QUESTION I had a tyre blow-out on a main road, meaning that I hit three bollards in the centre of the road. Do I have to report the accident, even though no-one was hurt?

ANSWER If the bollards were damaged, yes. The law requires a driver to stop his vehicle if an accident occurs owing to the presence of a ‘mechanically propelled vehicle’ (so not a bicycle for example) on a road or other public place, in which either personal injury is caused to someone other than the driver of the vehicle, or damage is caused to another vehicle, or to an animal (other than an animal in the driver’s vehicle or trailer), or to any property attached to land on which the road is situated, or adjacent to the road.
If so required by a person having reasonable grounds, the driver must give his own name and address, those of the owner of the vehicle and the ‘identification marks of the vehicle’ (not defined, but the registration number should suffice). If for any reason the driver has not given his name and address to any person reasonably requiring it (including there being no such person present), the driver is required to report the accident to a police station, or to a police constable, ‘as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within 24 hours’. 24 hours is the maximum time, but this does not mean you have 24 hours in which to report; if you could have done it sooner, you may be guilty of the offence even if you report it within 24 hours. The report must be made in person, so a telephone call will not suffice, and the obligations arise regardless of whether or not the driver was at fault.
On conviction for these offences, the court must endorse the driver’s licence with between five and ten penalty points and there is a discretion to order a disqualification from driving for any period and to impose a hefty fine. There is also theoretically at least the power to sentence the offender to prison for up to six months.

Designed by solicitors, tested by barristers and available around the clock, Road Traffic Representation is an online legal system that allows people accused of a motoring offence to get free advice on how the law will be applied in their case, and referral to a telephone helpline and representation by a barrister in court if required. Practising solicitor Martin Langan spent two years designing the system and creating the data repository which allows the software to analyse road traffic offences with the same authority as a solicitor.
www.roadtrafficrepresentation.com

Twitter: martinlangan