It happens to some of the best drivers on the road. You drive safely, then you’re in a wreck, and the only thing that you’re really thinking of is your insurance premium. Or, perhaps you have a pretty spotty driving record, and now you’re worried that this new accident will add even more points onto your license. What happens for the people who are in these positions?
Can you remove a crash from your DMV or insurance record? Is it possible that you can avoid points on your license or an increase in your rates? While you don’t have many options in terms of reporting, you may be relieved to know how a crash can impact your DMV or insurance records.
Battling a Bad Record
Bad records happen; people go through hard times they may have been drinking and driving or driving carelessly often. The thing is that in some states, including Texas, those don’t just come off your record because you request it. In fact, Texas has six different types of records, and although one may seem clean, the others may not.
Then you have your insurance record, which can include any wreck or single-car instance that you were involved in over the past few years. What happens in these instances is that the DMV, local police departments, and your insurance company will work in tandem to report the wrecks and attribute crashes to your appropriate records. Most people are more worried over their records with their insurance agency than the Texas DMV.
DMV Records and Managing Your Accidents
The DMV has six types of records, including:
- Status record – public personal information
- 3-year driving history – all information including wrecks and citations
- All accidents and violations records – more on this in a moment
- Certified 3-years history – a version of the 3-year history modified by defensive driving courses
- Certified all accidents and violations
- Certified abstracts – a complete record for the licensed driver
The big one that people worry about in Texas is all accidents and violations records that can’t be “cleaned” or scrubbed, which means that you can’t remove an accident from your driving record.
The one time you may be able to argue the record is when there are clear inaccuracies. For example, if you’ve never received a traffic ticket and there’s one on your file, you could move to correct that. It’s not the same as removing an accident.
Can You Remove an Accident from Your Insurance Policy?
Typically an insurance company will track accidents for somewhere between three and seven years depending on the crash details. For example, a crash that involved a DUI and a fatality may be on your record for longer because of the high risk of another wreck. Additionally, someone who had substantial property damage, such as hitting a fire hydrant or utility line, may linger for longer.
Ideally, if you’ve gone for about three years without a standard accident, then you should expect to have a clean record with your insurance provider.
Will Opening a New Policy Remove Accidents?
So many people abandon because they think that opening a new insurance plan will clean their slate. That’s not the case. These insurance companies work off the DMV database and can locate your past wrecks even if they weren’t reported to the DMV from past reports from other drivers in the past. For example, if you put in an insurance claim a few years ago and didn’t report it to the DMV, you might think that you could just switch, and no one would be the wiser.
But that claim will still be within the larger insurance claim database, and the other insurance provider can identify that.
After a Wreck – Get Yourself an Auto Collision Attorney in Houston
Even though you will need to report your crash, it doesn’t’ mean that it should inherently have a bad mark on any record. The result is that you should have plenty of room to report that you have had an accident without a repercussion on your record either with the DMV or your policy. Now, if you have a negative history, you’ll have a hard time removing those from your records.
Our team of attorneys in Houston helps people fight to clear up the wrecks that they have had. Our team works with the victims of collisions, and for that, you should not have any negative impact on your DMV or insurance records, and that happens in a way that many drivers don’t necessarily grasp. You can report an auto accident and not have your rates go up, or not have points on your license.
