One of my son’s friends had a car crash. While he wasn’t hurt, he asked if he handled things the best way the day of the car crash. I thought it would be a good idea to share this since I know many of you have children who are driving now.
- Check to make sure everyone involved in the car crash appears to be ok
- Call the police
- While there are obviously times you may not need to call the police you always should.
- The police report is an official government record of what happened.
- The other driver can make up whatever they want after the crash if there is no formal record. If there are no witnesses, then it is just your word against theirs.
- This is especially true if a young driver is involved in a crash. It is not uncommon for older adults to try to take advantage and blame the young driver for not going from a stop sign when it was allegedly clear to justify their crashing into the rear of the young driver or to claim they had the right of way at a four way stop when they didn’t.
- Always err on the side of caution since you probably don’t know the other driver and have no idea about his or her character.
- While there are obviously times you may not need to call the police you always should.
- Get witness names and numbers
- If there are any witnesses get them to stay until the police arrive
- Very often they won’t want to stick around so get their name and number so you can reach them late
- Provide their information to the police if they leave
- Make sure you keep their information as quite often the police leave witnesses off their report who do not stick around to talk to the police
- Exchange information with the other driver
- Get a picture of the other person’s driver’s license
- Verify with the driver that the address on their license is current
- Get a picture of the other driver’s insurance card
- Get a picture of the other vehicle’s back end to capture their license plate, make and model of car.
- You can write this information down if they won’t let you take a picture, but smart phones make this all easy to do.
- Do this even when you call the police to come because sometimes, the police don’t give you the information right away and tell you to wait for the police report.
- This way you can get your car fixed faster.
- Get a picture of the other person’s driver’s license
- Get pictures
- Then take a picture of any damage to both vehicles. 4-5 pictures in total are good.
- Retake any pictures that when you review on your phone do not show damage.
- Try a different angle if you need to.
- Get medical treatment
- Always follow up with a doctor if you have any symptoms at all after a car crash
- Unless you have significant injuries or emergency medical personnel insist on taking you to the hospital, it is ok to go to urgent care or to follow up with your family doctor the next day but err on the side of caution
- However, if it was a serious crash, go get checked out right away. You never know, you could have internal injuries you can’t see or feel yet.
- Call us at (262) 785-0802 if you were injured in the car crash
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