COSTA RICA NEWS — A law that would required drivers involved in an accident to move their vehicle or be fined for failure to do so, is being proposed by legislators Michael Arce and Antonio Álvarez Desanti of the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) and Otto Guevara of Movimiento Libertario (ML).
The three are promoting a reform to Article 168 of the Ley de Tránsito (Traffic Act).
Legislator Guevara said that most of the traffic court rulings over property damage incurred in an accident are for each party to pay their own damages, and as such is doesn’t seem justified in many cases for the presence of insurance adjusters at the scene on an accident.
The current traffic law allows for drivers to move their vehicles, but it must be by mutual agreement.
“Today everyone expects the traffic police to arrive, but when(not if) the bill is passed, the traffic official will be there to ticket the drivers who did not move their vehicle,” said Guevara,
Although the law requires vehicles to be moved, the drivers involved in an accident must still wait for a traffic official to arrive at the scene to make a report.
The legislator added that the affected can use modern technology (their cell phones, for instance) to record the evidence.
In street practice, no matter even if it is a fender bender, drivers are accustomed to waiting for a Tránsito (traffic) official and the insurance adjuster. Few will even enter into a discussion on agreement to move the vehicles, that continue to block traffic for up to an hour or more.
