What To Do If Your RV Has Been In A Collision
The RV community has been growing and there are more RV’s on the road then there ever has been before. As the usual demographic of senior citizens who are retired are being joined younger generations of people who have been joining the RV community in recent years, the possibilities of RV accidents have also been growing. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported that over 75,000 people were in an RV accident and were injured just in 2012 alone. Federal law requires that an RV is to go through rollover and crash testing but the safety of the vehicle can have little to do with the cause of an RV accident and these accidents aren’t as rare as you may think.
Other than obvious causes for an accident such as speeding that could apply to any driver, RV drivers need to be cautious of other things that can cause an accident that most other drivers don’t have to be concerned with. For example, strong winds can threaten to flip over an RV especially as RVs become more cost-friendly by being more lightweight than they once were. The higher center of gravity that RV’s have made them especially prone to being flipped over or rolling over in an accident. Another thing that can cause an RV accident is how the RV is loaded.
If it is unevenly loaded, the RV or trailer that you are pulling may be pulling in one direction, can blow out a tire or even bend an axle which is all extremely dangerous for anyone inside as well as those on the road around the RV. An RV can also be overloaded which is illegal and can be used to point the finger at you when it comes time to figure out who is at fault in an accident. One scary thought to have about RV accidents is how devastating a detached trailer can be as well. If you are pulling a trailer, a car or anything else at all, it is important to know that the most important piece of equipment that is on an RV is your hitch.
A towed vehicle of any kind that comes fully detached can and most likely will hit other drivers. These are just a few things that RV drivers need to be aware of before getting on the road. Other factors that can cause an RV accident could simply be driver error such as miscalculating when to apply the brake when stopping or even miscalculating a turn as well as the fact that RV’s have notoriously large blind spots and it’s very easy to overlook what is closer to your RV then you think.
If you are ever in an RV accident, it’s often handled differently than a normal car accident in terms of how to deal with insurance companies as well as getting your RV repaired by a body shop that is qualified in RV collision repair. In the event of an RV collision, do not leave the scene and call the police for assistance even if the accident seems minor. Be sure to get a police report because this report can often eliminate any dispute over who is at fault for the accident and any insurance liability associated with who is at fault. Document as much information as possible. Take pictures of any damages from multiple angles and exchange insurance information with any other involved drivers. The next thing to do is to contact the insurance company as soon as you can and give them any documentation you have collected. If you are not at fault in the accident, contact the insurance company of the driver that is at fault as well.
The last step is to find a repair shop that can handle RV collision repair and is qualified to do so. Getting several quotes from a selection of qualified providers is not a bad idea either although the insurance company will probably have an adjuster take a look at the damages and can calculate a quote as well. If you have followed all of the steps above, you should be on your way to quality repairs and back out on the road to the campgrounds in no time.