What To Do Before Reporting an Accident to Your Insurance

19 Jun What To Do Before Reporting an Accident to Your Insurance

A car accident can be a potentially serious event due to the possibility of sustaining an injury or even having it turn fatal. As a result, it’s important to treat car accidents with the seriousness that they deserve. Additionally, there are certain things that you must do before contacting your insurance company should you be involved in a car accident or an sr22 insurance company if your license gets revoked.

Have a Resource Kit Ready

Car accidents aren’t planned; they just happen. However, there are a few things that you can do in order to prepare yourself for any eventuality. To begin with, you can come up with an emergency kit and place it either in your trunk or glove compartment. Things to include in your emergency kit include things like a disposable camera (of course you can also simply use your camera phone), a pad of paper and pen, flares, a warning triangle, bottle of water, blanket and a paper with important information such as the names and telephone numbers of your loved ones. All these things will come in handy if you’re ever involved in a serious car accident and don’t have your faculties with you due to shock, injury or any other cause.

Shortly after the accident, you should try to park your car off the road and away from busy traffic. Don’t get out of the car if you have serious injuries and are unable to move. At the same time, you should not try to stand behind, beside or in front of your car if it’s in the middle of the road as this would be courting disaster. Try to remain calm and turn on your flashers so that you can alert other motorists that there has been an accident for their own safety. This is especially true if the accident occurred on a freeway.

If you do manage to get out of the car, don’t try to move the other driver or occupants from their positions if you see that they’ve been injured. Doing so may only worsen their injuries. Call the EMS services or 911 and ask to have medical assistance sent over.

According to the law, you’re required to stop at the scene of the accident. Failing to do so may constitute a crime, punishable by the loss of your driving privileges and even jail time in some instances. Additionally, you’re required to report the accident to your local DMV if the damages to your vehicle or the other individual’s car amount to more than $750, or if there are any injuries or death.

Take Down Important Details

Don’t forget to take down the names and numbers of drivers and car occupants as well as the registration and make of the vehicle. Most people only remember to take down the names and numbers and leave out the other details; however, remember that an insurance coverage follows the car so this is important information that you can’t leave out. Witnesses may also play a large role when it comes to whether or not you’ll get the damages that you’ve claimed after an accident and if your auto insurance policy covers it. In fact, witnesses may be a deciding factor in a car accident case so please jot down their details as well.

Report the Accident to the Police

Police officers are only obliged to come to the scene of the accident if your injuries are more than superficial. In fact, police officers may not appear at all. Despite this, you are required to report the accident to the police department within 24 hours of the occurrence of an accident. Should the officers arrive at the scene, answer their questions in a truthful manner. However, do not volunteer information if not required to do so.

Get a Medical Checkup

Ensure that you get checked by a physician as soon as possible. This is the most important step! Some injuries may look superficial even though they have a more serious internal genesis. Internal injuries may lead to heavy internal bleeding and eventually death days or weeks after an accident. To put it simply, if you do not seek medical help for your injuries, the insurance company will claim that you were not injured – so do it!

Never speak with the other party’s insurance agency before speaking to your lawyer. If possible, hire a lawyer early-on and let your lawyer handle all communication. Once you have an attorney, you do not need to speak with the insurance company again.