What to Do After a Car Accident in the UK: Step by Step

A collision, even a slow one in a car park, scrambles your thinking. The people who come out of it best are the ones who work through a short fixed list rather than trying to decide what matters while their hands are shaking. Here is that list, in the order it needs doing, along with what UK law actually requires and what happens once the paperwork starts.

What are the first five things to do after a car accident?

Stop, make yourself safe, check for injuries, call 999 if anyone is hurt, and only then start collecting information. In that order.

• Stop. Leaving the scene of an accident involving injury or damage to another person's property is a criminal offence, however minor the contact looked.
• Switch on your hazard lights and, if the vehicles are drivable and blocking a live lane, move them to the verge, hard shoulder or a side road. On a motorway, get out of the nearside doors and behind the barrier if it is safe to do so.
• Check everyone. Yourself first, then passengers, then the other vehicle. Do not move anyone who is hurt unless there is an immediate danger such as fire.
• Call 999 if there are injuries, if the road is blocked, if anyone drives off, or if you suspect the other driver is drunk or has no insurance.
• Turn off the engines on both cars and do not smoke near the scene, particularly if fluid is leaking.

Only when all of that is done should you get your phone out for anything other than the emergency call.

What does UK law require you to do at the scene?

Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 says you must stop and give your name and address to anyone who has reasonable grounds for asking. That duty applies if the accident caused injury to another person, damage to another vehicle, damage to roadside property such as a wall, bollard, gate or lamp post, or injury to certain animals.

The animals covered are horses, cattle, donkeys, mules, sheep, pigs, goats and dogs, provided they were not being carried in your own vehicle. Cats are not on that list, which surprises most people.

You must also give the vehicle owner's name and address and the registration number. If someone other than you was injured, you must produce your certificate of insurance. If you cannot do that at the scene, you have to report the accident to the police as soon as reasonably practicable and produce the certificate at a police station within seven days.

What details should you exchange and photograph?

Take more than you think you need, because you cannot go back for it later.

Exchange with every other driver:

• Full name and address, not just a mobile number
• Vehicle registration, make, model and colour
• Insurer name and policy number if they have it
• Whether they are the registered keeper, and if not, who is

Photograph before anything moves, if it is safe:

• Wide shots showing both vehicles, the road layout and the direction of travel
• The point of impact on each car, close enough to read the damage
• All four number plates, including any third vehicle
• Skid marks, debris, broken lamp glass and where it landed
• Road signs, give way lines, traffic lights and their state, speed limit signs
• Weather, light levels and road surface condition
• Any relevant CCTV cameras on nearby buildings

Then write down the time, date, exact location including the nearest junction or house number, and a plain description of what happened while it is fresh. Sketch the layout. If you have a dashcam, save and back up the file immediately rather than letting it loop over.

Ask any witnesses for a name and number before they drift away. An independent account carries far more weight than either driver's version when liability is disputed.

When do you have to report an accident to the police?

You must report the accident to the police if you did not exchange details at the scene, and you must do it as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within 24 hours. Reporting it days later does not satisfy the requirement.

Call 999 at the time if there are injuries, the road is obstructed, a vehicle has left the scene, or you believe an offence such as drink driving or driving without insurance has been committed. Otherwise use 101 or your force's online reporting form. Ask for and write down the incident or reference number. Insurers ask for it, and so will a solicitor if liability is fought.

The police will not attend every minor bump, and they are not there to decide who pays. That is between the insurers.

How soon should you tell your insurer?

Straight away, and in practice within 24 hours. Most UK policies contain a condition requiring notification of any incident that might give rise to a claim, whether or not you want to claim yourself.

Tell them:

• Time, date and location
• The other driver's details and vehicle registration
• Whether anyone was injured or the police attended
• The police reference number if you have one

If you would rather pay for your own repair than lose your no claims discount, say explicitly that you are notifying for record only. That still protects you if the other driver later claims against you, which happens more often than people expect, sometimes months down the line.

