What to do if I am involved in a Traffic Accident?
Nearly 300,000 Malaysian motorists commute between Johor and Singapore daily. Accidents on the road are frequent. Should you get into an accident, touts for workshops will likely appear on the scene within minutes, advertising the workshops that they do business with, advising you not to call for an ambulance due to the exorbitant fees and trying to misdirect you into allowing them to tow your vehicle. Your employer may inform you that since your accident was not a work injury, you will not be able to claim for medical treatment expenses, and your Malaysian insurance provider may provide similar information.
This is not the case. The Ministry of Manpower (‘MOM’) has measures in place, under the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations, to protect foreign workers (particularly WP and S Pass Holders) who are injured in Singapore, regardless of whether they are at work or are traveling to/from work.
These are the steps that you should take if you have been involved in a Traffic Accident. Depending on the severity of your accident and injuries, you may not be able to carry them out immediately, but you should still attempt to follow these steps if you are well enough to do so.
It is common for workshop touts, workshop tow drivers or your employer to inform you that your medical expenses will be extremely expensive. However, they will likely fail to tell you that, under the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012, the employer is required to bear the costs of all medical treatment undergone by their Work Permit or S-Pass employee.
When you contact 995 to request an ambulance after a traffic accident, the traffic police are also immediately notified, and an LTA tow truck will be arranged to bring your vehicle to the police compound for inspection while you receive medical treatment. You will be able to retrieve your vehicle once your treatment is concluded and you will not be required to pay any fees during the initial storage period, although storage fees will begin to accrue once the police have notified you to collect your vehicle. You will also not be required to pay the foreign vehicle levy while your vehicle is in the police compound.
As the driver of a foreign vehicle in Singapore, you are required to make a police report if you are involved in any traffic accident in Singapore. This applies even if nobody has been injured in the accident.
As such, we strongly advise all motorists to contact the police at 999 or 6547 0000 as soon as they get into an accident where no injury was sustained. It may be tempting to quietly bring your vehicle to a workshop for repairs to avoid reporting the accident, and workshop touts will likely encourage you to do so. However, this risks running afoul of the law, which may have severe negative consequences beyond simple fines and penalties.
If the parties involved in the accident, including yourself, are not seriously injured, you should try to exchange the following information:
- Full Name
- NRIC/FIN Numbers
- Contact Numbers
- Email Address
- Residential Address
- Insurer Details and reference numbers.
You are reminded to take the details of passengers and witnesses as well.
You should take photos of the accident scene and the vehicles involved immediately after the accident, paying attention to clearly capture the following details on your photos or video:
- License plate numbers of all vehicles involved;
- Damage to your vehicle;
- Damage to the other parties’ vehicles;
- Skid marks, debris, lane markings and road condition;
- Wide-angle photos or videos of the accident scene and location.
When recording a video of the accident, a slow, 360 degree pan across the accident scene is ideal, as this will give a good indication of location, road condition, weather and other important details.
Immediately after an accident has occurred, you are reminded not to move the vehicles from their original positions until you have notified the ambulance/police and have taken photographs of the vehicles in their initial positions. Once you have done so, you may move the vehicle to avoid obstructing traffic.
As previously mentioned, workshop touts and towing services affiliated with workshops will likely appear on the scene within minutes of the accident. They may advise you to have your vehicle towed away for repairs.
Do not listen or interact with such individuals. Workshop touts and towing services are known to use unscrupulous methods and deception to acquire vehicles for their workshops. Such workshops are also likely to aim to use your misfortune to make a huge profit: The repair costs for your vehicle are likely to be inflated by as much as 200%, and you may even end up being complicit in insurance fraud. Channel News Asia recently aired an exposé on the business, which you may view on their YouTube channel here.
Do not let yourself be deceived and made an accomplice to their illegal schemes. Instead, wait for the ambulance or the police to arrive.
If your accident occurred on an expressway, an Expressway Monitory & Advisory System (EMAS) Tow Truck will likely also be at the accident scene within minutes of the accident. These orange tow trucks are clearly emblazoned with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) logo and the EMAS acronym. EMAS Tow trucks are generally safe to rely on to move your vehicle to a safe parking lot for retrieval by your own tow service.
You may contact the SAHC Hotline for recommendations for reliable and free towing services that are unaffiliated with unscrupulous workshops.
If you have been severely injured in a traffic accident in Singapore, your employer may inform you that your accident was a traffic accident and not a work accident, and that you are not entitled to compensation. They may force you to pay for your own medical treatment, or demand that you refund them for the costs of treatment. They may even suggest, or take measures to send you back to Malaysia, claiming that treatment would be cheaper and attempting to ‘compensate’ you for your injuries with a small token sum.
Do not listen to employers that say this. Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012, the employer is required to pay for the medical treatment for Work Permit and S Pass Holders while they are in Singapore. This applies regardless of whether the injury was caused by a road accident or at traffic accident. The amount your employer is required to pay under this regulation is unlimited, but the condition only applies so long as you remain in Singapore, even if your Work Permit or S Pass has been cancelled for a Special pass. Once you have been sent home to Malaysia, you will not be able to use this regulation to your benefit.
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