Award-winning fleet transport insurance specialist, McCarron Coates, has responded to the increased probability of coach operators being prosecuted following a collision, by launching a unique legal advice service for its clients.
RTC Crisis Line is on offer to all McCarron Coates clients and offers them 24/7 access to transport sector legal specialists who can instantly offer advice and legal representation, the minute a driver is involved in a road traffic collision.
RTC Crisis Line can, with just one call, connect any driver, standing at the roadside facing police interview, with a legal specialist. That specialist will offer instant instruction as to how to proceed and will liaise with police, to determine to which police station the driver might be taken. The legal specialist will then head to that station, to instruct, advise and protect the driver during their police interview, which in turn protects the company and senior individuals within it.
The service covers the golden minutes associated with any such incident – those in which a shocked or traumatised driver can unwittingly incriminate themselves, by saying something later used against them. Driving incidents are the only type of crime for which this is possible, with any other seeing initial accounts taken only at the police station.
RTC Crisis Line steps in to help prevent cases being determined at the roadside and won or lost in those early moments when the driver might speculate as to what happened but be taken at their word later down the line.
Early dialogue with the police means the legal expert receives critical information early on, rather at the end of the criminal investigation, when it can be too late to put forward viewpoints as to why a situation might have occurred. Early legal representation can help control the cost of claims but, most crucially, also keep a driver – or their employer or agency – out of prison.
The service assists with charges such as causing death by dangerous driving, those relating to serious injuries caused by drivers, corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter and offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974.
RTC Crisis Line is being launched by McCarron Coates as we approach the anniversary of a new driving offence, which has largely gone under the radar. This is the offence of ‘causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving’, introduced in the 2022 Police Crime and Sentencing Act and added to the Road Traffic Act 1988. This can result in drivers being interviewed at police stations if a ‘serious’ injury has been inflicted on a third party, with that definition even covering a broken bone. A jail sentence of up to two years is the possible penalty for a momentary loss of focus and concentration on the road.
However, the new RTC Crisis Line service does not just provide the expert legal representation, it also helps minimise any reputational damage to the employer’s or agency’s business, through crisis PR.
McCarron Coates’ Director, Ian McCarron, says, “We are proud to offer our clients this ‘first’, having recognised that the legal implications of a driver being involved in any type of RTC are huge. With the 2022 Highway Code establishing a hierarchy of road users, with drivers of coaches and HGVs at the bottom and deemed responsible for the safety of all other road users, there is even more likelihood of the law coming down hard on drivers of these larger vehicles.
“We want to deliver peace of mind to our clients. They do not now have to suddenly become legal experts or urgently try to find a lawyer for a driver taken to an interview room. Just one call will put them, and their driver, in the best possible hands as the legal
process unfolds and prevent drivers from incriminating themselves and their employer, without even realising they are doing so. It enables the right conclusion to be reached in a case, with the least possible damage to the driver and whoever they were representing on the road. We regard having RTC Crisis Line as a ‘must’, not a ‘nice to have.’”
To find out more about RTC Crisis Line and McCarron Coates’ dynamic approach to insurance broking, call 0113 298 3489, or visit mccarroncoates.com