Be careful with the accident management companies that often ring within hours of an incident. Some are genuinely useful, some are credit hire operations that will put you in a hire car at a daily rate your insurer may later dispute. Speak to your own insurer first.

What if the other driver has no insurance or drives off?

Report it to the police immediately and get an incident number, then pass everything to your insurer. Claims involving uninsured drivers, or drivers who cannot be traced, are dealt with through the Motor Insurers Bureau, which exists precisely so that innocent victims are not left with nothing. There are strict time limits and evidence requirements, so do not sit on it.

If you have comprehensive cover, your own policy will normally repair your car and then attempt recovery. You may have to pay your excess up front and get it back later if recovery succeeds.

How does the repair process work after an accident?

Your insurer will either send you to an approved repairer or ask for an estimate, then an engineer will assess the damage before authorising work.

• Approved networks have pre agreed labour rates with the insurer. Work is usually quick to authorise, and the guarantee is administered through the insurer.
• Your own choice of body shop is allowed under most policies, though some charge a higher excess or shorten the guarantee. Ask before committing.
• Paying yourself makes sense when the damage is cosmetic and the repair cost sits close to or below your excess. Bumper scuffs, a kerbed alloy or a dented wing are often cheaper to put right directly than to lose several years of no claims discount over.

Keep every invoice, estimate, hire agreement and receipt, including taxi fares and parking while your car was off the road. Those are recoverable if you were not at fault.

For cosmetic damage that does not affect the structure, a localised repair usually beats a full panel respray on both cost and time. Our vehicle body repairs team handles panel damage, and scuffed or split bumpers are dealt with through our bumper repair service, often in a single visit.

What happens if your car is written off?

A write off means the insurer has decided repair is not economic or not safe, and the car is placed in one of four categories.

You will be offered the pre accident market value, not what you paid and not the cost of a replacement from a dealer forecourt. If the offer looks low, gather evidence: advertised prices for the same model, age, mileage and specification, plus receipts for recent work such as a cambelt, new tyres or a full service. A reasoned counter offer with evidence attached is often accepted.

You can usually buy the salvage back on a Cat S or Cat N car if you want to repair it yourself, though the write off marker stays on the vehicle record permanently and affects resale.

Can you claim for injury, and how long do you have?

Yes, and the deadline is three years from the date of the accident or from the date you first realised the injury was connected to it. For children the three years runs from their eighteenth birthday.

Get checked even if you feel fine. Whiplash and soft tissue injuries frequently take a day or two to show, and a contemporaneous medical record is worth far more than a memory. Low value whiplash claims in England and Wales are handled through a fixed tariff and an online portal rather than the courts, which keeps costs down but also caps what is paid.

Keep a simple diary: symptoms, appointments, days off work, tasks you could not do. Loss of earnings, treatment costs, travel to appointments and care provided by family are all potentially recoverable, but only if you can evidence them.

Dealing with the shock afterwards

Feeling shaken, jumpy at junctions or reluctant to drive for a while is a normal response, not a weakness. Most people settle within a few weeks. If it persists, if you are avoiding driving altogether, or if sleep is affected, talk to your GP. Counselling costs can form part of a personal injury claim where the accident caused the problem.

Getting back behind the wheel sooner rather than later, on a quiet familiar route, helps more than waiting until you feel ready.

Reducing the chance of a next time

Most repeat incidents come down to the same handful of causes, and all of them are within your control.

• Leave a bigger gap. The two second rule doubles in the wet and stretches much further in ice.
• Put the phone out of reach. Holding a phone at the wheel carries six penalty points and a fixed penalty, which ends the licence of anyone within two years of passing their test.
• Check tyres monthly. The legal minimum tread is 1.6mm across the central three quarters, but grip falls off well before that.
• Keep the windscreen clean inside as well as out, and top up the washer bottle. Winter glare through a smeared screen causes more near misses than most drivers realise.
• Book faults in early. Spongy brakes, a pulling steering wheel or a headlight out are all cheap to fix and expensive to ignore.