What should you do if you are hit from the side?

If you are in an accident you must stop and assist. Even if nobody is hurt, you have to exchange details with the other driver or the owner of any property that is damaged. It is an offence to leave the scene of a vehicle accident without doing this.

If the police attend the accident scene, they will interview the people involved and any other witnesses. Police may charge the drivers with breaking the road laws.

If someone causes a crash, they are responsible for any damage they cause. A claim for the cost of repairs to a damaged car can be made through an insurance company or through the courts , if necessary.

Reporting the accident to the police

You must report the accident to the police if:

• anyone’s property is damaged
• the other person involved in the accident does not stop or refuses to give their details.

Police may not attend the accident scene unless someone has been injured. If police attend the scene, they will usually test drivers for alcohol or other drugs. It is a serious offence to refuse this test.

What you should do

Take time to write down carefully all of the details such as the time, date and location where the accident happened and the names and contact details of any witnesses. Note down the speed you believe you were travelling at and even the weather conditions. It will help if you draw a diagram. This information will be helpful to police and your car insurance company.

What the police will do

The police will investigate by talking to the drivers and any other witnesses. They will write a report. This report may be important if there is a dispute about who was at fault.

Do not admit that an accident was your fault. You may not be qualified to decide this and making this admission could be used as evidence against you if there is a dispute.

If you have broken any road laws the police may:

• issue you with a fine
• charge you with an offence.

If you are charged you will have to go to court.

Insurance

If you have insurance, let your insurer know about the accident as soon as possible after the accident. This is important, even if you decide not to make a claim against your insurance.

Most insurance policies say that you have to notify the insurer of any accident. This is called a ‘duty of disclosure’. Notifying your insurer also allows you to make a claim later if the damage is going to cost more than you thought.

There are different levels of insurance cover. You may only be insured for damage to vehicles and property that belongs to others. This is called third party insurance.

Comprehensive insurance policies cover damage to your vehicle too. In most cases you will have to pay some of the money. This is called the excess. The amount you have to pay depends on your insurance policy.

The kind of protection you have depends on what the insurance policy says. You should always read the policy carefully before you sign it and ask if there is anything that you do not understand.

The Law Handbook has more information about motor vehicles and insurance .

The Insurance Law Service has an online Motor vehicle accident problem solver and sample letters that may help you to work out what to do.

Call the National Insurance Hotline on 1300 663 464 for more help.

If a person is injured

Insurance for personal injury is included in the cost of vehicle registration and is administered by the Transport Accident Commission . This is a government organisation that pays medical costs for people who are injured in a motor vehicle accident.

Visit the Transport Accident Commission's page What to do after an accident for more information.

If the driver was drunk or drug affected

Usually an insurance policy will exclude a driver who was:

Other illegal behaviour, such as if the driver was driving without a licence or involved in a speed race, may also mean that you are not covered by the policy.

If you or the other driver have no insurance

It is not compulsory to get insurance to cover property damage.

If the accident was your fault

If you are not insured and the accident was your fault, the other driver’s insurance company will try to recover the money for the damages. If you don’t pay the debt the insurance company can take you to court.

If the other driver does not have insurance the other driver may sue you for damages.

A community legal centre may be able to help you.

If the accident was not your fault

If the accident was not your fault you will need to decide whether to sue the other driver for damages.

Get a quote to find out how much the vehicle will cost to repair.

Taking the other party to court could be expensive and if that driver has no job, assets or money it may be difficult to recover the money even if you win. The court may also decide that both parties were partly at fault.

Another way of getting the money is to try mediation. The Dispute Settlement Centre can help you to discuss this with the other party and reach an agreement.

Other support

Find out how you can get other support for traffic offences.

One of the trickiest aspects of any car accident case is figuring out fault. Accidents occur quickly, and recollections are often unreliable. Sometimes there's credible witness testimony or video footage of the collision to make things easier, but often you need to look harder for clues to liability, including:

• location of the vehicle damage
• extent of the vehicle damage, and
• details about the context of the accident.

Why Determining Car Accident Fault Is Important

Deciding who was at fault for a car accident is important because it usually dictates who will bear financial responsibility for injuries and other losses ("damages") resulting from the crash.

Generally speaking, the person who causes the accident will pay for any vehicle damage or personal injuries that result. Most of the time, the at-fault driver won't pay this money themselves; their car insurance company will.

A big exception is accidents in no-fault car insurance states, where injured drivers will make a claim with their own car insurance companies, regardless of who was at fault for the accident. (Note: Injured passengers can usually make a claim under the no-fault policy of the driver of the vehicle in which they were riding at the time of the accident.) And then there's uninsured drivers. Learn more about what happens if the other driver has no car insurance, and when you're in an accident but you're uninsured.

Who Determines Fault for a Car Accident?

With most accidents, it's the car insurance company that will take the lead in determining who was responsible for causing the crash. In many cases, it'll be a claims adjuster who conducts the investigation. This investigation may consist of interviewing the drivers and passengers from the accident, as well as any witnesses who saw what happened. The claims adjuster may also look at photographs, car repair estimates, a police report, and video surveillance footage.

(Note: It's a different story when your car accident case ends up in court. In the very rare event that a car accident lawsuit goes all the way to trial, it's the judge or jury that will consider all the evidence and decide who should be held legally responsible for causing the underlying crash.)

Depending on the accident, the first part of the investigation will be whatever the claims adjuster can accomplish from the adjuster's office. But if necessary, they will head out for some fieldwork to complete the investigation.

This could include visiting the site of the accident and checking out the vehicle damage before repairs take place. By reviewing vehicle damage and other physical clues from the accident, an investigator will have a significant piece of the puzzle for figuring out who caused the accident. Get more details on how insurance companies investigate a car accident.

