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Article · 11 min read
Someone hit me head on: who is at fault and what to do now
Hit head-on by another driver? Who is at fault, the evidence that proves it, why your car must not be moved or repaired yet, and how the claim actually runs.
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Why this guide is useful
These ranking factors show how the article has been structured for real accident-claim decisions: immediate action first, UK-specific process detail and a clear compliance boundary.
UK process fit
Advice is framed around UK accident management, credit hire, credit repair, engineer inspection and at-fault insurer dialogue rather than generic motoring tips.
local relevance
Evidence window
Where CCTV, dashcam, witness memory or repair inspection timing matters, the article explains the window and why delay weakens the file.
freshness
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The page separates non-fault accident management from legal advice and personal injury referrals, with consent and disclosure kept visible.
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Each section links the claim step to practical handler work such as recovery, storage, replacement vehicle, engineer report or insurer negotiation.
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E-E-A-T
Quick answer
If another vehicle came across onto your side of the road and hit you front to front, the starting point is simple: the driver who was on the wrong side of the road is the one who has to explain themselves. Rule 160 of the Highway Code tells drivers to keep to the left unless road signs or markings indicate otherwise. A driver who crosses the centre line into oncoming traffic has broken the most basic rule on the road, and in practice their insurer will need a positive explanation for how their car got there. That is not the same as liability being automatic. A driver can try to rebut it, for example by proving a sudden and unforeseeable medical event or a mechanical failure they could not have known about. But if you were on your own side, travelling normally, you start from a strong position and the burden of explanation sits with them.
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Someone hit me head on: who is at fault and what to do now
If another vehicle came across onto your side of the road and hit you front to front, the starting point is simple: the driver who was on the wrong side of the road is the one who has to explain themselves. Rule 160 of the Highway Code tells drivers to keep to the left unless road signs or markings indicate otherwise. A driver who crosses the centre line into oncoming traffic has broken the most basic rule on the road, and in practice their insurer will need a positive explanation for how their car got there. That is not the same as liability being automatic. A driver can try to rebut it, for example by proving a sudden and unforeseeable medical event or a mechanical failure they could not have known about. But if you were on your own side, travelling normally, you start from a strong position and the burden of explanation sits with them.
Right now, before anything else: if anyone is injured, trapped or the road is blocked, call 999. Rule 283 of the Highway Code says to warn other traffic with your hazard warning lights, move uninjured people away from the vehicles to a place of relative safety, and not to move injured people unless they are in immediate danger. Then, if it is safe, photograph both vehicles exactly where they came to rest before anyone moves them. Get the other driver's name, address, vehicle registration and insurance details. Section 170(2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requires them to give you those details. If details are not exchanged at the scene, section 170(6) requires the accident to be reported at a police station or to a constable as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within 24 hours.
There is one instruction that matters far more in a head-on collision than in any other type of crash, and most people get it wrong in the first 48 hours. Do not let your vehicle be repaired, scrapped, sold for salvage or dismantled until an independent engineer has inspected it. A head-on impact carries a much higher chance of the car being a total loss, and the vehicle itself is both the evidence of how the crash happened and the basis on which its pre-accident value will be assessed. Once it is cut up or repaired, that evidence is gone and you are arguing about a car nobody can look at any more.
CityGrip Accident Claims handles the practical side of this for non-fault car and van drivers, including private hire, PCO and minicab drivers. That means recovery from the scene, secure storage, an independent engineer inspection, repair coordination or a total loss valuation, a like-for-like replacement vehicle where liability and eligibility allow, and all the correspondence with the at-fault driver's insurer. We do not deal with personal injury in-house. If you have been hurt, and only with your separate written consent, we refer that side of things to authorised legal partners who handle injury claims properly.
Whose fault is it if someone hit me head on?
Head-on collisions almost always come down to one question: which vehicle was where it should not have been. Unlike a shunt at a junction or a lane-change scrape, there is usually no genuine ambiguity about who crossed a line. The four scenarios that produce most head-on crashes are drift onto the wrong side (fatigue, distraction, a driver looking at a phone), an overtake that runs out of road, misjudged country-road bends, and outright wrong-way driving on a dual carriageway or slip road. In three of those four, the other driver has plainly departed from the Highway Code, and the physical evidence on the road surface normally shows it.
