Tema 37: the crash, the duty to assist and the PAS routine in the DGT exam

The law obliges you to assist. The method for doing it — protect, alert, help — is not in the law: it is DGT doctrine, and it is what the exam asks.

Reviewed on 6 October 2026 · sources: BOE and DGT

The law obliges you to assist. The method for doing it, protect, alert and help, is DGT doctrine, and it is what the exam asks.

If you are involved in a crash, witness one or learn of one, you are obliged to help or to call for help.
The DGT manual teaches protecting in this order: yourself, the casualties and the scene.
You alert by calling 112, and before calling you gather as much information as you can. With no phone, you use the nearest SOS post.
The hazard pre-warning device is the connected V-16 light, placed on the highest point of the vehicle. Warning triangles are not the regulation device.

Watch out: you need not be involved. Witnessing it, or even just learning of it, already binds you.

In DrivingLingo: study the road signs, review first aid and level crossings and moving bridges, then practise with the .

Source: RGC art. 129; LSV art. 51.1; RGC art. 130.4; RGV annex XI, sign V-16; DGT manual (teaching, not statute)

Key rules of topic 37

If you are involved in a crash, witness one or learn of one, you are obliged to help or to call for help.

Also to help prevent further harm, restore road safety and clarify what happened.
The duty reaches a mere passer-by too, unless their help is plainly not needed.

You protect three things, in this order: yourself, the casualties and the scene.

You stop the vehicle somewhere safe, switch off the engine and put the hazards on.
You put on the approved reflective vest before getting out.

You alert by calling 112, and before calling you gather as much information as you can.

You say whether there is fire and how many are injured, so they send the right services.
With no phone, you use the nearest SOS post. You must stay at the scene until they arrive.

If anyone appears dead or seriously injured, you avoid disturbing the scene and its traces.

Unless doing so would harm the casualties' safety or road safety.
Filling in the accident report on the carriageway is banned: it is done off the road.

If the vehicle is immobilised, occupants must get out whenever there is a safe place off the running surface.

You exit on the side away from traffic, without walking or waiting in lanes or on shoulders.
If you cannot get out safely, you stay inside with your seat belt fastened.

You must use the regulation hazard pre-warning device, as well as switching on the hazard lights.

The hazard pre-warning device is the connected V-16 light, placed on the highest point of the vehicle.
Warning triangles are not the regulation device.

Study topic 37 step by step: the rule, its citation and exam-style questions.