FEATURE: What to do if you are in a road accident

As soon as your car is involved in an accident you need to take the following steps, regardless of who was at fault.

If you are involved in a road-traffic accident as a driver and one or more of the following occurs:

• a person, other than yourself, is injured
• damage is caused to another vehicle or to someone else’s property
• an animal has been killed or injured

Then you must:

• stop and remain at the scene for a reasonable period
• give your vehicle registration number, your name and address, and that of the vehicle owner (if different) to anyone with reasonable grounds for asking for those details

If you don’t exchange those details at the scene, you must report the accident at a police station within 24 hours.
If another person is injured you must:

• produce your certificate of insurance, if anyone at the scene has reasonable grounds to see it.
• if you do not, you must report the accident at a police station within 24 hours.

You’ll need to produce your certificate of insurance but if you don’t have it when reporting the accident to the police, you may take it, within seven days of the accident, to the police station.
If you don’t comply with these obligations you risk committing two offences: failing to stop and failing to report, and you can be guilty of either or both. Failing to stop or report an accident can carry a maximum of six months’ imprisonment.
At the scene, you should note down a detailed description of what happened.

• Scene – date, time, location, weather conditions, traffic conditions, road markings/signs/signals
• Vehicles – make, model, registration number, colour, condition, estimated speed, direction, use of lights/indicators, number of passengers
• People – contact details, description/distinguishing features of driver(s), contact details of passengers, pedestrians/other witnesses, details of any police officers involved
• Damage – description of the damage to vehicles/property and any injuries to people involved.