How to write a good witness statement for a car accident

Unfortunately, one of the problems with having over one billion cars in the world is that car accidents will be inevitable. When a traffic accident occurs, it may frequently be necessary to take evidence from the people involved in the accident and from any other witnesses. This may be to establish who was the guilty driver for the purposes of traffic infringement laws, or for insurances reasons. The evidence obtained from witnesses to car accidents often takes the form of witness statements.

This post explains how to write a great witness statement to describe a car accident. The post will assist you with preparing to write your witness statement, and with actually writing it. You can also find a blank witness statement form at the bottom of this post to assist you.

Preparing to write your witness statement

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The most effective witness statements for car accidents are usually written as soon as possible after the accident has occurred, which is when the details of the accident are most fresh in the mind of the witness. However often it is not known until some time later whether a witness statement will be required.

Because of this, some preparation should be made as soon as possible after the accident, even if writing your witness statement will not occur for some months. It is recommended that the following preparation should be undertaken:

Keep any digital photographs relating to the accident in a safe place. If you took photographs on your phone, back them up to your computer and the cloud as soon as possible. Devices can go missing and hard drives can malfunction. Photographs can be important evidence.
Consider whether any documents that you have may be important to proving a fact in your witness statement. If any documents may be important make sure you do not dispose of them and keep them somewhere safe. Ideally, make a scan or photograph of these documents and back them up to the cloud. An example of a document that may be important is a prescription form for any medication if you were a driver and your medication may have contributed to the accident.
Finally, consider the questions that are set out below. These questions are the questions you will need to ask yourself when preparing your witness statement. Write your answers to any of the questions below that are relevant in a document and again keep this in a safe place. The document will assist you when it comes time to write your witness statement.

Writing your witness statement

The key to writing your witness statement is to include all relevant information, and no irrelevant information, in chronological order. (See How to write a witness statement for more assistance.) When writing your witness statement, you should consider the following questions and include the answers to them, to the best of your recollection, in your witness statement:

What was the make and model of each car that was involved?
What were the weather conditions at the time of the accident? As sometimes sun glare may be a factor in car accidents, consider whether the sun was shining and if so in what direction.
What were the road conditions at the time of the accident? Were they slippery with water or some other substance? Were there any obstacles in the course of the road, and were they obvious?
What did you hear, see, feel and smell at the time of the accident? A witness can only give evidence of what they perceived with their senses. It is obvious that what a witness sees will be important, but other senses may also be relevant. For example, a smell may indicate a malfunctioning brake or engine.
What was said at the time of the accident? Did the driver who is alleged to be at fault offer up a reason for what happened?

If you are not entirely sure about something, then you should say that in your witness statement.

If you used notes taken earlier (see above) to prepare your witness statement, you should include that document as an attachment. Introduce it in your witness statement by saying words like this:

Attached to this witness statement and marked “A” are some typewritten notes I made about the accident the following day. I have used these notes to prepare this witness statement, in which I set out events of the accident more thoroughly.

If your recollection is now different to your notes in some respect then you should explain that you were mistaken earlier (or whatever the explanation might be).

If you wish to incorporate photographs in your witness statement, these can be introduced with wording such as this:

Attached to this witness statement and marked “B” are a series of photographs taken by me about three minutes after the accident occurred. These photographs are print-outs of digital images I took with my mobile phone. I have kept the digital images in my safekeeping and I can make these available in electronic form should this be required.

Blank witness statement template

You may find our free blank witness statement template useful to help you write your statement for a car accident. Some of the features of this witness statement include:

a great, modern, easy-to-read font that’s appropriate for the formality of a witness statement;
a properly laid-out document with neat margins and page-numbering;
bespoke auto-numbering for paragraphs that actually works and looks good; and
full instructions for completing the witness statement document (these are available here and you should read them before starting to write your witness statement).

You can download our mega-awesome free template witness statement in Word form right here and now:

Witness statement template