspector refers to the lack of forms or other reasons not provided for by law. Then you can contact the traffic police or any representative office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a complaint. The prosecutor's office also deals with such appeals.

It is unlawful for law enforcement agencies to require a document filled out in Form 154 to determine the causes of the accident or to initiate criminal proceedings. This certificate is issued solely for one purpose, to provide it for contacting the insurance company. In addition, government officials always have a duplicate of this document.

Requirements for the certificate

The certificate was used as an official document, so it must be compiled in accordance with established norms and rules. Even the slightest violation of the order could become grounds for refusing to provide insurance benefits to the driver. It could be very difficult to prove that you were right in the future.

The certificate was drawn up on a special form in the prescribed form. The filling form was always standard and it was enough to just enter the required information.

According to the established rules, the certificate should contain the following information:

information about the accident that occurred, where, when and under what circumstances it happened. Information should always be detailed so that the insurer receives the maximum picture of what happened;
information about the accident site. The address is indicated, and, if not possible, terrain features or other landmarks. In some cases, information received from GLONASS may be used;
information about all drivers who were directly involved in the accident. Information is entered on the basis of documents: driver’s license, compulsory motor liability insurance policy and others;
information about cars, which are also entered on the basis of existing registration documents;
qualification of the offense committed due to which the accident occurred;
the degree of damage caused, harm to human health. Since it can be problematic to assess this on the spot, approximate information is entered, however, it is always necessary to proceed from real objective signs, since obvious discrepancies may lead to the recognition of the document as invalid by the insurance company;
other information that is relevant to the incident, if it was not possible to include it in the main points.

The recommendation contained instructions that suggested filling out the document in block letters to make it easier to parse in the future. This requirement was not mandatory, but nevertheless it seriously simplified the process in the future.

Let's sum it up

a certificate of an accident is an important, but not the only document required to receive insurance compensation;
it is issued at the scene of the incident or upon the first application to the traffic police by the person involved in the incident;
all participants and victims in the accident have the right to receive it;
this paper records only the fact of a collision without determining guilt;
for three years you can apply to the insurance company for payment;
You can obtain a copy from the traffic police within three years from the date of the incident if it is lost.

Getting help

This certificate was always drawn up at the scene of the accident and was issued to the participants in the accident immediately. There was no need to go to the traffic police post and wait for a long time. Before issuing, the certificate was checked to avoid errors that could make it difficult to receive payment in the future.

Despite the ease of obtaining, it was impossible to delay the time of document registration, so in any case, the participants in the accident had to wait until the moment of final registration. Postponement of the time of issue was allowed only if there were good reasons. For example, when people were injured or killed as a result of an accident.

ATTENTION !!! After the certificate was issued, it was valid for 3 years and you could receive an insurance payment at any time.

It was extremely important to check the certificate before receiving it. The presence of inaccuracies was not allowed, so the authorized person was obliged to correct them at the first request of the driver. In practice, situations often occurred when inspectors suggested not paying attention to minor errors. Such actions subsequently created significant troubles primarily for drivers.

What is a certificate in form No. 154 and why is it needed?

Strictly speaking, a document with the name indicated above does not exist. There is a “Certificate of a Road Traffic Accident”, approved by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 154 in 2011, which is why it is often called “Certificate No. 154”.

Its main purpose is to obtain compensation for damage incurred in an accident. This is one of the mandatory documents for compensation under compulsory motor liability insurance. With the exception, of course, of drawing up the Euro Protocol, when the only paper about an accident that the insurance company needs is a Notice correctly filled out by the participants in the accident themselves.

In the vast majority of cases, this certificate will also be required to pay for comprehensive insurance. Therefore, those who bought comprehensive insurance should not apply for the Europrotocol. To know for sure, read the voluntary insurance rules of your insurer, because they vary from company to company.

This road accident document will also be useful in other cases related to compensation for damage caused in an accident, for example, for a trial with the insurer or with the culprit on this issue. In addition, the certificate will confirm that the car was damaged in a specific accident.

