Every year, millions of cars are involved in car accidents around the world. While there are fatal ones that result in loss of lives, the good thing is that majority of these accidents only result in damages to vehicles. Even so, there are those that result in personal injuries to passengers or drivers.
Whenever a car accident occurs, there’s a high chance a lawsuit will follow as the person who’s not on the wrong pursues compensation. This is why you need to familiarize yourself with what you need to do when taking legal action after a car accident to protect your interests and yourself.
1. Don’t Drive Away
Anytime you get involved in a car accident, ensure that you stop. Whether the accident is big or just a minor one, stay on the scene and don’t drive away. While on the accident scene, ensure that you keep it protected. This is critical in preventing more accidents from taking place. The best way to do this is keeping the flashers of your car or setting flares up. If your lights aren’t working and you’re in a dark environment, use a flashlight to stay safe as you are in the car or on the road side.
2. Give The Police A Call
Even when you’re involved in a minor accident and didn’t sustain serious injuries, you need to call the police. Contacting the police enables you to get the police report that you need to file a claim from the insurance company.
Your vehicle should remain on the scene until the police arrive and allow you to move. The only exception to this rule is when the car is causing a traffic snarl-up.
3. Inform Your Insurer
Make an effort to inform your insurance company of the car accident immediately. Check the insurance company to see whether your insurance cover offers any medical benefits. Some insurance policies allow holders to submit medical bills after an accident for reimbursement. You can learn about other forms of compensation that you might be entitled to under the law by reading articles from reliable sites, such as ptlawkc.com.
Besides reporting the car accident, ensure that you get medical care immediately, even if you’re not in pain or have no apparent injuries. Getting medical care enables you to undergo medical checkup to determine whether you suffered internal injuries, like spinal cord injury, that could affect your health in future. You also need to secure a medical report, which you’ll need when taking legal action after a car accident.
4. File An Accurate Report
Once the police arrive at the accident scene, make sure that you give an accurate report of what happened. If you’re not aware of some facts, let the police know that. Avoid guessing, speculating, or misrepresenting the facts. This is important because, in most instances, the injuries and pain associated to car accidents only become evident hours after. Also, ensure that the statements made by the other people who were involved in the car collision are accurate, too.
5. Take Images Of The Accident Scene
Pictures serve as important evidence during the legal process. If you’re involved in a car accident, document damages on the vehicles involved by taking photos using your phone. Also, take images of any visible injuries that you may have sustained in the accident. As you work on capturing images of the scene, ensure that you don’t interfere with police investigations.
6. Gather Contact Information
In typical cases, police officers who investigate car accidents are the ones who obtain contact information from everyone involved in the accident, whether directly or indirectly. It’s important that you get the names, phone numbers, and addresses of such persons, including drivers and passengers, so you can reach out to them when police officers fail to respond to your calls.
Also, get insurance information from the other cars involved in the accident by checking their insurance cards. If there are people who witnessed the accident, get their contact information, too, so that your attorney or yourself can reach out to them in the future. When police officers arrive on the accident scene, the investigating officer will give drivers a police report number. Use this number to get a police report later.
Final Thoughts
Car accidents can occur anytime and anywhere. However, no matter how minor a car accident is, you need to build a case for it by gathering evidence from the time the accident takes place. Follow the tips discussed above to collect the evidence you need to take legal action after a car accident.
