Legal Rights After a Car Accident

If you have ever been involved in a car accident, you might be familiar with the seriousness of making a good decision or saying the right thing at the right time. That is very hard to do if you are stressed or under pressure.

What are the steps I should take if I’m involved in a car accident?

The following is some basic information that will help you make the rite choices at the time of an accident:

1. STOP! Do not leave the accident scene. Move your car only if necessary for safety until the authorities arrive.
2. CALL AN AMBULANCE if there are injuries.
3. CALL THE POLICE and wait for them. Do not agree with the other party not to call the police. The law requires police to investigate all accidents.
4. HAVE YOUR LICENSE AND INSURANCE INFORMATION ready to give to the police officer.
5. DO NOT ADMIT FAULT! Often, under the stress of an accident, you may think you were at fault when you really were not. Do not admit fault to the officer, witnesses or other parties.
6. DO NOT SPEAK TO THE OTHER DRIVER’S INSURANCE COMPANY or anyone other than the police about the accident.
7. IT IS A GREAT IDEA TO CALL YOUR ATTORNEY if you have one, after you have called 911. Call him/her if you or any of your family members have been seriously injured and the situation is under control. Important evidence or information may be lost and your rights compromised without the advice of a lawyer.
8. GATHER INFORMATION. Write down what you were doing and where you were going, the people you were with, the time, and the weather. Include every detail of what you saw, heard, and felt at the moment. Don’t trust your memory. Measure skid marks by stepping off distances, get names, addresses & phone numbers of witnesses, take pictures if possible (It‘s preferred to always keep a disposable camera in your glove box).
9. AFTER YOU HAVE LEFT THE ACCIDENT SCENE, take daily notes of the effects of your injuries, Include pain, discomfort, anxiety, loss of sleep, problems resulting from your injuries. By doing that, you will increase your chances of receiving full compensation for your injuries and vehicle damage.

When you are filing an accident report to the DMV

In many states, you must report a vehicle accident resulting in a physical injury or a certain amount of property damage to the state department of motor vehicles. If you check with your insurance agent or your local DMV to find out the time limits for filing this report; don‘t waste time, do things right away. Be sure to ask whether you will need a particular form for the report.

If you are filing a report, and the report asks you to state how the car accident occurred, make it very brief- and do not admit fault for the car accident. If the form asks what your injuries are, list every injury, minor and major. An Insurance company may later gain access to the report, and if you have admitted some fault in it or failed to mention in injury, it may affect your claim.

How can you tell who was responsible for the car accident?

In order to figure out who was at fault, you first need to ask yourself the question “who was careless?” Every state has traffic rules which apply to different automobiles that vary from other states. It is sometimes obvious that one of the drivers violated a rule which caused the accident.

For example, I was driving on a country road a few years back and a young lady was stopped at the stop sign, but for some odd reason she decided to go and I happen to crash into her. In other situations, whether or not there was a violation will be less obvious. Sometimes, neither of the drivers violated a traffic rule, although one driver may still have been careless.

I don’t know what caused the accident

Sometimes it is hard to identify what exactly caused the accident. That is especially true if what you say the other driver did was unclear or appear to be insignificant, when you are asked to explaining what happened, you can combine minor actions that the other party did and say that the other driver made several minor driving mistakes or committed several minor traffic violations. This isn’t a tip on how you could be creative in lying, but what I’m saying is, you can argue that the minor actions combined caused the accident.

What if I‘m rear ended?

No matter what the cause of your immediate stopping, the driver that hits you from behind is almost always at fault. The rules of the road are that the driver behind, travel at a speed at which he /she would have enough time to stop safely if a vehicle ahead suddenly stops. If there is damage, It provides strong proof of liability. If your back end and the other drivers’ front end are both damaged, you don’t need an investigator to figure out that you were struck from behind.

But in a situation where you and the car behind you are both stopped when a third car runs into the car behind you, causing it to rear end your vehicle. In this case, the driver that caused the accident is no doubt at fault; therefore you should file a claim against that driver’s insurance.

If a car accident happens when you are making a left turn

The driver that is making a left turn is almost always liable if it happens that the oncoming car and the one making the left turn get into a car accident. When making a left turn the law is right there written beside the stoplight(might not be in every state) that the one making the left turn should yield to oncoming traffic. In the following situations the one making the left turn is not at fault if there is an accident:

• *If he/she can prove that the car going straight was speeding.
• *If the oncoming car ran through a red light, or
• *If something undesirable happened while making the left turn which caused the driver to slow down or halt.