Mobile phones are great for taking photos of number plates and other accident details. It has been useful when people have been less than honest about their details/the accident.

Thank you for sharing a good read most I already knew

great article. We should keep this info in our glovebox!

Thanks for this. I was just planning on printing out the article when I read the last paragraph – love it!

An excellent article.because a car accident can rattle you. It is very important to write the correct details as soon as possible because statements can come back especially police reports with the wrong time and other details as happened to me once. The time of the accident was 3pm the police report said 3am. A simple error but insurance companies love to be accurate!

Fantastic tips to help out.

Great article. Certainly is a very stressful situation to be in

Hopefully I wont need this information!

Very helpful advice if this was to happen, scary thought.

This was helpful to read as I’m not sure of all the things to do but I knew to swap or leave contact details.

I was involved in one, the car a rite off, no one hurt but it scared the wind out of me. Insurance will cover most but at least no one was hurt, I have no car 🙁

We were involved in an accident while stopped at traffic lights which were red. A car rear-ended us. The driver said she let her foot slide of the brake – in a manual car, not automatic!!!
That she was busy talking to her daughter, not concentrating.
We got suspicious straight away that she had had other accidents when she starting firing off questions e.g. who owns the car? who is it registered to? whose name is it insured in? who is your insurance company? The woman got a shock when she found out that the answer to 2 of those questions was “joint”. Another indicator was that she said she was the only one that drove the car she was in and it had a lot of dents all around the bodywork. She also stated that she didn’t know who her insurance company was, that her husband handled it. Guess what, it wasn’t insured at all – not even 3rd party property. The rear of ours was damaged – one side of the bumper bar was sticking out sideways and a strip of paintwork behind the bumperbar was literally split as though it had been cut with a knife right where the bolt was so it would have rusted and given out at a later date (professional opinion). As we were booked to take a short holiday and the car was completely roadworthy we came to an arrangement with the insurance company and the crash repair to have our holiday before taking it in. For one thing the crash repair workshop was full so it would have had to be put out in the back yard, and we didn’t want to take a loan car that another unfortunate may desperately need as there was only one there instead of the usual three.
We got a letter from the woman demanding to know how the repair cost so much and why we took so long before we had it repaired which we duly took into the insurance company. Apparently it is illegal to contact the other owner when an insurance company is involved. Had the woman’s husband not already paid the bill, they would have taken action. He had paid it only a few minutes before we got there with the letter. They were also lucky because a family member knew the crash repairer and he didn’t charge as much as he was entitled to. We got the required number of quotes requested. It was legally done.

Some great advice to keep in mind.

so stressing a time, all comments great.

It good to know these things just incase

Great advise I had a car accident and though I did all the right things but it pays to check the phone number of the person while they are there and also if you have a mobile take a photo of the car and numberplate you can never be to trusting.

good tips. I was hit fortunately a very minor one but my advice is photograph on your phone everything as I was quite shaky as it is a shock when you are driving along and someone comes into you from the side. I photographed their licence their numberplate, the car damage insurance papers etc and it was really useful to have all this when making a claim. I have also witnessed a crash and did this for the drivers and emailed them the pictures and they were so grateful as they too were quite shaken at the time and it helped them with their claim and then it was clear to see what happened and what damage was done.

Clever idea having a check-list kept in the car, as you’re often pretty shaken up after a prang, and quite likely to forget even basic things. Definitely a good idea to take photos of damage, car rego plate numbers, even photos of the people involved, in case you’re given false information. I don’t know that many people would know their insurance policy number or phone number though. And not everyone has a “smart” phone either.

Some great tips, something we all need, even though we don’t want to crash

I think between 1 and 2 you should first check if the driver and passengers in the other vehicle involved are OK too before asking for their insurance details