A road accident in Germany runs on a set of conventions nobody explains to you when you arrive — who to call, what gets settled between insurers, and the fact that the person found even partly at fault still recovers part of their loss. Getting the first hour right decides most of what follows.
1. At the scene
- Secure the scene — hazard lights, warning triangle, high-vis vest. All three are legally required equipment in Germany.
- Call 110 where anyone is injured, the damage is significant, the other driver may be impaired, a foreign vehicle is involved, or the other party disputes what happened. A police record is worth a great deal later and cannot be recreated.
- Photograph before anything moves, if it is safe: final positions, both vehicles from several angles, skid marks, road signs, traffic lights, the weather, the whole junction. Then the other car's plate, insurance details and the driver's licence.
- Get witness details — names and numbers, not just "someone saw it".
- Do not admit fault, apologise on the record, or sign the other party's account of events. Politeness is fine; a signed admission is not, and it can bind you regardless of what the evidence later shows.
2. The one mistake that turns this criminal
Leaving the scene before details have been exchanged is a criminal offence in Germany (Unerlaubtes Entfernen vom Unfallort) — not a fine, not a formality.
This catches people out on minor knocks in car parks, where the instinct elsewhere is to leave a note and go. A note alone is not sufficient. You are expected to wait a reasonable time and, if nobody appears, report it to the police. Prosecutions for this are common, and it can carry consequences for both your licence and, for non-citizens, your residence status.
3. Fault is usually shared, not assigned
German law rarely produces a clean winner. Liability is commonly apportioned — 70/30, 50/50 — reflecting each side's contribution.
There is also a concept with no direct equivalent in many countries: a vehicle's operating risk (Betriebsgefahr). Simply being a moving vehicle carries a share of liability, which means a driver who did nothing obviously wrong can still bear part of the loss. It also means that being partly at fault does not stop you recovering — you recover the other side's share.
So "it was probably my fault" is rarely a reason not to look into it, and the apportionment an insurer proposes is an opening position, not a finding.
4. Claiming against the other driver's insurer
Where the other driver is liable you generally claim against their compulsory liability insurer directly. Typical heads of claim:
- repair cost, or the vehicle's value if repair is uneconomic;
- diminished value (merkantiler Minderwert) — a repaired car is worth less than an unrepaired one, and this is claimable on newer vehicles; frequently overlooked;
- a replacement vehicle, or a daily allowance if you do without one;
- an independent expert's report, which for anything beyond minor damage you are generally entitled to obtain rather than accepting the insurer's own assessor;
- towing, storage, registration costs and a lump sum for incidentals;
- injury losses, which are a separate track — see below.
One point that changes the economics: where the other side is liable, their insurer normally bears your reasonable lawyer's fees too. Handling a liability claim yourself is therefore rarely the money-saver it appears to be.
5. If you were hurt
See a doctor the same day, even if you feel able to walk away. Gaps between the accident and the first medical record are the single most common reason injuries are later disputed — and neck, back and head injuries characteristically present the next morning, not at the roadside.
Keep a simple diary of pain, treatment, days off work and things you could not do. Reconstructing that a year later is close to impossible and it directly affects what the claim is worth. Our guide on how compensation is actually calculated covers what gets counted and what people forget to claim.
If the accident happened on your commute or during work, it also runs through the statutory accident insurance, which is a separate route with its own reporting steps.
6. Foreign plates, foreign licences, hire cars
- The other car has foreign plates. There is an established route for pursuing claims against foreign insurers within Europe through national claims representatives, so it is not a dead end — but call the police at the scene, because the details are much harder to chase afterwards.
- Your licence is not German. Check the accident does not surface a second problem: a non-EU licence generally only covers you for a limited period after you move here. Our traffic guide explains that six-month trap, which becomes a criminal matter rather than a fine.
- Hire and company cars. Report to the hire company immediately and read what your excess actually covers before agreeing to anything.
- A fine may follow separately from the civil claim. They are decided on different standards, and the fine has its own short deadline.
The short version
Call the police if there is any doubt, photograph everything before the cars move, admit nothing, see a doctor the same day, and don't leave until details have been exchanged. Almost every difficult accident case turns on something that was or wasn't recorded in the first hour.