After an accident or breakdown in a rental car

Switch on your hazard lights. If the car can move and no one is hurt, pull over somewhere it is safe to stop. On an expressway, get everyone out on the side away from the traffic and wait ahead of the car in the direction of travel, behind the guardrail if there is one, as LTA advises.

If anyone is injured, call 995 for an ambulance. Call 999 for the police if there is danger on the road, a dispute at the scene or a driver who has left.

Call our 24-hour roadside line, or message us on WhatsApp, before you call anyone else for help with the car. Tow trucks sometimes arrive at Singapore accident scenes unasked; the General Insurance Association's advice is to turn away any tow truck or workshop you did not arrange through the insurer, and our roadside assistance arranges the tow for our cars.

If the car breaks down on an expressway or in a tunnel, LTA's recovery crews can move it to the nearest designated carpark; their hotline is 1800 2255 582. We take it from there.

A few calm minutes at the scene save weeks of back and forth later.

• The other driver's name, NRIC or FIN, phone number, address and insurer.
• The number plates of every vehicle involved.
• Photographs of the rental car's damage with its number plate in shot, of the other vehicles' damage with their plates, and of the whole scene.
• The names and numbers of any witnesses.
• Leave the dashcam alone: every SwiftDrive car has one, and its recording helps establish what happened.

Most minor collisions are settled between insurers. The Singapore Police Force requires a traffic accident report when the accident involves any of the following; you can make it online through the SPF e-services with Singpass, or at any police station.

• A death.
• An injury where someone was taken to hospital by ambulance, or given three or more days of medical leave as an outpatient.
• Damage to government property, such as a lamp post or road barrier.
• A foreign-registered vehicle.
• A pedestrian or cyclist.
• A driver who did not stop (hit-and-run).

Every accident in a SwiftDrive car must be reported to us within 24 hours, however small, even a scrape in a carpark with no one else involved. If it is not, the protection cover on your booking is lost.

The rule mirrors the industry's own. Under the Motor Claims Framework, which every motor insurer in Singapore supports, accidents are reported to the insurer within 24 hours or by the next working day, with the vehicle, whether or not there is visible damage and whether or not anyone is claiming.

If the car breaks down, or is damaged through no fault of yours, we deliver a replacement car so the rest of your booking carries on.

Damage is handled in writing. We send you the photos, the repair quote and what we are asking you to pay, which is capped by the excess of the protection tier you chose as long as the accident was reported in time, and you have seven days to dispute it.

Call us first, then follow the instructions of the Malaysian police. Collect the same details and photographs as you would at home. The 24-hour rule applies on both sides of the border.