Where the other driver was overtaking, the relevant rules are specific and useful. Rule 163 says to overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so. Rule 166 says do not overtake if there is any doubt, or where you cannot see far enough ahead to be sure it is safe, giving the examples of approaching a corner or bend, a hump bridge or the brow of a hill. Rule 165 sets out the places where overtaking is prohibited outright, and rule 129 says that where double white lines have the solid line nearest you, a driver MUST NOT cross or straddle it except in limited situations such as passing a stationary vehicle or a cyclist travelling at 10 mph or less. If they overtook into you on a bend or over a crest, they have run through several of those at once.
On country roads, rule 154 tells drivers to take extra care and reduce speed on the approach to bends, which it warns can be sharper than they appear, and at junctions and turnings that may be partially hidden. Rule 155 covers single-track roads and passing places. A driver who came round a bend on your side of the road and hit you has a very hard case to run. Wrong-way driving on a motorway breaches regulation 6 of the Motorways Traffic (England and Wales) Regulations 1982, which requires vehicles to be driven so that the central reservation is on the offside and prohibits turning to proceed in the opposite direction, and also prohibits entering a carriageway where a no-entry sign applies.
DETAIL
03
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
What if the other driver says I drifted, or that we both did?
This is the most common defence in a head-on claim, and it is why the scene photographs matter so much. When a driver knows they crossed the centre line, the fallback is to say the other car came at them, or to say both cars were partly over, so blame should be split. Insurers sometimes propose a 50/50 split on head-on claims purely because there is no clear evidence either way and neither side can prove their position. A split like that is not a finding that you did something wrong. It is usually a finding that nobody documented the road at the moment the vehicles stopped. That is entirely avoidable with a phone and two minutes.
The physical evidence normally settles it. The point of impact on the road surface is marked by a debris field of glass, plastic, dirt knocked from wheel arches, and often gouge or scrape marks where suspension components dug into the tarmac. Debris scatters forward from where the vehicles actually met, but the gouges and the initial scuffs stay put. If that impact scarring sits on your side of the centre line, the other driver's account collapses. Tyre marks approaching the impact tell the same story: a braking or steering line that starts on their side and crosses over is very difficult to argue with once it has been photographed with the road markings in shot.
Damage pattern is the second half of it. A driver who drifted or overtook and then tried to swerve back typically produces an offset impact, offside front corner to offside front corner, because both drivers steered left in the last moment. A genuine wrong-way collision on a dual carriageway is more often square to the front. An engineer who inspects both the damage and the scene photographs can speak to what that pattern is consistent with, which is exactly the sort of evidence that stops a 50/50 offer from becoming the outcome. This is another reason the vehicle must not be repaired or scrapped before it has been looked at.
How do I prove a head-on collision was not my fault?
The evidence that wins a head-on claim is different from the evidence that wins an ordinary rear-end or car park claim. Nobody needs a close-up of a scratched bumper. What is needed is anything that fixes the two vehicles' positions relative to the centre line and shows the geometry of the road. Take wide shots from a safe position, standing back far enough that both cars, the centre line or lane markings and the kerbs are all in the same frame. Then take shots along the road in both directions to show what each driver could see on the approach. If the crash happened at night or in rain, go back in daylight and photograph the bend, the signage, the sightlines and any hedge or fence that blocked the view.
Dashcam footage is the single strongest piece of evidence, and it is also the one most often lost. Most cameras loop and overwrite. Save and lock the file, then export a copy off the card the same day and email it to yourself so there is a dated copy. The important footage is not the impact itself, it is the ten to fifteen seconds before it, which shows your road position, your speed and the other vehicle coming across. Rear-facing footage matters too, because if the other driver was overtaking, the vehicle they were overtaking usually carries on and never stops. That third driver is often the best independent witness in the whole case, and their registration may only exist on your rear camera.
Practical points specific to this scenario, worth working through in order.
Do not agree to settle privately at the roadside, and do not accept an offer of cash or a promise to pay for the damage. In a head-on collision, damage is often structural and the real figure will not be apparent for days. Equally, be wary of a driver who does not want the police involved, because that is frequently a sign of an insurance, licence or immigration problem you will discover later. Get the police log number, take the details, and let the process run properly.
