What should I do in an accident?
Following road safety guidelines is a surefire way to reduce the risk of an accident when driving, but what should you do if you do find yourself in accident or your car has broken down?
If you are unfortunate enough to have an accident, the first thing you should do is stop your vehicle, before then checking that any passengers in your car are OK. It is illegal to drive away from an accident and may be unsafe for you to continue driving afterwards. Once you have stopped, turn off your engine and switch on your hazard lights.
Once you’ve done that need to check for any injuries. You should also take note if there are no injuries to the other driver and passengers in the other car.
If someone is hurt call an ambulance and the police. Call the police if the road is blocked.
Make sure to exchange details with everyone involved in the accident, you should take note of:
- Name and address of everyone involved
- Insurance details
- Details of any passengers or witnesses- you will probably need these for insurance reports
- Number plate, make, model, and colour of the cars involved
- Details of the event- date, time, driving condition, road quality, weather
- Any damage caused to your vehicle or others’, make sure to note where on the vehicle it is and the scale of the damage
Following this, it is important to have any damage to your car fixed, in order to preserve resale value and prevent faults further up the line. If you do require your car to be fixed up, book into our Accident Repair Centre.
Breaking down is a little different, often we can experience faults with our cars before they completely breakdown. If you can, get it fixed. Prevention is the best form of protection. If a fault arises with your vehicle, it is better to have this sorted before a more serious problem occurs.
If you are unable to get your vehicle fixed, or an unforeseen vehicle fault arises, causing you to breakdown there are steps you can take to keep yourself and other safe.
Firstly, if possible, move your car to a safe point. This could be an emergency area on the Motorway or dual carriageway. Remember, you can only use the hard shoulder for emergencies.
Don’t push your car to a safe spot, this puts you at risk.
Next, you should warn other drivers that you may be an obstruction. Turn on your hazard lights and get your triangle warning out. The triangle should be positioning 45 metres behind your vehicle on the same side of the road that you’ve stopped on. Do not use them on the Motorway.
Keeping your sidelights on helps to increase visibility, particularly when it is dark, this way drivers will see you earlier and be able to move around you safely.
Other top tips include wearing high-vis clothing, particularly at night, and make sure to stand well away from traffic.
We hope you’ll never need this advice but if you ever do find yourself in an accident or your car breaks down, following these tips is a good place to start. Most importantly, remember that prevention is the best form of protection, driving safely, following speed limits, and regularly checking your car is in good health will all help to prevent accidents and breakdowns.
