What to Do After a Car Accident in NSW — A 6-Step Guide

You've just had a car accident in NSW. Your hands are shaking, the adrenaline is masking whatever hurts, and the other driver is either apologising or arguing. This article is written for that exact moment. Read it once now, save the link, and read it again when you need it.

The first hour is the most important hour in any NSW motor accident claim. It's the hour that sets up every piece of paperwork, every medical note, every insurer conversation that follows. Get it right and the rest runs easily. Get it wrong and we spend months cleaning it up.

Here are the six steps, in order, with the NSW-specific detail that matters.

Step 1 — Make the scene safe

Before anything else, protect the scene. If your car is drivable and it's safe to do so, move it out of traffic — onto the shoulder, into a side street, into a driveway. Turn your hazards on. On a motorway, stay as far from moving traffic as possible; NSW police advise staying inside the vehicle with seatbelts on if you can't reach a safe verge.

Leave everything else until the scene is safe. Photos, names, insurance details — none of that matters if another vehicle ploughs into the debris.

When to call 000

You should call 000 if:

• Anyone is injured, even mildly.
• A driver is impaired, aggressive, or refusing to give details.
• The other driver leaves the scene (hit and run).
• The crash is blocking a lane on a motorway or major road.
• There's significant property damage beyond the vehicles (a fence, a pole, a building).

Even if police don't attend, calling 000 creates an event number. That event number is gold later — it's the first independent record that the crash happened.

Step 2 — Swap details (correctly)

Under NSW road rules, every driver involved in a crash must exchange their name, address, driver's licence number, and the registration number of the vehicle they were driving. If the damage is over $3,000 or anyone is injured, you're also required to report the crash to police.

Don't argue liability at the scene. Don't apologise either. Plenty of people in NSW have said "sorry" on instinct and had it used against them later. Your job at the kerb is to get information, not to assign blame. The insurers and, if it comes to it, the courts sort fault from the evidence — not from a heat-of-the-moment conversation.

Step 3 — Photograph everything

Take more photos than you think you need. Specifically:

• Wide shots of both vehicles in their final positions, before anyone moves them.
• Close-ups of every panel of damage on both cars.
• Number plates of every vehicle involved.
• The other driver's licence (ask first, but most will show you).
• The road — skid marks, glass, debris, road signs, traffic lights.
• Any visible injury on yourself or a passenger.
• Witnesses — their contact details, if they'll leave them.

Dashcam footage, if you have it, is the single most valuable piece of evidence. Pull the SD card or save the clip before you drive anywhere else; many dashcams overwrite loops after a few hours.

Step 4 — Get medical attention — even if you feel fine

This is the step most NSW drivers skip, and it's the most costly one to skip. Adrenaline hides pain. Whiplash, soft-tissue injuries, and mild concussions often don't show up until the next morning or the day after.

If you think you might be hurt, see a GP the same day, or the next day at the latest. The medical note from that visit becomes the foundation of your CTP injury claim.

Your GP needs to document two things: what your symptoms are, and that the crash caused them. Without that contemporaneous note, insurers have every right to question whether your injury came from the accident or from somewhere else. A same-day or next-day medical record removes that argument.

Step 5 — Report the crash properly

In NSW, there are two separate reporting obligations:

The police report

You must report to NSW Police if:

• Anyone was injured.
• A driver left the scene without exchanging details.
• A driver appeared impaired.
• The vehicles need to be towed.
• Property other than vehicles was damaged.

Report online at the NSW Police Force website or by phoning 131 444 for minor crashes, or 000 if it just happened. Get the event number and write it down. Every insurer will ask for it.

The insurance notification

Separate from police, you need to notify any relevant insurer as soon as practicable — comprehensive (if you have it), third-party property, and, if anyone was injured, the at-fault driver's CTP (green slip) insurer for the injury claim. In NSW the CTP injury claim lives under the state motor accident injury scheme.

Step 6 — Call Accident Hub

Everything above, we can help with from step one — if you call us first. This is why Accident Hub exists: so that the person who just crashed doesn't have to hold the phone in a trembling hand and work out which of seven different numbers to ring.

Here's what happens when you call us in that first hour:

• A real person picks up the phone — not an IVR, not a receptionist reading a script.
• We take the details once. We never ask you to tell the story twice.
• We open your CTP claim inside the 28-day window — that's the call that preserves every week of backdated income support.
• A qualified NSW legal practitioner inside the service runs the damages side on your file at regulated costs — no contingency cut on your settlement.
• A named case manager owns the file from call one through to settlement — one number, one running story.

A quick note on timing

Under NSW law, most injury claims should be lodged within 28 days of the accident to preserve full entitlements, including backdated weekly payments. Late claims can still be filed, but insurers can, and do, argue that lost weeks of income support aren't payable. Getting on to it inside that window isn't optional — it's the difference between a clean claim and a clawback fight.

This is why the first hour matters so much. Everything above — the photos, the medical note, the police event number — is what a clean 28-day lodgement is built on.

Had a car accident? Call Accident Hub.

One phone call is enough. We'll listen, we'll walk you through what your situation looks like, and we'll help sort what needs sorting. Plain English, no jargon.