Photograph both vehicles at final rest before anything is moved, with the centre line and kerbs visible in the same frame.
Photograph the debris field, gouge marks and tyre scuffs on the road surface, showing clearly which side of the centre line they fall on.
Photograph road markings and signs at the location: double white lines, no-overtaking signs, chevrons, hazard warning signs on the bend.
Record the exact location: road name or number, nearest postcode, and a what3words reference if you have it.
Save and export dashcam footage the same day, front and rear, including the minute before impact.
Note any vehicle the other driver was overtaking, and its registration if you can see it.
Take names, mobile numbers and direction of travel for every witness, including anyone who stopped and then left.
Ask attending officers for the incident or collision reference number and write it down before they leave.
Photograph the other driver's licence, insurance certificate and registration document if they are produced.
Check whether the other vehicle shows as insured using the askMID third-party enquiry service, which allows a check after a collision for a small fee.
Why do the police attend head-on crashes, and how does their report help my claim?
Police attendance is far more likely after a head-on collision than after most other crashes, for two reasons: the injury risk is higher, and the road usually needs closing. Where there has been a fatality, a potentially fatal injury or a very serious injury, the investigation escalates. College of Policing guidance treats the roads policing lead investigator and the forensic collision investigator as separate roles requiring different skills. The forensic collision investigator examines the scene and the vehicles, and the vehicles themselves may be seized as evidential exhibits by the senior investigating officer and preserved in their post-collision condition until a decision is made about proceedings. Vehicle examination is normally carried out at the premises of the recovery operator the police have used.
That process produces exactly the evidence a civil claim needs: scene measurements, recorded rest positions, tyre and debris analysis, vehicle examination findings, witness statements, and in serious cases a reconstruction of the sequence of events. You cannot simply download it. Each force operates a collision report request process, and you need the police reference number, which may be a CRASH reference, a call log or STORM number, or an occurrence number. Solicitors and insurers can apply on behalf of a client, and individuals can apply where they are representing themselves. Fees vary between forces and turnaround is slow: some forces warn that a request can take several weeks and in places up to around sixteen weeks.
One thing to understand clearly, because it causes a lot of unnecessary worry. Whether the other driver is prosecuted has no direct bearing on whether you recover your losses. A criminal charge under section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 for careless driving, or section 2 for dangerous driving, has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Your civil claim only has to be proved on the balance of probabilities, which is a lower standard. A decision not to prosecute does not mean you were not the non-fault driver. Equally, if there is a prosecution and a conviction, that is powerful supporting evidence. Careless driving carries an unlimited fine, discretionary disqualification and 3 to 9 penalty points. Dangerous driving carries an unlimited fine, up to 2 years' imprisonment and obligatory disqualification.
06DETAILKey takeaway
What if they say I was speeding?
This allegation gets raised often, and it needs to be understood for what it is. Speed on your part is very rarely the cause of a head-on collision. If a vehicle comes onto your side of the road, the collision happens because of where their car was, not how fast yours was going. What an insurer is really attempting is a contributory negligence argument: a claim that even if their driver caused the crash, your speed made it worse or made it unavoidable, so your damages should be reduced by a percentage. That is a different and much narrower point than saying the crash was your fault, and it needs evidence rather than assertion.
The evidence that answers it usually already exists. Dashcam files from most cameras carry a GPS speed overlay in the metadata even when it is not displayed on screen. If your policy includes a telematics device, that data records speed and braking. Many modern vehicles hold journey and event data in their own systems. If you were on a road where the limit was 60 mph and the footage shows you at 45 mph on the approach to a bend, the allegation disappears. It is worth noting that Highway Code rule 126 asks drivers to leave at least a two-second gap on high-speed roads, and a driver who has been keeping proper distance also has better footage of what happened ahead.
There is a related point about headlight flashing that comes up on country roads. Rules 110 and 111 of the Highway Code say headlights should only be flashed to let other road users know you are there, not to convey any other message, and that you should never assume flashing headlights are a signal inviting you to proceed. If an oncoming driver flashed and then pulled out to overtake, or claims you flashed them through, that is not a defence to crossing into your lane. Judgment remained theirs, and the Code says so explicitly.
Why should I not move, repair or scrap my car before an engineer sees it?
