I thought the following sorry tale may be of interest to your readers. A Czech lorry unfortunately changed lanes on the motorway and smeared along the nearside of my car. He stopped and I pulled up behind him. The driver came to see the damage to my car, put his hands up to admit it was his fault, then went to his cab and brought out his file of papers, all written in Czech, opened at the appropriate page. I copied down what I thought was the necessary information, took the registration plate from the trailer, gave him my details, and phoned the police to report the accident, which was of no concern to them as my passenger and I were shaken but unhurt. The driver took photos of the damage to my car and I thought I had got all the relevant information for my insurers. But here is the follow up to this accident. My insurer paid for repairs, no problem. I paid £100 excess on collection from repairers. Now comes the important bit. For my insurers to claim from the lorry's insurers, I am told they need the registration plate of the cab to trace the driver. Foreign lorries apparently often have different numbers on cab and trailer. A further problem is that if my insurers are not successful I could lose my no claims bonus when I come to reinsure. My insurers have asked that I spread this message as this type of accident has unfortunately become quite a common.