Car accidents can happen to anyone, anywhere, and at any time. If you’ve ever been hurt in a car crash, you know first-hand how stressful and confusing the days following a car crash can be. Of course, your health and safety are always the number one priority in the moments after a car accident, but once your injuries have been addressed and you are safe, there are steps you can should take as soon as possible after the crash that will significantly impact the success of your personal injury insurance claim or lawsuit. With that being said, here’s five things you should do as soon as possible if you’ve been hurt in a car accident:

1. Prioritize Your Safety

The very first thing you should do is ensure your safety and the safety of others involved in the accident. If your vehicle can be moved, try to move it to a safe location if possible. At minimum, make sure you yourself stay clear of the roadway while waiting for the police to respond to the scene. Of course, if you or anyone else is seriously injured, call 911 immediately for medical assistance.

2. Obtain Identifying Information

It is essential to get some sort of identifying information from the person who caused the crash and your injuries. If you can get their insurance information, that’s great. If not, make sure to at least get a picture of their license plate, because even with just this one piece of information, a personal injury attorney will be able to track down the owner of the vehicle and determine if there is any insurance coverage for the crash. If you don’t obtain some sort of identification from the other driver, you’re running the risk that you won’t be able to make a claim against their auto-insurance, and that you’ll be stuck footing the bill for your medical treatment on your own.

3. Contact the Police

Even if the accident seems minor, you should always contact the police. It is critical that the facts of the crash are documented and memorialized in a police report. Your personal injury attorney will be able to use that police report to determine the address, phone number, and insurance information for the driver who caused the crash. That report will also identify any witnesses and their contact information. Witnesses are crucial in personal injury cases, but often impossible to identify if there is not a formal police report that lists the witnesses and their contact information.

4. Take Pictures

Pictures can make or break your personal injury case because they allow your personal injury attorney to present your claim to an insurance adjuster in more persuasive and understandable way. Pictures of the vehicles involved in the crash can help illustrate how significant the impact of the crash was, just like how pictures of your injuries can help illustrate how severe your injuries from the crash were. If you wait to take pictures of your injuries for even a few days, the pictures can be significantly less impactful.

5. Contact a Personal Injury Attorney

If you’ve been injured in a car crash, it is in your best interests to contact a personal injury attorney as quickly as possible. I often hear new clients tell me that the crash in question happened months ago, and that all they’ve done for treatment is go to the ER and then check in with their primary care physician, even though they’ve had severe symptoms since the crash. Gaps in treatment not only force you, the injury victim, to endure untreated injuries, but they also can significantly reduce the value of your case, because insurance companies know they can

discount your injuries if you didn’t seek immediate treatment – and this is only one of many pitfalls that injury victims need to watch out for. That’s why it is so important to contact a personal injury the day after your car crash, if possible – because they will able to help make sure you avoid all of the pitfalls and are able to get the compensation you deserve from the insurance company.

Hopefully you are never injured in a car crash – but if you are, call or text me at (816) 424-2927 so I can help guide you through the injury claims process and maximize your recovery in your case.