This is the mistake that costs non-fault drivers the most money after a head-on collision. In the days after the crash you will get calls: from a recovery yard wanting storage payments, from a salvage buyer offering cash for the wreck, sometimes from the other side's insurer suggesting a quick settlement figure to close it off. If you accept any of those before an independent engineer has inspected the vehicle, you have destroyed both the evidence of how the crash happened and any ability to challenge the valuation. Once the car is crushed or the repairs are done, the only remaining record is whatever photographs happen to exist.
An independent engineer inspection does several jobs at once. It records the damage in a form that can be relied on later. It gives an opinion on whether the vehicle is economically repairable or a total loss. It establishes the pre-accident value, which is what the car was actually worth in the market immediately before the collision, based on its specification, mileage, service history and condition rather than a generic book figure. And in a head-on case, it can speak to whether the damage pattern is consistent with the account the other driver has given. All four of those matter more in a head-on than in a low-speed shunt, because the sums involved are larger and the dispute is more likely.
Where the police have seized your vehicle for a collision investigation, you will not be able to move it until they release it, and that is entirely normal. The car is an exhibit and may be retained until a decision is made about proceedings. What you can do is make sure that as soon as it is released, it goes into secure storage rather than sitting in an unknown yard accumulating daily charges nobody has agreed. Recovery and storage costs are recoverable from the at-fault insurer where liability is established, but that is far easier when the arrangements have been made and documented properly from the start.
What happens if my car is written off after a head-on crash?
Head-on impacts load the front structure directly, so the chance of a total loss is much higher than in most collisions. Front crash structures are designed to deform and absorb energy, and once chassis legs, the bulkhead or suspension mounting points are affected, repair economics change quickly. Airbag deployment, seatbelt pretensioners, radiator support and steering rack damage all stack up. A car that looks superficially fixable can still be uneconomic to repair once it is stripped, which is exactly why the engineer's assessment happens before anything else and why nobody should be quoting you a repair figure from a photograph.
If the vehicle is declared a total loss, the claim becomes a valuation exercise. The measure is the pre-accident value: what it would cost you to buy the equivalent vehicle in the same condition on the open market at the date of the collision. First offers from third-party insurers are frequently below that, because they are generated from trade guides rather than from actual advertised prices for comparable vehicles. Comparable adverts, your service history, MOT records, recent tyres or major work, and any specification the guide has missed are all arguable. An independent engineer's report is what turns that argument into a documented position rather than a difference of opinion.
For private hire and PCO drivers there is an extra layer, because a written-off vehicle means lost earning capacity as well as lost property. That is why the replacement vehicle side of the claim has to run in parallel with the valuation rather than waiting for it. Waiting until the total loss is agreed before sorting transport is how drivers end up off the road for weeks. The two workstreams are separate and should be handled at the same time, with the replacement vehicle arranged as soon as liability and eligibility allow it.
DETAIL
09
Section 9 of the walkthrough.
Can I get a replacement car or van while mine is off the road?
Yes, in principle, and this is the part that matters most day to day. Where you were not at fault and eligibility is confirmed, a like-for-like replacement car or van can be arranged so that you keep working and keep your household running while your own vehicle is repaired or the total loss is settled. The cost of that vehicle is recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer as part of your claim, not billed to you and not taken out of your settlement. That is the whole point of it: you should not be financially worse off because someone else drove into you. Provision always depends on liability and on eligibility being established, so nobody can promise it before the position is assessed.
Like-for-like means genuinely comparable, not whatever happens to be spare. If you drove a van for work, a small hatchback is not a replacement. If you drive on a private hire licence, the replacement needs to be a vehicle you can legally and practically work in, which means the right specification and the ability to be plated or licensed as your licensing authority requires. Sorting that properly at the start avoids the situation where a driver is given a car they cannot use and quietly loses earnings anyway. CityGrip works with cars and vans, including private hire, PCO and minicab vehicles. We do not cover HGV, lorry, bus or coach work, and we do not handle hackney carriage or black cab work.
There is no cost to you as the non-fault driver for the replacement vehicle. You are not renting a car and you are not paying a daily rate out of your own pocket. What you do have is a duty to act reasonably: keep the replacement only for as long as you genuinely need it, tell us promptly when your own vehicle is back or the total loss is settled, and do not run up a period longer than the circumstances justify. Those are the same points an insurer would raise, and they are straightforward to satisfy when the timeline is documented.
