Reporting an Accident with a PSV

By law, as a PSV operator you must inform the Secretary of State for Transport (in this case the DVSA) if one of your PSVs has been involved in an accident or been subject to a serious incident.  Recently the DVSA have updated the standard report form (PSV 112), a copy of which can be found by clicking here.

If one of your PSVs has been included in an incident which involves any of the following, a completed PSV 112 form must be filled in, saved to your computer system/records and then emailed to the DVSA at reo@dvsa.gov.uk

• Fatalities
• Serious Injuries (such as broken bones, damage to major organs or overnight hospitalisation)
• Allegations of a safety defect
• Serious damage as a result of the incident (such as major body or mechanical component damage, which needs specialist recovery and the vehicle being taken out of service to be repaired)
• A safety critical component failure or history of the same component failing
• A vehicle catching fire
• A situation in which the Police have told you to file a report.

The submission of a PSV 112 form may well prompt the DVSA to undertake an operator visit or other follow up.  Following a serious incident as mentioned above, there may also be wider ramifications for your business to consider, such as reputational damage, managing press enquiries and dealing with insurance claims.  It makes sense therefore if you ever find your business facing such a risk to take specialist legal advice quickly.

Making sure that the form is correctly completed and that preparations for any "blow-back" the business might experience are in place is something that Pellys Transport & Regulatory Law can assist with.  With over 35 years' experience of advising the PSV industry and dealing with just such incidents, our team is ideally placed to help.  Call us on 01279 818280 or click here to send an email.