With nearly 40 million licensed vehicles on Great Britain’s roads, accidents are a sad inevitability and we all have a responsibility to look after ourselves and each other whenever we get behind the wheel.
Data from the Department for Transport reveals there were an estimated 119,850 casualties of all severities on Great Britain’s roads in the year ending 2021. That figure represented a welcome 9% decrease on the previous 12 months but still averages out at almost 330 casualties per day.
If you are involved in an accident and it was someone else’s fault, you could have grounds to make a no win no fee claim and seek compensation. But before you get to that point, you need to know what to do in the immediate aftermath of the crash. Here are four key steps for you to follow:
Pull over to a safe place
Assuming this is possible, it’s absolutely vital that you leave the car in a place where it is not going to cause any further problems for other road users – for example on the hard shoulder of the motorway. Make sure the engine is turned off and your hazard lights are switched on. You should also check yourself for any serious injuries and, if you can do so, get out of the car and stand a safe distance away.
Call the emergency services
If there has been an injury, call an ambulance and ask for assistance as soon as possible. And if the collision is causing an obstruction in the road, you need to call the police to the scene. They will have strict protocols for dealing with these kinds of situations, so it’s important that you allow the authorities to do their jobs.
Exchange information with the other driver(s)
If there was another driver involved, make sure they are ok and check if they need medical help. When it is appropriate to do so, you should swap information such as your names, contact details, insurance providers as well as the make, model and registration of both your vehicles. This will help to speed up the process of sorting out any claim you may need to make on your policy.
Make a note of any important details at the scene
It might not be the first thing that springs to mind, but you should record any important details from the site of the crash. These could include pictures, videos and the accounts of anybody who was a witness to the collision. You should also take down their contact information, as you may need to get in touch with them later to support your insurance claim and/or your compensation claim.
