What to do if You are Involved in an Car Accident
Crashing is horrible for anyone but for young drivers, panic is causing serious mistakes.
According to a recent survey by Ingenie, many 17 to 24 year old drivers feel inadequately prepared to deal with crash situations. Inexperience and emotional distress leave young drivers apprehensive about getting back in the car, nervous of driving alone and in some cases, put off driving altogether.
Being unprepared for a crash can be dangerous, but it can also hurt the pocket when it comes to making a claim.
Gather as much information as you can
- Registration numbers of all vehicles. This is vital as most other information can be gathered later once the registration numbers are correct
- Insurance details for all vehicles
- Names, addresses and phone numbers for all drivers
- Names and contact details for any witnesses who saw the collision or came on the immediate aftermath
- Names, station and contact details for the attending gardai
- Photos of the position of and damage to each vehicle involved in the collision
You can capture a lot of this information with your mobile phone – use the camera to record the vehicles, their position after the collision, any areas of damage. If other motorist don’t like you photographing their insurance details, don’t press the issue. Ask them politely for their insurance details and if they refuse, ensure the police have attended and that they have the details.
Very often, liability will be admitted but in due course the other driver may change their story. If a party does admit liability then you should get them to do so in writing. Furthermore, if the other party states that he is going to move the vehicle and return to the scene, don't believe them. To be on the safe side make sure that all details are exchanged before anyone leaves the scene.
Making A Claim
One advantage of BoxyMo is that it will alert us if your car has been involved in an accident. If this happens and your car is stationary, we will try to call you on your mobile phone. We will check you are OK and try to help you get going again. If we can see that your car is moving we will assume you are unharmed and do not require immediate assistance.
If we are unable to contact you and after assessing all of the information we think it is appropriate, we will attempt to contact the emergency services and request that they attend. Please note we are not able to guarantee that the emergency services will attend in these circumstances, and you are still obliged to notify us of any incident. Any incident must be reported to us immediately. Do not delay in reporting any accident no matter how small it may appear at the time of occurrence.
If you have to make a claim you will have to contact the following number:
- Phone from Northern Ireland: 028 90722961
Lines are open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.