Automobile accidents can happen to anyone at any time, and can be minor scrapes or major smashes. Some cause injury, and some are possible to walk away from with nothing but a feeling of being rather shaken. What all accidents will have in common is what happens afterward and what you as a driver will need to do to ensure that everyone is safe and that no further damage is done. 

Be Safe 

The first thing you will need to do after an accident is to check whether everyone is okay. If you can exit your vehicle, take a look around and see how everyone else who was involved (assuming there was anyone else in the accident) is faring. If an ambulance is needed, this will need to be called right away.

Sometimes the cars won’t be able to be moved, but if they can be and leaving them where they are would be unsafe, then they should be moved. Remember to be extremely careful if you need to do this so as not to cause any further damage or any injury. You may be feeling shaken after your collision, so you might need to wait until you are calmer before getting back behind the wheel of your car. Once the vehicle is moved, make sure the engine is turned off, it is shifted into park, and the hazard lights are blinking to warn other motorists that there is a problem. 

Get Help 

Once the cars are in a safe place and everyone has been assessed, you will need to get help. The ambulance, if required, will already be on its way, but you may also need the assistance of the police and perhaps even the fire crew if anyone is trapped within their vehicles. 

You may not think that calling the police is necessary, especially if the incident was a minor one, but a police report can be extremely useful when it comes to filing a claim with your insurance company. If there is no emergency, then don’t call 911, but instead, phone the local police service, who will be able to determine whether or not to come out to assess the accident. Police officers may be required if there is any aggression from anyone who was involved or if the vehicles or the debris from the accident is causing a potential hazard on the road. 

You will also need to contact your insurance company and potentially smart truck accident lawyers too. 

Get Information 

One of the most important things you can do after an accident is obtain all the information needed to file a claim with your insurance company. That means you will need the full names of the driver and any passengers who were in the other car or cars, as well as their contact information. To make things even clearer, getting the vehicle descriptions (including the make, model, and year of production) is essential, and the license plate is perhaps the most vital piece of information of all. 

On top of this, you will need the other party’s insurance details, whether it was their fault or not. It is far easier to let the insurance companies deal with all the necessary paperwork for the claim, but that means letting them know as much about the accident as possible. They will need to know what road you were traveling on and what damage has been done (this is where taking photos of the damage is important).