The Garda report and the accident report form

The duty under section 106

Section 106 of the Road Traffic Act 1961 sets out what a driver must do when a vehicle is involved in a collision in a public place in which a person is injured or property is damaged. The driver must stop the vehicle and keep it at the place for a reasonable time. The driver must give, on demand, their name and address, the vehicle's registration and the owner's name and address, and the insurance details, to a Garda or to anyone with reasonable grounds for asking, including the person injured. Where no Garda is present, the driver must report the collision to a Garda as soon as possible, which in practice means going to a Garda station.

Failing to do any of this is an offence. The duty is on drivers, not on passengers, pedestrians or cyclists. If you were not driving you have no duty under the section, but the record it produces is still the record your own insurer, the other driver's insurer, the Board's form and, where it comes to it, the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland (the MIBI, see the glossary) will ask about first.

Reporting after the event

Where a Garda attended, the report exists already. Ask the Garda for the station and the incident reference before leaving, or ring the station the next day. Where no Garda attended, go to any Garda station as soon as you can. Bring what you have: the date, the time, the place, the other driver's details, the registration, any photographs and the names of any witnesses. You will be asked for your own licence and insurance.

Ask for three things and write them down: the station, the name of the Garda who took the report and the reference number. Every later request for the report starts with those.

For an uninsured or untraced driver, the MIBI expects a Garda report within two days where that is possible. That is what the MIBI expects, to be read against the Agreement, and a report made later with a good reason is a matter for argument rather than an automatic bar; the MIBI guide explains it. For every other claim there is no fixed day, but the sooner the report is made the less there is to argue about later.

What the Garda records

A Garda who attends or receives a report records the collision on the Garda's own system. The record is of fact as the Garda had it: who was involved, the vehicles and their registrations, the insurance details each driver gave, the time, the place, the road and weather conditions, the damage visible, whether anyone was injured and what each person said happened. Where there is an injury, the Garda may take statements and may measure and photograph the scene. Where an offence appears to have been committed, that is a separate matter and may lead to a prosecution.

What the record is not is a decision. The Garda does not determine civil liability and the report does not say who pays. The Garda road traffic page describes the service from the Garda's side.

The abstract: the accident report form

What a claimant, an insurer or a solicitor obtains is the abstract of the Garda report, sometimes called the Garda accident report form or the abstract report. It is a summary of the record above, issued by the Garda station on application, and it is the document insurers ask for when they say "the Garda report".

To get it, apply in writing to the Garda station that dealt with the collision, giving the date, the place, the reference and the names of those involved. A fee applies; the station will say what it is. Insurers ask for the abstract as a matter of course, so if your own insurer is dealing with the claim it may already have it. A solicitor acting for you will request it as one of the first documents on the file. Where court proceedings are issued, the solicitor obtains what the court needs by the Garda's own procedure for proceedings, and the Courts Service deals with what is produced to the court.

Statements taken by a Garda are not usually released with the abstract. Where a prosecution is pending, the abstract may be held back until it concludes.

What the report proves and what it does not

The Injuries Resolution Board does not decide liability. Section 20 of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 has the Board assess on the assumption that the respondent is fully liable, on the documents, with regard to the Personal Injuries Guidelines. A respondent who disputes liability can decline to consent, or reject the assessment, and an Authorisation sends the claim to a court, which is the only place liability is decided. The Garda report is evidence in that court, read with the photographs, the witnesses and the engineers' reports where there are any. It is not the last word on what happened.

That cuts both ways. A report that says little does not harm a claim; a report that records the other driver's account does not decide it.

Where there is no Garda report

A claim can be made without one. The Board's application asks whether the collision was reported to the Gardaí and to which station, but it is not a condition of applying and the Board does not need the report to assess an injury. The application guide lists what the Board does need.

An insurer dealing with a claim will ask about the report and will treat its absence as something to be explained. A claim against the MIBI depends on it heavily. In either case a late report, made with an explanation, is better than none.

The Board's identity requirement

The Board asks for proof of identity with every application: a PPS number, or a driving licence, passport or national identity card. People sometimes send the Garda report instead. The Garda report is not an identity document and the Board will ask again. The Board's making a claim page lists the identity documents it accepts, and the FAQs for claimants answer the common questions on them.

The record you make yourself

The Garda report is one record. The others are yours to make, and the first week is when they are made: photographs of the vehicles, the road and the markings; the other driver's details, read from the licence and the insurance disc; the names and numbers of witnesses; the doctor's note of the injuries on the day; and the written notice of the wrong within one month under section 8 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, which the one-month letter guide covers. The car accident guide puts them in order, and the insurer guide covers the calls that follow.

Where this leaves you

The Garda report is the first document anyone asks for and the one you have least control over, so get the station, the Garda's name and the reference now. The first-week checklist builds the rest of the list around it: the doctor, the photographs, your insurer and the one-month letter.