Recently I was unfortunate to have a car accident, it was nothing major and thankfully no one was hurt, well apart from my car that is. When you crash a car you will obviously feel bad about it, but the fact that you just survived a potentially dangerous situation may set your mind racing and you'll feel a bit wobbly and chances are a bit foolish if you are at fault for the accident.
The thing is that you may forget what you need to do in the event of a crash with regards to car insurance; you need to make sure that you get all the necessary information so that your claim can be processed smoothly. As long as you can stay calm and remember all the points that I'll be mentioning then you should be okay.
First of all at the moment of impact you are likely to suffer from shock as mentioned earlier, if you are moving or on a busy road make sure you pull over and turn your hazard lights on to inform other motorists that you're going to be there for some time. The first thing you should do according to police is to take note of the car you've crashed into, specifically the number plate, make, model etc. This is because unfortunately some people may be driving illegally or without insurance and try to drive away from an accident, as long as you've got a description of the vehicle then the police will know who to go after if they've done this shady move.
Secondly once you're safely pulled over take a moment to calm yourself, it's entirely understandable for you to feel distressed so take a minute to catch your breath before leaving the car to check for damage and talk with the other driver. When talking to the driver of the other car whether the accident was your fault or not be calm and not offensive, if you jump out of your car shouting and pointing fingers then there's every chance you'll provoke the other driver into a confrontation and will only serve to make matters worse for everyone.
It is at this point you'll need to get the other driver's details, basically from a car insurance point of view you need the details of their car and their name and address. If your car is still roadworthy and you are not far from home then you should be able to drive home. If your vehicle has suffered severe damage there's a chance that you'll need roadside recovery, in my case when I phoned the car insurance company they actually asked whether I was at home or stuck at the roadside, we have roadside recovery provided by RAC and so if the car wasn't in a fit state to drive then we'd be waiting for a tow truck.
In the second part of this article I'll cover what you need to do after the accident, up to now you'll probably be on your way home either in your battered and bruised car or riding in a tow truck, the next part will cover calling the car insurance company and setting the gears in motion about getting your car fixed.
