What to do after an accident?

bigfer

My daughter has just bought her first car. She is a novice driver but has held her license for 5 years and had refresher lessons. Without tempting fate, if she did have an accident with another motorist (or pedestrian), what should she say and do? Other than stop in a safe place?
She has her insurance details in the glove box and has breakdown cover.
TIA

Car_54

She should do what the Highway Code tells her - she must have studied that to pass her tests.

FWIW the relevant rules are 283, 286 and 287.

400ixl

Other than the above, take lots of photo's of the scene, vehicles, signage, road layouts etc.

Has she got front & rear facing dash cams?

prettyandfluffy

Keep a pen and paper in the glovebox, too.  Remind her not to admit liability or apologise.

bigfer

prettyandfluffy said:

Keep a pen and paper in the glovebox, too.  Remind her not to admit liability or apologise.

Thanks. I don't drive, but I remember something about not saying anything after an accident.

chrisw

bigfer said:

prettyandfluffy said:

Keep a pen and paper in the glovebox, too.  Remind her not to admit liability or apologise.

Thanks. I don't drive, but I remember something about not saying anything after an accident.

They always say that but it rarely happens in practice. If someone ploughed into the back of me I would at least expect them to apologise. Don't apologise though if you don't think it's your fault, but I don't really see why you would anyway.

DullGreyGuy

What's said at the scene of the accident in terms of liability etc is irrelevant and apologising isnt an admission of guilt.  The only things that do potentially matter are factual statements about what happened... "sorry I didn't see you because I was trying to program my sat nav" are much more damning.

Ideally pen and paper to take notes, a charged smartphone is an alternative. Ideally photos of the vehicle in situ but it's not always safe to leave them in place. Photos of both vehicles damage, their registration plate, ideally their driver at least caught in one photo. Photo of the scene of the accident. 

Both parties should exchange their names & addresses, reg plate as already mentioned, and insurance details. 

Be aware that breakdown cover doesn't normally include recovery from an accident (because the Motor insurance will pay it) so a method of payment for a recovery truck.

victor2

prettyandfluffy said:

Keep a pen and paper in the glovebox, too.  Remind her not to admit liability or apologise.

Do not apologise for anything. Many years ago I had a minor accident that was my fault and I knew it. We exchanged details and I said to the other driver "I'm sorry your day has been ruined." Shortly after, I got a letter from her insurers saying I had admitted responsibility and they wanted my solicitors details, as she was claiming for whiplash injuries, as was standard practice then. Told my insurers and they said not to reply to the letter, but to send it to them. I did that and heard no more.

Car_54

DullGreyGuy said:

Both parties should exchange their names & addresses, reg plate as already mentioned, and insurance details. 

There is no need to give insurance details unless someone is injured.

You are also required to give the car's owner's name and address if it isn't yours.

DullGreyGuy

Car_54 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Both parties should exchange their names & addresses, reg plate as already mentioned, and insurance details. 

There is no need to give insurance details unless someone is injured.

You are also required to give the car's owner's name and address if it isn't yours.

Its highly preferable to, especially to deal with cases where the driver is using the Driving Other Cars extension or top up insurance otherwise it becomes a protracted situation of doing a MID check and finding the RTA insurer. Contacting them and then they say the driver isnt covered by their policy and either you start going down the RTA route or 3 months later they finally come back and say their insured has advised the driver was using DoC and here's the policy details.

All short cut and claim sped up by exchanging details.

Marvel1

If they offer to settle outside insurance, don't.