The glovebox form that decides who pays after a crash
Ten minutes at the roadside decide the next six months of your claim.
The European Accident Statement sits in a plastic wallet in almost every glovebox on the continent, unread. It is the same document in every country, with the same numbered boxes printed in more than thirty languages, and what the two of you write on it at the scene is exactly what two insurers will use months later to decide who pays. Most drivers meet it for the first time while shaking, in the rain, next to a stranger who does not share a word of their language.
One form, every country, the same numbers
You will hear it called the constat amiable in France, the europees aanrijdingsformulier in Belgium and the Netherlands, the Europäischer Unfallbericht in Germany, the parte amistoso in Spain and the constatazione amichevole in Italy. They are the same form. Box 12 is box 12 whether the paper was printed in Lisbon or in Lublin, and that identical numbering is the entire point of the design. Two drivers with no common language can still complete one document together, because agreement is expressed in ticks and arrows rather than in sentences. Ask your own insurer for a blank copy in your own language before you travel, and it will line up neatly with whatever the other driver produces.
Signing is not admitting fault
This is the misunderstanding that does the most damage. Your signature confirms that the facts recorded on the form are accurate. It does not say the collision was your fault. Liability is worked out afterwards by the insurers, from the circumstances the two of you ticked. Refusing to sign does not protect you, it simply destroys the one piece of evidence you both agreed on and leaves two contradictory stories to be untangled later. What you should refuse is something different: never sign a form you have not read, and never sign one whose other column describes something you did not see happen.
Box 12 is where the claim is won
Section 12, circumstances, is a grid of seventeen tick boxes covering things like was parked, was turning left, was changing lane, was reversing, or had not observed a right of way sign or a red light. Tick only the boxes describing your own vehicle, in your own column, and be honest about it, because a tick that contradicts the sketch helps nobody. Then do the step almost everyone forgets: write the total number of crosses at the foot of your column. That number is not bureaucracy. It locks the column so nothing can be added afterwards. Count the other driver's crosses too, and if their written total does not match what is actually ticked, say so in the remarks before you sign anything.
The sketch, and the box for everything else
Box 13 is a plain sketch of the scene. Draw the layout of the road, name the streets, use arrows for the direction each vehicle was travelling, mark where the two cars were at the moment of impact, and add the road signs, lane markings and traffic lights. It does not need to be pretty. A crude drawing made at the scene carries more weight than a perfect one reconstructed at home, and if the junction is genuinely complicated you can draw it on a separate sheet, have both drivers sign that sheet and refer to it on the form. Box 14, remarks, is for everything the tick boxes cannot express: that the other driver could not produce an insurance certificate, what the traffic light was doing, or that you dispute a specific point in their column. Anything you want on the record has to be written before box 15, the signatures, because once both drivers have signed, the front of the form cannot be altered.
The back is yours alone, and it can wait
The form is self-copying, so once it is signed you separate the sheets and each driver walks away with an identical copy. The back is a different animal entirely. You complete it on your own, later, at home or at the hotel: your own account of the accident in your own words, plus details of passengers, the registered owner if that is not you, and any damage the car already carried. None of it is agreed with the other driver and none of it is shown to them, because it goes only to your own insurer. There is therefore no reason at all to sit at the roadside writing it, and every reason not to.
What the phone in your pocket is for
The form records facts, not evidence. Before anything is moved, and only if it is safe to stand there, photograph both cars in position with the road markings visible, then the damage close up, both number plates, the other driver's insurance certificate and licence, the road signs, any skid marks or debris, and a wide shot of the whole junction. Photograph the completed statement itself, front and back, before you separate the copies, because paperwork does get lost. Your pictures carry a time stamp and usually a location, which is exactly the sort of thing that settles an argument a hand drawn sketch never could.
When the other driver will not play along
Call the police if anyone is injured, which is a legal requirement in most European countries, and also if the other driver refuses to give details or complete a form, appears to be uninsured or without valid documents, seems to be under the influence, or simply drives off. Note the registration first and photograph everything, take the names and telephone numbers of any witnesses for box 5, then fill in your own column and send that in on its own. A statement signed by one driver is worth a great deal more than no statement at all. And if you were hit abroad by a car registered in another country in the European Economic Area, you do not have to argue with a foreign insurer in a foreign language: that insurer is obliged to appoint a claims representative in your own country of residence to handle it.
Then tell your insurer, quickly
Notification deadlines vary by country and by policy, and are far more often measured in days than in weeks. Send the form as soon as you reasonably can, even when you are certain the other driver was at fault, and even if you have decided not to claim, because insurers are entitled to reduce or refuse cover when they are told late. Most now accept a photograph of the completed statement through an app or by email, which means it can be done from the hotel car park the same evening. If the car turns out to be beyond economic repair, the settlement figure is the moment to look calmly at what that budget actually buys on AutoNext. And if it is repaired instead, insist the job is done properly, because misaligned headlights and a poorly pulled panel are exactly the sort of thing that reappears as a fail at your next roadworthiness test.
What to actually do
Six steps cover the whole thing, from the glovebox to the insurer.
Keep a blank statement in your own language in the glovebox, with a pen that works. You only need one form between the two cars, but you cannot count on the other driver having one.
Secure the scene first. Hazard lights on, high visibility vest on before you step out, warning triangle at the distance your location requires. Leave the cars where they stopped until you have photographed them, unless they are blocking a live lane.
Complete the front together. Tick only your own column, count the crosses and write the total, draw the sketch, and read the other driver's column all the way through before you sign.
Separate the copies at the scene and check that yours is legible, because the carbon on the lower sheet is often faint.
Photograph the cars, the documents and the finished form before you drive away.
Complete the back on your own that evening, and send it to your insurer within days rather than weeks.
Two things are worth doing long before you ever need any of this. Check that the blank form in your glovebox is actually there and actually in your language, because the one the previous owner left behind is usually neither. And give the car itself a proper look before a long trip abroad, since a surprising share of holiday incidents start with something a pre-trip check would have caught, from tyre pressures that no warning light will tell you about to the brakes you will be leaning on during a long alpine descent.
Frequently asked questions
The damage is tiny. Do we really need the form?
Fill it in anyway. A scraped bumper that both parties shrugged at has a habit of becoming a disputed claim six weeks later, once somebody has had a quote drawn up. Completing the statement costs ten minutes and closes that argument off entirely.
What if we do not agree on what happened?
You still complete it. Each of you ticks your own column only, writes what is disputed in the remarks box, and signs. Agreeing to disagree on paper at the scene is far more useful to both insurers than two contradictory accounts written separately a week later.
Is a photo of the form as good as the paper copy?
For notifying your insurer, almost always, and most now accept submission by app or email. Keep the paper until the claim is closed anyway, because it is the signed original and the only version that proves the other driver agreed to it.
The other driver wants to settle in cash and leave the insurers out of it.
Be careful. Modern bumpers hide sensors, brackets and radar behind the plastic, so a quote can multiply once the panel comes off, and a cash deal leaves you with no recourse when it does. If you still want to settle privately, complete and sign the statement first and simply do not send it, so you keep the record if the other party changes their mind.
Will using the form push up my premium?
Only if you are found liable. A claim settled against the other driver's insurer does not normally count against your no claims position, though the exact rules differ by country and by insurer, so it is worth asking yours directly rather than guessing and staying quiet.
