St. Catharines Collision Reporting Centre open and ready to assist citizens

The Niagara Regional Police Service and Accident Support Services International Ltd. (ASSI) facilitators of Collision Reporting to the insurance industry are pleased to announce the opening of the St. Catharines Collision Reporting Centre at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 30 at 68 Church Street, St. Catharines, Ontario.  This is Niagara Region’s 3^nd Collision Reporting Centre.  The other Niagara Region CRCs are located at 5 Lincoln St. West in Welland and 5700 Valley Way, Niagara Falls.

The St. Catharines Collision Reporting Centre will provide additional value to the public in Niagara Region in the reporting of vehicle collisions by providing a faster and safer response to property damage collisions.  In addition, this Centre will also help free up more officer time that can be re-allocated to other investigations and crime and accident prevention initiatives.   The CRCs are funded entirely by supporting insurers so there is no cost to the Police Service or local taxpayers.

The new St. Catharines Collision Reporting Centre is located at 68 Church Street, St. Catharines.

The hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. 

Collisions eligible for reporting at the Centre are property damage collisions where there are no injuries and no criminal offences involved.  Police will continue to investigate collisions at the scene that involve injuries, suspected criminal activity or damage to private property.

In cases where a collision occurs and vehicles are moveable, citizens will be directed to drive to the Centre to complete their report.  In cases where vehicles are not moveable, tow trucks are dispatched to the scene to clear the vehicles and transport parties involved to the CRC.  Upon arrival at the centre, citizens are greeted by a member of the Accident Support Services staff who provides assistance to complete the police report, applies the ‘damage reported to police’ sticker, photographs the damage to the vehicle, and offers the customer the opportunity to contact their family, broker or insurance company directly from the Centre.  The citizen is provided with a one-stop service opportunity for all of their reporting needs.  Completed police reports will be reviewed by police on site for accuracy and issuing of violation tickets if warranted.

Accident Support Services’ goal is to facilitate an active partnership between the police and insurers in post-accident care by providing knowledgeable advice and assistance to accident victims with empathy, integrity and availability.  By providing our member insurers with immediate access to their customer, with all relevant facts of the loss, we help increase your claim program use, improve customer service, and reduce the likelihood of physical damage fraud and Accident Benefits fraud, while enabling our partners to derive cost efficiencies by streamlining the claims settlement process.

ASSI currently operates 30 Collision Reporting Centres in Ontario, 2 in Alberta and 1 in Roanoke, VA.  28 additional jurisdictions utilize ASSI’s CROMS program as their electronic collision and records management database.    For more information on ASSI, please visit www.accsupport.com.

For more information, please contact:

Steve Sanderson, President – ssanderson@accsupport.com, 416-745-3301