As with all cases there are certain do's and don'ts that should be understood in order to protect yourself from being falsely accused and possibly found liable for an accident that may not be your fault. One of the most important is an analysis of facts and preservation of evidence to protect the rights of injured parties and to insure recovery of damages.
HELP THE INJURED
If you are involved in an accident the first thing you should do, after helping the injured, is inspect the vehicles involved to see if any dangerous conditions are developing, such as leaking fuel, fire hazards, etc. If any of these are discovered you may need to take corrective action. With the advent of modern technologies, cell phones are becoming very commonplace. However, do not make the assumption that someone called and reported the accident. It is important to verify that 911 has been called and that the proper agencies have been notified so they can respond in a timely fashion. Lives may depend on quick response from police, fire and rescue personnel. Aid and comfort the injured until the professionals arrive.
PRESERVE THE EVIDENCE
Once the local police and rescue agencies are on the scene, turn your attention to other things, such as the preservation of the evidence.
Potential witnesses may leave the scene before the arrival of the Highway Patrol, or other police agency. Make sure you identify these people before they depart. Obtaining their name, address and phone number is good, but if you can get another form of ID, such as a drivers license number, social security number, or even where they work can be of great aid to an investigator who is later assigned to the case. In addition, people often move, change their phone numbers, or get married and change names, which can make it very difficult to locate them. Any other information you can obtain could be very useful and save many hours of investigation later.
There can be several types of witnesses. There can be actual eye witnesses who "saw the whole thing." There can be witnesses who may have not seen the accident, but, "heard a noise" and turned to see the end of a collision or accident. There are those who didn't see anything, but may try to feel important, by trying to piece together enough information, gleaned from other witnesses, to become a "credible" witness and have their 15 minutes of fame. These people may not have seen anything at all, but may come up with a credible story, and completely change the outcome of any civil action filed as a result of your accident. There may be witnesses with just a partial understanding of what happened. Do not give these witnesses any reason to believe you may be responsible than you really are. It's OK to be compassionate to injured parties but do not, in an attempt to show compassion, loudly proclaim "how sorry you are for their injuries". You might not be at fault, but a witness might take this as an admission of guilt on your part and you may be found liable for a situation of which you are totally innocent.
The local police agency will write an accident report. This report normally will have a "face sheet" giving the date, time and location of the accident. It will also list the vehicle drivers, owners of vehicles, make and models of the vehicles, insurance information, officers who responded and a report number.
When the law enforcement officer questions you, answer his questions as honestly as you can without embellishing your answers to assure you an opinion of innocence. Do not be bashful of pointing a legitimate finger of blame to the one you believe caused the accident. Do not be confrontational, but be honest. If you do not know the answer to a particular question say, "I don't know." Ignorance of a particular fact should not prove fatal to a case, whereby a lie, could completely destroy your credibility and chances of a legitimate recovery. Do not volunteer information. You may feel that you are in complete control of yourself, but at a moment of high stress as these situations are, people really need a little time to regroup before making any statement that may later come back to haunt them.
SEEK LEGAL ADVICE QUICKLY
The insurance companies have full time investigators and claims staff, who have a dual purpose. They are charged with the duty of collecting information to be able to settle a claim presented to them and they also will try to save their company as much money as they can. Even your own insurance company will try to cut as many corners as they can in order to preserve their bottom line. When all of the information has been gathered and the time comes to proceed to a settlement of the issues, their primary interest is to get their company off with as little pay out as possible. Most of the people involved in an accident do not have the skills to properly evaluate the true value of their case. Just as the investigators and claims personnel from the insurance companies. The Crow Law firm, in order to assist you in determining who was at fault and obtaining a fair settlement of your claim, needs to be involved from the very start.
There are many motorists running around today without any insurance. If you are involved in an accident with an uninsured motorist, you will find yourself in a position as an adversary to your own insurance company. You will have to proceed against your own insurance company to seek money damages. You will need the advice of an attorney to make sure you are receiving a fair and proper settlement. Your interests are not necessarily the same as the insurance company.
State law requires that any accident with damage in excess of $500.00 be reported to the local police agency or Department of Motor Vehicles. A scraped bumper will generally exceed this amount.
Many of you may have seen the recent report on the news which described damage to mini truck bumpers in 5 mph crash tests. The least damaged vehicle was the Chevrolet S-10. In this 5 mph crash test the damage came to over $2,200.00. Others makes and model damage estimates were considerably higher. At only 5 mph!
Legislation requires that we all be insured with some low minimum requirements. There is fairly new legislation, that says, "if we drive without insurance, we can only be reimbursed for our actual cash losses." Other losses, such as pain and suffering and punitive damages, cannot be claimed if we do not maintain minimum coverage prescribed by this new legislation. Review your insurance requirements regularly and maintain enough to protect your interests.
The Crow law firm was established in 1954 and has 44 years of experience representing injured victims of accidents. The attorneys and investigators are well qualified to assist you to resolve your claim including negotiating a settlement on your behalf or proceeding to trial to protect your interests. We can assist you in your search for medical specialists to try to regain your pre-accident health status. We can prosecute your claim to recover damages, for any losses including personal property, lost wages, pain and suffering and punitive damages arising from serious injury or wrongful death.