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What To Do If You Have a Car Wreck
A Step-by-Step Guide from Our San Antonio Car Accident Lawyers
If you are involved in a car accident, the incident itself is bad enough — but what you do in the moments, hours, and days that follow can have an enormous impact on your health, your legal rights, and the outcome of your claim. Many people are injured in car wrecks and do not even realize it until several days later. A sudden impact forces the body to move in unnatural directions in an instant, and injuries like whiplash, herniated discs, and soft tissue damage can take time to fully manifest. Whether you are in immediate pain or not, you need to protect yourself and your legal rights from the very first moment. More about car accident lawyers in San Antonio here.
What to Do Immediately at the Scene
If you are physically able, the very first thing you should do after a car wreck is call 911. Next, if it is safe to do so, exit your vehicle and begin assessing the situation. Approach and assist the other driver and any passengers if you can do so safely. Keep your cell phone in hand and take photographs of everything — the vehicles, the damage, the road conditions, any skid marks or gouge marks in the pavement, traffic signals, signage, and any other details that may be relevant to understanding how the accident occurred. These details can be critical later when reconstructing the cause of the crash.
Witnesses are one of the most valuable resources at any accident scene, and they often leave before anyone thinks to speak with them. Many bystanders will stop briefly and then drive away. Try to get the name, phone number, and a photograph of every witness you can identify, along with their vehicle and license plate number. If you do not have a camera phone, write down as much information as you can on paper. Do not move your vehicle unless a law enforcement officer instructs you to do so.
When you speak with the other driver, ask for their driver’s license number and insurance information, including the policy number, the name of the insurance company, and the company’s phone number. Also record the license plate number of their vehicle. If the license is from another state, note which state issued it. If the other vehicle has company markings of any kind — a logo, a business name, a phone number — photograph or write down that information. It can help identify a commercial employer who may share liability for the accident. If the other driver is uncooperative, do not press the issue. The investigating officer will obtain that information and provide you with a case number. Keep that case number safe — you and your attorney will need it throughout the claims process.
Getting Medical Attention After a Car Wreck
If you have any doubt whatsoever that you may be injured, ask for an ambulance at the scene. It is always better to be evaluated and find nothing seriously wrong than to decline treatment and discover days later that you have a significant injury. A herniated disc, for example, may not become truly apparent until you physically exert yourself at home or at work. The longer you wait to see a doctor after a car wreck, the harder it becomes to connect your injuries to the accident — and insurance adjusters and defense attorneys will use that gap against you.
If you feel you were not injured and choose to remain at the scene, stay as long as you reasonably can and continue gathering information and photographs. Document the exact location of the accident, including any specific address or nearby landmarks that will help identify the spot later.
What to Do After Leaving the Scene
After leaving the accident scene, contact a car accident attorney as soon as possible. Your attorney can report the claim to your insurance company as well as the other driver’s insurance company and establish claim numbers on your behalf. While you can do this yourself, there are important reasons not to. Insurance companies record every word you say from the first contact, and their adjusters are specifically trained to ask questions in ways that cause claimants to inadvertently say things that are misleading or harmful to their own case. Letting your attorney handle these initial contacts protects you from that trap from the very beginning.
Eventually, the insurance adjuster will request a recorded statement from you. By that point, you and your attorney will have had the opportunity to review the facts together and prepare you for that conversation. Many claims are denied or undervalued simply because of words a claimant said during those first unguarded conversations with an adjuster. Do not let that happen to you.
Managing Medical Treatment and Property Damage
Once the claims are established, there are important decisions to make regarding your medical treatment and property damage. In most cases, there will be separate adjusters handling bodily injury and property damage. If you do not have health insurance, your attorney may be able to arrange for a physician to treat you with the understanding that payment will come from your settlement when the claim is resolved. This is extremely difficult or nearly impossible to arrange without an attorney. If you do have health insurance, your policy may limit the amount of physical therapy or chiropractic care it will cover. In that case, your attorney can still work with a treating physician to establish a care plan that gets you the treatment you need and deserve.
The key throughout this entire process is to gather and preserve all evidence related to your car wreck. As the saying goes in our office, documentation is the name of the game. Every photograph, every receipt, every medical record, every piece of correspondence with the insurance company — all of it matters.
We hope you never have to go through the experience of a serious car accident. But if you do, contact our car accident lawyers right away. We will guide you through every step of the process and make sure the evidence is documented so that you are treated fairly and receive every dollar of compensation you deserve.
More Great Car Accident Law Blogs Here:
https://www.summersandwyatt.com/after-an-car-accident/
https://www.chicagopersonal-injurylawyer.info/texas-car-accident-lawyers/
https://www.denvercopersonalinjurylawyer.com/successful-accident-attorneys/
https://www.siringolaw.com/car-accidents-back-injuries/
https://www.griffithlaw.net/personal-injury-law-accident-attorneys/
https://www.connecticutinjuryclaimscenter.com/we-handle-accident-injury-cases/
https://www.bannerbrileywhite.com/car-accident-cases-winning-aint-easy/
https://www.irvingattorney.net/car-accident-filing-an-insurance-claim/
https://www.keithsaylorlaw.net/common-auto-accident-injuries/
https://www.durrettebradshaw.com/injured-in-a-car-accident-call-us/
https://www.bhsmck.com/defective-tire-accidents/
https://www.thaddavidson.com/rollover-vs-other-car-accidents/
https://www.njinjurycenter.com/defective-tire-accident/
https://www.glglaw.net/car-18-wheeler-accidents/
https://www.petergoldsteinlawfirm.com/car-accident-attorneys/
https://www.sambrandlaw.com/you-need-a-car-accident-lawyer-if-you-are-injured/
https://www.dclawpllc.com/car-accidents-are-very-common/
https://www.howardandnemoy.com/do-i-really-need-an-attorney/