If you and your family have been involved in a car crash, you must do a few things to protect yourself and your loved ones. A car accident is undoubtedly one of the most stressful events anyone can experience.
However, knowing what to do in this critical situation can lessen the mental and emotional burden. Also, it helps to keep you and your loved ones safe and ensure your rights are protected. Here’s what you should do after a car accident:
Protecting You and Your Family After a Car Accident
1. Stop Your Car
Stop your car and turn off the engine as soon as it’s safe to do so. If possible, move your vehicle out of traffic and to the side of the road to avoid putting yourself and others in more danger. Do not leave the accident scene, even if there are no injuries.
Leaving the scene puts you at risk of facing civil and criminal consequences.
2. Protect The Scene
Next, set up flares or turn on your flashers (emergency lights) to alert other drivers and prevent further accidents. If the emergency lights won’t work and it’s dark, it’s safer to take everyone to the side of the road.
3. Get Emergency Help
Check on your family to see if anyone is hurt and in need of urgent medical help. If anyone is seriously hurt, call 911 to help them get timely medical attention. Every second matters in the face of an emergency, so you should act as quickly as possible.
If possible, try to apply first aid and follow any instructions you receive from 911 to keep everything under control while waiting for help.
4. Make an Accurate Record
Once the police arrive, tell them everything that happened while only stating the facts. In case you aren’t sure about a thing, avoid guessing or speculating and simply tell them you aren’t sure.
If you and your family members don’t have any apparent injuries and you’re asked whether you’re hurt, tell the officer you aren’t sure. This is because sometimes accident pains and injuries aren’t immediately apparent until several hours after the scene.
5. Take Pictures
Take pictures and videos of the wreck scene with your phone or a camera to serve as evidence. Ensure you capture both vehicles involved and their license plates, damages, the skid marks in the pavement, and any debris from the cars. Try to clearly capture the other driver and witnesses in the background if possible.
Take pictures of any physical injuries and ensure to keep these media safe. You may duplicate and save them on your computer and/or cloud storage for more protection.
6. Document Vital Information
Next, document vital information about the other driver, witnesses of the crash, and those attending the scene. The information to take includes:
- Full name, home address, and cell phone numbers of the other driver
- If the driver isn’t the owner of the vehicle, take the name and contact of the actual owner too
- Make, model, color, and year of the vehicle
- License plate
- Insurance information (such as the name of the insurance company, the effective date of the policy, policy number, insured driver(s), and insured vehicle)
- Names and contact information of the witnesses
- Location and time of the wreck
- Full name and badge number of the investigating police officer
- If you need to tow your car due to severe damage, take the towing company and the tow truck driver’s contact information. Also, note down where your vehicle is being towed.
7. Report The Car Accident
Inform your insurance company about the accident as soon as possible, even if it’s minor damage. Most insurance providers require that you report within a stipulated timeframe during which you will be covered. Delaying beyond the timeframe could jeopardize your coverage.
Depending on the benefits of your coverage, your insurance might also cater to accident-related medical bills for all occupants of your vehicle at the time of the accident.
Also, inform the other driver’s insurance provider about the accident via your car crash lawyer. It’s important to speak with a car crash lawyer before reaching out to them to know what you should say and how to approach unclear questions.
8. Go For Medical Check Up
If there’s no emergency, it doesn’t mean you should totally ignore a medical checkup. Take yourself and your family to a local emergency room to ascertain that everyone is fine.
Some accident injuries take several hours to manifest and can have detrimental health impacts later in life. You want to be absolutely sure that everyone is fine, and going for a medical checkup is the best way to do that.
9. Keep a File of all the Details Regarding Your Car Accident
You should gather all accident-related documents and information together and keep them in one file for easy access. Make sure to include the following:
- a claim number
- the claims adjuster in charge of the claim
- names and phone numbers of all relevant contacts
- receipts for expenses incurred due to the accident, e.g., car rental
10. Protect Your Rights
Lastly, with all the evidence and information related to the accident gathered and saved, it’s time to contact your personal injury attorney to help protect your rights. You
want to ensure you seek legal advice at every step of the process and avoid guesses or speculations, especially when reporting to the police and insurance companies.
Recap: Car Accident
Regardless of the severity of the accident, your attorney can help you and your family get the deserved compensation for injuries sustained, thus relieving you of the burden of medical bills while affording you the best treatment.
