Completing an Accident Report Form

The European Accident Report Form, or “parte amistoso”, la Declaración Amistosa de Accidente (DAA) in Spanish, is a form you can obtain from your insurance company, and should be completed in the event of a collision on the road.

One of the key benefits of this form is that it is a European recognised document, available in multiple languages, but it set out exactly the same in each, so drivers of different languages can compare and complete the form.

The idea of the form is to make it easier to explain and determine how an incident occurred and to resolve the culpability. It is only valid when there are two or more vehicles involved, something that happens in 85% of incidents.

In addition, it is the document that best informs the insurance company of what happened. Therefore, it is very important to fill out the accident report correctly.

Here are some tips for filling out the accident report form:

1) If another driver involved in the incident does not agree to complete the report, and/or if there are injuries, if alcohol is suspected of being involved, or if a driver does not have a licence or insurance, we must call the police.

Additionally, in the case of being injured, do not forget to apply the so-called PAS behaviour: Protect, Warn and Help.

2) Write in UPPERCASE to facilitate understanding.

3) Fill in all the fields without skimping on information.

4) Draw the sketch in the central space and try to reproduce what happened well. For example, arrows indicating the direction of each vehicle, marking the area of ​​the vehicle where the damage occurred, etc.

5) If in the “circumstances” section none of the 17 matches what happened, explain how it happened in the “observations” section.

6) If you have suffered injuries as a result of the incident, state it in the observations section.

7) Take photographs that can help to understand how the incident happened.

8) You have 7 days to deliver the report to the company.

9) Once the form has been signed, by both parties, nothing can be added to it, so take your time when filling in the part.

10) Give a copy of the form to the other driver and keep one for yourself. Of course, you can complete more than one form, one for each driver, but each form is carbonated and creates two copies automatically.

Remember, the form can be used in case of incidents that cause only material damage, by drivers whose vehicles have at least the mandatory civil liability insurance. In addition, in order to apply it, the damage to the vehicles must have been caused by a direct collision, that is, it cannot be used in cases of multiple collisions or more than one vehicle.

The report cannot be used either in incidents with victims or injuries. In these cases, it is necessary to resort to the authorities (Guardia Civil or Police) to report the incident.