What to Do After a Car Accident in Cardiff: A Step by Step Guide

The first ten minutes: at the scene

Stop the car, switch the engine off and put the hazard lights on. That is the law and it is also the sensible order. Then check for injuries, yours first, then your passengers, then anyone in the other vehicle. Ali Hindal answers the workshop phone at Unit 4 Wentloog Buildings in Rumney, and the car is repaired in the same building.

1. Call 999 if anyone is hurt, if the road is blocked, or if a vehicle is in a dangerous position.
2. Get everyone somewhere safe. On a fast road, that means out of the cars and behind a barrier, not standing between them.
3. Do not apologise or accept blame. Say nothing about fault. You do not yet know what happened, and admissions at the roadside are used later.
4. Exchange details. Name, address, phone number, insurer and registration for every driver involved. Take the details of the registered keeper too if the driver is not the owner.
5. Photograph the scene before the cars move. Both vehicles where they stopped, the damage, the road, the signs and the conditions.
6. Get witness details if anyone stopped. A name and a phone number is enough.

Note the registration and ring the police if the other driver will not give their details or drives off. That is exactly what the 24 hour reporting rule exists for. If what you hit was an animal rather than another car, the rules on stopping and reporting are different and are set out in what to do after hitting an animal.

What the law requires you to do

Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 sets out three duties after an accident involving injury or damage to another person, vehicle or property.

• Stop. You must stop at the scene and stay long enough to exchange details.
• Give your details. Your name and address, and those of the vehicle’s owner, plus the registration, to anyone with reasonable grounds to ask.
• Report it if you could not. If details were not exchanged at the scene, you must report the accident to the police as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within 24 hours. If anyone was injured and you did not produce insurance details at the scene, the same reporting duty applies.

Reporting to the police is not the same as making a claim, and it does not decide fault. It is a legal duty, and failing to do it is a far more serious matter than the accident usually is.

The first hour: getting the car off the road

The next question, once details are exchanged, is whether the car is safe to drive. Do not decide that from inside it.

Walk round and look for fluid on the road, a wheel that is not sitting straight, a panel touching a tyre, a bonnet that will not latch, lights that do not work, or steering that felt wrong when you pulled over. Any of those and the car needs recovering rather than driving.

Check your own cover first: many policies and breakdown memberships include recovery to a garage of your choice, and on a non fault claim the other driver’s insurer often covers it. If neither applies, ring us on 07400 454839 and we will arrange collection. Where the car goes matters more than it seems, because a car recovered to a holding yard can be difficult to get out again.

What to write down while you are still there

Photographs cover most of it, but six things are worth writing down as well, because they are the details that fade within the hour.

• The time. Not roughly, exactly. Insurers cross reference it against the other driver’s account.
• The direction each car was travelling and which lane it was in.
• The speed you were doing, honestly, and what the limit was.
• What the other driver said. Their exact words, particularly anything about not seeing you or being in a hurry.
• Conditions. Wet road, low sun in your eyes, a van blocking the view, roadworks.
• Who was in each car. Passenger claims appear weeks later and are much harder to challenge if nobody recorded how many people were there.

Take a photograph of your own notes, so the record is timestamped on your phone along with everything else.

The three mistakes that cost drivers the most

Apologising at the scene. British instinct, expensive habit. Saying sorry is treated as an admission, and liability is decided on the evidence rather than on who was politest.

Agreeing to settle privately before getting a figure. The damage on the outside is not the cost of the repair. Drivers who accept a few hundred pounds in cash regularly find the bumper alone costs more once the brackets behind it are counted.

Letting the claim book the car in. Say where the car is going in the first call. Once a network repairer has collected it, moving it is awkward, slow and sometimes chargeable.

The first day: reporting it

Tell your insurer within 24 hours even if you do not intend to claim. Policies require notification of an incident, not just a claim, and an accident that reaches them later from the other driver’s side is a much worse conversation.

Have these ready for the call: the registration of every vehicle, the other driver’s details, the time and place, the police reference if there is one, and your photographs. Say clearly whether you intend to claim or are reporting for information only. If the other driver has no insurance or has driven off, the route is a different one, covered in being hit by an uninsured or hit and run driver.

This is also the call where you name your repairer, before the handler offers to book the car in somewhere. You are entitled to choose, and the words to use are in our guide on whether you can choose your own bodyshop.

If the accident happened on the A48 or the M4

Fast roads change the order. Getting off the carriageway comes before details, photographs and everything else.

On the A48 through Cardiff there are laybys and junction slip roads at regular intervals, and reaching one is safer than stopping in a live lane. On the M4, use the hard shoulder only if you cannot reach the next exit. Once stopped, get out of the passenger side, get everyone behind the barrier and up the bank, and ring 999. Do not stand between the vehicles and do not try to put out warning triangles on a motorway.

Details and photographs can wait until the scene is safe or the police have arrived. If the other driver has left before you could exchange details, the 24 hour reporting duty applies and the registration number you remembered is the most useful thing you have.

The first week: repair, claim or both

Three routes, and the right one depends on the damage and the excess.

• Claim on your own policy. You pay the excess, your insurer pays the rest. Your no claims discount is affected unless it is protected and the claim is recovered.
• Claim against the other driver when the accident was not your fault. The cost is recovered from their insurer and you should not be out of pocket.
• Pay privately. No claim, no excess and no effect on your renewal. Often the better answer on cosmetic damage once the numbers are compared.

Get an itemised repair figure before you decide, because all three routes depend on what the repair actually costs. Once the car is safe and the details are exchanged, the next step is getting accident repair booked and assessed properly.

Damage you cannot see from the driver’s seat

A car that looks straight after a low speed impact often is not. Bumper skins spring back, and behind them sit the crash bar, the impact absorbers, the sensor mounts and the brackets that hold everything in line. Those crush and snap on purpose, and they do not recover.

The signs that something is wrong behind the panel come later: a pull to one side, uneven tyre wear, a parking sensor that reads phantom obstacles, a headlamp pointing slightly off, or damp carpet weeks after the impact. Have the car looked at properly even if it drove home fine, particularly before a long journey. The checks worth asking for, and what each one finds, are in hidden damage after a minor knock.

If you are not sure what to do, ring us first

You do not have to have decided anything before you ring. Most people who call the workshop after an accident want to know two things: is the car safe to drive, and what happens next. Both can be answered in a couple of minutes with the registration and a photograph.

We will tell you whether it needs recovering, whether it is worth claiming, and what the repair involves. Photographs help, and how to take them is covered in our guide to photographing damage for a quote.

Ring the workshop as soon as the scene is safe. We will tell you whether the car can be driven and what happens next. Call 07400 454839 or use the contact form.