When a certificate is not needed

The execution of the document was not mandatory in all cases. Already at that time, there were ways to simplify the registration of an accident. The main one is the European protocol, which is still in force today, but is becoming increasingly widespread. Its key feature is that there is no need to call traffic police officers and wait for registration.

Drivers can independently agree and record the fact of the accident on a special form. Despite the simplified procedure, this method cannot be used in all cases. For example, there should be no casualties in the accident, the collision caused damage only to property, and the amount of damage does not exceed the established maximum amount. Throughout this time, the amount of this amount has changed and increased several times in order to make the procedure accessible to a large number of drivers.

Thus, the certificate did not need to be obtained if the following conditions were met:

there is no reason to call the traffic police;
drivers were able to negotiate on their own;
both parties have an MTPL policy.

IMPORTANT !!! In this case, the registration consists of filling out the form according to a simplified scheme. It is accompanied by photographs from the scene of the incident, as well as a rough diagram of the accident. At the request of the parties, the list of materials from the scene of the incident may be increased. The injured party contacts the culprit's insurance company, which must make compensation.

It is important that the protocol is drawn up in accordance with all the rules, since without this the insurance company has every right to refuse to provide compensation.

How is a traffic accident certificate filled out?

A road accident certificate form 154 must be filled out by a representative of the road patrol service who arrived at the scene of the accident. However, it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the appearance of the document in order to understand how it should be filled out, because police officers are also people and can make a mistake when filling it out, which will later backfire on you.

There is a special form in which empty rows and columns are filled in; it is approved in accordance with the traffic police regulations. An important factor is the presence of a stamp in the upper corner of the document; without it, the certificate will not be valid.

Among the information contained in the road accident certificate, the sample must contain the following subparagraphs:

The exact time and place of the traffic accident, as well as the circumstances of the accident;
The exact coordinates of the accident, indicating latitude and longitude. The data is established using GLONASS system equipment;
Data of all participants in the incident, car license plates, driver’s license data and compulsory motor liability insurance policies;
Characteristics and brands of cars involved in the accident;
Data on the medical examination of all drivers who were driving at the time of the accident, the referral number for the procedure is also entered;
Information about the offense is filled in, even if it was missing;
A superficial description of the damage received by cars during an accident.

When receiving certificate of accident No. 154, you must make sure that it is signed by the traffic police inspector who filled out the document. He must also indicate information about himself in the form, including his position and last name.

Receive payment today

Since the certificate in question has been cancelled, insurance companies cannot require it as proof of the fact of the accident. However, a new form has been introduced that has a similar purpose. In addition, there are other ways to confirm that an accident has occurred.

Today, when contacting an insurance company, you need to have:

a notification of an accident, which is also issued on the spot and signed by a traffic police officer. A special feature of this document is the possibility of declaring oneself innocent by indicating this directly in the text;
a copy of the administrative violation protocol. There are practically no accidents without violation of traffic rules, so a report is always drawn up against the guilty person, or a resolution is issued. Instead of a protocol or resolution, decisions to refuse to initiate a case or other procedural documents may be provided.

IMPORTANT !!! As before, there is a simplified form of registration, when traffic police officers are not called to the scene, and drivers negotiate on their own. In this case, it is enough to provide a correctly drawn up European protocol, on the basis of which the payment will be made.

Despite the abolition of the form in question, the general procedure for receiving payment from the insurance company has remained virtually unchanged. Only a few formal documents have changed, but every driver must be aware of this in order to avoid possible troubles.

How long is a certificate from the traffic police valid for insurance?

Generally speaking, there is no time limit. But the main purpose of this document is to obtain insurance. And the relationship with the insurance company is limited to three years. That is, you can only demand anything from the insurer for three years from the date of the accident, including in court.

Thus, after three years, a certificate of an accident, as well as any other document about an accident three years ago, will have no force for receiving compensation from the insurance company.

But we should not forget that harm to health and life, along with moral harm, has no statute of limitations. That is, you can demand compensation for such damage from the culprit at any time. And when filing a lawsuit against the culprit for compensation for bodily harm, even 10 years after the accident, the certificate of the incident will be accepted by the court as a substantiation of the claims along with other documents.