What Should You Do If Injured in a Car Accident?

If you’re in a car accident, there are a couple of best practices to know about beforehand so you can follow through in the moment. An accident is always a stressful time, and if you don’t know in advance what your plan of attack is, you could compromise any future claim to compensation for your losses. Contact a car accident lawyer in Las Vegas as soon as possible after an accident to find out if you have a claim and what to do next.

What Should You Do If Injured in a Car Accident?

Get Medical Help

It’s important that you get medical help as soon as possible. If it’s an emergency, never delay getting medical help to wait for the police to arrive, try to move your car, or gather evidence and exchange information with the other driver. Just call 911 and get the help you need. You can always talk to a car accident attorney once you’re stabilized, and your attorney can start gathering evidence as needed.

Assuming that you are not so badly injured that you need to go straight to the emergency room, you may potentially want to try to take some pictures of the accident scene or at least exchange information with the other driver and wait for the police to come. Once the police have arrived, you can have some confidence all the details are being properly recorded. But as soon as you can afterward, go get yourself checked out. In fact, even if you don’t really feel like you’ve been injured at all or your injuries are very minor, go get checked out anyway.

Medical bills will be the foundation of any claim you make, and it’s thus critical that you clearly link any medical expenses you have to the accident. The longer you wait between the time of the accident and the time you get medical help, the more likely it is that the other side or their insurance company will try to argue that you haven’t been injured in the accident at all, that your injuries were exacerbated by the delay (and thus your fault), or that they simply aren’t as bad as you say they are. 

Beyond that, just be aware that some injuries after car accidents don’t really show many symptoms for a few hours or sometimes days. You might think you’re fine when you’re actually fairly badly injured.

Call the Police

It’s natural to want to avoid calling the police after an accident because no one wants their insurance rates to go up. As natural as this is, resist any requests to this effect by the other party and always call the police. The police will record all the details of the accident, so there’s a record of all parties involved and all their information. The police will also give a preliminary assessment of fault. This preliminary assessment is not the final word on the matter, but it is important, and it is usually based on the officer’s experience with car accidents of this nature. You can expect courts and insurance companies to give it at least some weight.

When you talk to the police, tell them exactly what happened, but stick to the facts. Don’t try to guess at things that you didn’t see, and don’t try to say who’s at fault, even if you think you might be at fault. The truth is that you didn’t see everything from your perspective within your vehicle, and evidence may come to light that shows things aren’t as cut and dry as you think.

Gather Evidence

As stated above, be sure to get medical help if you need it rather than staying to gather evidence. But assuming you’re well enough to do so, gather whatever evidence you can. This should start with exchanging information with the other driver. Be sure to get their name and contact information, their insurance and registration information, and note down the make, model, and color of their car. Be sure to give them all that same information about you. 

After that, take some pictures if it’s safe to do so. Be sure to get both close-ups and wide-angle shots that show the whole scene. Take photos of the cars and their license plates, whatever damage they sustained, and any marks on the road that seem to have resulted from the accident. If there’s anything on the road that contributed in any way, take a picture of it. This might be cones because of a construction site, a pothole, a traffic light, or anything else. If it’s raining or otherwise there’s bad weather, try to capture this in your photos, if you can. 

Next, note if you see any video cameras. These might be traffic cameras or cameras on nearby businesses that could’ve captured the incident. You’ll want to tell your lawyer about these so they can subpoena the footage before it gets erased. Security footage is often erased after a while as a standard practice to make room for new recordings. If there were any witnesses, politely ask them if they would be willing to testify about what they saw and get their names, phone numbers, and a quick preliminary statement if possible. You will pass all this on to your lawyer.

Report the Accident to Insurance

As soon as possible, report the accident to your insurance company. Your insurer should start getting in contact with the other party’s insurance company right away, and you may also want to report the accident to the other party’s insurance company yourself, as well. Every insurance company has rules about how quickly they expect to be notified after an accident, so be sure to do this as fast as possible. Sometimes you may have less than 48 hours to contact them!

When you talk to the insurance company, be very careful not to say anything more than the most basic facts. They will undoubtedly contact you again for more information, but by that point you will have a lawyer and will know how to talk to them carefully. Insurance adjusters are notorious for finding ways to get victims to say something that can be used against them to minimize their claim in some way. 

Contact a Car Accident Lawyer in Las Vegas

As soon as you can after you’ve gotten medical help, contact a car accident attorney with experience here in Las Vegas. An attorney will be able to evaluate your case immediately and tell you whether you have a claim. If you do, your attorney can get straight to work helping you bring that claim. Your attorney will also take over communication with the insurance company so that they cannot bully you or manipulate you into saying something that would minimize your losses.

Your attorney will also gather evidence and may bring in expert witnesses as needed to show what you fully lost, and then will put together a strong claim for everything you deserve. Your lawyer will go up against the insurance companies in negotiations, and if necessary, even in court.

For experienced help with your car accident claim, reach out to us now at the Hanratty Law Group in Las Vegas to get a free consultation set up.