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What Details to Exchange After a Car Accident (UK Checklist)
The legal minimum is short: your name, your address, and the vehicle's registration — plus the owner's name and address if the car is not yours. Everything else on the usual checklists, insurance details included, is either governed by a different section of the Act or is simply good practice. Knowing which is which matters when someone refuses.
Last updated 4 August 2026 · Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
The legal minimum
Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requires the driver to stop and, if required to do so by any person having reasonable grounds for so requiring, give:
- Their name and address
- The name and address of the vehicle's owner, if that is someone else
- The identification marks of the vehicle — in practice, the registration
That is the whole of it. Note "if required to do so by any person having reasonable grounds": the duty is triggered by someone asking. It is not limited to the other driver — a passenger, a cyclist, or the owner of a damaged wall can all have reasonable grounds.
The bit most checklists get wrong. Insurance details are not part of the section 170 list. They are dealt with by section 154, which works differently — it bites when a claim is made, and it operates on demand.
Insurance details: what section 154 actually requires
Where a claim is made against you in respect of a liability that motor insurance is required to cover, you must, on demand by or on behalf of the person making the claim, state whether or not you were insured — and give either the particulars from your certificate of insurance, or:
- The registration or other identifying particulars of the vehicle
- The number or other identifying particulars of the insurance policy
- The name of the insurer
- The period of the insurance cover
Failing to comply without reasonable excuse, or wilfully making a false statement in reply to such a demand, is a criminal offence. So while you may not have to volunteer insurance details the instant metal meets metal, refusing them when a claim is made — or inventing them — carries real consequences.
Separately, where someone has been injured, section 170 requires you to produce your certificate of insurance to a constable or to anyone with reasonable grounds to ask. If you cannot produce it at the scene, you must report the accident and produce it within the same 24-hour framework.
The practical checklist
In practice, take everything below. Most drivers exchange it willingly, and it saves weeks of chasing later.
| What to take | Why | Required by law? |
|---|---|---|
| Full name and address | Identifies the driver | Yes — s.170 |
| Vehicle registration | Identifies the vehicle; enables a DVLA check | Yes — s.170 |
| Owner's name and address | If they are not the registered keeper | Yes — s.170 |
| Insurer and policy number | Where your claim is directed | On demand — s.154 |
| Insurance certificate | Confirms cover | Where there is injury — s.170 |
| Mobile number | Practical follow-up | No |
| Make, model and colour | Corroborates the registration | No |
| Photo of their damage | Stops damage being exaggerated later | No |
| Number of occupants | Guards against phantom injury claims | No |
| Witness names and numbers | Independent account if you disagree | No |
That is ten items to collect from a stranger, in the street, minutes after a collision. Most people get three or four and reconstruct the rest from memory later. Car Crash Lawyer AI asks for each one in turn and runs the DVLA check off the registration, so the make, model, MOT and tax status arrive without you having to ask for them. See how it works.
Record the circumstances too
Details identify the parties; they do not establish what happened. Also note the date and time, the exact location, the direction each vehicle was travelling, the weather and light, the road layout and any signs or markings, and whether the police attended — with an incident number if so.
Number of occupants: worth a moment
Count the people in the other car and, if you can, note where they were sitting. Claims sometimes arrive later on behalf of passengers who were not present. A contemporaneous note that the other vehicle had one occupant is difficult to argue with, and it costs you five seconds at the scene.
If the other driver refuses
Do not escalate it. Instead:
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Photograph the registration plate immediately
Before anything else, and before they can leave. That single photograph is usually enough to trace the vehicle.
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Record everything you can observe
Make, model, colour, damage, number of occupants, direction of travel, and a description of the driver.
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Look for independent evidence
Witnesses, other drivers' dashcams, shop or house CCTV, bus cameras. Ask quickly — footage is often overwritten within days.
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Report it to the police
Failing to stop and give particulars when required is an offence under section 170. Refusing insurance details when a claim is made is an offence under section 154.
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Tell your insurer regardless
GOV.UK is clear that you must report the accident to your insurer even if you are not planning to claim.
Never chase a driver who leaves. Pursuit puts you and others at risk and can expose you to prosecution. A photograph of the plate is worth more than a chase, and the police can do the rest.
What you do not have to hand over
- Your driving licence — a constable can require it; another driver cannot.
- Your date of birth, employer or bank details — none are part of s.170 or s.154.
- An account of blame — describe what happened factually if you wish, but most UK motor policies contain a condition against admitting liability.
Be wary of anyone at the scene offering to "handle everything" — an unsolicited recovery driver or a bystander pressing a claims-management firm on you. Deal with your own insurer first.
Ten details, none of them memorable, all of them needed
The difference between a claim that settles in your favour and one that ends up split down the middle is usually a detail nobody thought to take — the insurer's name, the number of people in the other car, a photograph of damage that was already there.
Car Crash Lawyer AI asks for each item in turn so nothing is left to memory, runs a DVLA check on the other vehicle from its registration alone, files your photographs against the right sections, and emails you a complete 18-page incident report for your insurer or solicitor.
£11.99 for a year, and it is set up before you need it — which is the only time it can be.
Get the app — £11.99 a yearSources
- Road Traffic Act 1988, section 170 — duty to stop and give particulars
- Road Traffic Act 1988, section 154 — duty to give insurance particulars on demand
- GOV.UK — Vehicle insurance: if you're in an accident