What if the driver who hit me was uninsured, drove off, or was going the wrong way?
Wrong-way and drift collisions have a higher-than-usual overlap with drivers who should not have been on the road at all. If the other driver was uninsured, or left the scene and cannot be traced, the Motor Insurers' Bureau exists precisely for that situation. Claims involving an identified but uninsured driver fall under the MIB Uninsured Drivers Agreement 2015. Notably, for accidents on or after 1 March 2017, the Supplementary Agreement removed clause 7, which had excluded vehicle damage claims, so property damage is now within scope rather than being ruled out at the door.
Untraced driver claims, meaning hit-and-run, are handled under the Untraced Drivers Agreement 2017, which applies to accidents from 1 March 2017. The rules there are stricter for vehicle damage. The MIB is not liable for property damage under that agreement unless an award for significant personal injury has been paid to a claimant arising from the same event, and the property damage loss exceeds the specified excess, which is £400. Significant personal injury means bodily injury resulting in death, two or more nights of hospital in-patient treatment, or three or more sessions of hospital out-patient treatment. This is one of the practical reasons why identifying the other vehicle at the scene matters so much.
If the other driver denies being behind the wheel, section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 allows the police to require the registered keeper, and any other person who has relevant information, to identify the driver, with a written notice normally requiring a response within 28 days. Failing to identify the driver is itself an offence. Separately, failing to stop or failing to report a collision under section 170 carries an unlimited fine, up to 6 months' imprisonment, discretionary disqualification and 5 to 10 penalty points. A driver who fled the scene has usually made their position considerably worse, not better.
What happens about injuries after a head-on collision?
Head-on impacts produce the highest closing speeds of any common collision type, because both vehicles' speeds combine at the point of impact. That is why injury is more likely and often more serious than in other crashes. Get checked medically even if you feel able to walk away, and be aware that some injuries present hours or days later once adrenaline has faded. Keep your own record of what hurt and when, which GP or hospital you attended, and any time you have taken off work. Make sure the attending crew's details or the hospital and date are noted, because that record becomes the starting point of any injury claim.
CityGrip does not handle personal injury in-house. We deal with the vehicle side: recovery, storage, engineer inspection, repairs or total loss, the replacement vehicle and the correspondence with the at-fault insurer. If you have been injured, we can refer that part to authorised legal partners who specialise in it, but only with your separate written consent. You are never signed up to anything by default, and you are free to instruct any solicitor you choose. Keeping the two things separate is deliberate: the vehicle claim can move at its own pace while an injury claim is properly assessed by people qualified to assess it.
Time limits differ for the two parts of a claim, which is worth knowing early. Under section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980, a personal injury claim generally has to be brought within three years of the accident or the date of knowledge, whichever is later. Under section 2, an ordinary claim in tort, which includes vehicle damage and associated financial losses, has a six-year limit. Those are outside limits, not targets. Evidence in a head-on claim degrades fast, and dashcam files, road-surface marks and witness recollection all disappear long before any limitation date arrives.
12DETAILKey takeaway
How does the claim actually run from here?
Once you make contact, the sequence is fairly consistent. The vehicle is recovered from the scene, or collected from the police-appointed recovery operator once it is released, and moved into secure storage where the daily rate is known and documented rather than accumulating in an unfamiliar yard. An independent engineer then inspects it before any repair is authorised or any salvage is disposed of, and produces a report covering the damage, whether repair is economic, and the pre-accident value. That report is what drives everything after it, which is why nothing should be touched before it is done.
In parallel, and only where liability and eligibility support it, a like-for-like replacement car or van is arranged so you are not off the road while the vehicle side is resolved. At the same time, the claim is presented to the at-fault driver's insurer with the evidence attached: scene photographs, dashcam footage, witness details, the police reference, and the engineer's findings. From there it is correspondence: securing an admission of liability, agreeing repairs at an approved repairer or negotiating the total loss valuation, and recovering recovery, storage and replacement vehicle costs. Where injury is involved and you have given separate written consent, that element runs with authorised legal partners.
