I don’t know how many people know this already, but I thought I’d post after learning something the hard way. TLDR: If you have a car accident and your car is not driveable, don’t let the police call a tow truck. Instead, get your green insurance form out of the glove box and call the “Assistance” number in the space under boxes 10 and 11. This will put you in touch with your insurer’s tow service, which will end up being a lot cheaper.
We had a car accident at the weekend that was not our fault (another driver coming round a corner on the wrong side of the road). We did all the “constat amiable” stuff, but didn’t spot the assistance number on the green form. Although we were able to contact our broker they didn’t mention at the time that it’s not in our interests to let the police organise the tow truck. So when the police said they could organise a tow, we thought it was the only option. As a result, we will have two tow truck bills - one to get the car off the road to a safe place, and the other to transfer the car from the safe place to the repair garage. The insurance will end up covering only part of the cost (already the first tow truck bill is more than they cover). If we had called the assistance number direct then a cheaper tow truck would have taken the car direct to a partner garage of the insurer.
Also, although you might have a choice of repair garages, you don’t want to choose one that’s too far from where you have the accident, because the recovery fees to get there may be more than your insurance covers (even if you have comprehensive insurance and even if the accident is not your fault).
often, French insurers will provide a sticker for your insurance vignette in the windscreen which will show the assistance number to call or a separate sticker for elsewhere.
Perhaps not too many people take notice of it even though it is in plain sight.
Check your insurance document (green card)… and if it’s still not marked there, make a note on it (after obtaining the correct number from your Ins Company). Since the green card is best with the car/driver… all should be well in future…
Of course the shock of your accident would make it hard to avoid accepting any suggestion of the police without thinking if you had another option available.
You’ve made me wonder if I wouldn’t be in the same boat… shock can certainly knock “clear-thinking” (I put “commonsense” originally which is not what I meant at all) out of the window…
I’m putting a note in with my greencard and in with my licence… to remind me (and any Officer) that the Insurance Company needs to authorise expenditure…
this might or might not work…but it’s worth a try… any Officer attending an accident will ask to see the licence/insurance I would have thought…
It’s not so much that you lose common sense, it’s that you don’t know what all the rules are and you’re trying to work out what to do in the middle of a stressful situation.
Eg, with our insurer, all the policy documents show your broker as your primary point of contact for everything, so I had it in my head that we needed to call the broker. Of course, it’s hard to get hold of your broker on a Saturday afternoon, so by the time I got a response, the police had already called the tow truck (and it wasn’t until three days later that the broker told me anything about calling the insurer direct, by which time it was a bit late).
Depending on your insurer, your green card might or might not make it obvious what to do. Eg, I looked back and saw with our previous French insurer that it had prominent text saying “En cas de sinistre, appelez aux 0 800 …” Our current green card more cryptic and just says “BDG 90 ASSISTANCE” with a 05 phone number. You’re supposed to know this is the primary contact number.
I have amended my post, as I had not yet had my morning cuppa and my brain wasn’t functioning as it should… apologies.
Anyway… you raise a good point… it is now clear… not all Insurance companies are the same.
We are (almost) bombarded with info from our various Insurers, warning of this and that… and telling us what to do in the event of this and that… and I had presumed (erroneously) that others would be receiving similar contact/info…
Let’s all take something positive away from your experiences.
Let’s all find out how our own Insurers advise/want us to behave in the event of an Accident… and let’s make it highly visible (somewhere/somehow), so that should an accident occur we are in the best position to do things just how our Insurers advise and to our own best advantage.
We should each have the Contract and Terms and Conditions… so there’s possibly some serious reading to be done…
Usually towing a vehicle is covered up to 250€ (on most insurance policy that’s the refund limit). The assistance number usually is on the green slip (on the wind shield) but it’s always on the “green card”. Alternatively you can ask you broker or agent but it’s not always visible on the policy itself.
This is why I think it’s also important to discover an approved repair garage as close to the accident site as possible. We were billed 384 € to be towed a distance of about 20km. (The recovery truck took the other car at the same time, so presumably charged the other driver 384 € too.) The accident happened 60km from where we live, so goodness knows what a tow back to a garage near us would have cost.
Not an accident, “just” a breakdown…
We were on our way to the Dijon-Prenois racetrack and called into a garage for help.
They had some helpful ideas but didn’t want to touch the car.
They rang our Insurers to check the situation re cover.
Insurers were prepared to have us taken home… this was on our Contract… but gladly agreed to have us taken to a nearby enthusiast/specialist for the necessary repairs. He lived only a few kilometres from the garage and our home was at least 400km away…
No idea of the cost of transporting us as the garage used their own vehicle… and we eventually were able to carry on our way…
Later that weekend, we met our “enthusiast/savior” but on the racetrack not in his workshop…
