The Alberta government has cut red tape and saved Albertans time by raising the collision reporting damage threshold from $2,000 to $5,000 effective January 1. “Traffic accidents happen,” said Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen in a Thursday press release. “Alberta is saving drivers time and money by not having them report simple fender-benders to the police.”Since people make thousands of traffic accident reports for minor incidents, Dreeshen said they clog up the justice system and strain police resources. He called this “a common sense change that will benefit drivers and police.”The Alberta government acknowledged the cost of vehicle repairs has increased over time, which has resulted in minimal property damage for a collision’s repair cost to reach $2,000. To better reflect current vehicle repair costs, it said drivers will not have to report property damage from a collision unless the cost is $5,000 or more. This change is intended to free up law enforcement, who commit a significant amount of policing resources for processing collision reports. With this change, police officers and administrative staff can spend more time improving public safety and less time on managing collision reporting.Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally said the government will continue to cut red tape by increasing the collision reporting threshold. “Waiting in line to file a report is stressful, time-consuming and takes you away from your work and family,” said Nally. “This change will alleviate that stress and get you back on the road faster.”The Alberta government confirmed collisions leading to injuries and fatalities will continue to be reported regardless of the estimated cost of property damage repairs. For future increases to the collision reporting threshold, it said they will be adjusted based on the inflation rate from Statistics Canada, reducing red tape and time spent by Albertans reporting low dollar value collisions. Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police President Mark Neufeld said it is supportive of increasing the threshold for the reporting of property damage collisions to police. “These increases better reflect modern vehicle repair and replacement costs and will result in less minor, non-injury collisions having to be reported to police,” said Neufeld. The carrier collision reporting threshold will be increased to match the collision reporting threshold of $5,000. Commercial carriers will save time by no longer having to go through an administrative process to eliminate minor accidents from their profiles. Alberta last increased its property damage collision reporting threshold from $1,000 to $2,000 in 2011 and implemented the commercial carrier reporting threshold at $1,000 in 2009. Dreeshen said in an interview with the Western Standard he made this decision after looking at the amount of time it took Albertans to report minor accidents. “About 90,000 collisions were reported just last year and we realized that’s such a high number,” he said. “And it was wasting Albertans’ time by having to go to police stations and collision reporting centres to report these accidents, but it also was wasting police resources.” To make this change, he said he enacted a ministerial order. He added this change better reflects the current values of vehicle prices and repairs.
The Alberta government has cut red tape and saved Albertans time by raising the collision reporting damage threshold from $2,000 to $5,000 effective January 1. “Traffic accidents happen,” said Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen in a Thursday press release. “Alberta is saving drivers time and money by not having them report simple fender-benders to the police.”Since people make thousands of traffic accident reports for minor incidents, Dreeshen said they clog up the justice system and strain police resources. He called this “a common sense change that will benefit drivers and police.”The Alberta government acknowledged the cost of vehicle repairs has increased over time, which has resulted in minimal property damage for a collision’s repair cost to reach $2,000. To better reflect current vehicle repair costs, it said drivers will not have to report property damage from a collision unless the cost is $5,000 or more. This change is intended to free up law enforcement, who commit a significant amount of policing resources for processing collision reports. With this change, police officers and administrative staff can spend more time improving public safety and less time on managing collision reporting.Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally said the government will continue to cut red tape by increasing the collision reporting threshold. “Waiting in line to file a report is stressful, time-consuming and takes you away from your work and family,” said Nally. “This change will alleviate that stress and get you back on the road faster.”The Alberta government confirmed collisions leading to injuries and fatalities will continue to be reported regardless of the estimated cost of property damage repairs. For future increases to the collision reporting threshold, it said they will be adjusted based on the inflation rate from Statistics Canada, reducing red tape and time spent by Albertans reporting low dollar value collisions. Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police President Mark Neufeld said it is supportive of increasing the threshold for the reporting of property damage collisions to police. “These increases better reflect modern vehicle repair and replacement costs and will result in less minor, non-injury collisions having to be reported to police,” said Neufeld. The carrier collision reporting threshold will be increased to match the collision reporting threshold of $5,000. Commercial carriers will save time by no longer having to go through an administrative process to eliminate minor accidents from their profiles. Alberta last increased its property damage collision reporting threshold from $1,000 to $2,000 in 2011 and implemented the commercial carrier reporting threshold at $1,000 in 2009. Dreeshen said in an interview with the Western Standard he made this decision after looking at the amount of time it took Albertans to report minor accidents. “About 90,000 collisions were reported just last year and we realized that’s such a high number,” he said. “And it was wasting Albertans’ time by having to go to police stations and collision reporting centres to report these accidents, but it also was wasting police resources.” To make this change, he said he enacted a ministerial order. He added this change better reflects the current values of vehicle prices and repairs.