What you should do in the meantime is short. Report the collision to your own insurer, because almost every policy requires notification of any incident regardless of blame, and failing to notify can cause problems later even on a non-fault claim. Do not authorise repairs, do not accept a salvage offer, and do not accept a first valuation before the engineer's report exists. Keep every receipt connected to the crash, including taxis, public transport, missed shifts and anything you have had to replace. Save your dashcam files off the card. Then let the claim be run against the at-fault insurer, with the costs recovered from them rather than from you, subject as always to liability and eligibility being confirmed.
Take action
If you have just been in a non-fault collision, the fastest way to protect your claim is to open the file with us inside the first hour. We dispatch recovery, lodge the relevant CCTV requests inside the retention window, and notify the third-party insurer for you.
We do not provide legal advice. This article is general guidance for UK drivers. Personal injury enquiries are referred only with your consent to authorised legal or regulated partners. Specific limits, retention windows and process steps may change; the position at the date of any individual collision will govern the handling of that claim.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the driver who was on the wrong side of the road always at fault?
- Not automatically, but they start from a very weak position. Highway Code rule 160 tells drivers to keep to the left unless signs or markings say otherwise, so a driver who crossed the centre line has to positively explain how their vehicle got there. Courts and insurers do accept rebuttals in limited cases, such as a genuinely sudden medical event or an unforeseeable mechanical failure. Where no such explanation is established, the fact of being on the wrong side normally carries the day, provided the scene evidence supports where each vehicle actually was.
- The police attended my head-on crash. How do I get a copy of their report?
- Each police force runs its own collision report request process. You will need the police reference number, which may be a CRASH reference, a call log or STORM number, or an occurrence number, so ask attending officers for it and write it down. Solicitors and insurers can apply on your behalf, and individuals can apply where they are representing themselves. Fees vary between forces, and turnaround is slow: some forces warn a request can take several weeks and in places up to around sixteen weeks. Start the request early rather than waiting.
- How long do I have to make a claim after a head-on collision?
- Two different limits apply. Under section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980, a personal injury claim generally must be brought within three years of the accident or of the date of knowledge, whichever is later. Under section 2, a claim covering vehicle damage and associated financial losses has a six-year limit. Those are outside deadlines, not targets. In a head-on claim the practical deadline is much shorter, because dashcam files get overwritten, road-surface marks wash away and witnesses become impossible to trace within days or weeks.
- Can I get a courtesy car if I'm a private hire or PCO driver?
- Yes, where liability and eligibility support it, and it needs to be a vehicle you can actually work in. A like-for-like replacement means the right specification and the ability to be plated or licensed as your licensing authority requires, not simply any spare car. The cost is recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer, not charged to you and not deducted from your settlement. CityGrip covers cars and vans, including private hire, PCO and minicab vehicles. We do not cover HGV, lorry, bus or coach work, or hackney carriage and black cab work.
- What if the driver who hit me head on was uninsured or drove off?
- The Motor Insurers' Bureau covers both situations. An identified but uninsured driver falls under the Uninsured Drivers Agreement 2015, and for accidents on or after 1 March 2017 the clause that previously excluded vehicle damage was removed. An untraced or hit-and-run driver falls under the Untraced Drivers Agreement 2017, where property damage is only recoverable if an award for significant personal injury has been paid from the same event and the loss exceeds a specified excess of £400. Getting the registration and any witness details at the scene makes an enormous difference.
- Should I let my insurer or the other side repair my car straight away?
- Not before an independent engineer has inspected it. In a head-on collision the vehicle is both the evidence of how the crash happened and the basis for its pre-accident value, and total loss is far more likely than in a lower-speed impact. Once the car is repaired, scrapped or dismantled, you cannot go back and check the damage pattern or challenge a valuation. Do not authorise repairs, accept a salvage offer or agree a first valuation figure until the inspection has taken place and the report exists.
- Will a 50/50 split be forced on me if there were no witnesses?
- It can be proposed, but it is not inevitable. Insurers offer 50/50 on head-on claims when neither side can prove their road position, which is a documentation failure rather than a finding of fault. The physical evidence usually resolves it: gouge marks, tyre scuffs and the debris field show where the impact occurred relative to the centre line, and the damage pattern on both vehicles indicates how they met. Wide scene photographs taken before the cars are moved, plus dashcam footage of the seconds before impact, are what prevent a split.
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