Immediately following a car accident, you want to preserve as much information and evidence as possible.
The most information you can get, the better off you'll be.
The best thing you can do is protect your rights. You need to make sure you've covered all of your bases in order to truly get the justice you deserve after you've been involved in a car accident.
Below is a list on what you should do immediately following a car accident. Following these steps will help you in your claim. Get the facts. Stop guessing.
- Photograph the vehicles in their post-accident at-rest positions before any vehicles are moved. Cell phone photos are fine. Get close-up photos showing the actual damage done to all vehicles, but get wider shots as well showing all the vehicles in a single picture frame and well as road signs, road marks, traffic lights, stop signs, cross walks, skid, road debris, etc.
- Get contact information for every witness. Don’t rely on investigating law enforcement to procure such information. Get it yourself
- Make sure you get complete and accurate contact information/vital statistics for every other driver involved in the accident, their vehicle’s owner’s information if different, and their insurance information
- Get complete and accurate identifying information for investigating law enforcement (their branch, they name, their badge number, their phone number, and the accident report number)
- If applicable, confirm where your vehicle is being towed to, and get complete contact information for the tow company and tow yard.
- Document who paramedics attend to and whether anyone is transported from the scene by ambulance