The other driver refuses to complete the CID

A refusal to sign feels like the end of the claim. It is not. A CID signed by both drivers makes the facts agreed; without it, the facts have to be proven — which is a slower route, not a closed one.

Complete your half anyway

The form is designed to work one-sided. Fill in your section fully: your vehicle, your insurer, the tick boxes describing the manoeuvre, the sketch and the observations field. Write in the observations that the other driver declined to sign.

Then record the other party as best you can: registration, make, colour, and the driver's name and documents if they will show them. If they will not, photograph the vehicle and its plate — that is usually enough to identify the insurer later.

Do not sign a version of events you disagree with in order to obtain a signature. A signed but wrong CID is worse than no CID at all, because it records agreement to something that did not happen.

Call the police

A refusal to complete the CID is one of the situations where calling the police is worth it. Their attendance produces an independent record of the vehicles, the position and the identities — precisely what the missing signature would have provided.

Ask which force attended and note the reference number. Without it, obtaining the file later means guessing which office holds it.

If the other driver leaves before anyone arrives, that changes the character of the case: report it as a hit-and-run the same day, in Italy.

What carries the case instead

Physical evidence. The final positions of the vehicles, the debris field, the tyre marks and above all the damage geometry — impact angles either support your account of the manoeuvre or they do not, and that is assessable long after the vehicles have been moved.

Photograph everything before anything is moved, and get witness details if anyone stopped. Then send the material to us: a technical assessment of the damage pattern is what turns your version of events from an assertion into a documented finding.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still claim without a signed CID?

Yes. It means the facts are not treated as agreed, so the insurer will want evidence — photographs, a police report, the damage pattern. That is exactly what a properly documented file provides.

The other driver signed but wrote something different on their copy.

It happens, which is why photographing their copy is worth the ten seconds. Where the halves differ, having both versions is what makes the discrepancy visible instead of leaving your word against theirs.

They admitted fault verbally but refuse to put it in writing.

Note the time and the words, and look for a witness who heard it. Then rely on the physical evidence: the damage geometry does not change its mind later.