by Contributor
(Jul. 23, 2021) — Experiencing a car accident can be one of the scariest things that can happen in your life. You’re just going about your daily business then suddenly your life can change forever. After an accident, you will be experiencing some level of shock. However, it’s really important that you know what to do straight after an accident.
The first step is to check if you’re injured. In most cases, you will know pretty quickly if you are suffering a serious injury due to the pain. However, sometimes shock and adrenaline can mask the pain. Do a full-body check, make sure you can move your limbs, and slowly move out of the car.
Check on the well-being of the passengers
Now that you know that you aren’t suffering any serious injuries, you need to check on the well-being of the passengers. Start with any children in the car and repeat the process for injury checking. Then, move onto whoever is left.
Straight after an accident, it’s important to get to safety. Don’t stand on the road, even if your car is blocking traffic. Get away from the road and ensure that everyone involved in the collision is at a safe distance from other vehicles.
Now you can call the emergency services. You will need the police and an ambulance to attend the scene. You might also need the fire department, especially if someone is trapped in a vehicle. This is something that you will need to work out by describing the scene to the emergency services over the phone. Don’t panic when calling them – stay calm, provide every bit of information they ask for, and wait for them to arrive.
Now that you know that help is on the way, you should wait patiently. Don’t start talking to the other people involved in the collision at this point. They might approach you and start exchanging details but just calmly explain that you would like to wait for the emergency services to arrive before you discuss the accident. This will prevent anyone from clouding your judgment or attempting to change your version of events.
Once the police have arrived and they are there to witness, you can exchange information. This will allow both parties to claim on their insurance policy. However, it’s important not to give too much information away to the other parties involved in the collision.
It doesn’t matter who’s fault the accident was, you need to document it for yourself. This will become extremely useful when you hire Florida accident lawyers to fight your case in court. The more evidence you can collect from the scene, the better chance you will have of winning the case.
Notify your insurer and start the claims process
Once you are safely home, you can notify your insurer and start the claims process. It’s important to do this as early as possible and provide as much information as you can.
Do you want the truth about auto accidents? Try this on for size:
Even before you check yourself or others for injuries, even if you or they are bleeding to death, call your lawyer.
Then do all the other stuff.
What the insurance company will then do is to tell you that they will “send an adjuster out”.
They don’t send an “adjuster out within 24 hours” so you call back when you are told that an adjuster will be there “soon”.
Four days have gone by and no one has done anything to your car. The body shop can’t proceed because the adjuster hasn’t been out to look at your car. The insurance company will use the sorry excuse that “because of the COVID-19, we can’t do our jobs.”
A week has gone by. You hear the words “24-48 hours”; then “we have no adjusters in your area”; and lastly, “have the body shop sent us a quote and we’ll knock a $1,000 off”.
That’s when you realize that you should’ve called your lawyer before the cops and the ambulances arrived, because your wrecked auto has been in the shop for 2 weeks with nothing done and ythey didn’t even give you a rent a car.
Professor “Trash the masks” Zorkophsky