Using Physical Evidence to Identify the At-Fault Driver

By looking at the damage to a vehicle after a car accident, a claims adjuster can sometimes piece together a viable picture of what happened

For instance, the adjuster may review skid marks, either from photographs or during a visit to the accident scene. By measuring the length of the skid marks and taking into account other facts about the vehicles and road conditions, the adjuster can estimate how fast a vehicle was traveling before impact.

Another way to estimate a vehicle's speed is to examine the extent of the damage. As you can imagine, the faster a vehicle moves in an accident, the more damage it'll sustain upon impact. Then there's the fact that certain safety devices, like an airbag, will only activate under certain conditions. If those airbags deployed, the adjuster can assume those conditions were present at the time of the accident.

The location of the damage may also help determine what a vehicle was doing at the time of the collision. Damage to the passenger side of the vehicle in an intersection raises the possibility that the driver was turning left when the accident occurred.

Then there's looking at the overall accident scene. Skid marks are one major clue, but another factor is the positioning of the vehicles after the accident. An adjuster can compare photographs immediately following the accident with the actual accident scene to ascertain where a vehicle was in relation to other vehicles and any other parts of the road.

By looking at the condition and location of landmarks involved in an accident (like a sign or parking meter), the adjuster can decide if a car was in motion or parked at the time of impact.

T-Bone (Side Impact) Accidents

The location of the damage, along with other factors, can help determine fault. If Vehicle 1 is hit broadside (t-boned) in an intersection where Vehicle 2 had a stop sign and Vehicle 1 did not, then there's a strong possibility that Vehicle 2 ran the stop sign when it hit Vehicle 1. So, the driver of Vehicle 2 might be thought to bear most (if not all) of the fault for a t-bone or side impact accident.

Rear-End Accidents

Damage to the back of a vehicle strongly implies its driver is not at fault for the accident. Generally speaking, if someone rear-ends you, they will be mostly, if not completely, at fault for the accident. There could be exceptions, such as a car that's rear-ended while cutting off another vehicle, leaving too little space to stop. In this situation, the car that's rear-ended could be at fault for the accident. But in the vast majority of cases, the tailing driver is at fault for a rear-end car accident.

Examples of How Vehicle Damage Might Help Determine Fault

Example 1: Let's say you're driving along a residential street when someone suddenly pulls out of a driveway to your right and broadsides you. How can you use the damage to each vehicle to prove that the other driver was at fault?

One indicator is when the other driver hits you on your passenger side, leaving extensive damage to that area of your vehicle. Since the damage isn't to your front right fender, but is to the middle of your car, that presents fairly solid evidence that the other driver simply wasn't paying attention when he or she entered the roadway.

But the evidence does not always present such a straightforward picture. If, for example, the other driver pulled out just before you got to the driveway, so that the damage is on the front end of your vehicle and on the other vehicle's driver's side, now the picture indicates that you hit the other vehicle.

Certainly, it could have been because the other driver pulled out in front of you so fast that you were unable to stop in time. But the evidence also supports the theory that the other pulled out, was waiting for traffic going the other way to clear, and it was you who wasn't paying attention, so that you slammed right into the other vehicle.

Example 2: You're driving straight and someone makes a left turn in front of you. Most drivers in your situation will try to swerve to the right to avoid the driver cutting in front of them. So, if the damage is to your left front corner or left front side, that can indicate that you tried to avoid the accident by swerving. If the damage to the other car is to the right front corner, that is evidence that the other driver wasn't paying attention and just cut in front of oncoming traffic.

But if the damage to the turning car is to the right rear corner, that is evidence that it may have been the oncoming driver who was not paying attention. The further toward the turning car's right rear the damage is, the more that indicates that the turning car had almost finished executing the turn. The further the turning car gets across the oncoming traffic lane, the more likely it is that the driver going straight will be found at least partially at fault for not slowing down and avoiding the collision.

Example 3: If someone runs a red light, that driver will often hit the other car broadside. This is because the non-negligent driver was simply going through the intersection with the green light, when the at-fault driver ran through the red light. In that case, the damage will generally be to the front of the negligent driver's vehicle, and to the driver's side of the non-negligent person's vehicle. (Note: The legal concept of negligence is used to establish fault for a car accident.)

Gathering Evidence After a Car Accident

The three things that you absolutely must do after a car accident— especially when it appears that the location of vehicle damage is going to be important—are:

• get the names of witnesses
• take pictures before leaving the scene, and
• call the police.

If there were any witnesses to your accident, make sure that you get their names and contact information. Liability in a car accident case can often be a matter of your word versus the other driver's word, so witnesses can be critical.

If you can, take pictures of the car accident scene immediately. Take as many pictures as you can—of both cars, the debris from the crash, and anything else relevant at the accident scene—from as many angles as you can.

Many states have a law requiring that a local law enforcement agency be informed if a car accident causes bodily injury or property damage that exceeds a certain amount ($500 or $1,000, for example). Whatever the nature of the accident, if you believe that the other driver was at fault and that his/her liability might not be completely obvious, you may want to call the local police/sheriff's department and ask that an officer come to the scene. Any police report generated in connection with the accident will often include the responding officer's notes regarding the location and extent of vehicle damage.

Need Help Proving Fault For Your Car Accident?

Proving fault after an accident starts with gathering evidence. Often, simply providing the information to the car insurance claims adjuster or opposing counsel is enough to resolve the matter. But in cases where fault is in dispute and there's a lot at stake, it's a good idea to consider consulting an experienced car accident lawyer who can present your best case and work toward a fair outcome.